In Store | LA-Made Handbags That Feel Right at Home in New York - New York Times (blog)

Simone Shubuck based this collage, now on a nine-foot-wide wall in Clare Vivier’s new boutique in NoLIta, on a wallpaper treatment she made for her own bathroom. It is also an ode to her friendship with Vivier and includes images of both women’s children.

Clare V. flat clutch in leopard, $195; clarev.com^[1] .

The leather goods designer and retailer Clare Vivier is one of the most prominent ambassadors of the new Los Angeles fashion scene^[2] . Yet her bags are especially well suited to the demands of life in New York. The line, recently rebranded as Clare V.^[3] , is polished enough for a party, but not too precious for the subway — auxiliary pouches and pockets cleverly accommodate gadgets or spare pairs of shoes. “New York is full of working women who want to look chic while being prepared for all sorts of situations,” Vivier said. Those women can now find the entire Clare V. range at the brand’s second boutique and first East Coast outpost, which opens tonight in a former dressmaker’s shop on Elizabeth Street in NoLIta. Walking into the space feels like being transported to California, thanks to its airy, light-flooded interior (by the L.A.-based architect Barbara Bestor, who also designed Vivier’s Silver Lake flagship) and its mostly SoCal-sourced lifestyle goods (jewelry by Annie Costello Brown, hats by Westbrook Maker, scented candles from the Chateau Marmont). Monograms, a Vivier signature, can be embossed on the spot. Also on view, and worth a visit in its own right, is a colorful nine-foot-wide collage wall by the New York florist and artist Simone Shubuck^[4] , a close friend of Vivier’s for 20 years.

To mark the opening, Vivier commissioned a short film from the director Amanda Marsalis, in which the bicoastal actress Mamie Gummer jets from LAX to J.F.K., armloads of Clare V. carryalls in tow. After reaching her destination, Gummer re-emerges carrying only a croc-embossed zippered clutch — just the thing for a New York night out.

Clare V., 239 Elizabeth Street, New York; clarev.com^[5] .

References

1. ^{^} clarev.com (www.clarev.com)


2. ^{^} Los Angeles, Where the Wild Things Are (tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com)


3. ^{^} Clare Vivier (www.clarevivier.com)


4. ^{^} Simone Shubuck (simoneshubuck.com)


5. ^{^} Clare V. (clarev.com)