The Standard

Imagine cool chicks, good food, and the treasure of a restored 1869 building in New York. Can you think of better party ingredients? Last week, on April 27th, Madewell threw a bash for their new store with an event to benefit the Whitney Contemporaries. The 2 floored space was wonderfully enormous, their largest store yet, at a whopping 6500 square feet. Expect lots of chic events to go down this summer here.

(Alexa Chung & Tennessee Thomas)

The compellingly hip Alexa Chung wore her eponymous line for Madewell Fall 2011, a collection silk striped top and leopard print booties. Stripes seemed to be the theme with Greta Gerwiga rocking a black and white clipper striped dress too.

And lastly, DJ Harley Viera-Newton was donning another Madewell piece, a silk canyon skirt while other women Zoe Kazan, Julie Restoin Roitfeld, and Tennessee Thomas came with looks pulled out of their own closets.

(Greta Gerwig)

(Julia Restoin Roitfeld)

(Zoe Kazan, Ali Hoffman & Harley Viera Newton)

And now for the grub. Picture an array of Momofuku Milk Bar, BabyCakes, Ricks Picks, Bisous Ciao Macarons, Radish, Sigmunds Pretzels and The Meatball Shop.

The space itself had a special feeling to it, a landmark building restored to it’s original glory with new flavor added by architect Griffith Thomas — the moldings and original cast iron columns were a dream, and what can we say about revealing those huge double height historic windows that had been closed off for decades? Heaven. 

(Frankie Rose, Annie Clark & Eleanor Friedberger)

(Stylists Anda & Masha)

Now that the store is freshly open, we can expect some pop-up shop action called “Hometown Heroes,” shout-ing out their favorite New York brands — including JF&Sons, Top Hat, Love Adorned, Erie Basin, Jen Beckman 20x200 project, In God We Trust, Albertine, Brady &Kowalski, Other Music, Bowery Lane Bicycles, and Quality Mending among others.

(The Bumby’s)

All in all, it was a home-run of “it girls”, with an educated set of good tunes spun by a smart selection of DJ’s. There was also an appearance by the anonymous performance artists Gill & Jill, otherwise known as The Bumby’s. 

All photos were taken exclusively for The Standard by Aaron Stern. You can follow his work at AMediumFormat.com. The new Madewell store is located at 115 5th Avenue. Telephone 212.228.5172.