Longchamp Turns a Staircase Into a Wardrobe: Heatherwick's SoHo Store Inspires New Clothing Collection

Longchamp has launched a seven-piece clothing collection pulled directly from the architecture of its SoHo boutique in New York. The French leather-goods house is calling it La Maison Unique — the same name as the store itself, at 132 Spring Street, which British designer Thomas Heatherwick's studio first designed in 2006 and recently reimagined. Dezeen

The collection, described by Longchamp as an "architectural collection," comprises a wool winter coat, two skirts, a silk scarf, a headband, a top and a bag. Each piece carries a swirling geometric print that the brand designed to evoke the swooping, sculptural steel staircase inside the store. The palette runs across multiple shades of green, a colour Longchamp calls "Energy Green" and the same hue Heatherwick Studio used to recolour those very stairs during the boutique's recent renovation. Dezeen

Heatherwick Studio — the London-based practice behind the 2012 Olympic Cauldron and the Vessel structure at Hudson Yards in Manhattan — was invited back to update the SoHo store nearly two decades after the original launch. The revamp added a textured, three-dimensional green carpet fitted around the columns in the upper showroom space, alongside the staircase's fresh coat of paint. The store reopened on 20 April 2025, according to Longchamp's website. Heatherwick Studio

Now the building has migrated onto the body. Longchamp said the collection was designed to bring "fashion, art and design into perfect harmony" — a phrase that sits squarely in the brand's promotional register but captures the straightforward idea: the garment print is the staircase, translated into fabric.

The staircase motif is also travelling further. Longchamp's Winter 2026 collection features a wavy print on a coat, a skirt and the brand's signature Le Pliage travel bag, all inspired by the same Heatherwick staircase. The house sells a woven stole as well, its graphic pattern credited to La Maison Unique. Longchamp

What makes the project stand out is the directness of the translation. Fashion collaborations with architects are not new, but they typically stop at a logo or a colour reference. Here the garment's surface pattern is a literal extraction of a built form — the steel ribbon of a staircase, redrawn in green ink on wool and silk. The store generates the clothes, not the other way round.

For Longchamp, a family-owned house founded in Paris in 1948 and best known for the foldable Le Pliage bag, the SoHo store has been a calling card since its 2006 debut. The Heatherwick staircase, with its cascading steel ribbons, has long been photographed as one of retail design's more striking interior features in downtown Manhattan. Turning it into a print extends the store's reach well beyond Spring Street.