Mini Colette in New York City!

Colette requires no introduction. The Rue Saint-Honoré boutique founded in 1997 by Colette Roussaux and her daughter Sarah Lerfel has revolutionized retailing in countless ways, perhaps most notably by challenging the notion that a store devoted to the sale of top-of-the-line designer clothes should only sell top-of-the-line designer clothes. By intermingling high and low; interspersing books and beauty products among the clothes; hosting art exhibitions; commissioning limited-edition, store-exclusive product; and cherry-picking the best stuff from both established luxury houses and emerging brands, Colette has all but stamped the last decade of style in its own image: Colette, in essence, invented “mix.” All this is Lerfel’s brainchild, and even as her ideas have been snatched up by stores the world over, she’s stayed a step ahead by conjuring up the next new thing. Recently, for example, Lerfel has done luxury e-tailing one better by introducing Colette Shopping TV, an online video series that take shoppers on virtual tours of the boutique; one recent episode featured an Elvis impersonator singing the praises of Corto Moltedo’s poptastic purses. That’s the kind of inspired idiosyncrasy non-virtual shoppers will get a taste of at Colette x Gap, a Gap-sponsored pop-up shop in midtown Manhattan that brings the Colette experience stateside for the very first time. “The way Sarah and her team create theater in the retail environment is very inspiring,” says Gary Muto, president of Gap. “We’re thrilled to offer our customers a new, unexpected experience, and to welcome the spirit of the Paris store into our newly reinvented Fifth Avenue space.” Colette x Gap opens on September 6; in the meantime, Lerfel has had her hands full renovating the original Colette boutique (which reopens today). Here, she talks to Style.com about crossing the Atlantic, the fading allure of masstige, and why New York City will always be cooler than Paris—and vice versa.

source : Style.com