The Shophound

COLLABORATION ANTICIPATION: VANE x Sebago Get Conceptual On The Lower East Side

Last week, the creative collective VANE and the super-classic shoe brand Sebago unveiled "Dark Forrest", the latest effort from their four-year old collaboration now being showcased at its own concept shop. If you are wondering what kind of common ground the two seemingly disparate entities could find, then look no further than Rivington Street, where the five piece collection is on display along with a few specially chosen pieces from Sebago's regular collection and a vintage selection of designer sunglasses and Rolex watches.

While the line retails for a bit more than Sebago's famous Docksides boat shoes, the prices remain relatively accessible, topping out at $220 for the decidedly non-preppy, multi-strapped "Ridgeline" boot (pictured below), which takes the traditional handsewn look in a much more street savvy direction. Other styles mix canvas, suede and even patent leather in ways that effortlessly bridge the New England and Lower East Side sensibilities. Wear them right now or save 'em for the Fall.

VANE x Sebago Concept Store 125 Rivington Street between Essex & Norfolk Streets, Lower East Side

More images after the jump

FOOTWEAR UPDATE: J.D.Fisk's Boot Solution

There is no way around it. We are in the middle of a boot season. Guys who used to be able to get away with a consistent uniform of sneakers are finding themselves rolling up their jeans to show off and even tuck into a pair of smart, weathered lace-up boots.
The only problem?
There are an abundance of options out there, but such boots are not cheap. What's a guy to do when Rag & Bone's seeemingly perfect version is over $500 even though they are made in CHINA?

It's a predicament to be sure, but the new label J.D. Fisk has come to save the day for your ankles. Last month the baby brother of popular women's brand Dolce Vita opened its own outpost on Ludlow Street just below Stanton. It's a compact little shop, befitting the Lower East Side, but it's got just enough space for a well edited, classic selection plus a few extras. Better yet, pretty much nothing is over $300. Considering the rugged quality of the products is a fair investment for a pair of tall, lace-up boots or, for the adventurous, a spiral zipped roper-style in black roughout suede.

There are also a few oxfords and loafers for the preppy-minded, and to round things out, bags and belts from downtown favorite Billykirk. Made in Mexico (hey, at least it's on this continent) J.D. Fisk's boots are sturdy enough to last well beyond the current trends, by which time they should be perfectly broken in.

J.D. Fisk 159½ Ludlow Street between Santon & Rivington Streets, Lower East Side

Left to right: the Caleb $289, the Franklin $198, the Cooper $279

SPOT CHECK: Freeman's Sporting Club Gets Refined

The Shophound found ourself on the Lower East Side yesterday, and realized that we hadn't visited the original Freeman's Sporting Club store on Rivington Street for a couple of years. Even though they have a new branch on the more often traveled Bleecker Street, we thought we would stop in for a fresh look at the original as the trend for arcana of all sorts in menswear that the store/barber shop has helped fuel has reached a peak this season.

Here's what we liked:

• The hand-tailored suits made from dead-stock British fabrics —Freeman's signature product— actually look better than ever. We remembered them as looking self-consciously vintage-y, heavy and old fashioned, but they seem to have shifted to more subtle, lighter and more classic fabrics for a more contemporary but still elegant look. There are also smartly styled Harris Tweed sportcoats with just enough detail to be interesting without looking like you have just arrived from a pheasant hunt in the English countryside.
• Shoes! There are still Quoddy handsewn moccasin styles to be had but F.S.C. has added a small but exclusive ready made selection of limited edition shoes from the formerly custom-only bootmaker E.Vogel, one of the city's best kept secrets. Sure, they're $825, but in the world of handmade men's shoes, that's actually surprisingly reasonable
• As men's stores all over the city have gone hog-wild for lumberjack plaids, Freeman's has gone subdued. Of course, there are plenty of flannel shirts, but the patterns and colors are subtler and more sophisticated than we remembered, and will likely still look good when fashion's fascination turns away from foresters toward the next archetype.
• Freeman's has remained true to its "Buy Local - Made In The U.S.A." ethos. Now hat the company is growing, they haven't suddenly shifted production offshore. It's nice to know that when investing in quality merchandise of a certain price range, you are also supporting skilled artisans, many of whom whom work less than a borough away.

And here's what we didn't love:

• Typically, The Shophound likes to browse in peace. We don't mind being acknowledged, but we, and most people we know, find excessive fussing annoying. However, one would think that when trying on an $1,860 coat, a salesperson might check and make sure we had the right size, or even point us in the direction of the mirror —You know, make the most marginal effort to try and sell us something that we appear interested in.
  Or not.
  Just go back to your Blackberry. We're sure that's much more important.

So overall, the pros far outweigh the cons, and Freeman's Sporting Club is not only holding up well, but seems to be evolving and possibly transcending its niche. They should be around for a while —as long as they step up that service.

Freeman's Sporting Club 8 Rivington Street between Bowery & Chrystie Streets, Lower East Side
and 327 Bleecker Street at Christopher Street, West Village

IS THIS THE END OF THE HIPSTER? Orchard Street's BBlessing To Close

What does it say about the Lower East Side that one of its premier retailers is abruptly closing? Influential Orchard Street menswear shop BBlessing's end-of-season clearance has turned into a Store Closing Sale as the boutique shuts its doors forever on Saturday. Is this some sort of signal that the retail revival on Orchard Street and its environs is in decline or is it just a blip?

Aside from its own brand, BBlessing also promoted labels like Surface to Air, April 77, Rag & Bone and emerging companies like Fingers Crossed, Timo Weiland and Lova.

