William White Emporium
Long before the William White Emporium took physical form, it lived in Will Cooper’s imagination.
“It’s the culmination of my life’s work,” says the New York-based founder and creative director of William White. The luxury lifestyle brand he launched in 2024 is an evolved echo of a childhood vision that began as “a bright-yellow metal storefront on wheels: part grocery store, part sold-out auditorium”.
Located at 325 Canal Street, the emporium is a wonderland of experiences offering a glimpse into Cooper’s childhood and, evidently, adult dreams. From garments and vintage curiosities to decadent espresso and freshly baked croissants, every corner brims with the brand’s whimsical spirit, where the unexpected feels effortlessly at home. Designed in a relaxed industrial-modern style, the space resembles a serene gallery: clean and white with shiplap walls and sleek metal racks displaying selections that rotate weekly to make room for new collaborators, objects and ideas.
Cooper’s approach to interior design is “cinematic and storytelling-led – real and made for the place”. He believes in understanding a space’s history and its future inhabitants, creating rooms that are “comfortable, narrative-driven, exciting – never museums, but living, breathing environments”. Beauty, for him, must always meet function: “I like to make it look like it’s always been there, like things naturally fell into place.” That philosophy shaped the emporium’s creation, completed in just three weeks. “We gutted the space, installed new floors, walls, electricals, a cafe and bathrooms – it was a Wild West situation,” he recalls.
“Some will come for the tailoring, others for the magazines, the espresso or the feeling of being momentarily inside a story.”
Visitors are first greeted by a curated editorial display in partnership with Iconic Magazines – rare art journals, international glossies, cult weeklies and daily papers – arranged like treasures ready for keen perusal in a bookshop. Deeper inside, a cafe draws guests further in, while nearby shelves present an eclectic array of home accents: zodiac-themed porcelain from the William White collection, Egyptian glassware and intriguing finds from markets in the South of France – Avignon, Montpellier and Béziers – among other novelties. At the far end, racks feature Cooper’s own clothing designs – corduroy blazers, crisp button-ups and organic cotton coats – inviting guests to explore. “Some will come for the tailoring, others for the magazines, the espresso or the feeling of being momentarily inside a story,” says Cooper of the store’s vibrant energy, where merchandise beautifully masquerades as decor.
For Cooper, retail is a show. He favours theatrical lighting, white glossy floors “that patina with every step,” and even red carpets in the fitting rooms – unexpected yet natural decisions. Modular fixtures allow the store to reinvent itself weekly, keeping its narrative alive.
In the window stands Cooper’s bright-yellow childhood storefront, reimagined as a personal installation from New York Fashion Week 2025. The next chapters unfold through rotating art installations, scent labs and pop-up salons – “like a magazine that never goes to print”. Part nostalgia, part fantasy and entirely New York, the William White Emporium is a living story in motion.
