NEW YORK — Luxury eyewear house AHLEM, whose devotees include insiders from the worlds of art, design, music, sport and film, is pleased to announce the opening of its newest atelier in New York City. Located at 405 West 13th Street in the Meatpacking District, the boutique marks the brand’s second retail location in New York and its latest collaboration with architect Maja Bernvill.

Two additional locations, also under Bernvill’s direction, are planned for Tokyo and Paris Haut Marais later this year.

“This is our sixth boutique, but it’s also the first one that allows us to bring every part of AHLEM together,” says brand founder and designer Ahlem Manai-Platt. “I had been thinking about the Meatpacking District for almost ten years. You feel its industrial past, but it’s constantly evolving. There is something incredibly alive about it.”

With a layout inspired by visionary artist Isamu Noguchi, AHLEM Meatpacking District—the brand’s largest store to date—features an entry-room curation of special editions, a main gallery displaying the complete collection, a working atelier offering on-site adjustments and custom services, and a private salon for client appointments. A fully operational in-house laboratory will provide lens cutting from a wide selection of lens colors.

“The space is larger than anything we’ve done before, but I wanted it to feel generous rather than grand,” says Manai-Platt. “People often think luxury ends when you leave the store. For me, that’s where it really begins.”

“To order space is to give it meaning.” —Isamu Noguchi

Continuing the dialogue with Isamu Noguchi that began with AHLEM Paris Saint-Germain, Manai-Platt and Bernvill again turned to one of the sculptor’s early-career drawings as the organizing principle for the 1,500-square-foot Meatpacking District space.

“Noguchi ties together the important places in the AHLEM world: Japan, Paris and the U.S.,” says Bernvill. “We select one of his paper works from the Paris Abstractions series for each new atelier space and explore it through an architectural lens.”

Created in the 1920s, while Noguchi was assisting Constantin Brancusi in Paris, the source work is a revelatory expression of biomorphic forms. Rather than displaying the piece as an object or using it as an atmospheric reference, Manai-Platt and Bernvill imagined Noguchi’s drawing as the atelier’s literal floor plan: circulation, furniture, and the rhythm of the space all extend from his original concept.

“The artists I come back to are almost always the same—Noguchi is one of them, and so is Brancusi,” says Manai-Platt. “There is an enormous amount of thought, emotion and work behind what they do, but when you stand in front of one of their pieces, none of that effort asks for attention. Everything feels inevitable. When I draw a frame, I’m looking for exactly that feeling.”

An entwined respect for legacy and innovation runs throughout the atelier. While AHLEM Meatpacking District’s blueprint is drawn from Noguchi’s work, the boutique itself is housed in a landmarked Arts and Crafts–style building, first developed as a warehouse by John Jacob Astor IV in the early 20th century.

“This building already has a story. My role wasn’t to overwrite it,” says Manai-Platt. “It was to listen first, then add another chapter.”

Because the external facade could not be altered, they played up the contrast instead: Original brickwork offsets two minimalist window displays, each spotlighting a single frame atop sculptural podiums by French glass artist Simon Rio. Visible from the street, this interplay of heritage craft and modern design—central to AHLEM’s ethos—creates a striking first impression.

Inside the atelier, existing structural columns projecting onto the floor plan offered another occasion for creative problem-solving. Bernvill found inspiration in architect Hans Hollein’s 1969 Feigen Gallery, which transformed bulky entrance pillars into an exuberant postmodern statement by making them reflective. “I wanted to celebrate our pillars in a similar way,” she explains. Wrapped in mirrored stainless steel, the atelier’s columns are a defining feature of the main gallery, multiplying reflections and distributing light throughout the space.

“AHLEM works with techniques that have existed for generations, but our responsibility isn’t to preserve them inside of a museum, it’s to keep them alive by allowing them to evolve,” notes Manai-Platt. “Innovation only has meaning when it respects what came before.”

The path through the atelier unfolds in stages. Visitors first enter the special-collections room, a curation of 15 new and exclusive AHLEM pieces.

The main gallery at the heart of the atelier presents AHLEM’s full collection: 84 frames set against backlit mirrors, brushed steel, soothing light, and reflective surfaces. Overhead, a vast circular halo illuminates the gallery with radiant light.

The working atelier offers on-site adjustments, custom gold-foil embossing for eyewear cases, and AHLEM’s complimentary tea ceremony—a signature gesture of hospitality.

The layout culminates in a private salon reserved for appointments and AHLEM One of One consultations, anchored by Theresa Traoré Dahlberg’s site-specific installation. Working with reclaimed metals and minerals excavated from the earth, Traoré Dahlberg’s piece reworks raw materials into meaningful new forms, echoing AHLEM’s passion for materiality transformed through technique.

Bookending the atelier at front and back, commissioned pieces by Simon Rio and Dahlberg were an opportunity to partner with two of Manai-Platt’s favorite working artists. “What interested me about Simon and Theresa is that they both allow the material to speak instead of forcing it into an idea,” she says. “I understand that way of working because that’s also how I design.”

Throughout the Meatpacking District atelier, rounded shapes and curved lines, inspired by Noguchi’s biophilic approach and the principles of feng shui, radiate harmony and balance.

“When people visit the atelier I hope they won’t separate the architecture, the art and the eyewear,” says Manai-Platt. “I hope they’ll simply feel that everything belongs together, even if they can’t immediately explain why.”

To establish continuity across each distinct AHLEM retail environment, Manai-Platt and Bernvill rely on a consistent cast of noble elements. “Glass, wood, metal and concrete make up the condensed palette that creates recognition when the layout and shape of each store is unique,” Bernvill explains. “That is the known, honest and serene base.”

Solid walnut benches and tables coexist alongside delicate sculpted-glass pedestals. Structural columns, wrapped in reflective metal, shed their bulk. Nubbly textiles and curvilinear furnishings provide an earthy, textural contrast with smooth finishes of polished concrete, brushed steel, mirrored surfaces, and waxed wood. Executed with a light but precise hand, the atmosphere is both soothing and inspiring.