We're not sure if it's a landlord dispute or just tough business that has sunk the boutique and its unique blend of preppy and Goth-lite, and we are not yet clear if its brand will somehow live on as a label to be sold in other stores. Hopefully, the store's young proprietors will re-emerge sometime soon, but for now, Orchard Street will have another void in the block just below Houston Street.

In the meantime, what's left of the store's stock will be on sale from 60% to 90% off, although we're not sure of their usual Saturday evening drinks and music will be so festive this week.

BBlessing 181 Orchard Street at Houston Street through 7/31
BBlessing Closing Shop at 181 Orchard Street (Bowery Boogie via Racked)

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Denim Arcana Edition

This week's Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica documents his descent into the denimhead cult from which few have been known to return. No more pre-washed, whiskered denim for him! Seven for All Mankind? Citizens of Humanity? Feh! It's authentic unwashed denim from here on out.

He starts off innocently enough with a pair of vintage style raw denim Levi's 501s, the denim gateway drug. His search for a proper chainstitched hem leads him inevitably to Self Edge, the Lower East Side denim specialists who will shorten your jeans the right way for a mere $25. (For the record, Earnest Sewn will also hem with a chain stitch, but we are pretty sure they will only alter or repair Earnest Sewn jeans). Of course, now he has walked into the lion's den where the prices escalate exponentially as the tiniest details become more obscure and so ever more captivating.

The wall of jeans at Barneys New York may be overwhelming, and the struggle between 511s and 514s at the Levi’s store might make for a momentary distraction, but Self Edge, with its selection consisting largely of micro-variations on a theme, forced existential grappling: Am I articulate enough to make an appropriate selection, and then properly pull it off?

Yes, it turns out he is and winds up with a pair of $350 Iron Heart jeans made of 21 oz. denim which is almost like wearing pants made of plywood. We congratulate him on his entry into the exclusive circle of enlightened jeans wearers, but we must warn him about the chafing. That breaking in period has got to be a bitch and a half.

Critical Shopper | Self Edge: Denim for a City That Takes a Tough Hide by John Caramanica (NYTimes)
Self Edge 157 Orchard Street at Rivington Street, Lower East Side

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Edgy Linen Edition

For most of his Critical Shopper tasks, newbie Jon Caramanica has kept pretty close to the middle of the road. Even though his few outings so far have run from Hermès to American Eagle Outfitters, he had not yet tiptoed over to the more adventurous side of men's fashion —until now. This week's Thursday Styles has him visiting Assembly New York and its nearby pop-up sibling The Key Shop which is featuring designer Robert Geller, apparently in desperate search of linen. Never mind that true linen season is still about twelve weeks away (never before Memorial Day!), a few warm days and everyone thinks it's July already.
Rather than heading for safer ground, Jon winds up at the more directional Assembly on Ludlow Street where we find him perusing the more challenging likes of Chronicles of Never, 0044 and Veronique Branquinho for Repetto. So he's been faking us out. While he would have you think he is shopping at Dave's New York for surplus and Red Wing Boots, he's really had his eye on —

a black shirt with a long rolling cotton scarf buttoned to the collar ($318). It’s removable, but only by a fool: the pairing is artful, the stiffness of the linen softened by the flow of the scarf and its flexibility. It can hang loose, almost reaching the knee, be wrapped around the neck in a hive, or flattened out and worn like a hood, the riskiest and most majestic choice.

Well that's the kind of look that might get you beat up at Dave's. Caraminica's been holding out on us. There's a more rarefied sensibility here than we had originally guessed. We'll be interested to see what happens if he makes his way to even more adventurous locales like Atelier, or possibly Rick Owens.
Critical Shopper | Assembly New York: Linen, Kindly and Cruel by Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Assembly New York 174 Ludlow Street between Houston and Stanton Streets
The Key Shop 129 Rivington Street between Essex and Norfolk Streets

Jeans On The L.E.S: Self Edge Artisan Denim Lands On Orchard Street

As reported, San Francisco denim boutique Self Edge opened its Lower East Side location on schedule last Friday right next door to Orchard Corset, and if you think New York has already seen the last word in jeans, then think again.
Anyone heading down to Orchard Street looking for a pair of comfortably washed and lovingly hand distressed dungarees should keep on walking down the street to Earnest Sewn for one of their (perfectly respectable) myriad washes. Self Edge is for hard-core denim aficionados, and by hard-core, we mean hard denim. The jeans here are raw and heavy, with their selvage side seams intact. We saw a pair by Iron Heart made from 23 oz. denim so stiff that the pants standing up by themselves was a foregone conclusion, much like some of the foundation garments at the store next door. Cardboard-like would be a fitting description, and we can only imagine with horror the chafing and abrasion that would accompany the extended breaking in period these pants might demand. This pair, however, was an extreme example of Self Edge's merchandise, most of which is much more easy to wear, but the fashion story here is basic and rugged. Though there are several jeans brands represented here including Flat Head and Sugar Cane, you probably haven't heard of any of them. They are mostly independent niche brands dedicated to preserving artisanal manufacturing techniques, and not contrived design, so the basic five-pocket style with minimal decorative stitching is the standard here. You'll have to bedazzle them on your own.
Of course, even without all the extra finishing processes, many of the jeans at Self Edge still hit the $300 mark and then some, but the store has more than just jeans including lots of shirts in typical vintage and western inspired stripes and checks, and a few shoe styles made for 3sixteen by cult bootmaker Quoddy. There is even a rack of belts in sturdy leather with heavy brass buckles waiting to be broken in along with your jeans, as well as a burgeoning private label line.
Dedicated to keeping the experience complete, