The Bode store, located on Hester Street, in the Lower East Side district of Manhattan, is worth a visit. This lair lined with copper woodwork – coffee-stained Douglas fir wall panels – offers a summary of the spirit of the ready-to-wear brand founded in 2016 by Emily Bode. The place, decorated in every corner with old objects and dried flowers, opens onto a fountain from 1890, found in an old building in Chicago. The water flows gently, rocking the space with a little zen music.
On the ceiling, we discover a fresco created by the artist Lukas Geronimas. The decoration is signed Green River Project, the design studio of Aaron Aujla, the designer’s husband, and his partner, Ben Bloomstein. Here and there are black and white photos of Emily Bode’s mother and aunt in romantic Virginia Woolf blouses. “They have always loved antiquing; very young, I accompanied them to flea markets and flea markets. They had a very artistic streak, with a passion for the handmade that influenced me a lot”, explains the designer from Atlanta who has managed, in a few years, to impose her unique touch tinged with craftsmanship and americana (the emblematic clothing of the United States) in the landscape of men’s fashion.
“I want to create pieces that encapsulate memories, that recall old ways of life, family traditions, bygone eras. » Emily Bodé
Holder of a double degree from the Parsons School of Design in New York, in design and philosophy, Emily Bode collects old fabrics – linens from the 1920s, old ticks, lace tablecloths, vintage saris, patched comforters –, documents their history, their memory, then transforms them into clothes. Unique pieces also represent 30% to 40% of the brand’s sales.
“Design is intimately linked to culture, to the way we live and how we were brought up, but also to the way we think. Why do we think this or feel this? Philosophy allows me to question my work”, specifies the designer, who also develops her own fabrics, reproductions of old samples, striving to preserve age-old craft techniques. Jacket studded with enamel charms from the 1940s, coat made with traditional Indian embroidery from the 15th centurye century, tank top inspired by a sixties crochet blanket…
Each piece has its share of stories. ” I want to create objects that encapsulate memories, that recall old ways of life, family traditions, bygone eras,” concludes Emily Bode, who opened a second boutique in Los Angeles at the start of the year, also clad in wood. Above a clothes rack, a sculpted dodo skeleton is a casual reminder of the misdeeds of overconsumption.
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