Get ready for a little midtown madness: Ryan Roche is opening a store in Manhattan and even over Zoom it’s evident that she’s buzzing with excitement. “There’s something about Rockefeller Center, it’s such an iconic New York destination,” said the designer, who grew up in Idaho and who has long lived in upstate New York. It was there that Roche and her family went into “survival hibernation mode” in the early days of the pandemic, and it was during the lockdowns that she decided to press reset on the knitwear brand she founded in 2011.
“I started my brand doing cashmere sweaters,” said Roche, who is known for tactile pieces in a serene, minimalist palette, and who is, to some extent, the victim of her own success. The line grew in size and in categories, until, she said, “the direction I was headed as the designer and as the owner of my company didn’t feel sustainable anymore.”
Cashmere in a spectrum of colors and tones.
It was time, she thought, to return to what she started with: cashmere knitwear, but with a difference. Roche is now working with upcycled cashmere fibers derived from pre-consumer waste yarn, which instead of being thrown away, is sorted into colors, shredded, carded, and made into new yarn. “There’s no dyeing involved, which is amazing and super eco,” she explained.
Roche’s knits will sit in the new 500 square feet shop. It’s a “window to the world,” but one that reflects her own universe. “It’s very clean and airy,” said the designer, adding that she believes modern retail is about experience. “Ultimately you want your customers to be leaving and saying, ‘I want to keep a piece of that with me, because that was such an inspiring, beautiful experience.’ ”
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