Asta Resort builds on New York momentum with a second global boutique

Asta Resort has opened a permanent flagship in New York’s SoHo, establishing its second retail location worldwide after debuting its Sydney boutique in December 2025. The opening follows the brand’s New York pop-up, which began as a market test and developed into a longer-term retail opportunity for the founders, sisters Helena and Jasmine Ammitzboell.

Located in a corner storefront in SoHo, the boutique opened in time for New York Fashion Week and the U.S. Open. It also reflects the brand’s growing operational presence in the city: Asta has opened a Williamsburg office, expanded its New York-based team and seen both founders relocate to New York.

“Sydney is where Asta Resort began. New York is where we’re laying down roots for our North American home,” the founders told FashioUnited. “What began as a market test has quickly become a significant and permanent part of our global business.”

From online to in person

For Helena Ammitzboell, the decision to pursue permanent retail is rooted in both the brand’s growth and her early experience working in Sydney boutiques.

“I love retail,” she said. “I bootstrapped the company on savings from working in two boutiques in Sydney when I was younger. I loved dressing up and going to work, helping shoppers find the thing that made them feel like themselves.”

While Asta built its following online through its sparkly occasionwear, the founders see a store as an opportunity to demonstrate the physical qualities of its pieces.

“Asta sparkles online, but the fabrication details are very different up close,” Helena said. “Every piece is hand-beaded, and a single piece can take twenty to sixty hours to make. A permanent home lets that be seen and felt, not just photographed.”

The SoHo boutique is intended to build a more direct connection with customers as the company approaches its sixth year.

“Heading into our sixth year, this is the next chapter of our growth, and face-to-face time with our customer is essential to it,” Helena said. “The boutique is an extension of Jasmine’s and my world and we wanted it to feel like a living-room salon filled with friends and family.”

A market test becomes a flagship

The permanent lease followed the positive response to Asta’s New York pop-up. Helena recalled one particular sale day that underlined the strength of demand for the brand in the city.

“There was a cold day in early Spring where we held a sale at the pop-up locations, and there was a line wrapped around the block before open time,” she said. “It blew us away and cemented that no matter the season, we found a New York customer who comes to us in sunshine or in snow, looking for a special piece for a special trip or occasion.”

“New Yorkers celebrate all year round,” Helena added.

That view informs the label’s positioning across Sydney and New York, two cities with opposite seasonal calendars. Jasmine Ammitzboell said the brand does not operate around a traditional seasonal rhythm beyond launching new pieces.

“We have a business model and a brand message that don’t really follow seasons,” she said. “We chase the feeling of summer, even in a colder climate, there’s always a special occasion or a reason to dress up.”

A Mediterranean hotel lobby in SoHo

For the boutique interior, Helena and Jasmine Ammitzboell worked with locally based designers Joel Harding and Yuria Kailich of Studio Of Enso. The design combines a Mediterranean hotel-lobby sensibility with downtown Manhattan references, incorporating repurposed terracotta tiles from the French countryside, cast iron, a pink-quartz-clad champagne bar and a dedicated bridal podium.

“We worked closely with Of Enso to build our dream boutique, where every detail was considered,” Jasmine said. “The terracotta tiles are repurposed from the French countryside, and we turned our checkout point into a hotel-lobby bar, where customers can take a moment to enjoy their shopping.”

Cast iron provides one connection between the store’s two visual worlds.

“Cast iron runs through both classic New York architecture and rustic Mediterranean buildings,” Helena said. “We thought of the fire-escape ironwork against Mediterranean balcony grilles. So it became our connection point between the two worlds.”

Near the entrance, a wall of ceramic plates hand-painted by the founders references earlier Asta collections, including Sunsets in Sardinia from summer 2024 and Piscina in Puglia from summer 2025. The plates were fired and glazed by a New York workshop and displayed alongside flea-market finds.

“We wanted the space to feel intentional and to transport customers somewhere dream-like, where they can slow down and take in the details,” Jasmine said. “We wanted to celebrate craft throughout, so we built in artisanal, hand-done touches: the plates we painted and hung, the trinkets we collected for the bar, even the changing-room curtains, which I sewed myself.”

A platform for community

With boutiques now in Sydney and New York, Asta intends to use its retail spaces for more than selling clothes. The founders plan to host intimate events and build closer relationships with their communities, while the stores offer a setting in which the brand’s craft and occasionwear proposition can be experienced in person.

“With boutiques on either side of the world now, we want to use them to host intimate events and get closer to our communities,” Helena said. “We’ll also be launching our first cocktail bags next season in Resort 2027, following the same materiality of our cult hand crochet pieces. The boutiques give our creations a stage, and we’re excited for what comes next.”