Inside Kotn’s Queen West flagship
Kotn officially launched a year and a half ago with a simple mission: to work directly with cotton farmers in Egypt to create extraordinarily comfortable, reasonably priced basics (“farm-to-table, but for your clothes”). The brand, which was founded by a trio of Torontonians, initially launched an online-only operation with a collection of black, white and gray T-shirts and long-sleeves. After a wildly successful holiday pop-up at Rally Gallery on Ossington last December, they moved into permanent digs on Queen West in March. Now, their flagship, which resembles the minimalist-yet-homey apartment of a well-travelled Scandinavian, showcases an extensive roster of trendy-hued loungewear that includes oversized crewneck sweaters, summer shorts and sporty tracksuits—all crafted ethically from Egyptian cotton, of course.
The space used to belong to the womenswear boutique Convey, who installed the marble floors. Most of the wooden furniture was custom-made for their pop-up by local company Kroft:
Before moving in, the team spent five weeks renovating the space. They installed pot lighting and custom sliding doors to separate the storefront from a living room–inspired lounge area:
The brand switches up their colour schemes each season. For fall, shoppers can expect a collection of soft, subtle hues inspired by Egypt’s natural environment (think: alabaster or “North Coast” green):
They’ve also been playing with textures, adding a heavyweight T-shirt:
To warm up the lounge, they added hardwood floors and furniture from Elte Market, Restoration Hardware and West Elm. The walls are adorned with portraits of some of the farmers they work with, as well as personal family photos:
In addition to their own brand, they also sell a collection of other elevated ordinary objects, like Public Supply notebooks, custom-made ceramics from Speck and Stone, leather wallets from Varsity Brown and trinkets they find on regular travels to Egypt:
The space also doubles as their office, and they abandoned their Richmond Street studio upon moving in:
There’s a cozy kitchen back here, too:
Founders Rami Helali, centre, with Ben Sehl and Mackenzie Yeates (plus Dash, their King Charles Cavalier who makes the shopping experience extra-cute):
