Business Of HYPE: Sarah Andelman of colette

7 years ago

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The Business of HYPE is a new weekly series brought to you by HYPEBEAST Radio and hosted by jeffstaple. It’s a show about creatives, brand-builders and entrepreneurs and the realities behind the dreams they’ve built.

On this week’s episode, Jeff sits down with Sarah Andelman, the petite mastermind behind the French concept store colette. Sarah and her mother, the storefront’s namesake, created a singular experience at 213 Rue Saint Honoré: a singularly curated collection of everything from clothing, tech, art and design paraphernalia with new window displays that popped weekly. “Before colette,” wondered Hiroshi Fujiwara, “was there ever any reason to visit Paris?”

In her sitdown with Jeff, Sarah explains why the team never even considered expanding. The vision, she says, was simply too singular, too built into the space on Rue Saint Honoré. Jeff recounts a story of when he once visited the store on a Sunday, when its doors were closed. Through the window, Jeff saw Sarah and her mother inside folding and steaming clothes on the racks, making last-minute adjustments before the shop emerged anew on Monday morning.

Besides Sundays, colette never closed. The only time the shopkeeper was overwhelmed by crowds? “Drake,” she says. When the Canadian rapper dropped his own collection of OVO gear, she recalls, the crowds were unfathomable—dwarfing even those that had come out for Pharrell.

This episode references:

2:17: colette

2:45: Self Service Magazine

2:48: Reebok Insta Pump Fury

2:51: Casio G-Shock

2:54: Blaise Accessories

5:13: Kiehl’s

5:46: Marc Baptiste

6:34: Purple Magazine

16:50: MTTM Freestyle Reebok

17:25: Timberland x Colette

17:35: Nike x Colette