2 days ago
A SoHo Studio to Enchant a Bride and Her Entourage
Up-and-coming designers who need to work with employees and clients might require multiple spaces: a home, a studio, a showroom, maybe even a place to host larger events.
When Meredith Stoecklein, 39, the founder of the New York-based bridal and fashion brand Lein, started looking for her next Manhattan apartment in 2023, she thought she could blend all these functions in a single space.
Previously, she had rented an apartment in TriBeCa and a studio in the garment district, but during the pandemic she let the leases expire as she escaped to Sun Valley, Idaho. When she began planning her return to New York, 'I spent months looking for a place that was leased residential and commercial,' she said. 'The issue was: How do I make it feel like a studio space and not have clients feel like they're walking into my apartment?'
She landed in a sun-filled loft with high ceilings in SoHo, which she rented for $7,700 a month that October. It's 1,500 square feet were a lot for New York, but too little for everything she wanted to accomplish.
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