On the cusp of their 150-year anniversary, Kusmi Tea announces the launch of its flagship US store at New York City’s Westfield World Trade Center. With 63 boutiques in France and 26 additional international boutiques, this latest opening marks a significant moment for the brand’s US presence.
“The opening of Kusmi Tea at Westfield World Trade Center is a manifestation of our position as the luxury leader in the consumer tea category and we are thrilled that it’s happening at this iconic new location,” says Kusmi Tea CEO Sylvain Orebi. “It also marks the beginning of our retail expansion in the US.”
Located within the Oculus designed by the world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, Kusmi Tea at Westfield World Trade Center will complement this visionary new shopping district and public space with its own dynamic and reimagined retail design and experience, showcasing their sophisticated, unique, and contemporary teas and accessories.
Conceived by British designer Christopher Jenner, whose firm has also collaborated on retail designs for luxury brands including Liberty London, diptyque Paris, L’Artisan Parfumeur Paris, and others, Kusmi Tea at Westfield World Trade Center’s 800 square foot space references the brand’s Franco-Russian heritage through a baroque and modern lens, including a central tasting station that brings a sense of ritual to the Kusmi experience featuring turned-polish stainless steel and oak samovars.
Other evocative design details with the store include:
• A bespoke mosaic created in collaboration with the Italian tile brand Bisazza, the main illustrative
design medium in the space – Jenner worked directly with Rosella Bisazza to develop this palette.
• A breathtaking 6 1⁄2 foot diameter chandelier, composed of three horizontal tiers in polished stainless steel, which drops out of an inverted Russian onion dome ceiling in multi-colored stained glass.
• Large scale Marquetry panels inspired by Camellia Senensis, the tea plant, rendered in a stylized kaleidoscope of colored veneers and mother of pearl.
• A parquet floor of Italian marble and French Oak with a stylized pattern expressing Russian Orthodox iconography.
Merchandise unique to Kusmi Tea at Westfield World Trade Center will include a Christopher Jenner designed silver tea strainer in collaboration with the esteemed silverware manufacturer E&Co. as well as an upcoming transparent glassware collection – a contemporary assortment of teaware whose material and design draws one into the multi-sensory world of Kusmi’s celebrated teas.
ABOUT KUSMI TEA
In 1867, Pavel Kousmichoff created his eponymous teahouse in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was an immediate sensation and Kusmi Tea soon became the Tsar’s favorite tea. In 1917, the Kousmichoff family fled St. Petersburg in the wake of the Russian Revolution and set up shop on Avenue Niel in Paris. In 2003, the brand was acquired by the Orebi brothers, whose family hails from a long line of coffee and cocoa traders. The Orebis were drawn to the charm of the exquisite multi-colored baroque tins encasing timeless and iconic tea blends. Inventive and with a modern mindset, they took the reins of the business with a single goal in mind: to make Kusmi the global premium tea icon. With the finest of raw materials and time honored craftsmanship, Kusmi has brought tea into the modern era with its unique savoir faire.
