Le Monde Béryl, the luxury footwear brand, has been around for a decade, but its references are much older. Founders Lily Atherton Hanbury and Katya Shyfrin – who hatched the idea for a business on a London park bench in 2016 – launched the label with a velvet Venetian slipper, a flat that originated in Northeast Italy in the 19th-century and later found favour among gondoliers owing to its grippy, rubber sole.
Le Monde Béryl has since grown to encompass dozens of other modern silhouettes, from minimalist Mary Janes to low-heeled riding boots to shearling lined aprés-ski slippers, and, in doing so, has found a cult global following, particularly in the US. The time felt right to open Le Monde Béryl’s very first permanent brick-and-mortar boutique in New York.
Atherton Hanbury and Shyfrin found the perfect home on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue, a short walk from Central Park, the Frick and Sotheby’s headquarters – a fact that ‘spoke to many of our interests and the influences behind the brand,’ Atherton Hanbury tells Wallpaper*.
‘It just felt like a sign,’ Shyfrin adds.
The duo enlisted London-based art advisor Silka Rittson-Thomas along with London and Milan-based design firm Tutto Bene to bring Le Monde Béryl’s world to the Upper East Side. ‘I wanted it to feel like a collector's home, where everything is purposefully selected for its own individuality and beauty,’ says Atherton Hanbury. ‘We wanted the space to feel dreamlike and to offer a sense of discovery.’
The 67th Street storefront was long and deep, a feature that the design team wanted to accentuate, rather than cloak. Rittson-Thomas saught to introduce theatricality into the space, a feeling based on the founders’ mutual love of dance and antiquity, as well as moodboard references that ranged from Pina Bausch’s dance studio, The Hunger, starring David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, and Club Silencio in David Lynch’s Mullholland Drive.
The boutique needed to serve ‘as a place of discovery and calm, capable of being activated at any given moment,’ as Rittson-Thomas explains. ‘The idea of obscuring and revealing became the main thread of the design.’
Visitors enter the boutique via a set of concrete stairs into the deep space. A dark chocolate-coloured carpet underfoot guides them along the L-shaped floor plan. The main, corridor-like space is lined with wood cabinetry, which showcases Le Monde Béryl’s latest creations, such as snake-effect pumps and supple leather ballet flats.
Like a theatre, the cabinet’s doors can be open or shut, allowing for different spatial configurations and peekaboo moments; as does a dramatic, blush-coloured curtain and matching roller shades. ‘The entire concept grew from Silka’s initial idea of concealment and reveal, and there are small moments throughout the store that play with what is shown and what is withheld,’ says Tuto Bene’s Felizia Berchtold.
Mirrored surfaces heighten that sense of seen and unseen. Some trace the lower level of the cabinets, showcasing the shopper’s feet as they float through the showroom. It’s one of the designers’ favourite moments.
‘At certain angles, what emerges most clearly is the reflection of your feet and the shoes you are trying on, while the rest of you almost disappears,’ Berchtold explains. ‘There is something intimate about seeing only fragments of yourself – the idea that luxury can also be about privacy, rather than constant exposure.’
Objects from Rittson-Thomas personal collection made it into the store too, like metal-frame chairs designed by Mats Theselius, Murano sconces and an antique repoussé mirror, which nods to Le Monde Béryl's original Italian inspiration. The founders plan to rotate out vitrines with works of art and other ‘curatorial moments’.
‘Shoes are about tactility and a physical reaction, the second you put them on, you have a response,’ Shyfrin explains – a feeling the co-founders hope their customers will also feel when inside the boutique.
Adds Atherton Hanbury, ‘It feels like a space, not a store.’
Le Monde Béryl is located at 23 East 67th St, New York, NY 10065, USA
