More Binns in Store

It’s the grail that jewel hungry women savoring we’ve all been waiting for: a Tom Binns boutique in New York. Like a Dylan’s Candy Bar for grown-ups, the boutique promises dazzlers by the basket—but with rhinestones and hopefully some  couture pieces, and not calories. We were lucky enough to hear from the man himself….

 

SYDNEY WASSERMAN: Your line is sold all over the world at various high-end vendors and you reside in LA. Why New York for the first Tom Binns store?

 

TOM BINNS: I love New York, and I lived there a long time. We needed to have a presence in New York: California is a bit on the fringe. And I established myself in New York, so I thought it was fitting to re-establish myself there. People seem to have forgotten a lot of my work from the past! Now people can see where all of these copies are coming from.

 

SW: So are you doing anything in honor of that past?

 

TB: Yes, I will show some of my archival pieces which will be for sale and some of the lines that we produce that we don’t sell anywhere else we will sell exclusively. Plus I will produce other things, not jewelry.

 

SW: Your boutique will open on Perry Street. Is that the kind of area that you’re into, or that represents you?

 

TB: I was never a West Village-kind-of-guy, but it’s still a nice alternative to Soho. It has an old world feeling, because of the brownstones and the streets with names, rather then numbers. Also I love that the area is young with young families. And it’s a place of discovery-our shop is one of those tucked away places, which I like.

SW: What is the design inspiration for the store?

 

TB: Dean Stephen, our General Manager, comes from an architectural background and he collaborated with Pravin Muthiah from the company Coupdeville. They made a minimal environment as all the jewelry is decoration. It’s a blank canvas for all the razz-matazz baubles.

 

SW: What did you like about making the store?

 

TB: I liked to see the creative process fulfilled in ways you can’t when you sell through other stores: the little things, like shopping bags and tissue paper.

 

SW: Did you think about the economy when you were putting together the store?

 

TB: It’s going to be a fun ride. It might rather bumpy at the moment, but then I was never one to go with the flow. It’s always a battle: Bring it on.

 

SW: Do you like having a store? Do you want more?

 

TB: If this little store works, I think it would be a good idea to franchise it all over the world. The idea behind it all is to create a cool brand, and you don’t need to be huge to get your point across.