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It’s a Black Friday, indeed, at E Pike’s new Ritual

With Thanksgiving out of the way, it’s time to Shop the Hill. E Pike’s newest retailer is ready for your business. Meanwhile, two other Hill fashion shops are marking the start of the holiday shopping season celebrating important milestones.

Ritual, a new independent fashion shop from two industry veterans, is now open on the Comet block and ready for your very Black Friday visit.

“When we’re feeling feel sassy, we might have some charcoal,” Sarah Randall Williams tells CHS about Ritual’s monochromatic approach with an emphasis on texture and shape.

“I worship at the altar of Yohji Yamamoto.”

Not everything is black at Ritual but it’s the base of the shop along with inclusivity. Nothing is merchandised by gender. “When you brings things to a monochromatic level, it brings a level playing field,” William says.

Featuring styles with an edge and a focus on form and fit, Ritual combines the talents of William Rheinhardt and Williams who met working in the trenches on West Coast efforts for Swedish retailer H&M. “We’ve been looking to partner with brands that have a social conscience,” Rheinhardt said of Ritual’s mission when CHS talked to him about the shop earlier this year. “We see that as the greatest need in fashion.”

“Ritual offers apparel and giftware with an edge…and a purpose,” the marketing materials go. “We focus on vendors both local and international, fashion that is both avant-garde and mindful, and an aesthetic that feels otherworldly, yet still emblematic of the Pacific Northwest. Our Seattle of the future is a nexus of fashion, community, conscience, and art.”

For an even better feel for what the store is about, check out this essay from Williams on “The Feminism of Black Clothing” —

Black, oversized clothing was not just a tough girl costume, it was the way I felt, inside, made visceral and put on communicative display, much in the same way that the colors on a poison dart frog indicate a very real danger hidden beneath a brilliant sheen of skin.

Dark! You’ll find Ritual at 914 E Pike. You can learn more at buyritual.com.

Fashion retail milestones
While Ritual is the new kid on the block, two other Capitol Hill shops are celebrating milestone birthdays this Black Friday.

First, Glasswing is marking five years on Melrose Friday with a sale and celebration:

Join us in-store for both morning and evening happy hours. We will be partnering with our favorite local businesses to offer sips and small bites throughout the weekend. Being a locally grown small business, we cannot say thank you enough for so much support over the years. We have been able to grow and evolve our vision into something so special and truly unique that wouldn’t have been possible without the support of this amazing community. We hope that you’ll come to see us in-store this weekend. We have some surprises planned! Stay tuned.

CHS talked with Andy Whitcomb about the plans for the men’s and women’s fashion and home goods store here in 2013. “We want to be a hub for Pacific Northwest design,” Whitcomb said at the time. “A lot of people around the country are looking towards the Pacific Northwest for design inspiration right now, and there’s not a store that caters to that.”

Meanwhile, you should also find time to stop by E Pike’s Veridis Clothier as the shop marks a decade on E Pike. Stephanie Bohn debuted her store way back in 2008 hoping to fill a need she saw for more contemporary, fashion-forward clothing boutiques on the Hill, she told CHS when we spoke to her about the business in 2013.

 

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