Colbo NYC

Colbo NYC is a multidisciplinary retail space in The Lower East Side, New York founded in Fall 2021. It’s the latest project for co-founder Tal Silberstein, who oversees creative direction in addition to designing Colbo’s in-house clothing line. Silberstein spoke with FORM about drawing inspiration across fashion, art, and music, and what lies ahead for the brand.

Jackson Muraika: Colbo is a multidimensional space— there’s a lot going on in terms of coffee and clothes and art, and more—but it all feels very cohesive. What was the vision behind bringing these different aspects of the store together?

Tal Silberstein I think it all comes from this vision and intuition that has been forming for years. I’ve been in the music world, I went to art school and I DJ, and I’ve collected clothing for a long time. I’ve been working with different designers and making my own designs for some time now. So, I think all that together are my inspirations and the things I wanted to put together in a space. It’s nice to hear that it feels cohesive, and I would like to think that it does. I think that’s mainly because it’s kind of around my experience, past, expression and taste and is what I’ve been trying to do and implement with this brand. So, I think it all comes together in terms of creative direction essentially.

JM: To speak more about music, I was curious if you see the processes for curating clothing and curating music as analogous…What similarities do you see between clothing and music?

TS: Just in terms of analogy between [them], it’s curatorial work, you know. It’s merchandising and collecting things together to create an effect for the world—for the people to experience and respond to. I think curation overall is a ‘vague’ term, but it does kind of apply to all things, at least in my head. If I curate a DJ set or if I curate the brands and items in the store, they are meant to work together in a flow and also have variety that will still remain interesting but also maintain that cohesive curatorial point of view that you want to put out there as a brand or as a store. And, in addition, all the clothes in the store, even the ones I make and the ones I buy…are not necessarily all for me. It’s a very specific position to curate these things for others.

A DJ is kind of the same thing because you may love the tracks, but you are essentially playing them for other people. There’s definitely a lot of overlap in the process of curation between all of those things. I think in general they are similar to me because I do all of those things in different layers and levels. Even curating fabrics for my own collections—they also have to work together, but still have variety and still talk to me on a personal level, but also work for other people.

JM: I want to put a bookmark in the materials for the Colbo in-house brand. What is the process like for picking those?

TS: In terms of materials, that is definitely something that is very, very much in my design/creative process. It’s the base of it all for me—I kind of work around materials. It can be deadstock, it can be new — whatever it is, I’m always very interested in its origins and potential.

I find fabrics and position them into different designs that I’ve made and even create designs for fabrics that I find.

Like, ‘Oh I love this fabric. What can I do with it?’ And then this would be cool in a jacket, and then I design a jacket, and I try that. There’s a lot of work around material.

I’m very inspired and interested in that. And also, the endless options… getting in the depth of where it’s from and finding the more rare stuff that’s harder to find. But fabric is definitely something that’s a big part of my interest in design and also a part of the inspiration of my design.

JM: It’s really interesting what you said about curation being about other people—how you might start out curating something based on your personal interest and then realize that it’s for other people as well. Can you expand on that?

TS: I think creating clothes for other people is the same as any creative work you do. If you’re painting you express yourself in a personal way, but it kind of goes out[ward]. I would think most designers and artists do that. It’s like you make these crazy sculptures, you love them, you believe in them, you’re expressing, but it goes somewhere else. It goes to a museum, it goes to a gallery, it goes to someone’s house. For clothes, it’s the same thing or music, also. You make music because you express yourself, but it always goes out, to the radio, to records, to peoples’ homes.

Creative work is an expression of one’s idea and aesthetic and concepts and feelings that usually go to other people. I don’t know many designers that make clothes for themselves or artists that make paintings for their own houses.

JM: You mentioned engagement with the community and collaboration. I was curious about what the process for collaboration looks like. You have collaboration for clothing, but there are also collaborative events at Colbo.

