When you enter the airy Hesperios Shop in SoHo, which opens today, it is difficult to picture its past life as a vape shop with red concrete floors, exposed brick walls and dozens of barstools, bathed in LED lighting. “Anybody thinking about opening a store one day will have some idea of what they want,” says the designer Autumn Hruby, “but this took a little more imagination. Everything was the opposite of what it is now.”
Knowing Hruby, the possibilities enticed her. She officially launched Hesperios — a brand centered on the unlikely pairing of knitwear and an art-literary publication — in January 2016. Soon after came an online concept shop that sells limited-edition items made by artists featured in the Hesperios Journal. All the while, Hruby kept an eye out for empty storefronts. She signed the lease to 23 Cleveland Place, close to La Esquina, last July and started to sketch her plans for the space the following month. She ultimately sought out the carpenter Josh Thompson to oversee the execution and enlisted the creative consultant Carla Knapp as the brand and shop director.
A half-year later, Hruby is in her element, perched next to stacks of turtlenecks and pullovers of her own design, copies of the first two volumes of Hesperios Journal leaning against a display shelf behind her. There are racks of fantastically soft dresses, cardigans, tank tops and pants; the only other clothing brand for sale at the store is Mark Fast. (“His pieces are beautiful; they’re works of art and something you can’t ordinarily find,” Hruby says).
Hruby has interspersed woven totes (the fruit of her collaboration with Dragon Handbags), belts by Maximum Henry and Temps Des Rěves silk scarves among colorful Hesperios-branded notepads, Kaweco pens, a selection of found books and issues of the Paris Review and Lapham’s Quarterly. She also has on offer an assortment of homewares and, in keeping with the Hesperios world where no person has just one descriptor, Knapp (the brand and shop director) is selling her ceramics.
With this new store, the Hesperios world has broadened to include food. Off to one side stands a low-key kitchen — helmed by the bartender Selma Slabiak — that serves breads from Meyers Bageri, Saxelby’s cheeses, pour-over coffee, tea and homemade sodas. The cafe items can be enjoyed at a series of large marble-slab-topped tables — on wheels, so they can be easily moved around for events.
Some of the buzzier amenities remain in-progress: the backyard garden, to be cultivated by the landscape architect Miranda Brooks, and a rentable “reader’s shed” that Hruby thought up with Erik Heywood of Book/Shop. Plus, Hruby will expand Hesperios’ offerings to include outerwear for fall/winter 2018. It’s all equally exciting for her: “I have the personality where if I have to do Excel spreadsheets for a day, then I’ll get into it.”