Nicole Kwon has owned and operated her flagship Nicole Kwon Concept Store for women in the West Village for 12 years. After witnessing a demand for an affordable luxury line for men to match, Kwon rebranded and opened a new door. “I saw a niche market that was missing,” Kwon says. “Well-dressed men would constantly come in and ask if we would start carrying menswear, so I did.”
Now, her men’s and women’s lines are housed in neighboring shops, known collectively as The NKC Store. Pressed trousers in earthy tones line the table in the center of the men’s store. The perimeter is decorated with well-balanced racks of textured basics “for real people,” she says. She holds up a bestseller: a pair of olive trousers with pleats that could slice.
“I wanted to focus on the utilitarian, modern, wearable—but still a little more elevated—everyday wear,” she says. “My clientele dresses for true joy and being comfortable in their own skin. I am also that way. I don’t buy designers. My focus is not status. I just want to be comfortable. I’m so lucky that I have that clientele. They always return.”
The NKC Store has new drops weekly, so a day of shopping will never look the same. Nor will customers: expert sales associates are available to personally style shoppers, helping them build a capsule wardrobe. Kwon herself often steps in to style clients, one of her favorite parts of the job.
Kwon half-jokes that her new line comes from regulars wanting to introduce a new outfit into their boyfriends’ rotation. “I noticed when our customers were coming in with their boyfriends, there’s this really cool and hip female client, but then the partner is in his golf wear or workwear,” she says. “And the girls say, ‘Can you fix this?’”
This story originally appeared in the November issue of D Magazine with the headline “Big Pleat Energy.” Write to feedback@dmagazine.com.
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