Carolina Herrera flagship store in New York City undergoes renovations

“My first goal was to restore the building to its original importance and give it an increased sense of majesty,” says Wes Gordon, Carolina Herrera‘s Creative Director. “But my real vision was that this be a store unlike anything else on Madison.”

Pre-renovation, the interior of the “supercute little gem of a neoclassic building” felt dark and nondescript, explains Studio Mellone architect Andre Mellone, who was brought in to work on the project. The entrance felt constricted, the majority of the windows were covered up, and the decor was limited to the odd black and white striped chair. “The initial reaction was to liberate everything, break it down, and create vast open spaces that are flexible,” Mellone says. “I think that’s the way retail is going—it’s almost like you want to feel like you’re in someone’s home and, oh, there’s a rack of clothes over there.”

A youthful team comprising 32-year-old Gordon (minted as Herrera’s successor in 2018), Mellone, and interior designer Chiara de Rege collaborated on the total makeover that resulted in, as Gordon puts it, “nothing normcore, nothing greige.” The brand, he adds, “is about the idea that luxury and quality and beauty and decadence do not have to be stuffy or precious. Our customer is fearless, she loves color, she’s never the wallflower. These are pieces for living, and we applied that philosophy to the store, with the most incredible artisans and craftsmen.”

Carolina Herrera newly renovated flagship store New York City

That outlook compelled the design team to go back to the brand’s roots. Together, they looked for design cues in the brand’s archives, exemplified in an oversized black-and-white hexagonal limestone floor inspired by Carolina Herrera’s proclivity for unexpected plays on proportion. Their many mood boards comprised movie stills (Funny Face for one), artwork (Henri Matisse to Cy Twombly), and villas, which inspired Mellone’s to incorporate arched display niches throughout.

Gordon, an admitted “total OCD control freak,” went through some 40 swatches to reach the perfect blush pink for the semimatte Venetian plaster walls and stately round staircase. Every detail was labor-intensive—down to hand-forged iron door handles—but feels comfortable and homey (think deep sofas, coffee-table books meant to be perused, and even a pair of “papa” chairs meant for dads and husbands).

Tradition and playfulness blend together. Take the ground level—where the most dramatic change was adding a grand double French door entrance on 75th Street—with its André Arbus–inspired sofa, reimagined with feminine curves and juxtaposed with a custom steel coffee table and turquoise Gustavian chairs trimmed in fuchsia.

Carolina Herrera newly renovated flagship store New York City

The second floor is dedicated to fashion and perfume, and the third is a bridal salon, where wedding gowns hang inside arches that lead to a light-filled penthouse salon with blush-colored furnishings and a custom chandelier made of hundreds of pink Venini flowers. ”There’s a light quality and a richness of space in this room that I adore,” says Gordon. “And there’s not a single piece of product..

The subdued architectural environment plays up the textural dresses and vibrant decor accents. The space also features six fitting rooms outfitted in vivid macaron-like hues with bespoke bullion fringe and velvet chaises, travertine-and-brass demilune tables, velvet ribbon trimming the walls, and state-of-the-art lighting built into the mirrors. “For people stepping off of Madison Avenue, it’s this really dreamy retreat,” says de Rege. “Every area is one someone could sit and hang out in and, yes, shop. It gives time for people to look at things and reflect, and really be part of a brand.”

Indeed, as Gordon tells it, the whole building is meant to be a continuation of the Carolina Herrera story. His goal with every collection sent down the runway is to quicken heartbeats. And so, too, in the flagship, where every design detail—down to a rug or paint color—works in concert to create “that same emotional quality and a sense of falling in love,” Gordon says.

Carolina Herrera newly renovated flagship store New York City