For a certain subset of shopper, this fall’s most anticipated mailing is being delivered this week. It’s a catalog from the Brooklyn boutique Outline.
Yes, a catalog, the printed kind that encourages shoppers to take out a pen and circle their most desired items.
Last spring, Outline, a three-year-old multibrand boutique on Atlantic Avenue in the Boerum Hill neighborhood, replaced its e-commerce with analog altogether. Customers in New York City and beyond can call, email, text or direct message the store over Instagram to place an order. The feat was so effective that the owners decided to do it again.
“We started the store because we were so exhausted by shopping online,” said Margaret Austin, 31, who owns the store with Hannah Rieke, 32, a friend from their teenage years.
Ms. Austin had been a women’s buyer at Opening Ceremony and Totokaelo, both shops now closed. She cited Bird and Barneys as multibrand stores whose absence she felt. “All of our favorite stores in New York closed, and we were craving an in-person shopping experience,” she said.
The post This Stylish Store Took Everything Offline and Made a Catalog Instead appeared first on New York Times.
