Henry Lehr had that magic retail knack for gathering a crowd.
He opened a small New York chain with his wife, Toni, in the ’70s and managed to draw the likes of Jerry Hall, Cher and the Rolling Stones.
In the back room, their daughter Christina was soaking it all in, applying rhinestones to T-shirts after school and watching her parents hone their retail skill.
Now it’s Christina Lehr carrying the torch and drawing a crowd, expanding the now Long Island-centric business with a store in Sag Harbor and collaborating with one of her father’s big retail fans — Mickey Drexler.
Retail is a world with a certain amount of hyperbole, so one should doubt it when people say things like, this is Mickey Drexler’s “favorite” multibrand store.
You May Also Like
But in this case it’s true and Drexler himself said the description was “very accurate.”
Drexler — who himself has been called one of fashion’s merchant princes, having been chief executive officer of Gap Inc. and J.Crew during their heydays — has long been a close observer of Henry Lehr’s work.
“He had the best eye in the business,” said Drexler, who is now leading Alex Mill. “His stores read like a great painting. They still do. And I’m sorry I never met Henry. I met his wife Toni with Christina. I used to go to Henry Lehr in the Hamptons just to see it, to learn, buy a few things.
“I still go in to learn, get ideas, to schmooze with Christina and yada yada,” he said. “I can go into any shop and learn something. But she has an art and a science about merchandising and that’s why I have the team just take a lesson from Christina.”
The mind meld between Drexler and Lehr led to a collaboration.
The line includes shirts, overalls and a jumpsuit, all treated with botanical dye, giving the looks a variability in coloring that garment dyeing would not.
“Each individual piece is, I don’t want to say it’s custom, but the feeling is not — whatever the feeling is — it’s old vintage-y and it takes color beautifully,” Drexler said. “It looks very cool and she’s going to carry it and we’re going to carry it and we share the label.”
Drexler is looking to get ever-closer to the heart and soul of the fashion basic, while also catching consumers just a little bit off guard.
“It’s always a matter of hitting a consumer who thinks, god, that’s good. That’s creative. I’m surprised. And unexpected is always better than expected. If I look at our collaborations, they have to pass the unexpected bar.
“I never think we’re focused enough,” he said. “I want to be very well-known for less than more, because you can’t do more as well as you can do less assortment, it’s better for the customer.”
The summer-holiday season hasn’t even started and already Lehr is busy, linking not just with Drexler but with Frank & Eileen, which just did a three-year deal to take over a room in Henry Lehr’s East Hampton store.
“We have a back room with a garden, so it’s perfect for events and for them, they’re creating a Frank & Eileen kind of world,” Lehr said. “They’re going to have a garden and tea parties and garden parties, and all of their team will come out and do a representation of the brand and the owner [Audrey McLoghlin] will come and dress people.
“It’s really bringing people together,” she said. “We’ve never done parties and things like that before. So I’m trying to bring in a warm and fuzzy feeling in such an unpredictable time and just something that’s intimate and hands-on and really makes the customers feel connected.”
Henry Lehr is also going to be connecting with customers in a new spot, the former Modern General store in Sag Harbor, which has 2,500 square feet of selling space.
“We’re bringing in a lot of new brands there that we haven’t been able to have the territory for in the other locations,” Lehr said.
That will expand the five-door chain to six — and build on a retail legacy.
