A new Khaite store on the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and 69th Street is open for business today. The project is designer Catherine Holstein and her architect husband Griffin Frazen’s second space in New York, following a SoHo flagship that opened in early 2023, and they’ve brought their industrial aesthetic—Holstein’s described it as ‘stealth’ in the past—uptown, via polished gray plaster walls, a steel tile floor with low-slung, built-in display fixtures, and furniture by Mario Marenco and William Katavolos.
“A lot of stores equate luxury with the value of material, like expensive stone,” says Frazen. “Here, it’s really more about how materials are used and what went into making things. It’s all very, very handmade and very, very detailed, rather than this idea of, ‘oh, it’s polished, it’s clean, so therefore it’s luxury.’”
Accessories are the emphasis at 828 Madison, which is about half the size of the Mercer store. A crocodile handbag and a python shopper that will be sold on a made-to-order basis take pride of place near the entrance; glossy red cut-out Eva pumps perch in the middle of the floor, spotlit from above; and sunglasses made in collaboration with Oliver Peoples decorate one wall, almost like an art piece. Niches are lined with bags and footwear, including the best-selling urban cowboy Nevada boot that Holstein designed “on a whim” in 2019, and remains Khaite’s number-one style, influencing countless other brands down the market.
No evergreen Shady Lady tree is growing in a back corner, as one does at the Mercer shop, but there’s plenty of natural light—Frazen replaced the entire facade, installing a bronze storefront and floor-to-ceiling windows—and there will be even more when the scaffolding outside comes down and Maxime’s, the private members club that is Khaite’s new Madison Avenue neighbor, opens for business. What else you won’t find in the shop: mannequins; those windows are lined with clothing racks, and hanging from them are leather jackets, organza and knit dresses, and a seasonally appropriate shearling coat (it was 18 degrees at the time of our visit). “We wanted something that, when you see it walking by, you’re really drawn to the shoppability of the store,” says Holstein.
Another lure: Holstein’s longtime friend and stylist Vanessa de Viel Castel has chosen a selection of vintage jewelry to be sold exclusively at the store. A Bulgari collar necklace, Cartier Panthère rings, and a pair of charming 19th century frog brooches set with rose-cut diamonds that Holstein claimed as her favorites are all on offer, displayed informally on bronze hand sculptures, not as they might be elsewhere in glass vitrines. “It’s really a mix of high and low, a wide range of prices, all curated by Vanessa,” the designer says.
Holstein places a great deal of trust in her collaborators, but none more so than Frazen. “I’m first thought-best thought, that’s my motto,” she says. “I like fast, but Griffin teaches us a different way of working.” One that’s deliberate and considered. “I like things [that are] technically ambitious, and I think that it’s important for brands to innovate, and retail is a major opportunity to do that,” he chimes in. They’ll have more chances to do so as we get deeper into 2025, with additional stores in Miami and Los Angeles now at different stages of completion.
