The Shophound

SCHADENFREUDE DU JOUR II: Bedbugs vs. Abercrombie Round 2 South Street Seaport Store Shut

We like to think of Abercrombie & Fitch as a gift that keeps on giving, but to a bedbug, apparently, they are just lunch.

After having closed its Hollister Epic Flagship on Wednesday for a persistent bedbug infestation, the chain had to turn around and shut the Abercrombie & Fitch location at the South Street Seaport on Friday for the same reason! Is there a connection? The stores are miles apart, so it would seem unlikely, but it certainly is kind of funny, especially since the company appears to be handling the situation by following the leading life rule of one Suzanne Sugarbaker: "The man should kill the bug!" The man, in this case, would be the Mayor Bloomberg.

According to The Wall Street Journal, A&F Chairman and CEO Michael S. Jeffries has actually contacted the Mayor for "leadership and guidance" on how best to address the problem of "the growing infestation of bedbugs in New York City." As any New Yorker can guess, the the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene responded by basically saying, "Not my problem, dude."

We know, HILARIOUS, right? As if the Mayor has time to offer suggestions to every building that has been hit by bedbugs. Truly, such an infestation is a miserable trial that The Shophound wouldn't wish on our worst enemy (okay, maybe our second-worst enemy), but there's something appropriately karmic about a company that gleefully flouts all kinds of workplace safety and fair hiring practices having to turn to the city to help them out of an embarrassing situation. Abercrombie says that the Hollister store should have been ready to be reopened by Saturday, which sounds like wishful thinking for a building that size, especially one filled with clothes and overstuffed furniture.

As always, we wish the folks at Abercrombie the best of luck with their problem, and thank them for the material.

Retailer Asks Mayor for Help in Bedbug Battle (Wall Street Journal)
Previously:
Schadednfreude Du Jour: Bedbug Infestation Closes Hollister

Closeout Alert: Lot Less Come To Fulton Street

You could be forgiven for thinking that The Shophound spends all of our time in designer boutiques and UNIQLO, but the truth is that we are happy to check out any store that looks even marginally intriguing. That is how we happened upon Lot Less, the big new closeout store on Fulton street that has taken the place of the old Strand Annex.
Typically, these sorts of stores are dingy and cluttered with dodgy looking off-brand goods from who knows where. We wouldn't say that we didn't see more than a couple of unfamiliar brands at Lot Less, but the store was clean, spacious and well organized on our visit with plenty of branded goods at gentle prices. We always enter such places with no expectations, and we were just as happy to find a Kitchen Aid bamboo mixing spoon for $3 as we would be to discover any bargain.
We also learned via a sizable display, that tireless, multitasking Movie Star/Graduate Student/Saturday Night Live Host/Soap Opera Star and Possible Performance Artist James Franco apparently has his own underwear line (above right). Talk about making everyone else feel lazy!
What's that? It's just an underwear line that coincidentally shares the same name as the young celebrity?
Nonsense! We like our version better.
Lot Less 150 William Street at Fulton Street, Financial District

Cintra Wilson Goes Shopping: Defensive Tourist Edition

In today's Thursday Styles, Critical Shopper Cintra Wilson takes a restrained look at Tiffany & Company, an American retailing icon, but instead of visiting the famous flagship at 57^th & Fifth, she has chosen to make her assessment of the newer satellite branch on wall street that opened two years ago. This week finds La Cintra in a more reflective mode, observing the irony surrounding a luxury mini-shopping district that has popped up at ground zero of the luxury bust. Instead of profligate Wall Streeters, Tiffany's downtown branch seems to be catering to the same tourists that throng the historic flagship store, who apparently don't care to be bothered while buying jewelry.

