Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen Hand Selected Designer Vintage for The Row
Archival Chanel, Pierre Cardin, Martin Margiela, and Comme des Garçons.
Falling in line with The Row’s unfussy minimalism and faultless muted motifs, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen have unveiled a suite of archival designer pieces on their site in something moody, something dark, something cosmically oversized, and something very much, ineffably cool.
“The approach for this project was very straightforward with pieces of exceptional design that we think will fit into the universe that we are aiming to create at The Row,” Mary Kate wrote to Vogue’s Nicole Phelps via email. Curated alongside Mon Vintage’s Marie Blanchet, the capsule touches the many cornerstones of circularity as well-maintained, re-envisioned, re-worn designer archives have come to shoulder much weight of a pilloried fashion system once built on excess.
Having been a wellspring of inspiration for The Row, the vintage picks are now going live in a bid to add some frisson to the online shopping modus, one that leans rote at best. “For us it has always been part of our vision to sell our collections in ever-changing atmospheres,” Mary-Kate writes. “To consider each location as unique and to curate what we sell in each store to enhance the client experience.”
Under the gilded eyes of Blanchet and Olsen, a 30-count shortlist of Comme des Garçons, Martin Margiela, Chanel, and Issey Miyake resurrects in a stealth, monochrome palette and some stark sartorial luxury, dating as far back as 1967 with a Madame Grès silk jersey dress. It’s a quiet, stylized decadence, one very much spectacle chez Olsen and available only until the last piece is loved.
Shop the archives here; price available upon request.