The Shophound

FLAGSHIP FANFARE: Ralph Lauren Conquers Madison

And The Conquereor will build a palace.

Today's the big day for Ralph Lauren's new Women's and Home Mansion at Madison Avenue and 72^nd Street after yesterday's VIP preview where the designer received the Key to New York City. Now is your chance to weigh in on the imposing new boutique. How much you love it depends on how much you love Ralph Lauren, who, popular as he is, can be surprisingly polarizing. We can promise you that inside it is just as lavish as we expected and then some. There were few surprises among the dazzling ersatz Gilded Age decor. The store centers around a grand staircase that sweeps up through the four floors ending at the home collection showcase at the top. It's worth noting that the boutique no longer sells the same Lauren by Ralph Lauren home furnishing merchandise that is sold in department stores. Here you will find his exclusive premier bedding, gift and tabletop lines arranged around the model rooms that made the top floor of the mansion across the street such a destination when it opened decades ago.

More than anything, what struck us about the new store was how Lauren is now following the merchandising patterns of European luxury brands like Gucci or Prada. The main floor, much like Gucci's Trump Tower brand palace, is devoted to accessories and sunglasses with a detour into the designer's new precious jewelry and timepiece lines. Lauren is surely the most successful designer in America, and possibly the world, but he has learned a few lessons from the extravagant flagships that he as well as his competitors have begun to scatter across the globe. Gone are the counters of antique jewelry and watches in favor of his own seamless brand presentation. Another surprising European-influenced change was in the sales staff. They were still a fresh faced, camera-ready group, but while they were once styled within inches of their lives, sometimes modeling the brand's most extravagant signature looks, they are now discreetly clad in black uniforms, with sleek dresses or jackets for women and understated dark suits with white pocket squares for the men.

Lots has been and will be written about the store, including yesterday's New York Times article which was stuck on the notion that none of these opulent flagship stores are profitable alone but serve as valuable advertising vehicles to sell less expensive merchandise elsewhere. There's really no way to verify that presumption, and its accuracy will certainly vary from brand to brand and season to season. This building must have come with a price tag well into eight figures, and the overhead on Madison Avenue is generally staggering, but whether the store is profitable is really neither my problem nor yours. The store, along with its refreshed brother mansion across the street, only proves that for sheer theatrical retail spectacle, Ralph Lauren remains the king.

Ralph Lauren Women's & Home Flagship 888 Madison Avenue at 72^nd Street, Upper East Side
At Polo Store, the Feel of a Mansion to Bolster a Brand By Stephanie Clifford (NYTimes)
Previously:
Madison Avenue News Flash: Ralph Lauren's New Women's Mansion To Open This Friday

MADISON AVENUE NEWS FLASH: Ralph Lauren's New Women's Mansion To Open This Friday

And how are we so sure that the store will open on Friday, October 15th? Because when we passed by the store yesterday afternoon, we asked Ralph Lauren's Executive Vice President of Global Retail Development, Charles Fagan and, like a proud expectant parent, that's what he told us. We can't imagine a better source besides Ralph himself

Mark your calendars and expect something lavish.

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Landmark Mansion Edition

This week's Critical Shopper, Jon Caramanica, takes on Ralph Lauren's iconic Rhinelander Mansion boutique, which has been newly reconfigured and devoted exclusively to the designer's top mens lines, Polo, RLX, Balck Label, RRL and Purple Label. Mr. Lauren's PR machine has been touting the new store partly to promote it's new role, but also as a prelude to what we can expect will be a major media blitz when the brand new companion mansion for his women's collections opens on the other side of Madison Avenue next month. He gives the sales staff high marks for service, but touring through the store, he finds the merchandise to be something of a mixed bag. With so many different lines pitched at different customers like washed out RRL shirts for the faux-vintage minded and fuller proportioned garb for longtime customers who grown and matured along with the designer's 43-year old business, some things inevitably work better than others:

And when Ralph tries to be hip, it’s slightly awkward. A snuggly, blanketlike black cashmere blazer with purple trim ($3,995) was very Chuck Bass, the early years. And sprinkled throughout the store were some defiant club collars, a few seasons too late, though the pink-striped one ($95) looked versatile.

