MZ Wallace’s founders, Monica Zwirner and Lucy Wallace Eustice, were recently in their offices on Crosby Street in SoHo. Fabric swatches and samples for a forthcoming collection were on the table in front of them. However, the team had returned to a look book they had created over a decade before.
“I’m afraid to look,” remarked Ms. Zwirner, 60. “This is rather ancient.”
Ms. Wallace Eustice, 57, flipped open a photo of a shoulder bag. “All right,” she answered warily. She switched the page to look at another handbag image. “And that’s…all right.”
“That’s not awful,” said Ms. Zwirner. She rapidly glanced over the remaining pages. Ms. Zwirner appeared to be relieved. “It feels wonderful to rediscover something you made so long ago.”
MZ Wallace is a 22-year-old handbag and accessories brand that manufactures utilitarian, no-nonsense shoulder bags, totes, duffels, backpacks, and other carryalls out of sustainable nylon fabrics. The moniker is a combination of Ms. Zwirner’s initials and Ms. Wallace Eustice’s maiden name.
The brand is not well-known. It lacks a prominent, immediately recognisable emblem or colour scheme, such as Chanel’s interlocking C’s or the Gucci stripe. It does not place advertisements in fashion publications. It has steered clear of celebrity endorsements and glitzy marketing initiatives.
Nonetheless, it has gained cult status among fashionable urbanites and a lengthy number of celebrities, including Jane Fonda, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively, Sienna Miller, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Jessica Parker, Reese Witherspoon, and Renée Zellweger.
MZ Wallace built a new flagship shop on Crosby Street, immediately across from their headquarters, in August, created by the architectural and design company Charlap Hyman & Herrero. Carpets, drapes, and wallpaper in an immense trompe l’oeil marble pattern cover the 1,900-square-foot area, which was inspired by Gio Ponti’s marbled rubber flooring in Milan’s Pirelli Tower.
The artwork of Wolfgang Tillmans and Christopher Williams is displayed on the building’s southernmost wall. Metallic pedestals by artist Shun Kinoshita stand near beige Mario Bellini chairs on the exhibition floor. At the same time, a second location in Chicago, where the brand has a sizable following, debuted.
MZ Wallace is a New York-based accessories firm founded in 2000 by Monica Zwirner and Lucy Wallace Eustice. Their goal from the start was to employ excellent design and timeless elegance to produce vital accessories for modern living.
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