Clothing designer Leana Zuniga of Electric Feathers and historian-turned-jewelry designer Randi Mates of Aesa first met at a Paris trade show in 2008; having sold their wares at a handful of the same downtown boutiques (No. 6 and Maryam Nassir Zadeh among them) and running in similar style-savvy circles, they hit it off. Today the duo is opening a joint Aesa + Electric Feathers boutique, the first stand-alone shop for both labels. The 950-square-foot space blends Electric Feathers’ convertible raw silk dresses and belted cotton tunics with Aesa’s gemstone-studded jewelry on custom displays carved from Brazilian purple heartwood. Both Zuniga and Mates have created a handful of hand-painted, -dyed, and -beaded one-off pieces for the store, where prices range from $69 for simple silver studs to $2,200 for a chain-mail necklace gleaming with Tahitian pearls. Designed by artist Yolande Milan Batteau and interior designer Loren Daye — whose resumes tout high-profile projects from Chanel to the Ace Hotel — the interior reflects a similar sense of offbeat luxury, from the Japanese gold leaf adorning the ceiling to the seventies-era couch reupholstered in coral-colored velvet. (See more on the interior designers here.) Click ahead for a first look inside the boutique.
Aesa + Electric Feathers, 35 Crosby St., nr. Grand St.; 212-837-2648.
