Perennials: Alan Eckstein

To celebrate this year’s Perennials collection, we travelled from New York to London to Paris, spending a few days with friends whose style we admire to find out how they wear Drake’s, and to see how these clothes have become trusted companions throughout their everyday lives. 

Alan Eckstein is a furniture dealer and interior designer whose eye for an interesting piece of design blends history, craft, and an instinct for the extraordinary.  

Formerly a fashion designer and DJ, he launched Somerset House in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, during the pandemic, and has since built a reputation for pairing iconic, mid-century pieces with covetable discoveries and unexpected finds.  

He recently moved his studio to Long Island City, and went to see him just as before opening, to watch him work, unpack his archive, and listen as he spoke about the philosophy, passion, and democratic eye behind every piece he selects.

How are you growing into the new space? What have been the most fun challenges so far?  

There’s been ups and downs for sure, but really, it’s been incredibly exciting. You open a space, you live with it, you realise what works and what doesn’t, and you adjust. It’s a process and we’re in the middle of reworking the entire thing at the moment; walls are going up, things are moving around. It’s a bit chaotic, but the space itself has been a catalyst for a shift in how I think about the business. It’s allowed me to tweak the aesthetic and the structure in a way that feels very natural. 

That sense of evolution feels central. 

It evolves over time: you try something, refine it, respond to it. This space is no different. It’s a new sandcastle, and the tide comes in and reshapes it.  

How did you start Somerset House? And why?  

I was working in fashion but unfortunately it never really paid the bills. So I ended up, like all struggling creatives, with multiple side hustles that started as hobbies and worked their way out into the professional world. So furniture began as something I did on the side, buying and selling design pieces and doing set design. But it really accelerated during Covid. I had a lot of furniture in storage, no income coming in. I was burnt out with fashion and decided to take a risk. 

I approached some developers in Williamsburg with the idea of a revenue share for a store, no rent upfront, but they’d take a percentage of sales. One developer said yes and we started Somerset House in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on North 6th Street with almost no capital but a bunch of good mid-century furniture we had accumulated over the years. From day one of opening up the doors we started designing apartments and houses across the area. We took it extremely seriously. Every sale went straight back into buying more inventory.

How did you develop your taste? Did you have some formative experiences with the world of furniture and design?  

I was fortunate enough to grow up with a grandmother who was an interior designer and who  did such a great job of blending together different genres and styles into her work. She was a great starting point. My mother and grandmother would take me to estate sales as a small kid, and my grandmother would give me Chanukah presents from her personal collection.  

From there, I just love what I love and that idea expands over time. I will also say that the root of what inspires me is the pieces of the past. You just can't compete with history. I love natural patinas, and pieces that feel like they have been somewhere, made by someone that truly cared about what kind of legacy would be there after they are gone. 

How do you find the right balance between a famous piece by a very well known designer, and something of mysterious provenance that looks amazing?   

When I set up a room, house or vignette I'm just doing what feels right. There’s no specific rules or agendas. I do think that if I like the pieces, regardless of concerning myself with thinking too much about whether they all go together, then they have a fair shot at blending in because it’s all coming from me, and my intuition is a great first filter. It doesn’t always work out that way, but most of the time, that's how I start and end.  

The pieces we work with go through something of a democratic process — good pieces regardless of price or distinction float to the top, always. There’s a kind of democracy to it. Quality survives. 

Was there ever a grand plan? 

The plan at the beginning was survival, honestly. Everything about Somerset House is from the ground up. I’ve always been creative and I’ve always felt that if you have that energy, you need to do something with it. This was one of my biggest passions, so I pushed it as far as I could. 

I talk to the team a lot about pushing things to be the best they can be with whatever resources we have. I believe in building something that lasts – something with longevity, something that offers a future for the people who work here, and for my family. 

How do you think about the future now?

More than anything, I want access to meaningful projects with interesting people, and I want to keep developing the narrative of what we do. It’s about allowing the work to evolve rather than forcing it into a rigid plan.

What’s one item at home you can’t live without?

A good hi-fi system. I just love music and I love it even more when it comes out of speakers sounding rich and full. At home I have a good Jolida tube amp with Vienna Acoustic speakers and an English made J.A Mitchell turntable from the 1970s. Not over the top, just a tasty analogue-sounding system.