Christian Cowan opens SoHo flagship store

76 Wooster Street is now home to a new tenant. Christian Cowan has opened his first flagship store in New York SoHo neighborhood, joining the ranks of nearby luxury brands including Chanel, Burberry, and Celine. The store opening follows Cowan coming off the heels of a star-studded New York Fashion Runway show last February that took place at 1 World Trade Center.

Cowan’s store opened in collaboration with Smashbox Cosmetics and global software payment and solution provider Square. The store opening party was attended by notable guests including RuPaul's Drag Race season 10 winner Aquaria, influencer Caroline Vazzana, actress Heidi Gardner, Real Housewives star Leah McSweeney, model Tanner Reese, and model Teddy Quinlivan.

Cocktails were provided by Ketel One and HeavenSake. Local New York DJ Ty Sunderland, a staple at Cowan’s parties, provided the music for the evening.

The new multi-level flagship is a precursor for Cowan’s further retail strategy to be unveiled later this year. Since launching his brand, Cowan has not only become a staple of New York Fashion Week and red carpet dressing, but he has also picked up retail partners, including FWRD and Saks Fifth Avenue. He’s also become a bit of a collaboration king, with his first hit collaboration between his brand and Giuseppe Zanotti for shoes and heels instantly selling out. Once reality star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian spotlighted the Christian Cowan x Giuseppe Zanotti collaboration on her Instagram stories, they sold out within 48 hours.

Since then, he has also had notable collaborations with House of Sillage, Bumble & Bumble, Les Specs, ASOS, and musician Lil Nas X. True to his collaborative spirit, that was how Smashbox came to be involved with this endeavor. Cowan wanted to take his store beyond a traditional retail environment, so he worked with Smashbox to create an immersive studio and lifestyle destination to propel the space through exclusive VIP events and consumer-facing experiences.

The back of the entry-level floor of the store features a beauty station, which will also feature Smashbox Pro Artists on hand to help customers through cosmetic consultations. All purchases will be made directly via smashbox.com with free next-day shipping and gifts ready to take home the same day.

Square is helping to power the retail location with dedicated point-of-sale systems, Square for Retail. The system will help assist store operations with inventory and team management, as well as securing transactions. Cowan is also preparing to debut a newly revamped website using Square’s eCommerce solution, Square Online.

The Christian Cowan flagship store location at 76 Wooster Street has a unique history. Once described as a “three-story converted stable,” the space that formerly housed horses and wagons served as Grace Jones’s restaurant La Vie en Rose by the mid-1980s. Eventually, the address became an art space frequented by the likes of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Julian Schnabel. In October 2011, Yoko Ono borrowed the space to stage “Gimme Some Truth, The Artwork of John Lennon,” an exhibition of Lennon’s artwork and songs before becoming the Soho Arts Club. The space has now sat empty for five years before Christian Cowan draped it in powder pink and returned it to fashionable glory.