Elizabeth and Brian number each of their artistic collaborations. We love how unpretentious and systematic they are. Project No. 8 is a concept store in the Lower East Side/Chinatown. It’s unlikely location makes it a hidden gem, a destination for those seeking clothing, accessories, and objects like nothing you’ll fine elsewhere.
Image of the shop via Refinery29
How did you end up in this space?
Elizabeth: We chose this neighborhood because we liked it; it felt odd. It didn’t seem like a very good idea from a geographical standpoint. It’s too far down and too far East. So people have different expectations than they do if they’re on Mott street. This location informed what we did with the space. It also made the space cheaper, and allowed us to experiment. If it had been five blocks up, our rent would have been at least double. We’d have to stock things that sell easier. Not that these things don’t sell well, but they’re more challenging and more specific.
Leather Covered Domino Set by Natalia Brilli
Brian: We also had the idea that if we kind of tucked ourselves away, we would have time to figure out what we were doing. By the time people found us, we would have more of a firm statement, a better understanding of what we were trying to do.
What was the original concept?
Brian: The idea we started with was distributing the tangents, or side projects, that we had seen others do. People who have careers as architects, or painters, and weirdly on the side they’re making jewelry, or clothing, or bags. We’d come in contact with so many of these people over the years, and seen their side projects that are totally amazing. We’d ask about something, and they’d say, “It’s just a hobby, it’s not going to go anywhere.”
Elizabeth: Or they knew what it takes to get something into the world, and didn’t want to put their energy there.
Brian: We imagined we’d have a space, really low key, that could be a home for these orphaned projects. Pieces that should be seen, but through whatever course of events, might never be. That’s how it started. A space to hold these digressions, these side projects. Ours as well as other people’s. For us, if we’re working on projects, now we have a home for them – it’s that simple. We don’t have do worry about where they exist in the world.
How has it evolved?
Brian: Elizabeth is a partner in a gallery in Berlin, so we commute back and forth. Through the travel, we’ve collided with a lot of different people, doing a lot of different things. We started inviting people to do projects for the space. We ask them to let us show the work they are doing. It’s evolved from the ground up.
Cork Necklace by Margiela
How have you balanced your own need to create, with the needs of running a functioning business?
Elizabeth: We’re constantly trying to figure out the ratio, to carve out a balance between supporting what’s already been made and making new things.
Brian: It’s dauting in its own way. If you make something, and it’s successful, that’s not the end of it. That’s only the beginning. It requires an infinite amount of support. I think that is why certain artists and designers find their niche, and do that thing over and over, generating different versions. Not only the creation of the idea, but the story, the distribution, and the expression all take so much support. It’s a lot of phone calls, dealing with people, interviews, and emails. You do all of these things and 60% of them aren’t that enjoyable. But they’re the substructure to a successful project.
What do you think is the most important part of your personal creative process?
Elizabeth: I think the idea of digression is so important. Sometimes you let yourself digress, sometimes you don’t – but when you do is often when you find yourself in the most interesting place.
Brian: That’s true. A lot of the most interesting projects I do are the ones in-between. You have a quick thought and you execute it. It may have taken 15 minutes. You put it aside. Time passes and when you look back at it, it’s some of the best stuff you’ve done.
Image of the shop via Paper Mag
Elizabeth: It tends to be more poetic, less burdened with meaning.
Brian: Definitely less self-censored. If you have the idea that you’re going to do something very public, then you want the project to be perceived as worthwhile. That frame of mind can get in your way. If something is very personal and it evolves out of a genuine need to make, those things can be so pure, honest, and joyful, that they end up being the strongest.
Do you have any tips for getting into that honest, joyful frame of mind?
Brian: I went to grad school for graphic design, and we had a lot of visiting designers. A lot of brilliant Dutch designers – such interesting characters. I remember two people in particular, being astounded and shocked at how we were approaching the projects. We were spending so much time working on them. They would say “I don’t understand how you can get at anything by just sitting and looking at it. You need to ride your bicycle. You need to have a drink with your friends at the bar.”
They had a very different ethic, a very different approach to solving things. They would demand we go out and drink. “You’re not getting anything done by thinking over everything that has to happen. You’re not doing anything.” We needed to just do something, have some drinks, laugh, chat, talk, and tell horror stories. Then we would wander back to the studios and get it all done – figure the problem out naturally.
Angora Covered Bricks by Various Projects
Can you tell us what you’re working on now?
Brian: We’re opening another shop in May, around the corner. We’ve been working on it for a long time. It will be more menswear, as well as objects. We’ll also be representing a German furniture company that we are big fans of. And we are opening a third retail space, in what will be the Ace Hotel, on 29th and Broadway. It’s going to be a hotel shop as well as a design store for the neighborhood. A hybrid. It should open in late spring or early summer.
Elizabeth: We’re also making more clothing. We’re going to be doing some men’s suits for fall, and some women’s wear.
Brian: We’ve had a clothing line for a little while, but we’ve been making things in a casual, unambitious way because we’ve had so much else on our plate.
Before we wrap up, do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs?
Elizabeth: Be as hard working and creative as possible when you solve problems. On top of that, to try to be as clueless as you can about how hard it is going to be. If you anticipate all the things that go wrong, you won’t do anything.
Brian: You have to just do it, and figure it out as you go. That’s how it works for us. It’s not the smartest way – that would be to have a business plan, to really plot it out. We tried that once, and it completely deadened the idea. It rendered it sterile, wrenched out all the life.
