Brooklyn Superfriends: Stuart & Wright Joins Forces with Marlow Goods
We’ve had a bit of a boutique crush on Fort Greene’s Stuart & Wright from way back in the early days of 2006, when the design collaboration between Alec Stuart (above) and Celeste Wright first opened its doors to the public. Since then, their meticulously curated offerings of mens- and womenswear have made them Brooklyn darlings, with regulars like Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, and, as it turns out, Kate Huling, the wife of Diner mogul Andrew Tarlow. As Alec Wright tells us, in reference to S&W’s upcoming collaboration with Huling: “I’ve known Kate for a while as a customer in the shop, and it took me a minute to piece together that the Marlow Goods projects, all related to this sustainability coming straight out of their restaurants, was in fact Kate’s baby.” Yes, that’s right, collaboration. After a freshly completed August renovation, S&W will emerge into fall with a larger scope, adding home goods, books and more to their already wonderful store. Any more details about the collaboration with Huling? “She’s making handknit cable sweaters [using naturally dyed indigo] through a family in Queens. She found a local source for someone who grows and ferments the indigo flowers right here in Brooklyn. That’s all I can say about that right now, but it’s incredible what’s coming together.”
85 Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene, StuartAndWright.com
You seem to be really into collaborations these days… Why so?
I entered into this business with a design background… six years later I’m ready to go. I never wanted to be the typical fashion designer that pumps out collection after collection. Collaborating with our designers allows us to focus in on designing [sometimes as little as] a single item—done to impeccable production and design standards. It’s a fun way to work. It seems to be the consensus with our designers as well that we choose to collaborate with, that having projects outside of their normal design parameters is a bit refreshing. There are a lot of people in NYC, and specifically Brooklyn, and more specifically Fort Greene, that I want to work with.
Tell us a bit about the upcoming collaboration with the Diner folks?
Kate Huling and Andrew Tarlow are amazing people. Kate started out tanning hides at an upstate tannery from the animals [which you literally eat in their restaurants], and a small bag line was put together—all produced right here in NYC. When we finally met up, she unfolded the other aspects which she was hoping to expand into with this project—she’s now tanning cow, pig and sheep skins, and shearing baby sheep in the spring which then gets spun into yarn (again, locally). We’re going to launch into fall with a pretty nice assortment of Marlow Goods and S&W merchandise. There’s s lot of ‘sustainability’ talk in the world right now, and this project kind of sums up my take on that topic.