Something In The Way

Sensuality and sexuality are not the entire story of Herschede, but they are part of its pulse. I am proud of that.

They are in the way the store smells, the feel of cashmere and suede, the music and lighting, the lips, and the playful suggestion of something more. None of it happened accidentally.

I never wanted to build a store where clothes simply hung on racks under bright lights. I wanted a place that engaged the senses and the imagination. A place with humor, mystery, surprise, and suggestion.

There is a photograph hanging in the store of a beautifully dressed woman stepping out of a car. She wears stockings and heels. We do not know where she is going, where she has been, or who might be waiting for her.

The mystery is what makes it interesting.

If there is a muse behind all of it, it is Molly. The woman stepping from the car has always made me think of her. Some imagined version, perhaps, but one with the same strength, beauty, and mystery.

Perhaps Herschede is simply my very elaborate attempt to keep impressing her.

Fashion is inherently sexy. Clothing can reveal and conceal, draw attention, create curiosity, and leave room for imagination. Sometimes we dress to attract attention or inspire desire. Sometimes we simply enjoy knowing we might. Both are human.

The store was never created to make people look sexual. It was created with the understanding that feeling attractive matters.

There is a difference between looking good and feeling attractive. Looking good can be confirmed by a mirror. Feeling attractive changes the way you enter a room.

That is the feeling I am chasing.

Sensuality and sexuality belong in Herschede for the same reason music, humor, and beauty do. They make the room feel alive.

I would never want to design that out.

-E