With everyone in the world wearing clothes, the fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters out there. With all the dyes, the excess fabric and the unfair manual labor it takes to make our favorite bag or shirt– is it really worth it?
Located between busy department stores and designer boutiques, Atelier360 brings a unique style of shopping to Greenwich Avenue. Shoppers can choose from a diverse selection of luxury fashion, accessories and lifestyle products all with a positive impact.
With “atelier” meaning artisan workshop in French, Atelier360 takes the concept of the workshop to a global scale. The store connects people around the world in the preservation of not only the environment, but also traditions and lost arts.
New Canaan residents Veronique Lee and Liz Logie are the founders and curators of the new Greenwich Avenue boutique, picking and choosing the items that are sold in store. Items are chosen based on their quality, beauty and positive impact. Each product fits into at least one of five sustainable categories: handmade by artisan, organic, repurposed, USA Made, or exclusive to Atelier360.
The products are not only beautiful, but also sustainable and ethical. Understanding that sustainability is often a complicated and complex term, Lee and Logie decided that sustainability at Atelier360 is about “sustaining what we have in the present for future generations”, Logie said, whether that is about preserving the environment or preserving artistic traditions.
The store carries a wide variety of products, from women’s shoes to basic tanks to men’s bags. While the items are all unique and beautiful on their own, the causes behind them make them even more beautiful. It is not all about a price point or a specific style, but more about who made it, where it was made and how it was made. “It’s about the provenance of the product– I know all of the designers, how they’re made, who’s behind them,” Lee said.
Owners Lee and Logie were destined to open Atelier360. Growing up in the San Francisco area with grandparents as farmers, Lee was interested in knowing where her food came from at an early age. This curiosity turned into a career of trading commodities and bonds in the food production industry. After leaving the financial industry, she became involved in non-profits and traveled the world discovering beautiful local items that she wanted to share with people in the U.S.
Logie was a corporate lawyer turned stay at home mom whose love of fashion inspired her to start designing clothes. She started her own line of high-end women’s shirts that were sold in major department stores around the country. Coming from the fashion world that she described as “so cutthroat” and “not very attractive”, she wanted to instead create a sense of community between artisans, designers and storeowners.
Combining both of their interests and passions, the concept of Atelier360 was born. Both owners felt very strongly that Greenwich Avenue was the right place to launch their business. Logie said, “There is a sense of community in this area, the artisans and designers are all so committed to what they’re doing, there’s such a support network and the designers are not competitive at all.”
It’s a collaboration among all of us to make this work, they say. They hope that artisans and designers will want to sell their items at Atelier360 and that people will recommend artisans and designers they know. “It’s about the triple bottom line– people, planet and profits. We want to make a profit and we want our artisans and designers to make a profit”. All while having a positive impact on our world.
Atelier360
113 Greenwich Avenue
Greenwich, CT
203-717-1055
Store hours: Monday- Saturday 10-6, Sunday 12-5