NEW YORK — Lingua Franca is among the new storefronts on Bleecker Street here.
Rachelle Hruska MacPherson, who founded the brand of cashmere sweaters embroidered with phrases in 2016, opened her first store at 382 Bleecker Street earlier this week. The space is one of the seven storefronts Brookfield Properties bought earlier this year with plans to revive the neighborhood, a once-booming retail destination that became a bit of a ghost town in recent years. Lingua Franca, along with Prabal Gurung, Slightly Alabama and Bonberi and Fleurotica, are the tenants involved in the Love, Bleecker project done with Skylight and Brookfield to bring art, music and cultural programming to the neighborhood along with retail.
Hruska lives in the neighborhood with her family. Her husband Sean MacPherson owns the Waverly Inn, located on Bank Street. “We’re super committed to the neighborhood, and I’ve always been interested in what happened on Bleecker,” said Hruska MacPherson. “When I moved to New York 15 years ago, that’s where I went to hang out and shop and pretend to be cool. It was sad to see it be dead and fall to all these crazy high rents.”
The 560-square-foot store was designed by Sean MacPherson and features custom
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