Last Sunday, Baldwin had it’s New York City Grand Opening at 199 Mott Street.
The night was filled with live performances, dancing, a live portrait artist and lots and lots of mixing and mingling with socialites such as Igee Okafor. Branching out from it’s early 2009 origins as a Kansas city boutique, Baldwin’s Soho location is the prime spot for denim lovers across the country.
With an array of denim in every cut and shade, and music from the event flowing outside onto the street Bria, a brand representative from Baldwin, emphasized the importance of the brands multifaceted approach. “The older I get, and the more experiences I get in terms of fashion, art, music culture the more I see we all need each other. We all need creative minds and we all need fashion, and music, and art, and photography, we all feed off of each other and it’s funny how we are all in the same world.”
Outside of the nights ambience you couldn’t help but be transfixed with the perfect mixture of small town meets big city that Baldwin brand jeans brings to the table. “It’s very important, mostly for brand awareness. So what we do is very denim focused . But my focus area in this store is connecting people. As a brand it’s important to ask why are we important- and it’s largely because our denim is made in the U.S. Also we’re sensitive to everything creative, whether it’s music or live performance and that’s why we brought in Vince Azure and why I brought in Igee. I recently worked with Igee in May and it’s been a fantastic turn out during that time. I say that to say, Baldwin is here in New York, and we want people to know that. We want people to know that we started in Kansas City, and look at what he has built. We’re here in New York now, and we’re also in Dallas and LA. I just think that’s a huge expansion from being in the midwest.”
Igee Okafor, style enthusiast and blogger, was also in attendance, seconded Bria’s sentiments and emphasized how Baldwin’s versatile fit to his personal brand: “I think that with my branding and what I’ve done, in terms of creating it’s very suited, it’s very prim and proper, and Baldwin gave me an opportunity to support my more casual side which I think a lot of people who read my blog want to see That’s why I took on a collaboration with them. For my personal brand it just shows people that I can do more than one thing. And I think it’s really important to get a group of people together that are so diverse, in terms of fashion and music- to celebrate a brand like Baldwin that is so inclusive.”
That message of inclusivity held true throughout the night’s grand opening. Despite the change in the location, the core of Baldwin’s clothing, elevated ad unique, has remained the same.