Handvaerk has taken the leap into Manhattan.
Just over a year since opening its first physical store in Southampton, N.Y., the men’s and women’s basics brand has opened the doors to a store at 1225 Madison Avenue.
The 450-square-foot space between 88th and 89th Streets was designed by Handvaerk’s creative director, Petra Brichnacova. It features a minimalistic aesthetic with natural materials including wood, concrete and lime-wash and furnishings from Frama and Audo.
“We’ve always preferred smaller spaces for two main reasons,” said Esteban Saba, Brichnacova’s husband and business partner. “As a small, independent brand, they’re more practical for us. But more importantly, as true minimalists — where less is more — smaller stores challenge us to be very intentional about both the design of the space and the product curation. Everything has to earn its place.”
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He said that since creating the brand in 2013 as strictly a direct-to-consumer company, the duo has “always been very data-driven — almost obsessive about understanding who our customer is and where they are located. Over the years, the data has been remarkably consistent: our core customer in New York lives on the Upper East Side. Opening on Madison Avenue allows us to be close to that community and offer the kind of personal experience and service that’s difficult to replicate online.”
The store on Main Street in Southampton, which opened in May of 2024, provided the couple with a true sense of its customer base. They realized many lived in Manhattan and just spent the summers in the Hamptons, so having a store on Madison Avenue allows the brand to service these shoppers year-round.
“Beyond that, Manhattan is essential to our growth: our customer is a discerning professional, typically in their early 40s, with the means and mindset to invest in quality — someone who values substance and longevity over trends,” Saba said.
Handvaerk also wholesales to some key retailers in Manhattan including Bergdorf Goodman, C’H’C’M’, and Dot Reeder, “so brand recognition is naturally strongest in Manhattan,” he added.
Saba and his wife have been “pleasantly surprised by the performance of our Southampton store — it really opened our eyes to the importance of having a physical retail presence. It allowed us to connect directly with our customers and observe how they experience and shop the brand.”
In the Hamptons store, the mix is more centered around warm-weather pieces, he said, such as Ts, polos and lightweight essentials. But on Madison Avenue, knitwear — including alpaca pieces knit in Peru and merino styles made in Italy — will the hero.
“The fall and winter season gives us the opportunity to highlight these materials and showcase the depth of our craftsmanship. Looking ahead, the Madison Avenue store will also allow us to expand our ready-to-wear offering for both men and women. Petra is already hard at work evolving the collection in that direction,” Saba said.
Beyond Madison Avenue, Saba said Handvaerk is “actively exploring downtown, specifically TriBeCa,” for additional units. “It builds on the same idea behind our Madison Avenue store: being close to our customer and part of the neighborhoods where they live and spend time.
“Our goal is to selectively grow our retail footprint over the next few years in key markets, always in a thoughtful and deliberate way,” he said. “We believe in small-format stores — intimate spaces that reflect our minimalist ethos and allow us to connect directly with our community.”
