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| Photo by Janis Nicolay |
Something big happened last week, and it didn’t get very much coverage. Moss, a very venerable design store in SoHo, New York, announced that it would be closing its doors in February. The business was formed 18 years ago and was truly a pioneer in featuring cutting-edge high design but also great design items of any provenance; Moss sold $20,000 couches and $20 Tupperware sets.
I remember visiting Moss in 2000 amazed that a place like that existed - hence my shock on hearing the news, or rather the lack of news. The closure got a mention in the New York Times but the coverage overall is low-key. On Apartment Therapy, the post about Moss closing received all of 2 comments.
OK, so what? Moss largely catered to the kind of money that isn’t being thrown around as much anymore, which the founders Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell acknowledged. (There’s a great interview about the closure in Artinfo). Buyers today are shifting toward a different kind of design, as well as a different kind of retail experience. I think Murray Moss realized this; they are reopening a smaller office/showroom as Moss Bureau, a consulting agency/think tank. In tech startup terms, Moss executed a pivot.
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