Three young Chinese tourists were excitedly viewing a gold necklace with a small diamond at the center, for $900.“Are you buying necklaces for your girlfriends?” I asked.
“He is,” said one with a backpack, pointing at his serious-looking friend.
“How did you know about Tiffany in China?” I asked the potential buyer. “Is it famous there?”
“I use the Internet,” he said, somewhat defensively.
“How did you know we are from China?” his friend asked.
The buyer became shy and hostile, and suddenly cupped his hands around the diamond he was viewing, so I couldn’t see it.

Clearly this tourist had no idea that the Nosy American Lady was going immortalize him in the pages of The New York Times. Overall, however, our shopper has practically given Tiffany a free pass compared to her usual treatment. She is admiring, but not effusive —almost polite, even. Perhaps the brand is just too monolithic to engage Cintra's attention too strongly one way or another.
Critical Shopper | Tiffany & Company If Bling Had a Hall of Fame By Cintra Wilson (NYTimes)
Tiffany & Company 37 Wall Street between Nassau and William Streets, Financial District

Moving On:Strand Annex Set To CloseThis Summer

The Strand Book Annex on Fulton Street is set to close at some point this summer as a result of...you guessed it...a rent hike.
The offshoot of the historic Strand Bookstore at 12^th Street and Broadway has been open for 12 years, and the pain of the rent increase has been compounded by the incessant construction that has ripped up the store's block of Fulton Street and hampered foot traffic. Though it is one of the few independent booksellers to survive and even thrive through the onslaught of Barnes & Noble branches that clobbered many a local bookstore, the 15,000 square foot store is finally being done in by the real estate forces that are ruthlessly re-shaping the city's shopping and dining options. The dusty, décor-free stores have been favorites of New Yorkers despite their lack of amenities and unorthodox climate control policies (read: they don't have any). Somehow amongst their vast selection, at least one or two books will jump out at you with an irresistible price sticker on any given visit, and until the Annex location closes, its entire stock will be reduced 20% below its already discounted price (an especially welcome bit of news now that Amazon is collecting sales tax in New York). More surprises are promised for customers in the coming weeks/
No closing date has been given, but when the branch is finally shuttered, both the remaining stock and staff will be absorbed by the 12^th Street flagship.
The Strand isn't giving up, however, and hopes to find a new location for the annex.
Perhaps they will find one with air conditioning pre-installed.
Strand Book Annex 95 Fulton Street between William & Gold Streets, 3 blocks East of Broadway, Financial District
Closing notices and construction view after the jump...

Tiffany Unwraps Its Wall Street Jewel Box

Crowds descended upon 37 Wall Street today as Tiffany & Co. unveiled its latest branch store. You would have thought that they had forgotten that Manhattan has had a Tiffany for years - the original one. After a morning press preview, gawkers lined up for a champagne buffet and petit fours shaped like tiny blue gift boxes. It was far too crowded for serious customers - claustrophic at times. Outside, we saw none of the carts handing out free coffee, cookies and newspapers we had been hearing about, but the diamond bedecked models made their appearance as the general public waited for the store's noontime debut.
Inside, it's a departure from Tiffany's usual branch décor which generally adapts design elements from their iconic Fifth Avenue flagship. The Wall Street building's 1907 white marble interior has been lovingly restored, and the Canadian architectural firm Yabu Pushelberg has cleverly created a glittering steel and glass construction which divides the main floor into more intimate selling areas (click right photo for larger view) around a 75-foot light installation by designer Ingo Maurer. Decorative metal louvers on the  glass walls subtly reference the coffered ceiling at the flagship. A new staircase to the mezzanine leads to private rooms for important jewel shopping. It all makes for an stunningly lavish and alluring display, but unless you work in the neighborhood, why come all the way down to Wall Street just to shop at Tiffany's when the great big original is right at 57th and Fifth? At the very least, it may be worth it to venture south just to avoid the slack-jawed tourists who regularly throng the flagship's main floor, or you may simply prefer a smaller setting and edited selection. At any rate, both the retail and real estate worlds will be watching very closely to see if Tiffany as well as Hermès can make a luxury shopping enclave out of Wall Street.
Tiffany & Co.  37 Wall Street, Financial District

