Kallmeyer Madison Avenue
Cult womenswear label Kallmeyer has opened on New York City’s Madison Avenue. Created by French interior designer Louis Rambert in collaboration with the label’s own Daniella Kallmeyer, the pint-sized boutique is artful and polished yet unpretentious, much like the apparel and accessories that fill it.
Kallmeyer founded her eponymous label in 2012 before opening her Orchard Street boutique on the Lower East Side in 2019. For her second space, she enlisted Rambert to help realise her vision. “To be on Madison Avenue is a big step for Daniella, so the store had to be very special,” says Rambert. “We wanted it to feel very Uptown but not too stuffy.”
Over coffee, the pair hit it off immediately, bonding over reference images of Giorgio Armani’s residence, designed by architect Peter Marino in the late 1980s. “That was the first thing I showed her when we met, and we both agreed that was the direction,” says Rambert of the iconic Milan apartment’s monochromatic palette and textural high-low aesthetic.
The resulting design marries these references with an American Art Deco sensibility and elements of French modernism. Doused in mostly neutral hues, the interior is instead animated by textures, from concrete floors and silk wallcoverings to leather-wrapped garment racks and custom parchment details. “We wanted rich materials that spoke to the Art Deco movement and to the Upper East Side but treated in a contemporary way.”
“We wanted rich materials that spoke to the Art Deco movement and to the Upper East Side but treated in a contemporary way.”
Kallmeyer and Rambert also sought to carve up the small yet open floor plan to “create vignettes and special moments – rooms within rooms – so that you don’t see everything at once”. Upon entering, the eye is drawn to a single garment hanging within a framed alcove. Deeper into the plan, there is a covert room at the rear, an intimate and personal retail environment with jute floors, velvet-like limewash walls, luxuriously thick curtains and custom eucalyptus shelving.
There are personal touchpoints for Kallmeyer, too, with artwork from her personal collection, including framed letters that belonged to her grandmother, a dressmaker in the 1950s, alongside vintage and one-of-a-kind furniture pieces. There is also cabinetry by longtime friend and collaborator KG MacKinnon of Līmen Studio, whose work also graces the Orchard Street boutique.
“Because of the scale, the finishes and the lighting, you feel like you’re wrapped in a beautiful jewellery box.”
Given the store’s east-facing aspect and exposure to bright morning sunshine, a considered lighting program was a must, and Kallmeyer and Rambert engaged lighting expert PSLab to conceive a plan that helps to shape the spatial experience over the course of the day. Rambert describes it as “dim, directional and dramatic – like a museum”.
Bamboo shades behind the front windows help to temper the glare in the early morning, and in the evenings, the store is low-lit and golden toned. “It’s very moody – that’s the word,” says Rambert. “Because of the scale, the finishes and the lighting, you feel like you’re wrapped in a beautiful jewellery box.”
Interior design by Louis Rambert. Build by TW2M. Cabinetry by Līmen Studio. Lighting design by PSLab. Artwork by Jesse Donaldson.
