The Shophound

FAST FASHION MALL MOVES: H&M Officially Set For Columbus Circle

The deal has been long rumored, but yesterday it was officially announced that H&M would be taking over one third of the vacated Border's space and all of the former Samsung Experience store on the second and third floors at the Shops at Columbus Circle in Time Warner Center. The chain's first entry into the Upper West Side neighborhood will cover a sizable 21,000 square feet, and include women's, including lingerie, underwear and accessories; clothing for children ranging from newborns up to kids age eight and men’s which will have a separate, dedicated entrance on the center's third level, as seen in the rendering pictured above. The store is bound to add some excitement to the urban mall, not only helping to resolve the big hole left by the demise of Border's, but also bringing some much needed traffic and attention to the third level where, let's face it, Samsung's non-selling concept product showcase was never exactly a ball of fire.

Kenneth Himmel, chief executive officer of Related Urban, the developer of The Shops at Columbus Circle tells WWD to expect more changes at what has become one of Manhattan's most successful enclosed shopping mall. “Going forward, the ground level will move in much more of a luxury direction,” he says, as 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of space is expected to become available there in the next couple of years. Ultimately, the objective will be to have a mix of luxury and mass brands not unlike what one currently finds on Fifth Avenue in Midtown. Given the location and the well mixed customer base around Columbus Circle, it sounds like a spot-on strategy.

H&M to Join Shops at Columbus (WWD)

COMING SOON: Bleecker Street Getting Maison Martin Margiela's Diffusion Boutique MM➅

There aren't too many spaces left on Bleecker Street for new entrants these days, but the departure of the long running gallery, A Clean Well Lighted Place, makes room for Maison Martin Margiela to move in with a boutique devoted to the brand's MM➅ collection. Fashion journalist Jim Shi's TwitPic above has (along with anyone walking down Bleecker Street) tipped off the magical interwebs that the store will be opening "soon", with an official date sure to follow. With the main Margiela boutique not far away on Greenwich Street it makes sense that the brand would choose Bleecker as it is shifting from a designer enclave into a street for various diffusion and contemporary brands like Ralph Lauren's Rugby and RRL labels, Burberry Brit and, of course, Marc by Marc Jacobs. It also signals an effort from the characteristically cryptic house of Margiela that plans may be underfoot for a more aggressive rollout of stores devoted to the brand's less expensive divisions, but a look at the company website will remind anyone that things at Margiela are never as simple as they might seem.

@jimshi809 (Twitter)
Maison Martin Margiela's MM6 Line Is Coming to Bleecker Street (RACKED)

COLLABORATION ANTICIPATION: Target's First Retailer Collaboration With THE WEBSTER Is Unveiled

The first phase of TARGET's new designer collaboration concept, The Shops at Target, was unveiled yesterday afternoon as the first images of the mass retailer's team-up with the exclusive Miami Beach boutique The Webster flew around the magical interwebs. The chain's new concept is to collaborate with influential stores rather than designers to add excitement to Target's big-box merchandise mix, and while initially, it was hard to figure out exactly how this would translate, the new photos look promising. The 122-piece collection features a range of products for Men, Women and Children including shoes and accessories with a breezy, summery look and just enough tropical pattern to remind you of Miami without looking like you have been imprisoned on some Polynesian island. it was created in tandem with The Webster co-founder and CEO Laure Heriard Dubreuil who translated the boutique's "beachy and chic, yet luxurious" aesthetic to fit target's under $50 price points. Refinery 29 and GQ have previews of the men's and women's lines, and if you want to pore over the entire collection, head on over to the Huffington Post for an extensive slide show of the whole shebang including items that will be available online only. The Webster for The Shops at Target drops on May 6th, so be prepared. We can't be sure if this project will cause an Missoni-like frenzy, but with the way things have been going, you can't be too early.

First Look: The Webster at Target (The GQ Eye)
YES: The Webster For Target Is Here And We're Giving It Away! (Refinery 29)
The Webster's New Target Collection Hits Bullseye (Huffington Post)

COLLABORATON ANTICIPATION: Macy's Next Capsule Comes from Calvin Klein... Who Already Sells To Macy's

Macy's designer collaboration program has taken an odd twist with the announcement that Calvin Klein will be the next label to join forces with the immense retailer.
Wait, doesn't Macy's stock racks and racks of Calvin Klein in its stores already?
Yes and no.

While the roster of designers who have participated in Macy's capsule collections over the past year has mostly been made up of designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Alberta Ferretti and Giambattista Valli among others whose price points are well above the chain's moderate parameters, this capsule of dresses (sketches are pictured above) will be from the brand's Francisco Costa designed Collection division. Costa's work usually features price tags running as much as ten times this line's $135 to $180 price points. In addition, this project appears to be separate from Macy's previous collaboration program which has been done as part of the store's Impulse contemporary department. This special line will be presented as part of the upcoming storewide promotion, “A Magical Journey to Brasil”. The Brazilian-born Costa will be representing his home country, and WWD reports that the labels and hangtags will read "Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein" marking the first time the designer's name has been featured next to Calvin Klein's in this way.

