A TASTE OF ITALY: LAFCO’S NEW RETAIL STORE
Byline: Julie Naughton
NEW YORK — Most men like to treat themselves — particularly on birthdays — with a quick, indulgent purchase of, say, a fun electronic gadget or a set of golf clubs. But then, most men aren’t Lafco founder and creative director Jon Bresler.
Bresler, who is set to open a new 5,000-square-foot retail shop in TriBeCa in mid-October, has just managed to score the biggest birthday gift of all: a sweet deal with the exclusive Italian Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, or, as its many fans affectionately call it, Santa Maria Novella. Founded in Florence by Dominican monks in 1221, the perfumery is billed as the world’s oldest. While an edited range of the line is carried in at least one other Manhattan store — Bergdorf Goodman — Bresler proudly points out that he’ll be the first U.S. retailer to offer a Santa Maria Novella in-store boutique.
“I’ve been dreaming of carrying this line for more than four years,” said Bresler, who signed the deal with Santa Maria Novella director Eugenio Alphandery earlier this week. He won’t know precisely which of the company’s range — which includes exquisitely hand-crafted soaps, fragrances, face creams, potpourris and shampoos — will end up on the dark, textured-wood apothecary shelves of the boutique until after he unpacks the boxes he’s waiting for.
“I don’t place an order,” said Bresler. “They decide what they’ll send us.”
But before Bresler and his right-hand woman — senior creative director Jennifer Welte — head off to their Santa Maria Novella training classes in Italy, both are anxious to show off what will soon be the first Lafco retail store, carrying beauty and home products.
As Bresler moves around in the shell of what will, in three weeks, be a finished store, he animatedly points to nooks, crannies and corners and explains how they will become areas devoted to specific product lines. The roster of beauty suppliers almost sounds like a mini-United Nations: Italy’s Santa Maria Novella; Australia’s Stuf, a teen-oriented bath and body line which Bresler brought to the U.S. earlier this year; and Greece’s Korres, a skin care collection Bresler began importing late last year.
A large contingent from Italy — including upscale suppliers Lorenzo Villoresi and Hortus Mirabilis — will also be featured. And, of course, the store will sell a complete range of the Lafco-designed and created collections, which include the Kimono, Sapone Per Cucina and Claus Porto soap collections, the Carbaline Bath Collection and the Personal Body Care lineup.
Several lines are making their first appearances in the U.S. Hortus Mirabilis, a brand of handmade fragrances and body elixirs from a Tuscan perfumer, had never exported beyond its single shop in the village of San Quirico D’Orcia, Bresler said.
“With some of these lines, it wasn’t practical for me, as a wholesaler, to import them,” he said. “If someone can only make, say 50 bottles of fragrance a year — and that’s the case with some of those really special little Italian companies — I can’t market it to stores all over the U.S. But as a retailer, I can carry it.”
In fact, Bresler admits to a habit of falling in love with upscale niche lines and devoting himself to them completely — which has helped him build the Lafco importing business to an estimated $10 million wholesale. While he wouldn’t comment on the store’s projected sales, industry sources estimated that the new Lafco store’s first-year sales would top $2 million.
But while Bresler is perhaps best known for his elegant personal care items, they won’t be the only things featured in the store. About 40 percent of the store will be devoted to home items, including an exclusive furniture collection.
Bresler has collaborated with Capo d’Opera, an upscale Italian furniture manufacturer, to create the Lafco Collection, a grouping of modern furniture that will only be available at Lafco. Bresler will also carry the exclusive Lafco Collection of Nature Art Candles, a group of artsy candles, wax vases and vessels.
“Each wax piece is melted, colored and finished by hand with special tools,” said Bresler. “They’re all unique, like sculpture.” They’re being created for Lafco by Nature Art Candles, based in Italy, which designs and produces gift collections for La Perla, Ermenegildo Zegna, Frette and Giorgio Armani.
Other Lafco home items will include a collection of Elliot Golightly Contemporary Ceramics, a group of vases, bowls and vessels designed and manufactured in Australia by the artistic team of David Elliot and David Golightly; lighting from Tobias Grau, Germany, and the Lorenzo Villoresi Home Collection, from Florence, Italy.
But while the store is resolutely modern, Bresler’s inspiration, in a sense, is retro. “I wanted to evoke the kind of retail landscape and experience that existed in SoHo in the Seventies and early Eighties,” explained Bresler. “Shoppers stumbled upon airy loft spaces filled with wonderful things. We will offer just such a personalized shopping experience.”
In fact, more than 1,000 square feet of the store will be devoted to what Bresler and Welte call a rest stop. The space will feature fluffy flokati rugs, plush couches and an espresso bar.
“It’s so uncommercial — it feels like a living room,” said Bresler. “But that’s what we want. We hope to inspire people to come in and rest, and then to look around at what we offer.”