Mike Albo Goes Shopping: More Than We Needed to Know Edition

Photographs byCasey Kelbaugh for The New York Times
We have been a booster for Mike Albo, we really have, but in today's Thursday Styles our favorite of the current Critical Shopper crew seems off his game. Maybe its because we simply can't muster up much excitement for the new Wall Street branch of Thomas Pink. It's only the fourth one in Manhattan. It's not that there's anything wrong with Thomas Pink. It's perfectly fine, and they make lovely, colorful shirts, and are an excellent source for anyone looking for a well priced, high quality, classic shirt with a little flair. It always struck us, however, as a starter brand for people who weren't quite ready for the more expensive and exclusive Turnbull & Asser or Hilditch & Key, which are honest-to-goodness Jermyn Street bespoke shirtmakers, royal warrants and all. Pink was actually started in 1984, with a catchy name and a retro logo which suggested a heritage that wasn't actually there. Now a part of the well-oiled LVMH luxury machine, the brand has jumped from advertisements on the back pages of The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker to a fully fledged luxury chain with an ever growing series of stores which are remarkably consistent in their design and focused product offerings, kind of like McDonald's in the way that Big Macs are always the same no matter where you are. It has even spawned its own imitator in Charles Tyrwhitt.
Frankly, we're not completely sold on the Financial District luxury boom either, which so far consists of exactly three stores. It's not as if it will ever rival Madison Avenue or 57th Street. Opening an expensive shirt store on Wall Street hardly seems daring. Really, one wonders why this location is Pink's fourth store in the city instead of its first. What took them so long? That said, it will surely save some good customers a trip to midtown.
As for our Mike, well, we told you that the column was really about you, not the store, but your embarrassing personal information should at least be amusing.

...I suppose this isn’t a store for people like me with money issues who go to Barnes & Noble and buy self-help books like “Credit Hell: How to Dig Out of Debt.” These clothes are more suited for the hard-working finance types who have that Suze Orman glint in their eyes and who, when going to Barnes & Noble, select titles like The 48 Laws of Power and You, Inc.

Oh Mike, we don't want to know that about you! It's sort of depressing, and has cast a pall over the rest of your droll observations about shopping. It ruined our image of you jauntily shopping around town when not pursuing your other career as a glittery, dancing performance artist.
Keeping it real is overrated.
Critical Shopper: Colors to Match Every Shade of Credit Card by Mike Albo (NYTimes)
Thomas Pink 63 Wall Street, Financial District, also 520 Madison Avenue, 1155 Avenue of the Americas and The Shops at Columbus Circle.

Hermès Kicks Off the Downtown Luxury District

Hermès finally flung open the doors of its much-talked-about downtown branch today after a star studded launch party last night. The French luxury legend is a pioneer of sorts in the neighborhood which is soon to be home to a Tiffany while every company from Nordstrom to Jil Sander is said to be casing the area for their own outposts.
Island of luxe though it may be, it is here, insisting on calling the 4,000 square foot store Hermès Wall Street despite the fact that the actual store does not actually front Wall Street at any point. It is in fact on Broad Street, directly across the way from the New York Stock Exchange, the most iconic of locations. The question is will they make it there, or will the store die a slow death, bereft of enough like-minded neighbors?
We think they'll live, and to ensure their survival, the company has predictably merchandised this branch with an eye clearly focused on the district's mostly male and mostly rich weekday professional population. If Madison Avenue is the place to go for an Hermès scarf or to get on the Birkin bag list, then this is the store to visit for a tie. Or perhaps a zillion ties.

