THE APARTMENT


Last month, Vanessa Traina and Morgan Wendleborn launched The Line, an online boutique of carefully-curated luxury fashion, home, and beauty products. Having both worked as stylists, the pair share an inclination to edit. And so The Line “stems from the desire to pare back, strip down, and pull together,” as the mission statement reads. It is the expression of their search for the refined and timeless.

In this mode, Traina and Morgan recently opened The Apartment, a sunny SoHo space in which to contextualize these products in a home environment. For example, a belted, salt-and-pepper lambswool tweed coat by Christophe Lemaire may hang in the bedroom closet, beside a white wool crepe tailored tuxedo jacket by Parisian atelier Pallas. Andrianna Shamaris’s marble-esque cube made of salvaged teak and cracked resin sits beside the white tub in the bathroom, with beauty products on top of it, like the coconut oil-based Skin Trip moisturizer, made in small batches by a family in Boulder. A 1935 chair by René Herbst sits in black beside the white bed. All the items can be purchased at TheLine.com.

“We aim to select objects with a dual sense of novelty and familiarity, objects that will live with you throughout the seasons,” says Traina. “This lends them a sense of comfort that I don’t feel you find elsewhere.” With such discerning curation, the selection feels very personal to Traina and Wendleborn, and the shopping experience is an appropriately emotional one. For the pair, the goal is not to find a trendy blouse for now—or even just a great blouse—but to find the perfect blouse, one which you love, wear often, and will stay with you. “To me, style is very emotional and is not about ‘what’s hot’ for a few minutes,” says Wendleborn. “It’s about what works over time in a variety of contexts. It is something that isn’t a quick fix, but develops over time with items that you can rely on and trust.”

And so, every product they offer has a story, and has been carefully selected and considered, says Traina. Among the products with special personal import are the Rodin oils, with hints of jasmine. “They always remind me of my husband [the artist, Max Snow]. When we first started dating he wore a jasmine-scented argan oil he found in a Moroccan bazaar.” When the Moroccan oil ran out, they discovered Rodin as a replacement, she says. “The fragrance of it will always make me think of him.”

Visits to The Apartment are available by appointment. For more information, please visit TheLine.com.

Mallory Passuite is a freelance writer living in New York City, currently working in fashion.

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