Text by Adam Pollock

There’s a soaring new boutique on the Lower East Side, right across the street from the celeb-slumming magnet, Schiller’s Liquor Bar, where not only can downtown style hawks pick up the latest shiny bangle and eco-chic linens but also purchase the hand-made display case that showcased them, and a cute little cactus to put on top.

Maryam Nasir Zadeh opened in late September after namesake Zadeh and her fiancé, Udar Kak, spent the summer converting a once shabby real estate office into a wonderful light-filled box with massive glass doors that are inviting and comfortable. “We wanted to create a space beyond trend, a timeless environment that would inspire people with sincerity and create an atmosphere without pretension,” Zadeh says.
The combination of talent (she’s a designer with Parsons and RISD credentials, he’s an art director) Zadeh and Kak bring to the project—shop is too plebian a word to use here—has resulted in what the couple hopes will be a lifestyle destination, a place where beautiful things, design, experiences and ideas can be celebrated.

For now the store focuses on women’s clothing from A.P.C., Rachel Comey and the like, but adds lifestyle items such as magazines, knick-knacks, Navajo ponchos and the aforementioned cacti. “We wanted to express our aesthetic in a very personal way,” says Zadeh. “It’s not about the labels but more about the mix of unusual things coming together.”
With insincerity and pretension as the engines that NY has been running on (badly), Zadeh and Kak might be on to something; especially since those traits probably wont have much cache during the coming financial apocalypse.