…And speaking of ‘due east’, on a recent trip to Easthampton, the Jonathan Adler boutique (6 Main Street, 631 329 6499, www.jonathanadler.com) caught my eye. His third shop (he already has one in Soho: 47 Green Street, 877- 2871910, and one in Los Angeles: 8125 Melrose Avenue, 323 658 8390), Adler recently moved from another one practically across the street, where he had been for about 4 years.
Known as Simon Doonan’s ‘better half’ (or partner in ‘creative crime’ as it were…boy, what a talented pair THEY are), they have fallen in love with the area (the duo have a house in Shelter Island) and Adler jokingly admitted to a local magazine that one reason he opened a shop on the ‘East End’ was to validate spending so much time at the beach!
Like his others, he has filled this small and well-edited store with a signature selection of mid century modern textiles, ceramics, furniture, and pottery. Also included are some highly collectible vintage pieces he has picked up along the way on his trips. Priced anywhere from about $40 for a bud vase, up to the thousands, everything is highly graphic, visual, and eye- catching, but perhaps most important- it all seems to have a sense of humor- which is precisely the point.
But the best news, if you happen to be a fan of the Jonathan Adler aesthetic, like myself, is that he is launching a handbag line for the fall. Crafted in Florence, Italy, prices will range from about $405 to just below $1,000 and the collection will focus on a palette of chocolate brown, baby blue, camel, beige, and black, with rich texture mixes of pig suede, calf, pony skin and needlepoint. Shapes will reflect Jonathan’s love of distinctive, timeless classics: small wristlets, medium sized trapezoidal handbags for day, hobos, small and large totes.
Examples are ‘Billy’, the brown pig suede trimmed with brown pigskin and bone color hardware ($495), and my favorite and most expensive – ‘99’, the needlepoint bag trimmed with brown calf ($930) whose pattern is taken from one of Jonathan’s signature rugs (see top photo). The selection will be shipped to the three Jonathan Adler stores, as well as Barneys, Coplons, Gito, Jeffrey New York, Hirshleifers, and Steven Spodek, in August and September.
– Posted by Marilyn Kirschner
