She Keeps Building

As a girl in France, Ichrak would follow her grandmother into the mercerie, the little shop of threads, ribbons, and buttons. Her grandmother taught her to sew, to knit, to cross-stitch. Years later, after a career in finance in Paris and a move to New York, that shop would give her company its name.

The road there wasn’t direct. She arrived as a mother and an immigrant, looking for work that felt like hers. “I had to launch myself into this field with a lot of passion, but not necessarily the best tool,” she told us.

Starting at home

So she started at home. She baked the cakes and made the decorations for her own family’s parties, testing what a table could feel like. For her eldest daughter’s fourth birthday, she went all out. Someone shared the photos, then someone else did, and soon a stranger asked to hire her.

Her father loved to host. Her mother had an eye for beautiful tableware. Both show up in Studio Mercerie today.

Déraciné

Ichrak also hosts Déraciné, a podcast where women who left one country for this one, many of them French, talk about what that move asked of them. Kenza sat down with her as one of the early guests.

“You can dream of a different life—and it will come. Just be patient.”