CUBITTS WEST VILLAGE
EYEWEAR STORE INTERIOR, WEST VILLAGE NEW YORK
Cubitts West Village brings the spectacle of New York’s theatrical quarter to spectacles. Set in the building once inhabited by seminal playwright Lorraine Hansberry, it’s a love letter to theatrical glamour, holding a mirror to the dualities of ‘on stage’ and ‘backstage’, public and private lives.

The front of the store is designed as a theatre of the everyday, for the theatrical masks we all wear. Constructed with a set-like glamour, with felt-lined walls, recessed wooden shelving, and black parquet wooden floorboards fit for the stage.

Custom designed furnishings have an imaginative prop-like quality, arranged to emphasise the changeable nature of the store. The space is lit by a 1980s vintage pendant by Mario Botta and a 1960s Kaiser Leuchten table lamp by Klaus Hempel, chosen for their allusions to theatre flashlights, and photographic reflector screens.

Around the curved screen wall, the ‘backstage’ area. A contrast in dark bitter-chocolate brown. A vanity mirror lines the wall, set for Bespoke consultations. Deeper still into the store’s recesses, behind a leather curtain, two doors present themselves. One leads to a repair station, the other to the bathroom, a shrine to Dionysus, Greek god of art and theatre.

Photography by Alice Gao