Nick Wooster, well known as a favorite subject of street photographers and his stints in retail including Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and most recently J.C. Penney, has bought a piece of Sam Ben-Avraham’s New York Atrium stores. As part of the deal, the two New York stores will be renamed Atrium Wooster. Avraham will retain full ownership of Atrium located in Miami.
Atrium’s last move was to form a retail partnership with designer Ronnie Fieg, who has a shop or shop in the Manhattan store and a store adjacent to Atrium in Brooklyn.
Word on the street was that Atrium was in need of a merchandise face lift so it will be interesting to see if Wooster can make that happen. He has the force of personality, plus connections and finger on the pulse of what’s hot in menswear to make it all happen so one would have to guess this turns out to be a step in a better direction for Atrium. Downtown retail is a fickle beast, however, so even with all his talent, he will have his work cut out for him.
It also will be interesting to see whether Wooster takes a bigger role in Ben-Avraham’s newly launched trade show, Liberty. Until last year Wooster had a big role as a brand curator for Project’s trade shows, which ended when he left for J.C. Penney.
Image via William Yan.
