It is little more than 24 hours until Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta are scheduled to fling open the doors to their new store at 27 Ludlow Street on New York’s Lower East Side, and there is still a mountain of work to be done. Amid the final preparations, a few minor imperfections catch their eye. "There are little scuffs on the floor," sighs Latta, before quickly waving the thought away. "Don’t mention those."
Eckhaus leans into the chaos with characteristic humor as they pass by two exposed dressing rooms waiting for their curtains to be delivered. "It’s a new concept," he jokes. "It’s all about sexy! It’s like the Barneys Warehouse Sale!"
Looking over a suspended clothes bar filled with fall’s brand-new arrivals, Latta laughs about the frantic timeline. "Ten minutes ago, we were like… We should hang some clothes."
"Yeah… Vogue is coming," Eckhaus adds with a grin.
This charming, make-it-up-as-you-go ethos is precisely what renders the duo’s independent label, Eckhaus Latta, so bewitching. It serves as a tangible reflection of the real-world cool they have managed to evoke season after season, offering a stark contrast to overly polished, impersonal megabrands. While they may be actively prepping to celebrate 15 years in business—coming off a series of high-profile collaborations with major names like Mango and J.Crew, alongside a hot streak of increasingly finessed runway shows—the designers have resolutely retained their feisty founding spirit. Indeed, during a conversation earlier this summer, Eckhaus affectionately referred to them and their enterprise as a "geriatric independent small brand."
This relocation is hardly the creative duo’s first dalliance with physical retail; in fact, brick-and-mortar storefronts have long been a foundational part of their business model. They opened their very first shop in Los Angeles, where Latta is based, back in 2016, followed by a New York location on the second floor of a buzzy Chinatown mall in 2018 (Eckhaus is based in New York). But in the eight years since that mall-based location first opened its doors, the brand has matured significantly, and the surrounding neighborhood has shifted rapidly, evolving from a collection of small art galleries into a sprawling vintage mecca.
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"There were window displays of people selling second-hand Eckhaus Latta next door," Latta laughs, explaining why they ultimately felt it was time to pack up and search for new digs.
"For us, a store is much more about building a world than, like, just some strategically fancy place," Latta reflects. "We love retail, we love brick and mortar."
Latta proves to be something of a pathological real estate hunter, having scouted out this sprawling new space earlier this year through a mutual friend. The pair first visited the Ludlow Street property on the crisp morning of their fall show in February and officially signed the lease deal in August. Since then, it has been a breathless, six-week mad dash to get the new location ready for its public debut.
The new address gives the brand more than double the selling space of their previous location. More importantly, it brings together retail, the design studio, secure storage for their extensive personal archive, a dedicated photo studio, and a stockroom, all gathered together under one cohesive roof. "It’s our epicenter," Latta says. "We’re condensing from seven different leases into one."
Because the new storefront had not previously been set up or operated as a street-facing commercial property, it required substantial infrastructure overhauls, including major plumbing and electrical work, alongside the usual creative architectural flourishes. To tackle the renovation, Eckhaus and Latta tapped deep into their trusted network of creative friends and collaborators. This included their in-house fit model, Camilla Deterre, who stepped up to serve as the project manager, and Latta’s childhood friend Emma Price, an architect who also spearheaded the interior layout and design. Meanwhile, Sophie Stone took charge of the floral elements and the painted rope-and-cardboard art pieces that double as artistic floor rugs throughout the store.
"These are people we speak to and hang out with and work with on a daily basis," Latta notes. "They’re also designers, architects, trained, skilled professionals."
"It’s cool to have just these expansions of how we work with our friends," Eckhaus adds.
Collaboration on the project was deeply communal, if occasionally boisterous. "Sometimes there are six people talking about one rug and arguing, which is fun," Latta continues. "And then other times it feels really clear. But I think there’s not a singular vision, and I think it’s very, as Mike has said, ‘Goldilocks,’ where it’s like we figure out the happy medium in a lot of different ways from a lot of different POVs, and we don’t need to consider it finished really, ever."
Walking through the space today reveals functional elements seamlessly blended with artistic vision. There are rails suspended cleanly from the ceiling and an honest-to-goodness cash register positioned near the front entrance, while the dressing rooms and additional standing racks occupy the back half of the 940-square-foot retail floor. Directly behind the retail area lies the studio, an extra 700 square feet illuminated by a generous overhead skylight.
Unexpected color palettes—long a defining brand signature—are vividly expressed through careful paint choices: pale yellow walls and creamy gray floors, specifically utilizing Farrow & Ball’s "New White" and "Lamp Room Gray," respectively. Furniture throughout the store was sourced by their friend David Lê and given custom touches, such as an ottoman outfitted with a brushed shearling topper sourced directly from Latta’s hometown of Santa Cruz, California.
Indeed, even as they race toward the finish line ahead of tomorrow morning’s grand opening following an exclusive opening party, the duo considers the physical space less of a fixed, permanent installation and more of an ongoing, living project.
"That’s the thing we’re thinking about, too: how things adapt," Latta says. "We’re excited about them, but maybe it’s something we’re going to want to change around more frequently. It’s nice to not feel so concrete, and, like we were saying, fluid, about a process."
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That fluid philosophy extends right out to the street. Take the space-age, silver-painted cinder block facade, with its craggy stones and weathered air conditioning units giving it a wonderfully gritty, wonky appearance. "At first we were like, ‘We need to get rid of everything.’ And then we were like, ‘This rocks. This is a story of the neighborhood,’" Latta explains. "We don’t want to eliminate it yet and don’t need to yet. It’s going to cost a lot of money to replace the facade. Let’s wait and do it when the feeling’s right and when we’re done and sick of it."
While Latta has long worked directly adjacent to the brand’s Los Angeles shop, this move marks the first time Eckhaus will experience the same proximity to the retail floor. "Sometimes from where I’m sitting, I can hear people in the dressing room giving notes," Latta says. "I love it, and our retail staff comes back, and it’s like, ‘Oh, she really didn’t like that color.’ It’s just nice to have the feedback, and it’s not a criticism. I think it’ll be really good for Mike to have that too."
"I can chase people out of the store," Eckhaus quips.
As for how they feel about the overwhelmingly positive public and critical reactions to their recent collection—with several fashion outlets hailing them as a definitive highlight of New York Fashion Week—the response is grounded in gratitude. "We feel really supported," Latta says.
"Part of our excitement is that we’ve seen an immense amount of growth in our direct-to-consumer business," she adds, noting the strategic advantages of maintaining autonomy. "There’s something about that that feels nice—the more things that are under your control [the better], because we know the industry is so volatile right now."
Looking ahead, the founders acknowledge they are poised for a new chapter. "I think we’re ready to take some big steps," she says. "We’re open to a lot of different things."
The two designers exchange a knowing look.
"We’re looking for investment," Latta says.
"We should say that out loud," Eckhaus adds with a smile. "Email us!"