The rest of the brand's products won't be left out of the mix, however. Kevin Carrigan, who oversees the rest of Calvin Klein's non-Collection lines, will be creating exclusive products for men and women under the brand's moderately priced main label and underwear lines.

The promotion which begins next month will feature exclusive Brazilian and Brazilian-inspired products throughout the store over the course of two months in a manner reminiscent of country-specific promotions that were a regular feature at Bloomingdale's and Neiman Marcus in decades past. Costa's dresses will be released on May 15th.

Francisco Costa to Do Calvin Klein Capsule Line for Macy's (WWD)

BACK IN THE BLACK: Where Will Versace's Flagship Land In SoHo?

Yesterday's WWD featured a lengthy article about Gianni Versace SpA's return to profitability. Slipped in among accounts of the many business maneuvers that restored the brand's ever-teetering fortunes was the news that among several new stores planned for the newly flush brand, a Versace flagship store would open in SoHo in June or July. It's the first we have heard of such a store, which is remarkable since it is scheduled to open in three or four months. The mystery is where this store will be. Prince Street? Spring Street? Mercer, Greene or Wooster? We're all ears.

Versace Swings to Profit, Sets Expansion (WWD)
Versace (Official Site)

FRENCH IMPORTS: Insert Maison Kitsuné Here

It's still in a strangely grungy part of town on the edge of the Floral and Garment Districts, but that won't stop the pricey French preppy emporium Maison Kitsuné from planting its first U.S. outpost on the corner of Broadway and 28th Street. It will be the featured store in the NoMad Hotel, and despite the building's understated elegance, the neighborhood around it is still very much "In Transition". Yes, there is Opening Ceremony in the Ace Hotel just a block north (which, not surprisingly, carries Kitsuné), as well as a few upscale lounges and the tempting comfort food extravaganza that is Hill Country Chicken a couple of blocks away, but there are still several off-price perfume stores and other similarly seedy retail establishments remaining in the neighborhood reminding passersby that it is still something of a no-man's land. The question is, will the dual powers of NoMad and Ace Hotels and Opening Ceremony with Maison Kitsuné be enough to turn the neighborhood into the next Meatpacking District? And will people bitch and moan the whole time while the neighborhood is being turned into the next Meatpacking District? Probably, because that is what's happening, and that's what people do. If this grand real estate plan works out, those unloved perfume and tchotchke stores will inevitably be gone sooner or later, making way for more appropriate neighbors for the charming shop that Kitsuné is building (see renderings below).

If you don't think that Kitsuné will be sufficiently luxe enough to accelerate the shift in the neighborhood's character, consider that GQ told us this week that the venerable Parisian men's shoe brand J.M Weston will be making a special version of their classic 180 Loafer in a mix of smooth and pebble grain leathers exclusively for the store. Well, if a few dusty off-brand shops have to bite the dust, we'll all have to look the other way. There are some more sweet shoes to be had.

Exclusive Sneak Peek: Maison Kitsune Comes to New York (The GQ Eye)
Kitsuné Journal (Official Site)

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LOVE AND WAR: What Kind Of C.Wonder Will We Be Seeing At Columbus Circle This Fall?

Chris Burch's new retail concept C.Wonder has gotten all kinds of attention lately. Customers love the well priced preppy looks, but it has not been lost on observers that the new chain bears much more than a passing resemblance to his former wife Tory Burch's brand —and Tory is widely believed to be Not Happy About It.

Anyway, recent weeks have brought word that Mr. Burch has finally stepped down as Co-Chairman of the Board of his ex's company and is said to be looking to divest himself of his shares in the company. Meanwhile, C.Wonder is set to open its second Manhattan unit this Fall in part of the space left empty by Border's at Time Warner Center (above).

But will it look like the chain's first store which opened in SoHo last year? Rumors have the two adversarial former spouses working together to create a greater distinction between the look of the two brands, without resorting to legal action that could be damaging to both the Tory Burch label and the new company run by Mr. Burch. This all makes us curious to find out if the much larger Columbus Circle C.Wonder will look substantially different from the original SoHo version that has caused such a kerfuffle behind the scenes. If it doesn't look different enough, are we in for a round of lawsuits?

Chris Burch Steps Down As Co-Chair of Tory Burch (The Cut)
Previously:
Now Unofficially Open: C.Wonder Launches Glitzy Preppy Style In SoHo (10.21.2011)

THE THING THAT WOULDN'T LEAVE: UGG Australia To Open Madison Avenue Men's Store

We suppose that this was inevitable, but we weren't really looking forward to it. It turns out that UGGs are so popular with male customers, that as a part of the expansion of its store at the corner of Madison Avenue and 58th Street, the brand will open a separate men's store next door. This means that men will no longer have to wait in line to shop at Christmastime, or that there will be two, gender specific lines to get into the store. Either way, crazy.

