Wooster Shop Brings NYC Style To Switzerland
People were always asking me where I bought my clothes. My friends even asked me to buy outfits for them.
The daughter of an American mother and a Swiss father, Odile Burger frequently traveled to New York City and snapped up the best in fashion the city had to offer. Particularly enamored with stores on Wooster Street like Morgane le Fay, Burger came back with suitcases full of new clothes and soon others took notice.
"People were always asking me where I bought my clothes. My friends even asked me to buy outfits for them," says Burger.
For the former journalist and marketing executive it was easy to see how the NYC labels she liked so much would find eager buyers back home. Combined with the desire to start her own business and bring something unique to Switzerland's fashion scene, the idea for Wooster Shop was born.
She started out with an online store which she promoted with a beautiful piece of Americana — a 1948 Greyhound bus. The refurbished bus — now functioning as a boutique — brings the web shop to people with pieces from designers like Catherine Malandrino, Phillip Lim, Theory, Gryphon, Yeohlee or Helmut Lang.
"I had to get a commercial driver's license to be able to drive the bus," she says.
In 2011, Wooster Shop expanded to have an actual store on Zurich's "Gold Coast," providing a stationary outpost for the business. But that doesn't mean that the bus will not still be traveling anymore, Burger wants to sell clothing at high-profile events like Volta this year.
Next stop on Wooster shop's successful retail story? Menswear. We're sure fashionable men in Switzerland will be up for the ride.
