Please welcome The Six Bells, the country-inspired homewares brand and multi-channel commerce concept
Meet The Six Bells, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: Brooklyn, NY
Founder: Audrey Gelman
The problem: The pandemic’s effects continue to reshape society, even several years after its inception. One happy change has come from folks wanting to recover from some of the digital fatigue ushered in by extremely isolating periods by returning to basics and pushing aside aspects of relentless modernity. And so entered cottagecore, an interior design phenomenon and lifestyle aesthetic that celebrates a simplified, slower modality, and a more bucolic existence. In recent years, the cottagecore aesthetic has gained significant traction in the popular imagination, garnering more than 5 billion hashtags on social media. But despite the increased demand for cottagecore and it being the most widely followed interior design trend in the US, no prominent interior and home decor brands have emerged to offer items and holistic experiences to consumers seeking slower lifestyles and aesthetics to match.
The Six Bells’ solution: We initially invested in The Six Bells, a multi-channel lifestyle brand productized through a combination of retail and e-commerce, content, and hospitality, and inspired by the American country aesthetic, in 2021. The brand’s tent-pole offering is currently in development and will be an immersive shoppable hotel which will connect the dots between retail and hospitality. The 11-key property in Rosendale (a charming town in upstate New York), will include a restaurant and retail shop and offer something like a living catalog: a showroom where guests eat, sleep, and get to take a piece of it home with them, all at the pace they choose. Guests at the boutique hotel will have the opportunity to interact with The Six Bells’ products in an organic, leisurely environment, further cultivating their relationship with the brand. The inaugural hotel will offer everything from the dishes and mugs in the restaurant, to the quilts and pillows on the beds, all of which will come from The Six Bells’ own signature line of homewares. It will feel less like an ordinary hospitality experience and more like walking into a film set, or a simpler time.
Origin story: Audrey Gelman launched The Six Bells in 2022 as a small country store in Brooklyn, along with an e-commerce site. Both were organized around the country aesthetic and inspired by the fictional village of Barrow’s Green (imagined by Gelman), a small civil parish with 640 residents. Gelman created a folklore that would attach an aura to each object, new or antique, that is sold at The Six Bells. After establishing the country store, Gelman saw an opportunity to expand her concept into a lived experience in the form of an immersive shoppable hotel and hospitality concept.
Why we’re betting on it: Since its inception, LH has had a track record of identifying trends in retail that change how we experience shopping. It’s deeply embedded in our DNA as a firm. We believe Gelman and the team at The Six Bells have developed an exciting multi-channel approach, which has marked out a clear gap in the lifestyle market. For some time now, we have been following the rising intersection between country and maximalism, a trend that The Six Bells is championing. Moreover, Gelman, who built The Wing, the popular women-focused co-working business, has unique expertise in developing spaces that offer people experiences they can’t find anywhere else. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Gelman as she and her team disrupt the way we interact with the lifestyle brands we love.
Our take: In the post-pandemic world, more and more citydwellers are escaping the congestion and frenetic energy of New York City in order to slow down. In 2022 alone, visitors to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York spent $4 billion, a record. Further, consumers increasingly want shopping experiences that offer them a sense of story and place in which they can immerse themselves. Rather than feel the pressure of purchasing something at a retail location, while retail staff hover around you, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy The Six Bells hotel, as they would any other hotel, while having the luxury of browsing interior design and decor at their own pace. By situating its central offering in upstate New York, The Six Bells is tapping into two clear and persistent trends — first, the drive toward immersive experiences, and second, the desire to escape the confines of the city. We believe The Six Bells is ahead of the curve and tapping into a trend that will ultimately replace retail flagships and usher in a new era of experiential shopping.
Further reading: “Audrey Gelman Is Opening a Hotel” via The Wall Street Journal
