Leset, an L.A.-based ready-to-wear brand of easy and ultra-soft elevated basics created to mix and match, has opened its first store at 380 Bleecker Street in New York.
The custom-designed 1,100-square-foot space, conceived by interior designer Phoebe Little, evokes the feeling of stepping into a close friend’s stylish yet comfortable living room.
The store highlights design pieces such as Milo Baughman Scoop lounge chairs, a B&B Italia daybed, reupholstered in plush velvet, a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll Barcelona coffee table, an Alberto Giacometti etching and ceramics by Steffany Tran.
The shop, which opened Thursday, features Leset’s core collection, along with seasonal fall and holiday/resort collections, in addition to custom Leset cashmere blankets and a selection of vintage finds. The line was conceived as matching sets, featuring V-neck sweaters, scoop-neck Ts, cardigans and wide-leg pants that can be easily and casually mixed and matched. It quickly became a go-to line for its modular approach to dressing.
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Coming soon to the store is Le Face Routine, a curation of Leset’s founder Lili Chemla’s must-have beauty products to complete the Leset lifestyle.
Chemla, who is based in New York, said everything is made in Los Angeles, where the company is headquartered.
“Leset was born out of the idea that everything should be as comfortable as chic,” said Chemla, who started the company in 2019. “Each piece is extremely versatile. You can wear the same piece that you’re going to go to sleep in, to a coffee or meeting the next day. All elastic waistbands, pull-on pants, but really detail-oriented in the design aspect,” she said.
Chemla said a lot of her fabrics come from Europe and Japan. “We put a big emphasis on the design of the pieces to feel more tailored but have the feeling of comfort. All the fabrics are really soft, and most of them have stretch. Versatility is key with Leset,” she said.
Chemla said she chose New York to open her first store since she’s New York-based and grew up in New York. “It’s always been a dream of mine to have a store in New York, especially in the West Village, where I also have an apartment,” she said.
She plans to celebrate the company’s five-year anniversary at the store next month.
Chemla said she originally thought the core pieces would be the bestsellers, but after two days of selling, “we’ve really seen that people are attracted to our Rio, Barb, Lauren and Zoe pieces.” She said each of the fabric groups have names, such as Rio which is a ponte from France; Lauren is a brushed viscose that feels like cashmere; the Barb is satin fabric from Japan, and the Zoe is an Italian cashmere wool blend. In the Lauren fabric, for example, there are skirts, cardigans and shell tops. The items carry these names.
“I think people being able to touch and feel all the Leset pieces in store is making them gravitate towards those fashion pieces, and not just the T-shirts,” said Chemla.
Leset’s products range from T-shirts and tops to dresses, pants, skirts, shorts, sweaters, cardigans, outerwear and underthings.
Overall, the price range is $68 for a Margo T-shirt up to $1,200 for an Italian wool trenchcoat which has a removable shearling-like lining. The average retail is expected to be around $160.
Asked if she plans to open other stores as well, she said, “Not yet; we would love to. We would love to go to L.A. next.”
After Chemla graduated from college, she started a different brand before launching Leset. “I always thought I’d go to business school, but actually starting a company and doing all the nitty gritty from the ground up is as good a graduate school as I could have gone to,” she said. Right now she has 12 employees, including contractors.
The brand launched exclusively with Net-a-porter, and has added Saks, Ssense, Moda Operandi, Forward, Selfridges, and Bloomingdale’s, as well as its own e-commerce site.