TS: We always envision that back space [of the store] to be kind of a rotating space to be able to host different collaborators. Going back to the multidisciplinary idea again, if it’s an art exhibition, if it’s like a whole different brand…or it’s friends of ours, we really try to incorporate a lot of people within the communities. All the brands that we sell in the store are also people we have some relationships with. From Hed Mayner who I used to work for or Camiel [Fortgens] who I knew through Hed, and I had become really friendly with. Or local brands like Archie and Csillag that are very close friends of mine. We’ve extended since, but we try to really have very personal, ongoing relationships with everyone that we work with and similarly with the events and collaborations.

That’s always been a very important part of this brand. Combining content with hang-out, retail, arts, community, and music, obviously. I think that’s definitely from Tel Aviv, a kind of cultural aspect we naturally bring.

JM: On that note, could you briefly give an overview of the journey that took you here. In terms of music and clothes and just life?

TS: I’ll give you a quick tour through the past 10 years of my life, because it is kind of all kind of tied in in a way. So in 2012, I left Tel Aviv after the mandatory military service, which was the worst. But it definitely took me to this place of spirituality and kind of freedom of mind, thought and exploration of life.

So, from there I traveled in India and a little bit of Asia for over a year. Just really exploring spirituality—backpacking, meditation, yoga, different retreats, different experiences. Holistic and spiritual journeys that I’ve been through there.

Then I went to Australia. I was living as part of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) in a Hare Krishna community for a long time which was also a very, very special and inspiring time to me. And, I even think subconsciously that the culture and lifestyle there affected and inspired me aesthetically.

Then, I moved to the bay area for a little, where I kind of started implementing that lifestyle and aesthetic into more of modern life, whether it’s music, fashion or painting. I was getting a little bit of how can I implement this spirituality into a more modern life. Then I got deeper into painting and moved to New York to go to school at [School of Visual Arts].

Getting more and more into fashion, I went to this course in Parsons during that time to learn the basics of fashion. Then a year and a half later, from New York, I moved back to Tel Aviv in 2016 and decided to start implementing all these inspirations into [my own] space and brand.

I opened a record store in Tel Aviv In 2016 that was called BVRLY. And that was kind of a record store, very much a hangout space, and we had magazines, ceramics, and scents. I started making clothes which in the beginning were just T-shirts and hats. And so, as the brand was perceived very well, I was like, ‘OK, cool. I can explore a lot more of my creative expression making more clothes,’ and started getting into design. Making more dress shirts, some pants and a little bit more than that. As that was happening, I also started working during some of the days for this designer called Kedem Sasson. I was there doing just junior work like handling all the inventory and helping him with his archive, taking fabrics around and production assistance.

A couple months later, I started working for Hed [Mayner] to get more experience in the fashion industry, which was the most amazing opportunity. I learned a lot of things from him, and I was doing a lot of personal assisting in development, production and fabrication and then, you know, it’s a very, very small team there. So, we all did many things. Anyway, at some point, I decided to move back to the States and to make it long story short, I closed my shop, left Hed, and moved here to be a part of Public Records.

As I got more involved, I was less in the clothing world, and then I kind of started to revamp my own brand, which was [to be determined] what it was, but I was working on designs. I always had this idea for this space that kind of uses all these inspirations and experiences I’ve had in one. I left my full time position at Public Records and had a few months to explore making clothes and working on this idea and pretty quickly everything formed in a beautiful way to become what it is right now.

JM: How do you see the space evolving over time? What aspects are foundational to Colbo and what will remain?

TS: I think it evolves all the time, like everything. You learn what works better, what you believe in more or what feels like will take you to the next step and grow. Our in-house brand is something that we’re really excited about. And obviously, the community growth and doing more and more things in this space is something that we’ve been really working hard on.

The next thing we have is this pop up in Paris in June which we’re very excited about, bringing this whole concept there. We’re going to have a new collection of our inhouse brand, and a few exclusive collaborations with some of the brands we work with. And as always: DJs, coffee, wine, the whole thing. In terms of the space evolving, it’s a natural, gradual development.