Finnish-born Tiina Laakkonen has bested all aspects of the fashion industry. Now that she’s sunset her iconic, minimalist Hamptons boutique, what’s the shopkeeper to do? Everything.
Image courtesy of Tiina Laakkonen.
It’s a Monday morning in mid-November, and for the first time in a long time, Tiina Laakkonen does not have to go to work. After founding her namesake boutique, Tiina the Store, with her husband, Jon Rosen, in Amagansett, New York, in 2012, she decided to permanently close its doors this past fall.
“I call it a pause, because it’s not the end,” she tells me. “We just felt like it had taken over our lives. It was no longer the little store that I would sell a few cute things at; it was a big business. So I was like, Okay, let’s have a bit of a life and then reboot to see what else is exciting.”
Laakkonen—who has straight blonde hair, blue eyes, and often wears large, black-framed glasses that match her outfits—hasn’t stopped moving since she started working in fashion at the age of 19. Originally from a small town in the southeast of Finland, she’s lived many lives since then. After high school, she moved to Paris in hopes of studying fashion design. There, she met Karl Lagerfeld, who offered her an internship at Chanel’s design studio and then a full-time job as an assistant after she graduated. She calls it her “Cinderella moment.”
“I learned everything I know from working with Karl,” she says. “I also like to say that he kind of ruined me, too, because I have very little tolerance for cheap clothing.” Oftentimes, Laakkonen would show up to work wearing Comme des Garçons, whom she modeled for in the ’80s. “And that’s what Karl wore, too,” she says. “He used to joke about it, like, Tiina and I, we wear the best clothes.”
After three years at Chanel, Laakkonen moved on to Lanvin before her friend, the milliner Philip Treacy, suggested she move to London and get a job at British Vogue. Off she went. She landed a position as fashion editor, which she held for five years, and met even more influential figures, like then-up-and-coming designer Alexander McQueen.
In 2001, Laakkonen moved to New York City to be with her husband, who’d spent his whole life summering in Amagansett. They decided to build their own house in the Hampton hamlet; then she opened her store, and 11 years flew by. “I like the idea that we can have different lives, different careers, and different places where we live,” she says. “Because I left home so young, that’s probably where I got this desire for constant reinvention.” After seeing fashion from so many angles and working with so many legendary characters along the way, Tiina the Store was Laakkonen’s “most personal project” to date. “It was as much of a creative outlet as any kind of styling job, because it was 100 percent my voice,” she says.
Tiina the Store. Photography by Christopher Sturman.
Laakkonen’s clients, who included the Hamptons’ most stylish one-percenters, gravitated towards her boutique for its thoughtful curation. It offered the chance to discover new names from around the world, such as Toogood, Arts & Science, and Casey Casey, as well as luxury brands like The Row and Jil Sander. The price tags may have been the same as those at “quiet luxury” brands down the road, but for those with unlimited funds, the opportunity to wear something exquisitely crafted that no one else might have was priceless. The New York Times called it the “Gap for Billionaires.”
They came for her personal taste, but at the moment, Laakkonen is finding it hard to shop for herself. After closing the store, she did a huge archive sale and donated the proceeds. “I’m gently trying to figure out what my new wardrobe will be,” she admits, taking a break from fashion for the moment. “I want to experience different things,” she tells me. “I feel like those experiences that have nothing to do with work will reboot my brain, and then I can think clearly about what the next thing could be.”
As for what, exactly, that is, she says she could go either really big or really small. “I feel like I have one more thing,” she admits. “Part of me would love to do this very, very exquisite miniature department store in New York City.” One step at a time, though. On a fall afternoon, she planned to read a book, hang out with her cat, make dinner, see a friend. “My sister-in-law said to me yesterday: ‘Tiina, you look different.’ I was like, ‘I feel different.’ I don’t have that pressure and that stress. I’m just going to enjoy that feeling now. And then once the lightning strikes, I’ll go for it.”
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