Daily Paper is an Amsterdam based fashion and lifestyle brand established in 2012 by three childhood friends. The once blog established by Hussein, Jefferson and Abderrahmane shared a love for music, art, fashion, and culture, growing the brand into a household name.
Fuelled by the rich heritage of African culture, wrapped in contemporary designs, Daily Paper has truly become one of the fastest-growing fashion brands out of Europe. With two collections a year focusing on both men and women’s wear, Daily Paper offers timeless designs across the season.
The brand launched its first permanent retail space outside of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with the opening of the NYC Flagship Store in 2020.
Daily Paper takes on New York
Located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the store is in the right spot to radiate the brand’s unique strain of multicultural Afro-centric Dutch culture. More than just a store, the space includes a cafe/lounge area that’s poised to become a sought-out destination and clubhouse for the city’s creatives, transplanting the strong sense of community from Amsterdam to New York.
The Daily Paper Team partnered up with interior architect designer Heather Faulding of 4plus Design, to create a 106sqm space that reflects a physical manifestation of Daily Paper’s unique aesthetics combining ancient African culture with contemporary European design. Key elements are the facade, the statues, the mosaics, the arches, the glass floor, the coffee bar & lounge, and the mural.
The Daily Paper store’s exterior is a return of old Amsterdam-style architecture to New York, with its white exterior adorned with the ornately rounded gables found on Dutch townhouses. The facade is covered with panels created from crushed drink cans shaped in a pattern that evokes African beadwork.
Upon entering the space, a visitor’s initial impression is one of entering into a museum. The play and contrast with the products is accentuated by the small windows which cut a vignette into the face of the building. Statues on columns evoke the ancient subject with a present-day character. Mannequins with a futuristic glimpse and full height glass display cases for accessories mirror the museum element.
The focal point of the lobby area is the circular stone mosaic in the centre of the floor. Little lights in the position of the stars when Daily Paper was formed and the arches and beams above it, create the rich Old Dutch and Africa atmosphere. The sharp pitched clean white surfaces and mirror frames hanging below, form the contemporary.
A direct getaway from the retail into the second-floor club pulls light through from new skylights. The glass floor gives a view of the entranceway below it, allowing viewers to look down on the mosaic and product beneath them giving the impression of a continuous space.
The rails throughout the store are designed in the two-toned triangular pattern found throughout Africa in black resin and stainless steel.
The staircase features artwork on the risers and mirrored underbelly to lead people up to the club, coffee bar and lounge, which features the focal point is wrapped stone and porcelain with relaxed seating areas that reflect the same very relaxed style of the store and ‘club’.
Photography: Alec Kugler
