Raan and Shea Parton, the brothers behind the Los Angeles-based Apolis label, have built a sounding board for the creative community in New York. The duo recently opened their first store in the city on Centre Street with a different approach to fashion retail. The Apolis: Community Centre not only sells the collection, but also transforms into a space for skill-building workshops, dinners, live music, and events like the speaker series which featured the artists Tom Sachs and Virgil Abloh this past Tuesday night.
The CFDA caught up with Raan Parton, who was in town this week, to learn more about the Apolis vision for retail.
What is the best part of having a store in New York?
That it’s an incredibly efficient city and things move really fast. Having an East Coast outpost gives us the ability to build relationships with customers in Europe and Asia who pass through New York on their travels. Our store also helps us communicate a different retail narrative that is really important to our brand.
How are you taking a different approach to retail?
We do not see a reason for more traditional retail in the world. We are very conscious of what space can be, and how it can be imagined in a city. We are taking a very nomadic approach to our store. Everything is transformable and movable. In the past, we hosted publishing and coffee-making workshops and a salon-format speaking series. Ultimately, we are trying to create a sense of community and culture around our company.
How did you come up with the idea of creating the Community Centre?
The idea is serious but also tongue in cheek. The space is part of Tom Sachs’s studio. Tom wanted to create a very open café concept next door to his studio. His spirit of taking an unorthodox approach to the art world gave us some insight into how we could complement his vision with a similar experiential style space within our shop.
What kind of events will you be using the space for in the future?
The Community Centre is our way of keeping the space democratic and open. Having regionally branded spaces is what we hope to accomplish in the future. We are trying to take an approach where we are listening more to the customer rather than telling them what their aesthetic and lifestyle decisions should be.
What do you hope to accomplish?
We do not have a specific end goal other than to use [the Centre] as a case study of how we can rethink a market place.
