Brooklyn's Next Great Menswear Store Must Be Seen to Be Believed (& Shopped) (EXCLUSIVE)
Ven.Space sounds a like a math problem but it's actually a retail solution. Founder Chris Green tells me that he's conceived of the ultimate neighborhood store, filling Brooklyn's longstanding menswear niche.
And when I say Brooklyn, I mean it. When Ven.Space's store opens in Carroll Gardens on September 13, that's the only thing opening: One beautiful brick and mortar shop. No web store.
"Maybe in a couple years," Green says, dismissively. "But that's not what my focus is gonna be."
Green spent nearly 15 years at pioneering retailer Need Supply and upscale sibling Totokaelo, where he oversaw buys and merchandising. At the same time, he learned the potency of IRL shopping — a tight-knit community of shoppers allowed Need Supply to avoid opening a web store for nearly a half-decade.
Admirable stuff to someone like Green, who's wary enough of e-commerce as is.
Digital retail is convenient but flattening. It creates as much distance between customer, clothing, and curator as it cuts. It turns clothes into consumables, trinkets to be clicked on. In-person, shopping quite literally becomes 3D.
This is what Ven.Space is all about. Green's not only aiming to establish a neighborhood store but a familial clientele, typically a tall order outside of New York's biggest borough.
You can ramble to nearly all of Manhattan's must-hit stores in a matter of hours. Meanwhile, it'll really take you all day to stroll through Brooklyn's best spots.
"Brooklyn is very pocket-y," Green says. But that's fine. He knows that if he builds it, they will come.
And by "they," I mean discerning shoppers craving that multibrand experience but with a more curated touch. The days of Opening Ceremony's anything-goes retail proposition are behind us; we're well within the realm of patient retail, destination boutiques.
And Green is the reason you're gonna be coming to all the way to Carroll Gardens. Ven.Space is "my POV," Green states. "It's my space and what I'm into. There are some fashion risks in there. But my thought is, 'What am I into?'"
He calls it a "big platform" approach but the results are markedly intimate, mingling luxury labels like Jil Sander — one of Green's longtime favorites since Totokaelo — and The Row with enigmatic Japanese brand Comoli, artisanal workwear label A.Presse, and the louche tailoring of IYKYK fave Stoffa.
The unifying factor is that Ven.Space's brands demands touching, feeling, trying for maximum appreciation. This approach not only encourages shoppers to slow down and smell the cotton gabardine but quite literally demands it. You gotta be here.
Green could also practically live here: Ven.Space is built out with the same paint colors, furniture, and even pottery from his home (also in Carroll Gardens), fully making it Chris.Space.
"I want to be the space for the people who understand it," he says. "I don't need to be everything to everybody."
This is what makes shopping in Japan and at New York's great but rare auteur-lead retail concepts — IF Soho, C'H'C'M, Colbo —so satisfying. Decisions that seem arbitrary to outsiders make perfect sense to the brains behind the operation, yielding a personalized experience every time.
At Ven.Space, for instance, Green is only selling Maison Margiela's footwear (for now), none of the ready-to-wear or accessories. Why? Because Green admires Margiela's shoes.
And Our Legacy is on tap because Green is himself a huge fan.
"They are one of the best brands to ever do it and they're gonna continue to be," he says. "When you get four, five years down the road and you're [looking at a brand's old collections] like, 'This is still relevant, this still feels good,' that's staying power."
Green is such a fan that he made sure that Ven.Space will be the first retailer to bring the Our Legacy crew out to New York for a Workshop pop-up coinciding with the store's opening.
Because it's all about the experience, the tangible touching of clothes and mingling with likeminded fabric-obsessed freaks (yours truly included). Wanna geek out over Taiga Takahashi's insane dyes or Lady White's stupid nice sportswear? Can't do that on a web store.
