Áwet Joins Forces With Equinox to Build Community
● The founder of the New York start-up fashion label already had a connection to the 106-unit health club.
Whether exercising,
practicing yoga, rejuvenating in the spa, working or just chatting, Equinox members are encouraged to be part of a community — wherever they might find that and however they define it.
Now the 106-unit health club operation is trying to extend that reach by enlisting the New York-based designer Áwet Woldegebriel, who's behind the emerging Áwet New York label, to create a 15-piece capsule collection that debuts Wednesday.
A former deputy director at the United Nations, Woldegebriel switched career tracks during the pandemic to start his company in 2020. Part of the impetus was to support New York City's then-ailing garment industry by helping to put a few dozen garment center workers back to work. The idea of creating not just a luxury lifestyle brand but also a community resonated with the New York-based Equinox team.
During the shutdown, Woldegebriel said he also often wondered about the fate of his father, a tailor, and other tailors, seamstresses and garment workers who did not have the option of working from home. Once his business was a go he staged a
SoHo pop-up as another way to reinvigorate the city and support a brand that advocated a do-your-part ethos. His trademarked “livewear” – essential pieces that the designer hopes consumers can't live without — was also appealing to Equinox.
Worth noting is how the start-up specialist has been using his Equinox access — namely as a meeting space, a location for business calls and a makeshift office in practically every neighborhood in Manhattan and in parts of Brooklyn. On average, he visits at least five Equinoxes a week, based on what he is doing workwise in the city. “At the least I know, I have an office that I can take a call in and then put it in a run and go somewhere else. Sometimes I go to three Equinoxes in a day, just because of meetings and needing that space.”
The fortuitousness of being someone who has been indirectly building his company from Equinox clubs through his membership to now having his designs sold to his peers has been humbling, he said. Before setting out into fashion, he researched the hoodie market thoroughly from luxe labels like Brunello Cucinelli to mainstream ones like Gap, before creating a nearly 20-page prospectus about how to create the ultimate hoodie. Equinox will glean from that as the designer has created an exclusive Chambray G. District hoodie.
The designer cast some of his friends in the ad campaign that photographer Brendan Wixted shot at The Equinox Hotel and The Equinox club in Hudson Yards. There is also a video that depicts a troupe of some of his friends going about their days, before reveling during a night out, and then sneaking into an Equinox club for such antics as a full-dressed dunk in a swimming pool. Available via Equinox's site and in select clubs, the capsule collection is sized XXS to XXL. Retail prices range from $95 to $750.
As a nod to his father's keen eye for tailoring, there are softly tailored options like button-ups and “forever pants” that can transition from day into night and with a workout in between.
For the launch, Equinox will host a dinner with the designer, and the company has overhauled its Bond Street in-club shop for an Áwet pop-up. That club is one block away from his Bond Street flagship, which bowed six weeks ago.
“Absolutely” prepared for how the Equinox deal could ratchet up his business, the designer said, “That's the most exciting part too. One of the things that I have enjoyed so much is just the sheer genuineness of everyone at Equinox. As a small brand, there are so many growing pains. To have a leader like Equinox guide us to launch a collaboration at this magnitude has been instrumental. That's from buyers to the CMO to Judy [Taylor, senior vice president of communications] to every person who has been involved.”
Woldegebriel's work-driven stops begged the question whether he uses it to work out. Laughing, he said, “That's a fair question. When the opportunity came to us, I did a Tour de Equinox, where I went to all of the Equinoxes [in the city] to try to understand the culture. What I learned is that each location is a completely different community and I wanted to immerse myself in that. So, yeah, I definitely have worked out everywhere that I can.”