PARIS — Sustainable brand Another Tomorrow on Thursday will open its first permanent retail location in New York’s SoHo neighborhood.
The 2,000-square-foot flagship at 135 Wooster Street hit a sweet spot for the four-year-old brand.
“The stars just aligned in this particular location,” said founder and chief executive officer Vanessa Barboni Hallik, categorizing the street as quiet, community-oriented and a little less commercial. “It gives us the ability to really create a space that feels like home for us and for our customers.”
Barboni Hallik had been looking for a permanent home since they left previous temporary digs on Bleeker Street in August 2022. Lessons from that location led to the design philosophy for the new Wooster Street store.
“We thought very deeply about how we can take our principles and bring them to life in a way that is meaningful, visually interesting and aesthetically aligned with the brand,” she said.
Barboni Hallik launched Another Tomorrow in 2020 with people, the environment and animal welfare as touchstones and it fast became a favorite among celebrities for its timeless classics and sustainable credentials.
Inside the Another Tomorrow flagship.
Seth Caplan / Courtesy of Another Tomorrow
The company focuses on sustainable sourcing and supply chain transparency, and utilizes digital ID technology that supports traceability and authenticated resale to promote circularity, which is at its core.
Circularity informed its architectural approach. Barboni Hallik partnered with Anna Dyson, professor of architecture and founder of the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture, to create a store that is “inherently not wasteful and designed for disassembly.”
They sourced vintage furniture and used some carryover pieces from the prior temporary store. “We really look for coherence in our sustainability principles,” she said.
This is a permanent home for the brand, although eventually every piece of wallpaper or fittings will have to be removed. While that “someday” is a long way off, the brand is often approached to do pop-ups in department stores or hotels, so the team wanted to create a visual identity with consistent elements that could be used in various locations without becoming waste.
Dyson, known for her work with circularity principles, integrated these ideas.
To that end, Dyson kept some of the design features left behind by former tenant Diane von Furstenberg, including hooks in the ceiling that now anchor a central installation that reimagines the loom.
A swooping, undulating sculpture of string stretched along mathematically driven curves holds up the hanging racks. The installation emphasizes the brand’s focus on craftsmanship, while the helix looks futuristic against a white, minimalist background.
“We were able to take this really unique aspect of the space and leverage it as an anchor for Anna’s design in a visually exquisite way. That’s something that could actually be installed in other locations,” she said. “We kind of took a bug and made it a feature.”
It is consistent with the brand’s reuse philosophy. “In sustainability in particular, you’re constantly taking limitations and making them assets. So, we really applied that in this case, too.”
The loom-like installation from Anna Dyson.
Seth Caplan
In the new store, the brand will have authenticated resale of its own products using a unique digital ID system that provides each piece’s supply chain transparency and authenticity.
Customers will be able to drop off pre-loved items to be scanned and logistics will be handled by the staff, and can also try on items. The experience is designed to be quick and easy for existing customers, and the resale section is a way to bring in new consumers who are interested in secondhand items.
“The store is really going to end up being a hub for circularity in that regard,” she said. Resale does not cut into sales of new garments, she said. “And if it did, we wouldn’t care. The margin structure is not dissimilar, and your working capital cycle is so much better. So we really don’t worry about cannibalization in our business at all.”
The brand brought on Angelina Jolie as a member of its advisory board in the role of strategic adviser in April, and was her Atelier Jolie’s first designer in residence in September. They had pre-sale, archival product and authenticated resale all at the location and it helped Barboni Hallik understand how to structure preorders, new product and resale side-by-side in the same retail space.
“It was really nice to test and learn how we would approach that in our store,” she said of the Atelier Jolie residency. “That was like a perfect lead in.”
The Another Tomorrow space is also envisioned as a community and art hub with a robust slate of programming. It was built with specific gallery style walls for guest artists, and the back third of the space is set aside for community events and talks. The Thursday opening is considered the first phase, with additional installations and programming to be revealed next year.
It’s also the first store of a handful of planned retail locations worldwide. Barboni Hallik is eyeing Paris for the second shop, where it will exclusively show its pre-fall 2025 collection, designed under the creative direction of Elizabeth Giardina, in January.
Barboni Hallik sees one new retail location rolling out each year for the next five years.
“We view it as a really important part of the overall brand strategy,” she said, with initial emphasis on the New York market.
Another Tomorrow retails at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue in the U.S., Selfridges in the U.K, and on Net-a-porter. They just started working with Nordstrom via dropshipping.
“With department stores, specifically, this parallel strategy of dropship and wholesale has been really, really successful because we have a sizable foundation carryover business, and it lends itself very well to a drop ship strategy, because it’s always full price.”
Developing international sales will be an increased focus starting in 2025. They currently ship to 56 countries. “We’ve always had a very long tail of international direct-to-consumer customers,” she said. They will also seek to strengthen their wholesale business.
Another Tomorrow’s exterior on Wooster Street.
Seth Caplan / Courtesy of Another Tomorrow
The brand is debuting a new bio-based leather alternative developed over three years with Natural Fiber Welding, which has Ralph Lauren and Allbirds as investors. The material is made from bio-waste, and is completely plastic-free and biodegradable.
The material is so new that at first they couldn’t get it through customs. “It’s never been done before and there is no code for it, so it was just one of those nightmares of innovation,” she said.
The process took three years because they did not want to compromise on quality.
Concerns in the development process were thickness, movement and breathability, and it took time to get it thin enough for the right feel on the body.
“Our customer is still fundamentally the luxury customer, and she wants something that has a commensurate touch, feel, longevity, wearability and desirability,” she added.
