Bird Brooklyn opens first West Coast store in Culver City

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Apr 20, 2017

New York City retailer Bird Brooklyn is spreading its wings, opening its first retail location outside of Brooklyn in Culver City, CA at 8870 Washington Blvd.

 
The 5,000-square-foot store, which marks as Bird’s fifth and largest retail location, is offering women’s ready-to-wear, handbags, and accessories from brands such as Acne Studios, Dries Van Noten, and Rachel Comey among others.
 
Norwegian architect and frequent collaborator Ole Sondresen designed the store’s interior that features custom brass cage chandeliers with hand-blown glass globes by Lindsey Adelman, tiling by Heath Ceramics, and custom Douglas Fir wood fixtures.

“Over the past few years there has been this magnetic pull to Los Angeles,” said Jen Mankins, Founder of Bird Brooklyn, to Vogue.
 
“Brooklyn felt really saturated, and everyone asked if I’d do Manhattan, and that felt a little bit less interesting to me in terms of expansion, because it seemed like it’d be very similar to what I already do in Brooklyn but just a few subway stops away. "This felt really natural, and it had been in my mind that L.A. is where it would be if I did it, and it really just came down to seeing a space and having it resonate.”
 
Founded in 1999 by Jen Mankins, Bird operates four stores in Brooklyn in Cobble Hill, Williamsburg, Park Slope, and recently Fort Greene. Mankins opened Bird after working at Barneys as an assistant buyer and at Steven Alan as head buyer. She realized her true calling was retail after co-founding women’s fashion label Charlotte Corday.