Apartment Envy

"I would totally live here," said Joseph Altuzarra at last night's launch of The Apartment. Judging by the way other guests, like Alexander Wang , Reed Krakoff , and Kate Young , kicked back on the velvet couch, fox-fur blankets, and plush white bed, Altuzarra wasn't alone. Set on Soho's Greene Street, The Apartment is the material manifestation of TheLine.com —a carefully curated retail venture headed up by Vanessa Traina and Morgan Wendelborn . "The Web site is more of our storefront, so we felt like we could have fun with the physical space," said Traina of the loftlike shop, which boasts hardwood floors, white walls, vintage and designer furniture, and a shoppable closet fully stocked with wares from Reed Krakoff, Vince, and The Line's house label, Protagonist. "One of the main goals for us is to put things in context, and what better way to contextualize the product than to make it feel livable?"



Indeed, the space felt like someone's (albeit an impossibly chic someone) home—artworks were hung in all the right places; bookshelves were lined with tomes on architecture, painting, and horses; and a chaise with fuzzy throw pillows seemed the perfect place to curl up and read. From the sound of it, the project's co-founders have, in fact, done a little living in the store: Protagonist designer Kate Wendelborn (Morgan's twin sister) told us that she finished her Spring lookbook while sitting in an ornate stone chair by the window. Meanwhile, Morgan—who formerly worked with Shopbop and is in charge of editorial merchandizing—admitted to falling asleep on the bed more than a few times.



"I want to live in any apartment that Vanessa designs," offered Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez , who recently opened his label's new flagship a few doors down. "This girl knows what she's doing." Traina's husband, artist Max Snow, agreed on that fact. "We just moved into our new place a few months ago, and it's getting there. But if I did more of what my wife told me, our apartment would probably look like this."

—Katharine K. Zarrella