Dan's Papers - July 4, 2008 - Experiential Shopping at Maison 24 and Urban Zen

A whirling masquerade of toothy online sales models and clickable blouses - online shopping is a free for all that reduces your shopping experience to a pixilated blur. Your packages arrive in the mail and you have no connection or memory with the item. You didn't pick up that dress and relish in the texture that reminds you of your mother's old nightgown. You didn't indulge in that perfume that brings you back to warm summer sea breezes in the country. You've merely acquired more stuff to add to the pile in the corner. And while the online shopping network expands, the Internet lacks one crucial aspect to shopping - human connection and experience.

Shop owners have been experimenting with new concepts in order to give life back to the store. Louis Marra and Allison Julius, owners of Maison 24, 2424 Main Street in Bridgehampton, have brought their home environment and personal experiences to the retail setting. Upon passing through the solid wood door, complete with doorknocker, the shopper is welcomed into a slice of life where many eclectic items are for sale. Men's shirts and ties, women's handbags, jewelry, art, music and furniture are spread about the store for the shoppers' perusal. "Entering the store is really like coming into someone's home," explains Marra.

Rather than a collection of random objects, the items in Maison 24 are hand-selected - each piece has a personal story to accompany it. The store sells Globe-Trotter luggage, a British luxury luggage company, which makes Julius' husband's favorite suitcase. Fornasetti, an Italian designer known for incorporating art into furniture, spread around the store has produced pieces that both Marra and Julius personally collect. A Cuckoo clock mounted on the wall mirrors the one that Marra gave to Julius as a Christmas present.

With each piece reflecting a personal experience for the storeowners, Maison 24 embodies a particular lifestyle. And what lifestyle is that? "Our store is for a person who likes to travel and entertain," said Julius. With pieces from England, Italy, France, the Netherlands and spanning the states, it is clear that the store appeals to a shopper with an international design palette.

Maison 24 is not the only store reaching out to shoppers through personal connections and international tastes. Urban Zen, 4 Bay Street in Sag Harbor, opens up Donna Karan's couture closet to reveal African-inspired jewelry, furniture and clothing. Through her nomadic-styled collection, Karan attempts to preserve the dying cultures around the world. The Urban Zen Foundation, the driving force behind the store, collaborates with existing organizations in hopes of changing the world. Standing by their slogan, "Raise Awareness Inspire Change, the foundation focuses on well-being, empowering children and preserving cultures. By purchasing items from the Urban Zen store, you are supporting these initiatives. Kevin Salyers, the Urban Zen Foundation's vice president for retail development, explains the store's philosophy. "It's more than buying an article of clothing," said Salyers, "it's about bringing people together in one collaborative effort."

Urban Zen's outdoor seating area and beautiful framed photographs communicate a tranquil energy that is inviting to a busy-minded shopper. With vegetable-dyed clothing in colors like chalk and spice and Karan's favorite all-natural Jill's Cookies, the store possesses an organic quality. In what Salyers calls "retail with a soul," Urban Zen carries items that have a special significance to Karan herself. With Lynn Kohlman, Karan's long-time friend, supplying the art for the store and Karan's personal favorite jewelry from Senegal, the items in Urban Zen are hand selected by a woman who knows fashion. More than a mere collection of Karan's must-haves, the store aims to envelope the shopper in ambience. "It's about coming into the store and experiencing the five senses," said Salyers.

Maison 24 and Urban Zen add an important ingredient to the shopping recipe that does not exist in online shopping...personal connections and experiences. Shopping is not longer a place of busy consumer transit. Shopping is the destination.