Cafe Forgot
Check out the interview with the duo below.
The rotating rack is pretty sick, not gonna lie.
The rotating rack began as a fascination with the unrealized potential of 90s and early 2000s retail fantasies of in-store automation. In particular the countless experiments by Prada and Issey Miyake exploring motorized technology. For our application we used a common form of automation, a dry cleaning rack, and purchased one from a dry cleaner that was transforming into a boutique. We built Cafe Forgot around the machine and a small window displays an endless stream of our designers. Everytime you walk into Cafe Forgot it's a different place. To operate the rack, we worked with the designer Sam Stewart on customizing the rotary switch that moves the rack. Stewart transformed the switch into a large-orange-3-D-printed clothing button.
So a Fashion Club in Highschool huh? That’s the kernel that led to all of this?! And the name, why Café Forgot?
VITA: Lucy and I have been friends since high school in Brooklyn, New York, where we founded our high school Fashion Club. We attended college together in Portland, Oregon, where we talked incessantly about working on collaborative fashion projects when we should’ve been studying. When we moved back to New York after college, we conceived CAFÉ FORGOT. We were inspired by our many friends who were making incredible clothes and accessories, yet who did not have an outlet for their work. Our goal was to create a dynamic space to show and share truly interesting fashion and to hold special events to introduce designers to a wider community.
LUCY: Café Forgot is the name of a nail polish color. We had a hard time thinking of a name, and we came up with a ridiculous number of options. Café Forgot was on the list, but I was worried that it would be too confusing—just imagine people coming in and asking if we served coffee. Still, we chose it and have stuck with it since!
At this point, you have experienced a variety of forms when it comes to your Boutique (first Pop-Up concept storefront, then online and now in person) ! Was that always what you were shooting for?
We love the experiential aspects of our shop: the dressing up; connecting with designers and customers; impromptu photo and video shoots, and, most of all, the marriage of art and commerce we promote in our curatorial choices. During COVID, VR was the only option, so we went with it, and launched the online store and virtual programming. It’s crazy to think that we would never have gone online if we hadn’t had a year long-lease in Alphabet City, but it worked out, and we did just fine during that unpredictable time. We built an international community, and it forced us to create an index of all our stock. Also, weirdly, organizing our website clarified our brand and that has been an important evolution for us.
Between IG followers and previous regulars before the pandemic, it seems you have a bit of a cult following. Did this support from your community play a part in your decision to make this move? How do you think Café Forgot has evolved since its launch? What about in the past year?
We started the shop because we love being there.. We are obsessed with fashion and clothes, but the clothes we sell are more akin to art pieces than functional objects, and, because of that, they’re best seen in situ. I just love the possibility that a space offers; a social space surrounded by beautiful things is thrilling to me. Also, introducing young, innovative designers, (some of whom have never sold their stuff anywhere,) is really exciting, and it’s been great to host events that bring our designers together to meet in IRL. Designers often come into the shop when people are trying on their pieces, and they can see their work come alive; clients also get a buzz when we use photos of them in our designers’ clothes on Instagram. All that community connection is super important to me.
Café Forgot has expanded a great deal. In the beginning, it was 100 percent a New York thing: no shipping — just us showing the work of our really close old friends. In fact, both Piera and Marland were in Fashion Club at school (LOL). With each pop-up shop, more people contacted us wanting to be involved, and that’s how we expanded, so now we have designers from all over: Berlin, Australia, London, and Japan.
What designers are you most excited about right now? Speaking of — how do you even go about finding these designers in your shop?
In some cases, we found designers we liked, and in other instances, they found us. Marland went to Pratt with the designers Sophie and Claire, so that's one example of how we started meeting more people. Then Marland moved to Japan, and she connected us with people there. Then, some of the designers that we stock in New York told us about friends in Australia or wherever. Now, since we're pretty big on Instagram, we get a lot of people messaging us. It's really interesting to look through people's work on social media. The process of finding designers has evolved — it's definitely a wider net, but it's still really fun.
Feels like you've found the sweet spot between art, design, and fashion—what is this “curatorial” process like? Is this sort of an homage to your studies of art history way back?
We maintain that fashion is as important and socially relevant an endeavor as any. We take it seriously, and we view the one-of-a-kind pieces we carry as art. It doesn’t worry us at all that some people may disagree with this point of view. That said, we both studied art history, and since the art history and studio art departments were joined at our college, we were able to take both studio art and art history classes. We read about fashion theory, which has proved invaluable, and we worked on projects in our sculpture classes that centered around clothing.
People say Café Forgot is “the new” Opening Ceremony— how does that feel? Do you feel pressured after seeing so many shops close during the pandemic?
I understand why someone might compare us with Opening Ceremony because, for a long time, it was one of the only places people could learn about these up-and-coming designers. I think our approach is fundamentally different though because we carry mostly one-of-a-kind pieces. Our existence shows that there is still room for niche outlets in a world where large brick-and-mortar stores are flailing and Amazon has mushroomed into more and more aspects of life.
You’re also incorporating healing/self-care practices (ie: your fashion meditation for cafe forgot) do you think you will continue with this now that everything is opening up?
We also had an event called Side Effect that was scheduled for March, the week everything closed. It was going to be a healing salon with curators, Jade Marks who does 69 Herbs. and Cara Marie Piazza, who is a designer who works with natural dyes. It was going to have breath-work, reiki, and a natural dyeing class that they were going to teach together. We were all really psyched about it, and it was such a downer when we had to tell all the different practitioners involved that it was canceled. But then, we decided that we’d just go right on with it, so we did it on Zoom, and it was a great success. Everyone needed it…more than ever. Now that we’re back, we're going to do more workshops this time, IRL. This July, we had an in-store reading with Luke Simon, the healer and reiki practitioner who created the fashion meditation for us. Entitled Venus Juice, Luke's memoir is about his time spent in LA and his work in the healing community.
So now that Café Forgot has its own perfume, what's next?
We are working on new Café Forgot merchandise, are always bringing in new designers, and are working on programming for the upcoming year! It’s great to be back.
