Mitchell Siegel, managing partner and creative director of Cocoon Gallery in Greenwich, which opened Saturday, April 12, is reluctant to call this a return.
“It’s a return but it’s vastly different,” he said of a furnishings and décor business that was located for 25 years in the town before closing in the pandemic – 18 years on Greenwich Avenue and then seven at 17 E. Putnam Ave
But the new 4,400 square foot space – at 17 and 19 E. Putnam Ave. — isn’t the only difference. It’s no longer Cocoon but Cocoon Gallery, and with that name change and larger footprint has come a bigger concept that embraces the design and creation of furnishings, wall art, mirrors, planters, outdoor sculptures, vases and figurines using natural materials from Southeast Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand) and minerals (amethyst, lapis lazuli and quartz) from Brazil. The result is a contemporary, luxury aesthetic in a palette that reflects earth, sea and sky.
It is the labor-intensive, proprietary approach to these custom-made items that makes Cocoon Gallery’s offerings like no others, Siegel said. As a licensee, Cocoon Gallery imports wood from one source in Indonesia. The wood is dried from the inside out in a special, pressurized kiln — to keep it from warping, splintering and shrinking – at Cocoon Gallery’s 20,000-square-foot facility not far from its Naples, Florida, flagship store, which opened five years ago. (There is also a brick and mortar in Palm Beach.)
As Siegel walked us through the space, running his fingers over the objects, it became clear that each has a design story. Pressed lotus leaves give wall art the look and texture of colorful abstract paintings. Twigs inlaid with crushed capiz shells radiate in oversize plates. Sea vines from the Philippines are bent, sanded and bleached to become a sinuous sculpture. A cross-section of a kamagong tree, a type of ebony, is encased in a mold and filled with black epoxy to become the top of a coffee table.
A single piece of acacia wood is treated with a special process to look white — a trend in tabletops, Siegel said – and becomes a 12-foot-by-4-foot dining room table with a stainless steel base that resembles a silver chain-link bracelet. Meanwhile, animal figurines made of petrified (fossilized) wood take on the quality of stone, shimmering minerals covered in glass tops become end tables, and painted, barnacle-encrusted vases stand at attention on a lower level that will contain thousands of such objects on 15 shelves for clients to consider.
That myriad clientele is as high-end as the gallery’s offerings and so ardent that the Naples flagship can see foot traffic of 1,000 shoppers in a day, said Siegel, who is based in Florida and travels the world for the company. (Soon after the interview, he was set to leave for Bangkok to source soy candles and other aromatherapy products that will also be featured at Cocoon Gallery.)
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nstead, General Manager Diana Cannon will be on hand to greet Greenwich shoppers. A designer and stylist in Westchester County and New York City, Cannon was also a client (2015-20), often bringing her designer, architect and developer clients to the store for Cocoon’s unique pieces. She said she is “mesmerized by the beauty of Cocoon’s products” :
“Each statement piece is more intriguing than the next,” she said. “Everything is one of a kind and created with the craftsmanship and technique that ensures a lifetime of enjoyment” – which she credits to Siegel’s leadership.
He grew up not far from Greenwich in Harrison, graduating from Harrison High School and SUNY New Paltz before following his father into the textile business. He exported Lycra spandex as swimwear and what is now known as athleisure clothes. But as textile manufacturing in the United States declined in the 1980s, so did his business. “Customers didn’t need me.”
Where he was needed was in the Philippines, where he worked exclusively for four years. It was there that the idea for Cocoon was born.
“In my time there, I liked the idea of using natural materials, taking nature and bringing it into someone’s home.”
