A Clean, Thoughtful Place

Maryam Nassir Zadeh, a worldly gallery like boutique in the Lower East Side, New York, blooms with the change of air. The industrial metal doors left ajar to the first breezes of spring, beacon passer bys on their weekend retail trails.

For some of us city dwellers, harbored here during the spring and summer months without an exotic holiday of our own, Maryam Nassir Zadeh provides a perfect escape. Stepping into the store, part open-air museum, part art inflicted sanctuary, is like traveling to an exotic, deeply distant locale. Dresses by Electric Feathers and Isabel Marant hang like twirling mobiles, propelled by the slightest winds. Leather cuffs by Manu and rouge ceramic pieces by the Paris based jeweler, Marion Vidal are displayed like the sculptures that they are. Stacks of gently worn panama hats and featherweight linen scarves in fruitful bursts of colour resemble those from a street bazaar.

All of the pieces, wearable or art feel familiar, but are presented in such an innocent and refreshed way that they appear brilliantly new and softly attractive to a variety of aesthetics and sensibilities. Owners, Maryam and Uday tightly edit the shops offerings and are constantly looking for new ways to present them. It is the perfect destination on one of these lovely spring days for a fresh zephyr of inspiration and provides a new direction for the capacity of retail spaces.

www.maryamnassirzadeh.com

By Anush Mirbegian