While it always seems like Uggs are primarily popular among women, the company apparently began making its products in unisex men's sizes, and only began making a women's collection during the 1990s. Hiring The New England Patriots' Tom Brady for an ad campaign last year was a first step in promoting the brand's men's line along with giving critics of the quarterback yet another thing to give him crap for. The store is slated to open sometime this summer, which as all faithful Ugg wearers know, is high season for shealing boots and cutoff shorts. Yeeccch.

UGG Slates Men's-Only Retail Site (Wall Street Journal via Racked)

COLLABORATION ANTICIPATION: Here Are Some New Lookbook Shots Of UNIQLO's UU uniqlo undercover

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The upcoming UU Uniqlo Undercover collaboration with designer Jun Takahashi will hit stores in a couple of weeks, and in The Shophound's slavish tracking of every move the company makes, we discovered that the Japanese chain has revamped the line's web page to include more advertising images and product shots that will give us a better idea of what to expect from the line. This is Uniqlo's big, new, ongoing designer collaboration, so you should expect to see a bigger promotional push starting any day now. The page can be a bit tricky to navigate with a lot of enlarging and double clicking, but it gives us a closer look at the product and provides prices which run from $9.90 to $99.90. It looks like we'll be getting a healthy dose of quirky, casual sportswear with clever details like subtly designed utility pockets for a modern, practical touch. Click the thumbnails above for a better look at some of the new images, and then mark your calendar for Thursday, March 16th when the collection will appear in all three of Uniqlo's New York stores.

UU Uniqlo Undercover (Official Site)
Previously:
UU uniqlo undercover To Hit Stores On March 16

MULTIPLE COLLABORATION ANTICIPATION: GQ's Best New Menswear Designers For 2012 Will Collaborate With The Gap

Now we have something to anticipate at Gap's Fifth Avenue Concept Store later this year when GQ's Best New Menswear Designers for 2012 will each launch capsule collections with the mega-chain. The group of six burgeoning labels were just announced, and what a great group it is, proving that American menswear is experiencing something of an unprecedented talent explosion right now. Last year's group designed a few (sort of expensive!) pieces for Dockers that were sold at Bloomingdales, but this time around the six designers chosen by the magazine will get broader exposure. GQ will pick a winner as the collections come closer to launching, but let's start with The Shophound's favorites —and we do have some in this group:

IAN VELARDI just showed his third collection for his own label, and The Shophound has been smitten since we discovered his debut line of sophisticated but modern and sleek a year ago at Capsule. Barneys loved it too and carries his line exclusively along with Park & Bond online. This unassuming and hardworking young designer put in time at Hickey and Hart, Shaffner & Marx, and essentially operates as a one-man show. That's dedication! He has impeccable taste and also loves cars, which is awesome. We'll wear anything he makes, and we don't care what he turns out for the Gap because we know we are already buying every piece.

MARK MCNAIRY is another designer who could easily lead us around by our nose like the fashion cult leader he has become. He is most well known at the moment for his English made shoe line which established his irreverent sensibility with classic styles. You can thank him for the profusion of suede bucks with neon-colored rubber soles you have been seeing everywhere. He has just launched his full ready-to-wear collection along with showing his third season as the designer for the exclusive Woolrich Woolen Mills label and overseeing collaborations with Bass, Spiewak and Pro-Keds, so this is a very busy man. Don't get mad if he doesn't have time for an extended conversation. Expect to see classic pieces in unexpected materials and patterns like camo, floral, smiley faces or who knows what?

The identical twin brothers Shimon & Ariel Ovadia behind OVADIA & SONS have been dazzling editors and retailers since they debuted their eye-popping soup-to-nuts collection of sportswear, tailored clothing, shoes, furnishings and accessories last year. The Brooklyn based pair come from a family steeped in the garment industry, and their meticulously made collection of classic clothing is infused with a very contemporary no-holds-barred sense of luxury. How will they translate their rarefied point of view for the more democratic Gap?

TODD SNYDER is another editor and retailer's favorite who has taken what he learned at Polo and J.Crew and wrapped it up in a more luxurious and modern package to sell at stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Odin. He has succeeded in separating his own style from those of his previous employers, though this upcoming collaboration presents the interesting circumstance of a former J.Crew designer creating a capsule line for the Gap.

SATURDAYS NYC has also benefitted from exposure at J.Crew, and of all the designers chosen, their own casual style is closest to the Gap's stock in trade. Expect designers Colin Tunstall, Josh Rosen and Morgan Collett to turn out something that goes well with a surfboard.

And finally, BLK DNM founder Johan Lindeberg is not really much of a newcomer having founded the J.Lindeberg label and consulted on a host of other labels, but his new label shows a more refined attitude towards denim and wardrobe basics. His SoHo store just got the Critical Shoppper treatment in the Times, and he has made fans out of musicians and fashion editors. How will he translate his luxury basics back to the masses who shop at the Gap?

Announcing GQ's Best New Designers in America 2012 (GQ.com)
NOTE: All images from GQ.com.