Why These Designers Are Combining Their Retail And Studio Locations

The call for transparency in fashion is ringing louder than ever before, and brands are taking several different approaches to answer it. Some are disclosing their supply chains, some are offering a behind-the-scenes look into production and cost breakdowns, and some brands are literally laying it all out on the table — the cutting table, that is. The rise of combining studio and retail locations has been a slow-but-steady industry trend, with 3×1 Denim’s retail store/denim atelier hybrid in New York City’s SoHo kicking things off in 2009 to Teressa Foglia’s Industry City studio-meets-showroom, which opened in December 2017. Similar to the popular concept of open kitchen restaurants in the culinary world, designers have decided to pull back the curtain on how they create their designs by giving their customers an inside look at the process. In the fashion industry, there isn’t an official name for this type of space, but Daniel Silverstein’s “make/shop” in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg seems to sum it up pretty well: His label Zero Waste Daniel, as the name would suggest, is a brand that doesn’t generate any waste from its products, and the designer’s focus across every step of the design process can happen all under one roof. Read more at Fashionista.