Yet, somehow Ralph Lauren turns out to be beyond reviewing. He is the critic-proof designer. He has literally constructed his own world over the years, and if you are not a loyal, devoted citizen, you are just a tourist, observing a different culture. Criticize him for being repetitive, or slavishly copying Savile Row tailors, Brooks Brothers or vintage goods, and he can point to millions of enthralled customers who adore the very thing that you find so irksome.

Well, maybe not that black and purple cashmere blazer.

Critical Shopper | Ralph Lauren Men: Uncompromising, Like a Gentleman By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Ralph Lauren Men 867 Madison Avenue at 72^nd Street, Upper East Side

A SLOW REVEAL: More Ralph Lauren Unveiling

So, clearly we are fascinated by the impending arrival of Ralph Lauren's spanking new mansion at 72^nd Street and Madison Avenue. This week, the façade has been almost completely revealed and we think it's pretty impressive. Maybe we are just struck by the fact that while so many designers have created interior environments to be inserted in boutiques and shop-in-shops, Ralph may be one of the only ones in the world, really, who has the wherewithal to build such an elaborate structure to house only a portion of his product offerings on some of the planet's most expensive real estate.

What will be the new Women's and Home store is now set to open in October, so we will have to wait a few weeks to see if the interior is as grand. The Rhinelander Mansion across Madison Avenue now holds only menswear collections, and is currently covered in scaffolding and net, perhaps to make sure it is in immaculate condition when its companion opens with what we can safely bet will be major fanfare.

CONSTRUCTION PREVIEW: A Peek Inside Ralph Lauren's New Store

Nobody is more excited than The Shophound when a construction site leaves the front door open and we can get a look inside. The other day we got a good gander at what's going on inside the upcoming Ralph Lauren store at 72^nd and Madison which confirmed our expectation that no expense will be spared for this flagship. No designer is more obsessed with the environment where his products are sold than Ralph is, and for the store to be devoted to his Women's and Home collections, he is creating a Gilded Age mansion meant to look as if it has been standing on that corner for a hundred years. Clearly, the interior is set to rival that of the historic Rhinelander Mansion across the street which has served as Lauren's main flagship for the past 25 years. His ever-expanding product lines began testing the landmarked mansion's space limitations almost as soon as the store opened, and since then, he has managed to slowly assume all of the retail space on both sides of the block of Madison Avenue between 71^st and 72^nd streets —which was still  not enough room. The new building should go a long way to finally allowing him to present something close to the full range of his offerings.

It doesn't look like the store will possibly be ready for Fashion's Night Out less than two weeks away on September, but miracles have been known to happen when it comes to getting stores like this ready on time. If anyone has the resources to pull that off, it's Ralph.

Gay Pride Gets Toned Down On Bleecker This Year

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We haven't done a full survey, but we are pretty sure that the Black Fleece store on Bleecker Street is the only Brooks Brothers location with Gay Pride rainbow flags in its windows (pictured above). We wouldn't actually expect to see them anywhere else. Every year at the end of June, however, several of the stores on Bleecker seem to be in a competition to see who can look extra gay for a few weeks, even if its just a few flags tossed in like Black Fleece has. This year, however, things seem a bit more subdued even as, ironically, gay issues like Don't Ask, Don't Tell and Marriage Equality move to the political forefront. Perhaps last year's exuberance was too much for the increasingly tourist packed crowds shopping on Bleecker.

Are the multicolored lights on the "R" and "L" in Ralph Lauren's men's shop windows (at left) meant to represent a rainbow? If so, it's a much subtler message than the racks of rainbow polo shirts he has used in season's past, although the mannequins dressed to go right to The White Party, which is pretty gay.

