Last weekend, designer Daryl Kerrigan of Daryl K announced via email that she would be shuttering her boutique at 21 Bond Street, which has served downtown shoppers addicted to her unusual silhouettes and cool printed separates for the past 15 years.
But the details surrounding the closing were left ambiguous. "Well, it's a sad thing for me to do," Kerrigan told us in an interview on Thursday. "It's an amazing store, and I have wonderful customers, and I would really rather not close. The truth is, though, that I'm a designer that runs a retail store in addition to doing my own manufacturing and managing my own studio in the back."
In need of a change, Kerrigan saw the approaching expiration of her lease as an opportunity to refocus her company. "Too much of my time has been focused on running the store," she says. "It's really the best thing for me. I want to focus all of my attention on the design."
Kerrigan is quick to clarify, however, that she isn't saying good bye to retail forever. "I'd like to open another store in the future, when I find the right partner to work with."
Finding her new business partner is her primary project for the summer, though she's also curious about the possibility of "designing for other companies and other people, which I haven't done so much in the past. I want to focus on design, but it doesn't have to be just for Daryl K. [I could] work with what they have, rather than doing it all myself."
In the meantime, brand devotees can look forward to increased e-commerce in lieu of the brick-and-mortar store. "It allows you to work from anywhere, and that's a really exciting idea."
