TRIBECA — An assortment of colorful leather handbags hung like art from the white walls and window displays at designer Joy Gryson's TriBeCa boutique for Fashion's Night Out Thursday evening.
"This line is super on trend," said Nancy Phan, 32, of Beford-Stuyvesant as she eyed a green cross-body bag from the designer's new IIIBeCa collection —pronounced "TriBeCa".
"I've been following Joy for a few years, and I'm very excited for her," Phan added.
Gryson, who recently opened the doors of her new location at 106 Franklin St., invited patrons to stay for manicures, lemonade and her new handbags Thursday.
"We just opened two weeks ago, it was a soft launch, and everyone was away," Gryson said. "We thought it would be a really nice coexisting situation, and especially in this type of a neighboorhood where there's not a ton of stores like there are in SoHo and the West Village. Plus, this is just a great way to get out and jumpstart the fall season."
Handbags in the IIIBeCa line cost betwen $98 to $198, about $100 to $700 less than other Gryson pocketbooks, making them more accessible to a larger consumer market, she said.
Three percent of the IIIBeCa earnings will go to three different non-profits: Family Focus Adoption Services, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the 9/11 Memorial.
"We always knew we wanted to do something a little more philanthropic," Gryson said, noting that her mother was a social worker and adoption advocate who always promoted giving back.
"We’re new Yorkers, We love TriBeCa, everything we do is about the community and really trying to give back in any way we can."
Mindy Montney, 33, of the Lower East Side, who works in the handbag industry, praised the arragement.
"It's a huge step for them to be their own thing," she said of the new boutique, noting that Gryson's bags are also sold in high-end department stores including Nordstorms and Bergdorf Goodman.
"It's different visually to see a designer's own view of what a line should be; you can see what they envisioned the space to look like," she said. "It's very exciting."
