RK: Our key thing was our design, aesthetic, and approach. We put together sort of a binder and we have this really really beautiful rendering of the first idea of the store.

DW: Like a watercolor rendering.

RK: We found a random artist off of Craigslist to do it for us and he is so talented. And I’m really picky and….

DW: Yes…

RK: and a little crazy and over the top so it was like….we paid a lot of detail to what it looked like. It still has been a struggle but I think once we got a few of the right people in line which were like Alaia and Givenchy–and people started to see how beautiful the space was–then the others really started to follow quickly. I feel like we had a hard time at the beginning, but then I look back on it and the nice thing is we didn’t really chase anyone that much…we asked here and there and were let down a few times but all the brands that we wanted always came back around to us.

That’s incredible. It’s really impressive. What year did you start? Was it 2007 or 2008?
DW: It’s been three years exactly so 2007.

RK: It feels like longer since we’ve been working on it for so long.

DW: Yeah 2006 really because it took like a year for us to find the space, design it….

RK: Yeah, everything is custom here so….

It’s incredible. Is there a particular furniture designer that you worked with or…
RK: I mean everything is customized.

It’s gorgeous…so you found vintage pieces and then said “I want this done to them”?
RK: I mean we literally had shop drawings done and they like made them from scratch. A few things are new pieces and some of the more obvious antique pieces did come from antique dealers but the sofa you’re sitting on and the chairs and the ottoman and that long table were literally made from shop drawings.

In terms of what you do every day, what are your individual roles? I’m sure you wear many hats.
RK: Well, it’s hard because we really do everything together and I think that…I think our roles are constantly changing.