Isaac Mizrahi’s brand-new shop on the Upper East Side is long and slender, like a fashion model—except, of course, not as slender. It is the designer’s first boutique. “I never was someone who thought it was my job to have a shop,” he said on a tour of the place, its concrete floors minimally appointed with a few sofas and chairs upholstered in popping orange and chartreuse, and its white lacquered walls hung with a series of colored sketches by the designer of his fall collection. “I’m good at saying ‘Put that on this rack’ but I’m not the type to say ‘Please buy my clothes,’” he explained. This time last year, however, when, as Mizrahi put it, “the world fell apart,” he visited a psychic. “‘What should I do?’ I asked. The psychic said, ‘It’s not you, it’s the world. You must get a little shop. It’s going to be easy.’ ”
The shop, designed by Mizrahi, sells his apparel, shoes, bags, jewelry, even pillows. “I love having everything in one place,” he said. “Before, you had to go to Jeffrey for the shoes, maybe Bergdorf for the clothes, Saudi Arabia for something else.” What’s here to want? Lots. For instance: the belted wrap dresses in various tartans, cut asymmetrically with fringed edges ($2,200); a tissue-thin white cashmere pullover with a chunky knit cable running down the center ($885); a mini-shift with hand-painted foil flowers sewn onto lined mesh tulle ($3,800), a pair of dangling metallic earrings—one in the form of a fish skeleton minus the tail, the other representing the missing tail ($95). “This is my favorite dress!” Mizrahi said of a nearly black moiré cocoonlike frock he calls a “parka fantasy” ($1,850). Then he eyed a knit A-line number in stripes of every color known to fabric, and said, “This is my most favorite dress because it has all my favorite colors!” ($1,250). But his absolutely most favorite pet piece is found in the curtained-off couture space, toward the back of the store. “It’s like a rag sweater, but it’s rag fur—I think I invented the term. It’s assembled from scraps of fox, mink, sable, you name it,” he said, tossing a fluffy, furry shawl over his shoulders. “Some lucky people have it in a coat” ($36,000). ♦
