The Shophound

Plywood Alert:,A New Façade For Juicy Couture?

Juicy Couture's upcoming Fifth Avenue flagship has been a long time coming, and it looks like it will be a while more until it opens, as big a plywood covering has only just been installed over the storefront. Will the renovation of the former Mexx flagship be even more extensive than it appeared?
Mexx was itself another repurposing by Liz Claiborne Inc. of the former home of their namesake label, and we are guessing that the generic, middle-of-the-road interior that served those brands adequately just won't cut it for eclectic Juicy. Apparently, neither will the flat glass and stone façade, and it may be taking longer than anyone guessed to transform the space into something suitable for the fast growing contemporary label that Claiborne has pinned its hopes to.
Of course, with Isaac Mizrahi about to take charge of the Liz Claiborne label and John Bartlett introducing the new men's counterpart next Spring, we may be seeing a Claiborne boutique again in Manhattan before long… just somewhere else.
Back on Fifth Avenue, all that plywood can only mean the imminent arrival of potentially obnoxious, billboard-sized Juicy Couture graphics.
We will keep you posted.

Adventures In Overdue Rebranding:Juicy Men's to become Dirty English

The folks at Juicy Couture have finally realized that their men's line has a major stumbling block to overcome: It's called Juicy Couture.
To remedy this problem, the company is transitioning the branding of its men's products to the Dirty English label, taken from Juicy's men's fragrance. The changeover  will be complete by the Spring 2009 season. As the brand's co-founder Gela Nash-Taylor told DNR, “It was always an uphill climb for men’s with a name like Juicy. There was always that one guy that was not going to ever wear anything with a Juicy label in it.”
Only the one?
That guy was certainly The Shophound, and we think there are quite a few more than one. So, apparently do the folks at Liz Claiborne Inc., Juicy's parent company.
Juicy to Rebrand Men’s (DNR)

Monday News Update: Barneys Sold! Juicy to 5th Ave?

• Barneys has finally been sold!
Again.
The troubled Jones Apparel Group has officially uloaded the luxe specialty store chain for $825 million, more than double the $400 million it paid for it only three years ago. The big spender is Istithmar, an investment arm of the Government of Dubai. If they are smart, they will do exactly what Jones did and keep intact the creative and merchandising staff (Simon Doonan, Julie Gilhart etc.) who have hung on through so many ownership changes so customers won't notice any difference. As far as new stores go, now we know there are deep pockets to keep the chain's expansion rolling along. Dubai...don't they, like, grow money over there?

• Our friends over at RACKED tell us that the latest rumor is that Fifth Avenue's giant Mexx store is set to be repaced by a giant, get ready for it...Juicy Couture store!
We know, it's a stunning development. Since Liz Claiborne owns the lease it only makes sense that after they booted a failing brand from their most prominent real estate, that they would replace it with their fastest rising star. The question is just how fast can they burn out this brand in Manhattan? This would be their fourth store opening here in just over a year. Perhaps they discovered that Bleecker Street, for all its exclusivity, is perhaps not the ideal spot for a flagship sized store. Fifth Avenue, however...

Juicy Couture Saturates Manhattan: There Goes the Neighborhood

Juicy Couture is starting to remind us of Megg, that contestant on the last season of America's Next Top Model. For those few of you who don't watch the show, she was a striking brunette who was saddled with unfortunate, voluminous hair extensions that got rattier looking as the season wore on. Good natured Megg had a habit of breaking into a crooked smile and shouting "Rock and roll!" whenever anything made her happy. She was endearing, and a little odd, but you knew she would never make it to the end. Eventually the show broke her down, forcing her to pose as a bearded lady in one of their contrived photo shoots.  Juicy Couture started as a  niche T-shirt and denim collection, then morphed into a velour tracksuit phenomenon, and now thanks to Liz Claiborne Inc. has evolve into a major Contemporary "lifestyle" brand that is poised to go huge, screaming "Rock and roll" all the way. They have opened three high-profile stores in Manhattan in a scant eight months including the one that opened today on Bleecker Street in the former home of the nightclub Hue. This third and final branch in the brand's New York strategy is the largest of the three, and the first one to carry the company's complete product assortment including menswear and a new children's line.

Juicy Couture Unleashes Itself On Lower Fifth

Those pink awnings can only mean one of two things, and since it's not a Pepto-Bismol boutique, then the first of several planned Juicy Couture stores must be open! With pink ribbons and a clothed Abercrombie style sidewalk greeter, this shop, we have learned, is only a small taste, an hors d'oeuvre, if you will, of what we can expect when Manhattan is hit with duelling Juicy flagships on Madison Avenue and Bleecker Street this Fall, with more locations to come. If they have their way, by Christmas the city will be fairly dripping with Juicy.

More after the jump

Karl We Hardly Knew Ya, & Other News

After much fanfare and barely enough time to succeed or fail, Apax Partners, the new owners of Tommy Hilfiger, and thus Karl Lagerfeld have decided to pull the plug on Lagerfeld's eponymous, New York based contemporary collection. Fall, the first full collection, will also be the last. The Prêt-à-Porter collection will continue to be produced and shown in Paris, and we expect that the Kaiser should be able to keep busy with Chanel and Fendi. Having already given the axe to the H-Hilfiger label, we expect Apax will be putting their resources into trying to get people to buy Tommy Hilfiger again. Good luck with that.

Get your tracksuits ready! Juicy Couture is coming to lower Fifth sometime later this month. Expect a big bright "comfy happy and gorgeous" (their words, not ours) store at 103 Fifth Avenue with lots of velour and denim, but hopefully none of that lead-filled jewelry!

Union Square Wines & Spirits has moved because the 4,000 square ft. space is about to become a Puma store, well, at least in time for Christmas. Soon we will be able to bypass the teeming mass of humanity that Broadway below 14th Street has become. Now, if only they will start making our beloved Avantis again.

Heather and Jessica who rule Go Fug Yourself team up to ponder exactly why we are still being assaulted with Jessica Simpson