At the New Rowing Blazers Flagship, a Champagne-Fueled House Party Raged

At the New Rowing Blazers Flagship, a Champagne-Fueled House Party Raged

It’s been a frantic start for Jack Carlson. One day he could be spending hours compiling near-extinct reference photos of the Prince of Wales circa 1980, while the next he’s setting up a makeshift basement shop at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. But now, two years into his business—a prep-street hybrid clothing line simply called Rowing Blazers, which he launched after his 2014 coffee-table book—it seems the happy-go-lucky world-champion rower turned designer (who also happens to wield an Oxford doctorate in archaeology) has his first permanent store.

With a line of Rowing Blazers–clad patrons snaking down Grand Street to celebrate the opening of the brand’s first storefront in Soho, the man of the hour remained in awe. “This space was intended to be a three-month pop-up, but we just kept it going from month to month,” Carlson told Vogue alongside his partner, fellow former rower Keziah Beall. “We’ve had our doors closed to do this renovation for almost two months now, and I’m already blown away by the response.”

Indeed, what was once a stark-white corner storefront is now ornamented with boxwood topiaries, and a zig-zag pattern—borrowed from the regimental tie of the Royal Artillery—covers the exterior awnings and the interior floors and walls. And there’s plenty of accompanying toys like a pool table, Coke dispenser, and endless collections of preppy paraphernalia dotting the room. Altogether, the celebration had an air of a carefree high school house party, but rather than cheap beer magnums of Bollinger Champagne made the rounds.

“Tonight gave me goose bumps,” Carlson added. “It started with writing a book that I thought was really just going to be of interest to the rowing community. As we know now, Rowing Blazers as a brand is resonating much more widely than that. We’ve got fashion-industry players, downtown skater kids, Upper East Siders, Gossip Girl extras, a whole squadron from the New York Yacht Club, tattoo artists, vintage-menswear fiends, models, rappers, hypebeasts, and of course, plenty of rowers.”