Misela is kicking off its Stateside expansion with a new brick-and-mortar store.
The accessories brand, founded in 2008 by Serra Türker Bayır, is opening a 750-square-foot boutique on Bond Street in Manhattan’s NoHo.
Misela currently operates stores in Turkey and in London, having just opened its flagship Misela House in Istanbul. For Türker Bayır, who studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Parsons School of Design and subsequently founded the brand in New York, it’s a homecoming.
“In the beginning days, it was just a dream, and now it’s a dream come true,” she said, noting the company has grown enough to enter the U.S. market. “We have stores in Istanbul, we have a store in London that we opened in 2019. But here, coming back is a game changer.”
Misela currently sells via its website in the U.S., where its full assortment of both core styles and made-to-order accessories are available. “New York is a place where there’s so many young women like myself and my sister, who are looking for the next thing while also looking for timeless designs,” Türker Bayır said. “Here, people are open to discovering new things, whereas Europe feels like a bit more of a closed circle in that sense.”
Türker Bayır expects the craftsmanship of the products to appeal globally, with everything handcrafted in Turkey. “We give a very customized experience for customers who come in, and it gives us another angle on marketing our brand,” she said.
Tuvana Serdaroğlu of 21A Studio collaborated on the store’s design with Türker Bayır, which includes a wooden fixture that mimics the brand’s herringbone pattern. A mirrored backdrop on the other side of the store showcases the brand’s Belgravia collection, which is differentiated by the locks closing each bag.
At the very front of the store is a display of all of the made-to-order bag options, including swatches of different leathers and threads for monogramming. “We have 12 base colors and almost 80 stitching colors. If people want to personalize their bag, that also leads into the permanent leather collection,” Türker Bayır said, gesturing to the adjacent display.
“I think totes in general are going to resonate here,” Türker Bayır said. “That, and I think the made-to-order are going to resonate a lot. But I’m also curious to see — sometimes you plan in your head what ever city likes, and each one has its own direction.”
Shoppers in London, for example, gravitated toward smaller bags, whereas she thinks the utilitarian qualities of larger totes for work will perform better in New York.
That being said, though, she sees opportunities elsewhere in the city for expansion. “New York is torn into two segments, uptown and downtown,” she said. “That was our biggest question when we were finding a place. I would love to reach both worlds and Madison Avenue is my dream. And I’d look into other opportunities in Miami or Los Angeles, but New York is the next step.”
Türker Bayır was attracted to Bond Street as a location given the street’s status as a shopping destination — Misela’s boutique is a stone’s throw from members-only club Zero Bond, fragrance brand Bond No. 9’s boutique, a Goop outpost and more — but also the fact that it’s not overly congested.
“It’s one of my favorite streets,” she said. “But it’s not like in SoHo, where everything is on top of each other. It’s a bit more clean, more refined. There are so many nice restaurants that I go to, and it’s the best spot for a new shop and a new brand introduction.”
