🎧 Inside Not-a-Normal Market's Barney's Takeover
Pre-Loved Podcast interview 🎤 with Lale Boz, founder, creative director and interior designer behind Not-a-Normal Market
We’re chatting with Lale Boz, the founder of Normal interior design studio, and the Not-A-Normal Show — which is coming right up June 6-8 & June 13-15 weekends, the show’s grand finale at the iconic Barney’s flagship location!
Not-A-Normal Show is a large-scale, immersive marketplace show, featuring vintage dealers, artists, and indie designers. Rewinding it all back, you’ll hear how this epic event all came to be on today’s show.
Born in Istanbul, Lale is now a bi-coastal creative designer between New York and LA, prioritizing design, sustainability, and community in all she does. From sharing her Brooklyn apartment transformation, to hosting 10,000+ attendees in the former Barney's flagship, her journey is entrepreneurial inspiration.
These June shows mark both the one-year anniversary and the bittersweet farewell to Barney's — but don't worry, September promises their biggest takeover yet.
All this, and so much more on this week’s show — let's dive right in!
"Little did I know, in two days, I would bring 2,400 people to my home in Dumbo. That was the beginning of realizing there's something else to the story of NORMAL."
— Lale Boz, NORMAL
DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE:
[3:34] Growing up in Istanbul in a family of sustainable fashion manufacturers and how that shaped her entrepreneurial spirit
[8:04] The apartment that started it all: Normal became a place to share her interior design journey.
[11:06] How she applies sustainability into her work and life.
[12:57] The viral estate sale that brought 2,400 people to her Brooklyn apartment and taught her about community power, kicking off her event production work.
[24:57] How Not-a-Normal Market landed at the iconic Barney’s flagship department store in NYC.
[28:47] What she learned in her first year at Barney's: crisis management, leadership, and building stakeholder relationships
[34:01] How consistency and transparency with vendors built unshakeable loyalty.
[38:19] Why she sees endings as beginnings, and the grand finale of the Barney’s location!
[44:38] A “blueprint for the future of retail” – connecting emerging designers and creatives with diverse communities
[48:38] Her advice for new vendors doing their first markets this summer.
[50:54] The outfits Lale plans to wear to the upcoming markets (including a 2002 Gianni Versace dress!).
Don't miss the upcoming announcement for their biggest takeover yet!
EPISODE MENTIONS:
Hope you enjoy the episode — and you can find me across the internet on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads! 💛 - Emily
Not A Normal Market has to be my favorite market in NYC! I love that it's not all vintage and I always find something completely new and exciting every time.