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Jeffrey Kalinsky learned his most valuable lesson as a child in Charleston, South Carolina, while helping out on the sales floor at Bob Ellis, the shoe store that his father owned.
“If you try to sell somebody what you think they want, you'll never be successful,” Kalinsky says, speaking on Zoom from his West Village home office, a minimalist oasis of neutral tones. “Success will come from selling people what you want them to have.”
Kalinsky, the founder of the iconic Jeffrey boutique chain, has spent his entire life mastering the art of the sale. Immediately after graduating college, he apprenticed on the shoe floor at Bonwit Teller in Philadelphia; then worked as an assistant shoe buyer at Bergdorf Goodman in New York; and moved on the shoe floor of Barneys. He was in his mid-thirties when he set out to put his name on the map — literally — with Jeffrey, his first store opening in Atlanta in 1990. Five years later, Kalinsky brought the retail concept to Manhattan’s Meatpacking district in the form of a 12,000-square-foot shop on far west 14th Street. The store brought in just under $25 million in its first year and, “the second year was even better,” Kalinsky says. By 2018 he succumbed to the siren call of Silicon Valley, opening a Palo Alto outpost.
But, two years and one pandemic outbreak later, Jeffrey folded. Nordstrom, which had bought the business in 2005 and appointed Kalinsky vice president and designer fashion director, shuttered all three locations as part of a larger Covid-19 restructuring in 2020. For many retailers, customer service moved online, and the end of Jeffrey in part represented the end of an era of retail that revolved around high-touch service and familiarity. “Jeffrey represented a kind of tastemaker that has been replaced by red carpet coverage and Instagram,” says journalist Teri Agins, who covered the fashion beat for the Wall Street Journal when Kalinsky launched his mononymous empire. “Shopping at Jeffrey was less overwhelming than going to Barneys. His number one priority was making his customers look good.”
High-end boutiques that offer an intimate alternative to department stores are vanishingly rare (Ikram Goldman’s cult Chicago boutique Ikram might be the last of its ilk). Unlike the influencers and celebrity stylists who have taken on the mantle of fashion curators, and are often compensated by the brands they promote, “Jeffrey knew his customers’ bodies and their insecurities,” says Agins. “Women got hooked, the same way they do with their hair stylists.”
More than a retail destination
The Jeffrey in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District was more than a retail destination. Filled with the work of emerging luxury designers including Alexander McQueen, Céline and Jil Sander, and trafficked by Manhattan’s best dressed (and a fair share of rubberneckers), the store often felt like an art gallery on opening night. Its buzzy reputation inspired a series of Saturday Night Live sketches about the snobs who worked at a shop named “Jeffrey’s” and insulted poorly dressed customers.
At the real Jeffrey, however, the extravagance came with a side of Southern hospitality. “We were sweet as pie,” says Don Purcell, who worked as a sales associate and general manager at the Atlanta and New York locations for a combined 25 years, after starting out in the elder Mr Kalinsky's employ. “Jeffrey's dad was an old-school retailer and when I worked at his shop in Charleston, whenever a woman asked to try something on, we were required to bring out at least four pairs of shoes,” he said. “By the time a woman left, there were usually 15 pairs of shoes scattered all over the floor. Jeffrey inherited that magic touch from his father.”
When Nordstrom shuttered Jeffrey, a heartbroken Kalinsky left to put the power of salesmanship to a new use. He knocked on the doors of fashion executives. He ended up landing at Theory, which appointed Kalinsky as their new chief merchant and creative officer in March. He is helping steer the label in the wake of the departure of founder and longtime CEO Andrew Rosen. “I’m still selling clothes, I’m just doing it from the inside,” said Kalinsky.
Reflecting on his decades in the fashion world, Kalinsky pointed to a time before he set the New York dress code as his own golden age. “I was happiest in my career when I was living in Atlanta,” he recalls of the early 90s. “I didn't have anybody helping me buy, but I had great salespeople, who were very, very, very important to the success of the business. I guess it was just a simpler time.”
Although the expansion to New York was, by some measures, the apogee of his career, it was unmanageable for a shoe salesman at heart. Suddenly, he was overseeing a store overrun with shoppers who came to scope out the latest goods from emerging designers. “It was like a wild horse that had to be broken,” he says. “I'm a guy that wants everybody to get waited on, and waited on properly. The most important part of being a retailer to me was always the customer service experience. And when you have what could have been 80 people in a store and you can't give that level of service or attention, you’re just overwhelmed.”
All along, he dabbled in clothing design, creating exclusive looks for his store with partners like Lacoste, Brooks Brothers and Gant. These one-off lines were collaborations — except Kalinsky was entirely in charge. He continued to service a roster of personal shopping clients, as was the norm in luxury retail in the days before the rise of the celebrity stylist. “Who had a stylist 20 years ago? Even Hollywood stars didn't really have a stylist 20 years ago.”
The next chapter
While Covid-19 took a huge hit on his own career, his industry persevered — especially the luxury sector. “People seemed to be spending money and really shopping,” he said. By August 2020, private clients were calling him at home.
At Theory, his days are stacked with meetings about fabrics and colours, and fiddling with fit and proportion. The customer who is going to be considering buying them is always at the front and centre of his mind. Theory’s focus on solid colours and timeless staples suits him at present, he says.
“At the moment, the world could use more simple clothing because there's a lot of ornamental clothing,” he says with a sigh. “Sometimes it feels like The Hunger Games, you know, their makeup and their hair and their clothes. It was all more, more, more.” Theory, known for its smart workwear, is on the rise in regions such as Japan and China, and is now focusing on growing a customer base in Europe. (A Theory shop opened in April on Regent Street in London).
Overseeing the design teams at Theory, he is helping the brand leverage what has proven to be a strong moment for contemporary fashion brands, such as Vince and Rag and Bone. “We are great at tailoring but we take you from office to Balthazar to a party to a brunch to a beach,” he says of the brand's suitability for late-stage pandemic outfitting. “We're giving you this uniform that keeps you sophisticated as you navigate your life.” Kalinsky's first full collection for the label — “which builds on Theory’s tradition of minimalism” — comes out in Spring 2023.
A fiercely practical man, Kalinsky would rather not prognosticate on where the fashion industry is heading. He’s leaving the metaverse and the “omnichannel experience” to others. He's focused on his late-career personal transition from high-end fashion tastemaker to a behind-the-scenes spot at a brand known for its accessible price points. “We're doing really well and I'm hoping this will position us for more growth,” he says. “My merchant's brain helps me. So many people in the design community never worried about product selling. I know what it takes to get a garment from the rail to the dressing room and out the door.”
He feeds his love of shopping in his off hours, scouring stores for himself and a pair of long standing personal shopping clients. Two is all he can handle, what with the demands of his newest customer: Theory’s merchandising team. “They’ll say: we sold this top really well last year and we want you to give us this top again. And I get it,” Kalinsky says, a slow smile coming to his face. “But sometimes the answer should be: I'm going to give you something better.”
Correction: The Theory Regent Street store opened in April, not July as previously reported. (11 August 2022)
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