New York City real estate is all about relationships. So to score a coveted spot on Madison Avenue for her newest boutique, which opened last night, designer Daniella Kallmeyer looked to an old friend: star broker Emily Kripitz. The two had met years earlier, when Kallmeyer was making ends meet while launching her self-named brand by waiting tables at The Plaza hotel, where Kripitz was her manager. They kept in touch, and last fall, when Kripitz called to announce that she had found the perfect spot—a space on Madison Avenue below 79th Street that was wide and had high ceilings—Kallmeyer knew she had to take the plunge.
“I hadn’t tackled all of New York yet,” said Kallmeyer, who had been toying with opening in Los Angeles as a follow-up to her Orchard Street space in Lower Manhattan, which opened in 2019. Kallmeyer, who lives and works in New York City, launched her brand in 2012, and now counts Katie Holmes and SNL’s Chloe Fineman amongst her fans. She says she kept hearing from clientele that they were commuting downtown just to shop her line, which is known for its relaxed take on minimalist tailoring.
A black lacquer desk anchors the main shopping floor. The walls are in parchment and then flooring is concrete.
After committing to uptown, Kallmeyer next had to tackle designing the space. “I kept saying, I want someone who will help me understand how the walls will meet the ceiling,” she says. “I want every little corner considered.” Through mutual friends, she met French designer Louis Rambert. He’d done the stylist Beverly Nguyen’s shop just blocks away from the first Kallmeyer store. “From the very first reference he pulled up I was like, yes, that is exactly what I’m describing,” she said.
The store’s custom nickel display fixtures are wrapped in leather.
A former project manager for the Elle Decor A-List firm of Rafael de Cárdenas and interior designer at Tiffany, Rambert was able to evolve the vocabulary of the Orchard Street store into a fully realized lingua franca for the brand. “I think one of the first questions I asked Daniella was, what’s the size of the shopping bag? Because we want to make sure that we can fit them in the point of sale,” says Rambert. “But it’s also so much more than a store, which is why we brought in a lot of elements that we don’t usually see in retail design,” such as parchment walls and a gallery-inspired lighting system.
Before opening her Orchard Street store, Kallmeyer had taken up woodworking while exploring different creative outlets, making a bench that eventually found its way into the space, which was originally planned as a temporary pop-up. By 2022 Kallmeyer had fleshed out her vision for the store, incorporating custom millwork by her friend KG MacKinnon of Brooklyn’s Limen Studio alongside vintage furniture and artworks from her own personal collection. Kallmeyer worked the floor herself, getting feedback and styling clients. “It became such a meaningful part of my process,” says Kallmeyer. “We’re not just designing clothes as a costume. We’re solving problems. We’re creating pieces that make people feel like their best selves at their most important moments.”
The store shelving is in eucalyptus wood and the furniture is vintage.
Her new space, at a diminutive 550-square-feet, was smartly broken up by Rambert to feel larger. The main shopping floor is anchored by a black lacquer table with a built-in display case for fine jewelry, fabricated by Limen Studio. There is also a tucked-away back room for custom fittings and personal shopping appointments. Throughout, the concrete flooring and limewash walls are softened by natural sisal carpets. Shelving is in a “velvety” Eucalyptus wood while the custom nickel display fixtures are wrapped in leather. Kallmeyer even salvaged a set of perfectly-patinated hinges from an heirloom screen so that they could be re-used on a new piece. She says, “We’re not treating anything in the store too preciously.”
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Sean Santiago is ELLE Decor’s Deputy Editor, covering news, trends and talents in interior design, hospitality and travel, culture, and luxury shopping. Since starting his career at an interior design firm in 2011, he has gone on to cover the industry for Vogue, Architectural Digest, Sight Unseen, PIN-UP and Domino. He is the author of The Lonny Home (Weldon Owens, 2018), has produced scripted social content for brands including West Elm and Streeteasy, and is sometimes recognized on the street for his Instagram Reels series, #DanceToDecor
