Carla Sozzani is Bringing Her Concept Store Back Home
Photography by Delphine Lewis
Carla Sozzani is sitting on a mod black and white couch amongst Nike sneakers, looking impossibly elegant and smiling warmly as she recalls a trip she made to New York in the late 80s. This trip would be significant because it was the one during which came up with the idea of 10 Corso Como, the shopping and dining complex she opened in her hometown of Milan that would become known as the first “concept store” ever. “When I created the store, I was spending a lot of time in New York,” she says. “It probably influenced me, the choice of putting a gallery in a garage, in a loft. You’re bringing back memories that were completely forgotten.”
The store opened in 1990 and revolutionized retail (hello, Collette, The Webster, KITH, etc.) by including art, fashion, music, design, and food. And almost three decades later—after opening branches in Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo—Sozzani is back in the place that inspired her, this time to open a new location in the city’s Seaport district.
Just like the chain's other locations, the space was designed by Sozzani’s partner, the American artist Kris Ruhs. She chose this location, a former fish market built in 1822 because the area was where commerce really began in the city. “We’re all here because of the Seaport,” she says. “I wasn’t thinking about opening in New York until I saw this place.”
"This place" really is an exceptional slice of real estate. The store takes up an entire block and could also take up your entire day if you let it (there’s food so you’d survive). It also includes a gallery now displaying an exhibit of rare signed images by Helmut Newton. There is just as much homeware, design items, and books as there are clothes and accessories—and everything is curated by Sozzani herself—so know you’ll be well surrounded.
10 Corso Como is located at 1 Fulton Street, New York, NY.
