W
December
Thieves W
ith avant-garde fashion on the rise in the Boston fashion scene, Lana Barakat has taken the reins with her original brand, December Thieves. Located on Beacon Hill, this small, upscale fashion boutique has changed the retail game for brands and designers alike. Barakat’s fashion sense stems from her background and international travels. Barakat grew up in the country of Georgia and came to the United States as a young adult to study advertising and marketing at Boston University . After graduating she moved to Mexico City, where she worked for a multinational ad agency. In Mexico, she also produced her own brand of jewelry, and eventually jewelry became her side business. The ad agency moved Bakarat to London, and after settling down in the UK, she decided to launch her own business. December Thieves was born out of Barakat’s aesthetic, which she describes as “...very diverse and global as a result of my international upbringing and work and life experiences.” Design and art have been at the forefront of Barakat’s life since she was young. This passion grew into an interest in fashion, and the art of clothing, which helped launch her start up. Although conceived in London, she wanted to debut her new business endeavor back in Boston. Her brand, December Thieves, initially opened in the South End’s SoWa district, but quickly transferred to the storefront on Beacon Hill alongside its new sister shop, Thieves Next Door, a home decor and jewelry brand. Barakat ran both stores for a few years before deciding the location was December Thieves’ forever home. She describes it as a place where people do not necessarily expect a store such as December Thieves to be located, but that the location helped her to achieve the dream of having two side-by-side storefronts.
Barakat and the December Thieves’ team work with independent and emerging brands and artists from across the globe to support and promote their work to a wider clientele. “I’m very passionate about small brands, and working to nurture them and help them grow. In many cases we have been store #1 for these brands in the US, and it is exciting to watch them grow,” says Barakat. December Thieves focuses on individuality, spotlighting pieces that are always very limited in quantity to preserve the originality and uniqueness of each item. Not only are the selections unique, they are also genderless. No garment in the shop is sectioned off or labelled by gender. December Thieves is one of very few stores to embrace this important, yet rare trend in fashion.
8
To curate the fashion for retail, Bakarat frequently travels to shops and showrooms across the globe, incorporating her international
