Lale Boz of Normal New York: From Passion Project to Retail Disruptor | Emily Blumenthal & Lale Boz
Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons - Emily Blumenthal
In this episode of Handbag Designer 101, host Emily Blumenthal interviews Lale Boz, founder of Normal New York, an independent retail platfo
Key takeaways
- Normal New York operates as more than a retail space—it's a community-driven, sustainable ecosystem that supports independent brands with marketing, PR, e-commerce content, and strategic partnerships.
- The Union Square residency served as a test for permanent retail presence, leveraging high-traffic events like the Met Gala and Mother's Day to maximize visibility and engagement.
Main topics
- Sustainable retail innovation
- Independent brand incubation
Notable quotes
We are not just selling products—we're creating experiences and opportunities for brands to grow.
I don't look at how many followers they have. I look at their mission, their vision, their passion.
Conclusion
Lale Boz's vision for Normal New York exemplifies how retail can evolve into a
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) I have witnessed what it is to have multiple stores and how painfully costly that is on any brand. So while having that experience in my personal life, I know that building a retail store that is permanent is incredibly hard. And it's incredibly beneficial too if you do it right, especially in a city like New York. We are, I like the challenge of constantly searching for a space that used to be iconic in itself. That is, again, a very large space and reimagining it, what it could be and making it be reintroduced into the retail industry in a more sustainable, secondhand and independent community centric way. Speaker 2 (0:48) Hi, and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, Emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert, and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love from the iconic brands and top designers to the creativity, craftsmanship, and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector, or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all. Speaker 2 (1:22) Welcome Laleh Boz, founder of Normal New York, the incredible independent retail platform that I was just, I had the fortunate luck to walk myself. Welcome Laleh Boz, founder of Normal New York to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast. Welcome, welcome. Hi, Speaker 1 (1:42) thank you so much for having me. Speaker 2 (1:45) I'm so excited to have you. As we were talking about before, I just walked your show, which you just told me was a little version of your big version. Speaker 1 (1:56) Yes, the Union Square residency that we just closed a few weeks ago. Speaker 2 (2:01) How did all that come to pass? Tell me about that, and then we can go back to the story of normal New York. Speaker 1 (2:07) Of course. If you're familiar with Normal and Not a Normal Show, our retail signature experience, we have been taking over quite of the largest scale venues that are in New York City that used to be somewhat important for retail industry, changemaker spaces like Barneys New York, Manhattan Mall, One Handsome Place as one of the oldest bank buildings. We normally identify and take over very large square foot spaces over 20 000 square feet was around two square feet after doing really large shows with hundreds of brands for many many seasons we have decided to try out going much smaller in our square footage and footprint and becoming a more repetitive multiple weekend show in a row to try out essentially How would it be if we have a permanent retail space? What would the turnout be? How much more we can benefit these brands that are our vendors in a more repetitive, longer-term version of our show? So when we came across, while doing our venue search, when we came across this venue in Union Square, literally in front of the park, right next to Uniqlo and Barnes & Noble, it was a three-floor. 10,000 square feet, all like glass building. It essentially is called a billboard. It's called 17th Street billboard. The name of the building is that. And it immediately gave us the vision of this is a billboard in middle of the heart of the city. And it's Speaker 2 (3:49) a Speaker 1 (3:49) different experience for us. So the initial idea of residency came from finding a venue that perfectly fit the concept. And then we've... decided to basically take our spring and summer shows, which happens at our core seasonal shows. So March is our spring show, two back-to-back weekends. June is our summer show, two back-to-back weekends. We kind of combined them and took over the venue from mid-April to early June for two months, five weekends. And we strategically placed the May weekends in the middle. right when the Met Gala happened, right when Mother's Day happened. So those weekends were around those teams. And it was an incredible turnout. And we closed it out with an incredible partnership with eBay for the first time. And yes, that's how the residency came to life. And it was just an incredible experience. And I think it really put the show and the vendors on the map in front of everyone in the city. Speaker 2 (4:47) There are quite a few. retail locations that specialize in independent brands and they charge designers real estate. And it's a very, very, very tricky model for a smaller brand, just because I've dealt with it on the designer side and designers have come and asked. Those brands then have a fashion show where they'll open up a retail location in London or Paris or so forth, or LA for that matter. How do you see what you're doing differentiating from those kinds of platforms without naming any names? Just because, you know, again, what I saw was mostly vintage with a handful of independent. How, especially if this is something you're looking at. to be something longer term, how do you see what you're doing differentiate? Speaker 1 (5:45) Oh, first of all, our