If you’ve ever been to Taste of Tribeca then you know the work of Christine Cole: she’s been working one angle or another there (first as restaurant chair, then as chair of the whole shebang and now as the new president of the board) for the past five years. It wasn’t an accidental posting: she managed White Street, the late Floyd Cardoz’s heralded spot on West Broadway, until it closed in 2018 and used her connections and expertise to make Taste happen.

She’s been running events and directing her clients’ hospitality programs with her own company, Flaweless, ever since. Then, at an event she planned at the D&D building, she met Tribeca-based real estate agent Philip Hordijk, whose company, New York Casas, had taken the ground floor space at 12 White. He loved the energy of her events, and since his agents only come into the office on occasion, he turned the space into a sort of speakeasy where he can plan events that Christine would curate. He suggested she take the storefront to do whatever she wanted and a retail shop was born.

“It didn’t even occur to me to take a physical space,” Christine said. “But there’s a lot of symbiosis. People see a Flaweless event and want to send gift baskets or outfit their homes, or they see the space [which she designed] and want to hire Flaweless. I would have never known, but it’s been fantastic.”

So far this is a soft open — she’s still stocking the shelves. But her website is live and she is already booking the other angle of the business: classes in bread making, wine tasting (the upcoming one will include a sound bath), beer tasting, mezcal tasting — an extension of the online classes she started during covid. And in other opening news, she is designing the tabletops for Caliza, the Mexican restaurant coming soon to Greenwich and N. Moore.

Shopping will also include experiences — for example, she’ll serve cookies and ice cream then teach you how to make that cookie later in the week. She’s stocking the store with original, hard-to-find items, often made by small producers: cheese tools by Boska, hand printed tea towels by Girls Can Tell, high-fired porcelain dinner plates by Robert Gordon Australia. And there’s a cross-over: if you like the glassware and dishware used in the classes, you can purchase them on your way out.

“I’m a chef, so I want more tools, knives, Cuisinarts, gadgets,” Christine said. “And I want to be able to pivot — if people are wild about the linens, I can add more. The storage is small so the inventory can’t be huge, so I will also change it out seasonally.”

It’s all an experiment, and that’s part of the fun — that’s the creative angle that she loves about events. “All those details we obsess over are what allow you to relax and trust in the environment, so you can just focus on the people in the room. Then, when I add food and wine, the deal’s closed.”

Flaweless by Christine Cole
12 White | Sixth Ave. and West Broadway
info@flaweless.com
917-426-1025
Monday to Friday, 10a to 5p
Or by appointment