Marc Jacobs, generally the leader in this activity, has settled on a message, "That's so gay! Be proud!" inscribed on the windows of each of his stores (at right). It's a clever subversion of the persistent pejorative use of the word "gay", and though it's much quieter than last year's exuberant graffiti, it's definitely an improvement over the "Rebel Pride" t-shirts from a couple of years ago, which didn't go over so well as we recall.

Newcomer Gant Rugger (at left) joins in with a "Happy Plaid" message (oh, the puns this year!) and polo shirts layered to recall rainbow colors, a solid effort with little window space.

And finally, we're not entirely sure if John Bartlett's new Tiny Tim rainbow tees around the corner in his 7^th Avenue windows (below) are specifically meant for Gay Pride. They feature John's own three-legged dog and mascot, and a portion of their proceeds go to the North Shore Animal League, but aesthetically, they fit the theme, so we'll give him credit for double duty in the West Village. 

Previously,
Ralph, Marc & Bloomingdale's Commemorate As Gay Pride Hits Middle Age
Can Marc Jacobs Make The Rainbow Flag Chic?

Ralph Lauren To Take Replay Corner

Today's WWD informs us that the 8,000 square foot bi-level store at 109 Prince Street has been leased to Ralph Lauren for a store set to open this Fall. Replay quietly vacated its longtime home there in February after its landlord bought out the remainder of its lease. No specific concept has been announced for the store, but it's worth noting that there is already a sizable Ralph Lauren men's and women's boutique on West Broadway between Spring and Broome Streets that has never comfortably settled into its loftlike location, often using curtains to shrink and expand the selling space at the back of the store when needed. The new space across Greene Street from the Apple Store is described as a "flagship" space. Could Polo be moving its premium lines to a larger but more suitably configured space, or will the store be turned into a giant Rugby emporium? The new space is also outfitted with a café on the lower level. Could a Lauren restaurant like the one connected to the designer's enormous Chicago Flagship be in the works? There is already a RRL Shop at Prince and Mott Streets in NoLita, but it's unlikely that Lauren would fill the a large store with only that focused denim concept, so let the speculation begin...

Polo Settles Class-Action Case with Calif. Workers (WWD)

Halloween Windows Report: Thrills & Chills On Bleecker Street

Lots of Bleecker Street's stores make an extra effort for Halloween windows, but it basically comes down to a battle between Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs to see who can concoct the spookiest display.
Ralph has the edge, of course, with four separate shops on the street to Marc's three (for now), but his sensibility leans more toward the genteel, with a Miss Havisham look in his women's store, and a more conceptual mannequin factory for the men. The obvious comparison would be the dueling side-by-side Great Pumpkin displays in both designers' children's stores. We'll call that one a draw.
We were a bit more repulsed by the pair of explorers in Ralph's RRL shop (below) who appear to have sat down one day a century ago and never gotten up, but they still had that pristine hyperstyled Polo Shop look despite their lack of flesh.
In contrast, Marc has mostly eschewed the idea of showing merchandise in his windows, turning his women's Marc by Marc windows into a dark, grisly swamp complete with animated ghouls emerging from the sludge —too dark, unfortunately for us to successfully photograph. It was, however, the Marc by Marc Accessories shop (pictured above) that impressed us the most with a simple concept executed perfectly: Heaps of skulls and bones neatly arranged as a macabre wall covering with a warning clearly posted at eye level. "Stop. You are entering the valley of the shadow of death..." Simple, to the point and yet really, really gross.
Match goes to Jacobs.

Ralph, Marc & Bloomingdale's Commemorate As Gay Pride Hits Middle Age

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It has become traditional as June wears on for Bleecker Street's boutiques to give a nod to the West Village's traditional but slowly vanishing character. This year, the 1969 Stonewall riots, which started the modern Gay Rights movement and took place only a few blocks from Bleecker, hit their big 40^th anniversary.
Marc Jacobs, for one, has typically recognized Gay Pride, and this year he has festooned his women's and Accessory stores with rainbow graffiti and slogans. Thankfully, it appears that he has avoided revisiting last year's poorly received "Rebel Pride" t-shirt.

