A marriage of finance and design has spawned a fashionable child named Stuart & Wright, a high-end boutique that opened last month in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene section.
Founders Alec Stuart, a designer, and Celeste Wright, a former financier, met at Steven Alan, a Manhattan-based retail and apparel brand. They quickly bonded over their mutual distaste for the commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan every day and their love for the Fort Greene neighborhood.
Though young (Wright is 35 and Stuart is 26) the two are hardly fashion amateurs. Wright graduated from Fordham University with a major in English and pursued a career in finance. However, she soon realized she lacked the passion for that industry, saying, “I didn’t feel invested in it at all.”
Wright opted for a drastic career change: “I wanted to try buying and got lucky enough to get a buying job at Steven Alan. I ended up loving it and doing pretty well at it.”
Wright said her financial background has been a perfect “ying-yang effect” with Stuart, who graduated from the Pratt Institute with a focus in design. Stuart then worked for the Doneger Group, a fashion consulting and forecasting firm. Like Wright, he found himself unfulfilled. “There was really no passion in it for me,” he said.
After meeting at Steven Alan, Wright and Stuart found in each other a partner equally driven to open their own store. “Celeste and I always related in that we had our own aspirations,” Stuart said.
Three years later, Stuart & Wright is a 1,600-square-foot, carefully crafted space (courtesy of a collaboration with friend and architect Ole Sondressen) with blond wood floors and walls and a high, white ceiling. Despite its current appearance, the space previously housed a dry-cleaning business — the only trace of which is the “French Garment Cleaners” sign that remains on the store’s exterior.
Stuart & Wright was financed by loans, family contributions and personal savings. The boutique had a soft opening on Sept. 5, and some fireworks on Sept. 28, the official launch, with a neighborhood block party at the store.
The “casual, specialty-luxury-independent designer shop,” as Stuart described it, carries an assortment of well-tailored women’s and men’s sportswear. With labels from APC and Earnest Sewn to newcomer Mina Stone and La Petite Mort vintage, the store is an antidote for shoppers bored with traditional brand name apparel. Beyond clothing, Stuart & Wright carries Loeffler Randall shoes, Gryson handbags and handcrafted jewelry — much of which is designed by Brooklyn-based artists.
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As for price, merchandise runs from a $68 La Petite Mort vintage dress to a $955 Gryson handbag. Wright says, “It’s not necessarily a place where a person would come and buy their entire fall wardrobe.” Instead, the pair likes to think of its shop as “where you’d buy two items that you’re going to love and have for the season and several seasons going forward,” Wright said.
With word-of-mouth, even travel-wary shoppers from Manhattan are venturing into Brooklyn to sneak a peek. “I was surprised to see that people from Manhattan are traveling just to visit us,” Wright said.
Stuart added, “It feels really good, as a business that’s just opened up, that people are seeking you out.”
Stuart and Wright said the store is on its way to fulfilling first-year projections, a feat considering the short time it’s been open. They projected first-year sales to be around $500,000, and “we’re a little above that right now,” Wright said.
As for what’s on the horizon, Wright explained: “Both of our minds are always spinning and we’re always thinking about what the next phase is.”
Among the ideas for Stuart & Wright: their own exclusive sportswear line, an e-commerce site, an apothecary addition to the store and possibly more shops in the metropolitan area.
Stuart insisted that, despite all the plans, they’re really in no rush. “We’ve definitely seen a lot of younger smaller places go under because they weren’t organized and prepared for that growth rate. We’re going to do everything at the natural pace.”
For the time being, Stuart and Wright seem happy right where they are. They said, virtually in tandem: “There’s a lot of really good energy…a lot of amazing designers, a lot of amazing people — [this store] makes sense for us,” Stuart said.
“Even though it wasn’t a direct path,” Wright acknowledged.
“We found our niche,” Stuart said.