Essentiel Antwerp, the Belgium-based fashion brand, is growing its business in the U.S. with the opening of its first U.S. store and launch of e-commerce.
The U.S. store, considered by the brand to be a flagship, opens Saturday in SoHo, at 74 Wooster Street.
“We wanted to give the brand a global presence and image which is why New York was our first option when looking at the U.S.,” Esfan Eghtessadi, cofounder and chief executive officer of Essentiel Antwerp, told WWD. “We are excited to be opening the store and see how the brand is received. The idea is to eventually open qualitative, well-located flagships across the country to further expand our brand.”
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In the U.S., Essentiel Antwerp is sold at Neiman Marcus, Revolve and Anthropologie, as well as several specialty boutiques, the company indicated.
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“Our brand is synonymous with positive energy and we see a real demand from the U.S market for our colorful pieces, novelty knits, feminine dresses and fashionable statement pieces with a strong sense of newness at an attractive price point. That is the reason we decided to consolidate our existing presence with a flagship store in SoHo and our e-commerce to ensure a nationwide presence,” said Inge Onsea, cofounder of Essentiel Antwerp.
The 1,722-square-foot SoHo shop was created by the brand’s interior design team, led by Eghtessadi. He described the site as a “meticulously curated retail space to ensure customers feel at home within the Essentiel Antwerp world.”
The shop is marked by eleven-and-a-half foot tall windows and lots of the Essentiel Antwerp signature design elements seen in the brand’s other stores, including custom-made counters, brushed stainless steel garment rails, soft couches, gray terrazzo floor tiles, as well as pink carpets and walls. Furniture was designed and produced at Essentiel Antwerp facilities in Belgium.
Currently, Essentiel Antwerp has 36 stores around the world including 18 stores in Belgium, with flagships in Antwerp, Brussels, Gent, Leuven and Knokke. There are also Essentiel Antwerp stores in Germany, France, the U.K., South Korea and the Netherlands.
Essentiel Antwerp, which is based in Antwerp, launched in 1999 with a “loud and proud T-shirt collection as an antidote to the monochromatic fashion landscape, but quickly grew into a complete ready-to-wear women’s collection,” the company indicated. “The French Iranian Eghtessadi — the son of designer Nicole Cadine — spent his childhood amid fabrics and sketches. Onsea traveled the world and lived in India for years, and returned home with a love for vivid colors and prints and sequins.”