As I walk into Komune, the Lower East Side’s latest offering, I’m entranced by the space. Looking around, I am imbued with Komune’s spirit, a futurist temple to designers moving fashion forward. Miracle, one of the sales associates, compliments me on my Marc Jacobs Deftones t-shirt and pours me a cup of tea. I tell him I’ve never listened to the album. I pause to take the space in. The store, located on 92 Orchard, is filled with ambient music, art installations, and a variety of cutting edge garments from the futuristic ænrmòus to the technopunk stylings of Æ Synctx and the post-human aesthetics of Jordan Arthur Smith. Komune is a fashion lover’s heaven, slipping through the SSENSE wireframe into your flyest homie’s wishlist.
Komune is the latest of many collaborations between high school friends Martin Li and Brandon Fogarty. The seeds for Komune were planted during Martin and Brandon’s senior year when they designed a space and curated an atmosphere to present their cut and sew brand for the school symposium. They realized their shared aptitude for transforming spaces and creating unique fashion experiences; then, took this vision to the digital and online space and grew Komune’s presence and community through long form fashion explorations on Youtube.
The pair, along with the sales team, are gleefully talking to customers, prancing across the store from rack to rack. Stylists come in and out of Komune, wheeling engorged luggages filled with designer clothes. We try to talk amidst the scuttle. NYFW is clearly brewing as passersby stare at us through the window and walk in, eager for something new.
Finally, Martin takes us downstairs to the lounge area when I ask, “Why New York and why now?”.
“Because of the people. Our biggest asset has been the relationships that we’ve built. We love our landlord.”
A phrase rarely spoken in the history of New York.
Their relationship with landlord Mark Miller allowed them to transport Komune from a digital space into a physical one. It’s fitting that the experiential shop is hosted in Mark Miller’s gallery, which has previously exhibited a wide breadth of artists from Banksy to Eddy Bogaert and Taki 183.
B: What makes us love fashion is everything around it – the inspiration behind a piece, the drive for a designer to create, and the artisans that make it. We want to package that up and offer an opportunity to fall in love with this experience to everyone who interacts with us digitally or physically.
They want the customers to become invested in brands, envisioning Komune as the equivalent to a Dover Street Market for emerging brands.
M: For example, when you walk into a DSM, a world renowned fashion space and see Schiaparelli, you can be wowed, then go home and research because there are resources out there. Those online resources allow a person to really fall in love with a brand, to really buy in. We aim to provide that.
It’s hard not to fall in love with Komune’s cohort of hand selected brands.
Martin and Brandon didn’t go to fashion school. They are merely passionate and warm in an industry which is oftentimes elitist and cold. Brandon mentions that he “just wanted a space where we could nerd out”, while Martin gives props to Youtube University, “The way I learned about fashion was purely online…I wanted to be able to do my own thing and create a space that was genuine and down to Earth. We’re not trying to be cool or shroud our images behind something. We just wanna build community and have fun.” This idea of inclusive and accessible community is at the core of Komune’s ethos. They designed the space with introverts in mind. Instead of a large NYFW party, the pair insisted on a barbecue. It’s a team effort, Martin explains, “Our team members are upstairs right now in the apartment making onigiris. We're gonna be serving some drinks and just hanging out. It’s pretty laid back.”
Komune is a collective effort by a close-knit group of friends, emphasizing the importance of having solid collaborators.
M: We had two stylists from Milan come in yesterday and our friend and sales associate, Avia – with an Italian minor background – just popped out the Italian and started speaking to them. For a good 30 minutes, our room, which is usually just ambient music and quiet English, was filled with three loud Italian voices and I was blown away.
“We’ve been incredibly lucky that with every addition to the team, the passion, self-motivation, and unique experiences they bring strengthens Komune’s foundation, and opens up previously unthinkable opportunities. With every team member that we take on, it's like a whole new album added to the playlist.”
Komune wants to take their customers on a journey.
B: It’s a bit of a choose your own adventure. We have incredible sales associates who are so knowledgeable about the designers that we've curated to put in the space, but we also leave passive easter eggs around to be discovered. The first thing we have on our tags – before the designer, before the price, before any other details – is what we call team notes. It’s just a little descriptor, a one liner of how a piece makes us feel and what we think is interesting about it.
M: It’s like an RPG…we just want to be accommodating to everybody. I personally shop with my AirPods on, but when someone approaches me, I love having a conversation about clothes; so I try to do that when I’m working the floor.
Komune is a love letter to emerging designers and creatives within a fashion industry overrun with insiders and an old guard of aristocrats. They take pride in championing those whose work hasn’t received widespread recognition yet. Komune is invested in growing with and providing a nurturing space for underrated brands. Their innovative approach of designing art installations to accompany the racks was born of this mission.
Brandon runs me through their process.
B: Some of the brands will send installation pieces and we'll take care of the presentation, simplifying our process. I sent out a questionnaire to the brands, asking, ‘Why are you designing? What are you trying to say or explore with your designs? What are some keywords for your design ethos? What are some ideas you have for your display?’ I took their responses and ran with it. We want to show the customers more than they could see from the clothes alone.
Sitting in the basement of Komune, it’s easy to imagine this as the future of fashion retail. When I ask about the future of Komune, Victoria, their co-lead and events director, walks in and adds, "We’ve considered a second pop up in April. We would do a second round of buying and have a second installation of brands. The end goal is to open our own brick and mortar. Some other ideas we had are possibly having a showroom, or maybe doing more PR and styling for the specific brands we work with.”
Martin is optimistic.
M: I think the future is a fun question because there's a future next week that we've thought about, but there's also a future five years down the line. We don't really know, they're all just ideas. I think the only thing I can guarantee you is ambition and that there's going to be a physical space involved.
Whatever is next for Komune, you’ll surely want to stay tapped in.
Komune’s pop-up will be open till September 30th. Be sure to check out the space and discover emerging designers at 92 Orchard before it draws to a close.
Connect with Komune on: Website | Instagram | TikTok | Youtube
Connect with the Komune team here:
Allan, Avia, Brandon ("Brandy"), Brandon, Cassie, Catherine, Cherie, Cleo, Ella, Elsie, Hannah, Joe, Kendy, Lia, Makan, Martin, Matt, Michael, Miracle, Ruby, Shirley, and Victoria.
