OFF the GRID

How the UNDER-THE-RADAR Parisian label CRISTASEYA, a favorite of SOFIA COPPOLA and RASHIDA JONES, is REDEFINING what it means to SUCCEED IN FASHION

- CHANTAL FERNANDEZ

FOR A CERTAIN TYPE OF WOMAN with rarefied taste, Rue Ambroise Thomas is not just a quiet Parisian dead-end street. Up on the first floor of number 7, unmarked from the outside, devotees of crisp cotton-poplin shirts and crewneck cashmere sweaters find a cozy mecca. Decorated with abstract ceramics and pared-down wooden furnishings, the atelier of the decade-old label Cristaseya feels more like an apartment than a store or studio.

"You're never rushed, because it's not a shop (where) someone is selling you something," says Sarah de Mavaleix, a stylist and cofounder of The Skirt Chronicles, a Parisian style magazine. “You can just come and have tea and touch the most amazing knitwear."

New York designer and retailer Maryam Nassirzadeh likens the atelier to the kind of home that might be featured in the famed magazine The World of Interiors, with collections of the label's ceramic collaborations lining the bench underneath tall front windows, propping doors open, or dotting straw accent carpets. "It just really embodies the world [of the brand]," she says.

Since 2013, Cristaseya has been quietly and carefully turning out roomy wardrobe staples like languid suits and sharp trench coats. Its pieces arrive not in the form of seasonal collections but in twice-yearly “editions." The label offers more than ready-to wear too, including jewelry, sculptures, and home goods, often made in collaboration with artisans from Greece and Italy.