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In recent months, Story—the Chelsea shop that periodically reinvents itself with a new theme, layout, and merchandise—has kicked its turnover rate into high gear (it's like the Dover Street Market turnover, but in overdrive), debuting a new format and partnership every few weeks. So on the heels of Her Story comes the Creativity Story, their 25th concept that opened to the public yesterday in partnership with Lexus Design Awards.
There's a few elements in play here: Panels throughout the store highlight eight innovators that Lexus invited to present at Milan Design Week back in April, like a lamp that responds to environmental changes or a notepad that helps with memorization. Alongside those products is merchandise that Story owner Rachel Schectman was inspired to bring to her store by these designs, like the Nanoleaf lightbulb that can last for 27 years or Shwood sunglasses that are made out of recycled newsprint. And finally, products are broken down into categories like Wood, Paper, Light, and Color.
Among the fun products like Lucy Liu's Le Roar pet accessories, an Oree wooden keyboard, the Ryan Gosling coloring book, slow drip cold brew coffee, S'well bottles, and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up are Story's helpful cards explaining why the product was chosen (these are written into sentences where the first letter of each will spell out Wood, Color, and so on). The "Story Wall" that displays the theme of the store when you enter has an interactive panel created by LED light artist Sachem Arvidson, where shoppers can change its colors, and the Perch Interactive shelves that tell you more about a product when you pick it up has also returned.
Story: Creativity is open daily through Sunday, July 26th, and local artisans who want a chance to get their products in the next concept should mark their calendars for the next Pitch Night on Thursday, July 9th.