Amsterdam-based Extreme Cashmere touched down in New York City just in time for the holiday shopping season. Founded by Saskia Dijkstra in 2016, the luxe brand on Thursday opened the doors to its first New York City pop-up store in the Upper East Side at 694 Madison Avenue.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to be here for two months before the holidays. It’s nice because we want to dress everybody, and there’s a lot of different kinds of people walking into the store,” Dijkstra said of the neighborhood’s shoppers, who had already been coming into the pop-up to shop even before its grand opening. “It’s nice because people say, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood,’ so we feel like a local.”
Inside the store.
Courtesy of Extreme Cashmere
Dijkstra added that while visiting the Big Apple, she and her team enjoyed going out to dinner — noting their experience at the new Casa Tua was very nice – as well as spending afternoons grocery shopping in between preparing for the store’s grand opening.
True to its DNA, the temporary shop was designed with sustainability in mind and features an in-store cashmere care station for customers to bring existing styles in to be refreshed. The shop’s cozy feel (designed and built out by Dutch design Studio Uku) comes through in its cream fabric-tented walls and ceiling, and wooden Eames chairs, while the brand’s playful sensibility and keen eye for color are reflected in the vibrant red via painted floors and industrial beams that garments hang from.
Inside the store.
Courtesy of Extreme Cashmere
The store, which will be open until late December, offers the brand’s genderless and unisize cozy cashmere fashions. New styles from the brand’s Edition 30 collection include sequin-adorned pullovers; hand-knitted cardigans; a variety of striped knits, and a full-zip sweater, which Dijkstra noted has already been a favorite among male customers, who have requested the item after eyeing it in the store’s front window. In addition, Extreme Cashmere’s bestselling core styles, such as the Crew Hop, the Bourgeois and the Kid, are available alongside a curation of New York exclusives.
To celebrate the opening, the brand held an evening cocktail with special crudites by chef Pierre Barral, who has a close relationship with the brand and was flown out for the event.
“The next step would be our own full-time store,” Dijkstra said of testing the waters for a future permanent brick-and-mortar Extreme Cashmere store. “Of course, we love New York.”
