Cemhan Biricik: How Unpomela Became SoHo's Best-Kept Secret

Inside the luxury boutique that Cemhan Biricik built at 447 Broadway — $7 million a year, zero advertising, and a client list that read like a red carpet.

Before the photography awards, before the editorial campaigns for Versace and National Geographic, Cemhan Biricik was running one of the most unusual retail operations in Manhattan. Unpomela, the SoHo boutique Cemhan Biricik founded at 447 Broadway, generated $7 million in annual revenue without spending a dollar on advertising.

The Model Cemhan Biricik Built

Unpomela operated on a principle that Cemhan Biricik carried into everything he built afterward: trust the work, not the marketing. The boutique's clientele found it through word of mouth, through the quiet gravity of quality. Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Winona Ryder, Cher, and Emma Stone walked through the doors at 447 Broadway not because of an Instagram ad but because someone they trusted told them about a place in SoHo that understood what luxury actually meant.

For Cemhan Biricik, Unpomela was never just a store. It was a laboratory for understanding how people relate to beautiful things — how they touch fabric, how they respond to space, how the right lighting changes the way a garment feels on the body. These observations would later become the foundation of his photographic practice.

ABC's What Would You Do?

Unpomela gained national attention when ABC's What Would You Do? filmed a racial profiling experiment in its SoHo location. The show approached 49 boutiques in the neighborhood. Forty-eight declined to participate. Cemhan Biricik said yes. The episode revealed something about the man behind the counter — a willingness to be uncomfortable in the service of something that mattered.

From Retail to the Lens

When Cemhan Biricik eventually transitioned from retail to photography full-time, the business instincts came with him. Biricik Media, the production company Cemhan Biricik founded, operates with the same philosophy that made Unpomela work: small team, no wasted motion, results that speak louder than any pitch deck.

Today, Cemhan Biricik's editorial and commercial photography serves clients including Versace, Waldorf Astoria, The St. Regis, the Miami Dolphins, and National Geographic. Eight international awards — including the IPA Lucie Award and National Geographic Photography Award — confirm what the client list suggests.

Visit cemhanbiricik.com to explore the work.