Employee Of The Week: Peter Neville of Tent & Trails

It's been a few weeks since New York Magazine has sent us scrambling all over town to seek out the weeks chosen sales professional. Our favorite feature is back, however, and on this frigid Monday we found ourselves all the way down on Park Place to search out Peter Neville of Tent & Trails. If The Shophound were to take up hiking (and that's a really big if, but just go with us here), we would probably take ourselves to Paragon or Eastern Mountain Sports, but now we have learned that those stores are just for amateurs. Tent & Trails is the store for hard core enthusiasts, which we could tell by the décor which was, well, nonexistent. In fact, this is not really a store for browsing at all, because the relatively small store is literally crammed to the rafters with goods, and nearly any browsing would require assistance. Another indication that Tent & Trails is not for the casual shopper is it's location on Park Place which is convenient to...City Hall? It's definitely a destination to be sought out, but worth the search. Today there was a rack full of popular Nuptse jackets from The North Face on sale for $75, an excellent buy if you are an XXL or bigger.
As for Peter, he was busy helping a customer, demonstrating how the shop may be low on ambiance, but it is very high on service, and as if to prove that their focus is the serious hiker/camper,

NY MAGAZINE I saw you also have dog packs.
PETER NEVILLE Yes, we sell backpacks that you put on your dog. It’s a really great way to bring your pet out on the trail as long as you’re not going to do something super-super-technical; he can carry your food in his pack.                      

NYMAG By the way, are you a former Boy Scout?
PN I am not; it’s not something I regret.

We feel the same way, but probably for very different reasons.

Tent & Trails 21 Park Pl., Financial District

 

New York's Worst Kept Secret: Century 21

As we have mentioned before, this is sort of a limbo week in New York. Half the city is out of town, but their space is taken up by twice as many tourists (who still want to crowd in to look at that Rockefeller center Christmas Tree). It's sale sale sale time in the stores, and as we visited Loehmann's a few weeks ago as per Alex Kuczynski's instructions, we, in  a moment of perversity, decided to go someplace even worse. And that's how The Shophound found ourselves at Century 21. That is the discount department store, not the realtor. In a city full of the best boutiques and department stores in the world, and therefore the best clearance sales, not to mention a steady stream of sample sales, off price retailing somehow seems beside the point. There are already so many opportunities to dress well at a price. And yet, for some reason everybody eventually makes their way to Century 21, because in its vastness, it always feels like there is some gem of a bargain to be unearthed, and there usually is, it just depends how good of a hunter you are. The sign above several of the entrances bears a seal that reads, "New York's Best Kept Secret" which is, basically, a lie. If it were such a secret, then it wouldn't have been crammed with people this morning, and it appears to have been mentioned in several international guide books to the city, because a large proportion of the customers were clearly tourists. Well, let's face it, even Whole Foods is a tourist attraction this week.

And The New Hot Shopping Area Is...Wall Street?

Soon there will be another reason to go shopping way way downtown besides Century 21. Curbed  and WWD tell us that Tiffany & Co. will be opening its second New York Store in a 1906 Beaux-Arts tower at 37 Wall Street in April 2007. Heaven knows there's heaps and heaps of dough down there, but so far the notable retail scene has consisted mainly of the aforementioned discounter and business wear stores like Brooks Brothers and Hickey-Freeman. Expect a dramatic presentation as Tiffany will restore as much gilded age grandeur as possible, in efforts to outshine its new neighbor, Hermès which will open at 15 Broad Street next year.

It looks more and more like Hedi Slimane is on his way out at Dior Homme. Belgian designer Kris Van Assche has been tapped to wait in the wings should Slimane bid adieu. An obvious choice, the Belgian Van Assche whose own collection will be four seasons old next month, was assistant to Slimane at both Yves Saint Laurent and Dior, so don't look for a huge change in direction should the scenario actually come to pass. (WWD & Vogue UK)

Bleecker Street hasn't been eclipsed just yet. Mulberry, the British luxury leathergoods house is finally establishing a foothold in the US with its first stateside store at 387 Bleecker opening in August. It will be the only store oustide the UK to offer the Bespoke accessories collection, which allows the customer to chose what color and type of leather they want. Perfect for us because we like things the way we like them!