Taylor Swift’s go-to brand comes to The Westchester

“We cannot stress this enough,” Glamour magazine writes.  “Reformation is the backbone of Taylor Swift’s wardrobe.”

Reformation began with vintage clothes in a Los Angeles storefront in 2009 and has since grown to almost 50 shops worldwide that feature its own brand, with an emphasis on sustainability, fair labor practices and oh, yes, feminine, flirty fashions. And now those stores include one that opened at The Westchester in White Plains on Friday, Aug. 9.

“Ref has a very loyal customer base in the tristate area with five stores in the New York City metro area alone,” said Phil Amandola, vice president of retail for “Ref,” as it is known in-house. “Our goal with our new location at The Westchester is to offer a deeper level of service to our suburban customers much closer to home, in addition to meeting net new customers in the area. We’ve deployed a similar model very successfully in Washington, D.C., where we have a store in the heart of Georgetown flanked by more neighborhood-centric locations in Fairfax, Virginia, and Bethesda, Maryland.

Having said that, he added:  “We have stores in most major cities in the U.S., including… Chicago, Boston, Miami, San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Houston and more, as well as London and Toronto.”

The sleek 1,300-square-foot space on The Westchester’s retail level 2, in a blue, white and tan/beige palette, has a youthful vibe, as do the clothes and especially the website, which makes ample use of the words “cute,” “cutesy” and “sexy” while also playing on “virginity” (as in the company eliminating as close to 100% of all virgin fibers as it can from its supply chain by 2030).

“We may be one of the only brands out there that is well-known for its emails,” Amandola added. “We are super-cheeky and irreverent. Our goal is to talk to our customers like a friend instead of a sustainability professor.”

Nevertheless, if the tone is present and saucy, the message is timeless and serious.

“We’ve had the same mission since day one, which is to bring sustainable fashion to everyone,” Amandola said of the goal of having 100% of Reformation’s fabrics made from recycled, regenerative or renewable materials by 2025. “It’s our North Star in everything we do. As far as what that means for the store itself, we invest in green building infrastructure to minimize our waste, water and energy footprints and adhere to Green Business Certification standards across our global retail fleet. We also offset 100% of every store’s electricity usage with renewable energy.”

Sustainability and insouciance are just two of the three pillars of Reformation, he added:

“We focus on creating beautiful, flattering and on-trend products that inspire confidence. We’re best-known for our dresses but offer everything from denim to sweaters to boots to trousers and more,” with prices ranging from $50 for a T-shirt to $350 for a dress.

As for the brand’s future, Amandola said, “We plan to open 10 to 15 new store locations a year. In 2025, you can also expect us to pop up in a new country.”

More new retail at The Westchester

Two days before Reformation’s Aug. 9 launch, Anthropologie opened next door. The store, which once anchored retail level 3 where Arhaus home design now stands, is smaller than the old Anthropologie location, which included funky bedding and kitchen items. But it still features boho chic clothing, along with dresses, jeans, athleisure and an assortment of home goods/gifts like candles, candleholders and glasses.

Like Reformation, Anthropologie is designed to appeal to different generations of women. However, Montreal-based Garage, which opened on retail level 3 mid-July, is all about the young – or maybe just the young at heart — with athleisure and other figure-hugging and r-evealing offerings, set to a pulsing playlist.

For those of a certain vintage – and pocketbook – there’s Hobbs, a British brand that returned to The Westchester’s retail level 1 on May 14 and has been drawing fans from Greenwich, thanks to a recent Hobbs pop-up there. Though it started in Hampstead, London, in 1981 as a shoe label, Hobbs is perhaps best-known today for the kind of statement outfits that can range from tailored wedding-guest suit dresses to garden-party attire with flowing lines. (Think Catherine, Princess of Wales, who counts Hobbs among her fashion favorites.)

While retail tends to emphasize female shoppers – who are responsible for 70% to 80% of all consumer spending – a new store in the former Lily Pulitzer location on retail level 1 gives the guys equal time. Alto Salto has everything from casual clothing to suits and formalwear. Prices range from $74 for a polo shirt to $300 to $500 for a suit at the store, which also has locations at The SoNo Collection in South Norwalk and in Boston.

Two accessories stores are designed to engage a wide variety of shoppers. Solaris, part of the EssilorLuxottica juggernaut of more than 150 eyewear brands worldwide, has offered high-end sunglasses by designers like Gucci, Prada, Saint Laurent, Tom Ford and Versace since opening in June. Journeys, also on level 3, is all about Crocs, socks and Birkenstocks, along with sneakers, boots, T-shirts and decorative trinkets to rock your Crocs.

Still to come – fashion designer Marc Jacobs’ boutique, fragrance.com’s brick and mortar, jewelry stores from Gorjana and Kendra Scott and Rowan ear piercing. But perhaps the most anticipated opening will be that of Uniqlo, which has tapped into the multigenerational market – the company was valued at $9.6 billion in 2022 – with its fun, durable fast fashion (washable puffy coats, HeatTech shirts in a variety of styles and colors that can be layered or worn as outerwear).

As its sign in The Westchester  says – “Big Things to Come.”