Now that he has even more Bleecker frontage, Ralph Lauren has upgraded his displays from the clever but spare racks of Polo shirts arranged in rainbow formation he has used in recent years. This year, he has added a more dynamic window design promoting a $10 "Live Colorful" tote bag his stores are selling to benefit the Hetrick Martin Institute. The bags read "I Kiss Girls" or "I Kiss Boys" depending on whom you feel like kissing (presumably, bisexuals will be encouraged to buy both).

Interestingly, the most respectful commemoration is not in the West Village, but a neighborhood away in SoHo, where Bloomingdale's has installed windows specifically referencing the uprisings that began at the Stonewall Inn. Mannequins free of merchandise depicting a retro Christopher Street scene are affectionately styled as West Village stereotypes (OK, the Madonna t-shirt is slightly less retro, but entirely appropriate) recalling some of the recently republished photographs of the riots including a protesting drag queen carrying a placard with her rebel cry:

We are the Stonewall Girls
We wear our hair in curls!
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!

Silly, yes, but still apparently effective.
Marc Jacobs 385 & 403-405 Bleecker Street
Ralph Lauren 381 & 383 Bleecker Street, West Village
Bloomingdale's 504 Broadway, SoHo

Today In Renovations: Ralph Lauren Gets A New Look At Bloomingdale's

The revamped Men's Department at Bloomingdale's is almost finished, and a major component was revealed last week as a new shop-in-shop for Ralph Lauren made its début. The cluttery, sprawling Polo shop that lived in the store's basement had been one of the designer's largest in-store boutiques anywhere, and sported a combination of his "country store" look and the more elegant ornate dark wood décor that was originally inspired by his Rhinelander Mansion flagship at Madison Avenue and 72^nd Street that opened more than 20 years ago.
These styles have been dutifully duplicated in department stores and Polo Shops countless times in the ensuing years, so when it was time to redo the space at Bloomingdale's, a refreshing left turn was taken that could signal a sweeping new look for Lauren at retail. The space has been moved south the the 59^th street side of the floor, and an exclusive, exterior entrance is being built. Gone are the elaborate carvings and oriental carpets. There is still lots of wood, but now it's present in sleek, modern panels accented with brushed steel and stone floors. The product, meticulously placed as always by Polo's roving team of merchandisers, once carefully tucked and squeezed into every available crevice and garnished with all manner of vintage gear is now allowed room to breathe on shelves and tables where customers can actually examine and handle it without disturbing an artfully composed display. Reportedly, the new look is based on a recently opened Ralph Lauren store in Moscow, though it ironically recalls the second, more contemporary Madison Avenue flagship (once known as Polo Sport) across from the Mansion that was demolished last year to make room for a larger, more typical Edwardian style building being constructed to serve as a Women's store. Regardless of the inspiration, it's a welcome update from what had become a clichéd visual style. Also gone is the word "Polo" from the signage, which now reads simply "Ralph Lauren". While the word naturally remains on labels, the space now includes the designer's more contemporary and expensive Black Label men's line, a new addition since the renovation. Clearly, the more modern upper brand is now setting the pace.
In other Bloomingdale's news, The street level renovations have been completely finished only to reveal that much of what was once the Men's Store has been given over to Women's jewelry and accessories! Presumably, the lost space will be recovered downstairs when Ralph's former digs (now behind plywood) are reconfigured to flow with the rest of the department. For now, underwear and pajamas exist uneasily next to designer sportswear lines.
Also new is a main floor boutique for fabled British shirtmaker Turnbull & Asser which the store is touting as the label's first in-store shop at an American department store.
Uh, yeah, if you conveniently forget about the one that Bergdorf Goodman operated for decades before the company opened its own shop on 57^th street.
Oops.
Or is Bergdorf's not a department store anymore?
Ralph Lauren Men's at Bloomingdale's, 1000 Third Avenue at 59^th Street, East Side