JNBY Set To Open First Permanent Retail Location In New York City

16-Year-Old Hangzhou Company Now Operating In Asia, Europe And North America This fall, Chinese fashion house JNBY ("Just Naturally Be Yourself") opened a temporary pop-up store in New York's Soho district, showcasing the brand's unique mixture of Chinese and western design. Although JNBY first ventured outside of mainland China back in 2000, with the opening of its Tokyo location, and has opened retail outlets in Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, and Canada (with plans to expand to France and Taiwan soon), JNBY's Soho pop-up store was the first time the brand had been available in New York. Any new fans that JNBY made during the pop-up store's one-month existence don't have to worry, though, as the company this week announced that it plans to open a permanent location one block away next month. From the New York Observer: In 2009, that already fast fading yesteryear when pop-up stores and toy hamsters were the retail rages, companies figured out how to take something as ephemeral as our fascination with impermanence and call it a pop-up store. Then with any luck, they transformed the ephemeral into brick-and-mortar reality. JNBY is one instance of a 2009 temporary store paving the way for a 2010 permanent one, moving from 93 Mercer Street to a 2,250-square-foot space at 75 Greene Street . “JNBY wanted to be surrounded by strong national retailers and Soho is the ideal location,” said Robert K. Futterman ’s Robert Draizen , who represented the retailer in negotiation with the landlord, repped by Stephen Tarter and Catherine O’Toole of Tarter Stats and O’Toole . “The success of this store will launch their national expansion for both retail and wholesale.” Jing Daily recently wrote about JNBY, identifying it as one of the Chinese brands we feel has the potential to become popular worldwide. Their designs -- less influenced by Chinese traditional fashion and more by the vibrancy and dynamism of modern, cosmopolitan cities like Shanghai -- are less flashy than those by other international Chinese brands like Shanghai Tang, and often incorporate the deconstructed aesthetic and organic materials favored by many shoppers around the world. While we'll have to see if the still-virtually-unknown brand can "make it" at a permanent location in Soho, if JNBY can build its reputation for quality, design and style in one of the world's most cut-throat fashion retail markets, as the song says, they [should be able to] make it anywhere.

JNBY Set To Open First Permanent Retail Location In New York City

On this page

Published January 13, 2010

Sectors

Insights

Company

JNBY Set To Open First Permanent Retail Location In New York City