shows since 2023, 2023 was the first time that we did it in LA. Actually, it started in LA and then we came out to New York and New York is now our home city. But we have two kinds of brands, vintage brands and independent designers. You do not need to just be a vintage reseller to be a part of our show. You also don't need to be an established brand to be a part of our show. Every single vendor application goes through me and my team. We read everything. We look at these brands very, very carefully and we understand what they're going to bring into the show. But I personally do not look into how many followers they have on social media. I'm more so. about their mission, their vision. Are they producing their products sustainably? Is there a passion for what they do behind it? Do they obviously fit the show within their style? But at the end of the day, our shows have an incredible diverse mix of vendors and brands coming from all across the world. I'm born and raised Turkish. I actually come from a family in fashion and retail industry, which I can get into more details later on. The show has these vintage resellers, independent brands in multiple categories, apparel, accessories, art, home decor, furniture, wellness, beauty. It's a whole world. It's like a department store essentially. But you do not need to necessarily be a brand that has crazy amounts of money backing you up. You can literally just have your design and passion. And if your application shows that to us, I immediately say yes to that brand. So for the last two years, we've grown into a community over to this point. We, every single show, obviously run our applications, but we have around 75 % returning vendors and the rest of 25 % becomes a new vendors. But each show, we do our best to put these new vendors more and more on the map. So when you become a vendor with us, obviously we do have a vendor fee. Production of a show is incredibly, incredibly costly, especially in New York City. So vendor fees do allow us to take these risks and go really big in our productions. However, when you become a vendor with us, it is not just a boot that you purchase and you become, you know, you sell at our shows. Obviously, that is one of the most important goals for us to give to the vendors, for them to be able to meet a real great amount of customers and to make money. and to have return on their investment. But at the same time, we have a very dedicated brand direction team that does e-commerce shoots to lifestyle shoot for these brands. We build a photo studio in our venues that allow the brands to book their slots with our photographer, Diego. He does content for them. He does branding for them. I sit with brands. I do vendor consultations. We really went normal. spend a great deal of resources into doing paid ads, marketing, PR. We obviously have the last six months of our life, we've been really, really focused on attracting brand partnerships. So early in February, we did a partnership with Coterie, the trade show in Javits Center. We brought the first ever vintage component into the trade show. So our 30 of our vendors had a space that was Highly, highly discounted from what a trade show rate is to be able to be introduced into a global trade world. We had a partnership with Columbia Business School for their annual retail conference at the school. I am a Columbia alumni, too. So it was a lovely experience for the past two years, actually, each February, the last two years, where we created a very small scale of the show in the campus that these vendors got introduced to really high. level executives in retail industry. The last month we did a partnership with eBay, for example. So on a day-to-day basis, I'm constantly seeking how we can benefit these brands beyond the show. And when you become a brand with us, you automatically become a returning name for me. So when a new show happens, you learn it before everyone does. I am a very, very personal. leader of this business. So these brands have a deeply personal relationship with me. At the end of the day, obviously, they're my clients, and I offer them a service, but we really become a family. So especially with the returning vendors who's been with me since day one, since 2023, they know me so well, I know them so well, I know exactly what would benefit them, I know exactly what kind of content or partnership would benefit them. We do a set additional on top of this, we do documentary series called Formal Originals, where we go to studios or homes of these brands and we really sit with them. We shoot their life and life story. And every single time we actually do those additions, it really fascinates me how incredibly talented these people are. So my job is to find opportunities, venues, strategies, marketing and PR. Every single thing, essentially, it's a 360 brand incubation space, I call it. How can I benefit them beyond the show? So obviously, the money that they pay us is not something. It is quite an investment for them. But I don't take that investment lightly. And I do my best to benefit them in a very long run. And I always keep the relationship going as much as we can. Speaker 2 (11:29) You said you see this becoming a fixed space, Speaker 1 (11:32) potentially. Yes and no. We are still in the... So to go very back, I'm born and raised into a family who is in fashion, manufacturing and retail back home in Turkey. Is it leather? No, it's Speaker 2 (11:50) knitwear Speaker 1 (11:50) actually. Oh, wow. Speaker 2 (11:52) Because the... I've dealt with, as you know, Tanner Lederstein. He is Turkish. His family has a leather background. The denim brand Mavi, they're Turkish. Their background's in denim. I've worked with, overlapped with all these people. Turkey's a very interesting country in terms of the resources. And I feel like it's one of those countries that... does not get the kind of representation it deserves in terms of what it actually pumps out and contributes to