Prabal Gurung Opens His First Store, Colorful Aprons, and High Tech Glasses

In early November, Amazon-backed smart-glasses company North will open a store, with frames that use “retinal-projection technology” to call you an Uber and give you directions (178 Court St., Cobble Hill).

Illustration: Jason Lee/Courtesy of the vendors

1. Demo: An appointment-only lounge area with overhead skylights, where customers can try on the glasses and learn about their functionality from team members.

2. Sizing booths: Four 3-D scanners get the customer’s precise measurements so the company’s factory can make the glasses to size.

3. Fitting: Two licensed opticians will be on hand to do final adjustments to glasses once they’ve come back from the factory; staff can help connect the glasses with your phone and sync them with your Amazon and Uber accounts.

4. Glasses: Shelves display North’s frames ($999), which are controlled by a Bluetooth-connected ring and come in round and rectangular styles.

It’s hunker-down-and-bake season.

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

Cheaper
Half: Sugy Sena apron, $19 at shopcoucou.com.
Full: Color Block Linen apron, $58 at foldsantabarbara.com.

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

Pricier
Half: Color Block half-apron, $150 at virginiasin.com.
Full: Geo Work apron, $75 at tilitnyc.com.

Designer Prabal Gurung has opened his first-ever store, with Met Gala gowns and embroidered T-shirts (367 Bleecker St.).

Courtesy of the vendor.

Courtesy of the vendor.

Why Bleecker?
When I moved here, Bleecker Street was so relevant. Then it shut down. I hated seeing the sad, empty storefronts. It is never going to be Madison Avenue and never should be — every shop should be unique. Our window has a light installation that mimics the sunrise in Nepal, where I am from. Inside, there are many new things: our pearl-embroidered puffers ($3,595); our menswear pieces, like a blue patterned shorts-and-shirt set ($1,520). People from the neighborhood seem to like it. They keep walking in with suggestions. One woman thought perhaps we should have more casual sweaters.

Kathryn Duryea has set up her e-commerce tableware brand Year & Day (91 Crosby St.).

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

“We’ve created alcoves for each of our palettes: Midnight (black), Daybreak (pink), Fog (gray), and Moon (white). We’re also going to have a table with settings that combine the colors, like a Fog bowl ($44 for four) with a Moon platter ($50). That’s what Eva Chen has, by the way. Mandy Moore has all Daybreak.”

On November 15, Gucci will open the Gucci Wooster Bookstore, a shop dedicated to art and contemporary photography (375 W. Broadway).

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

Watch
A curated film-screening program next door featuring short films and film series highlighting the cultural significance of Soho in the 1970s and ’80s, including Jody Saslow’s Crosby Street.

Read
A 2,000-book selection curated by Dashwood Books founder David Strettell, including Robert Cumming’s The Difficulties of Nonsense ($65) plus titles by “friends of the house” like Ryan McGinley.

Gather
Book signings, like a reading with Florence Welch, plus panels with film directors like Amos Poe and Sara Driver.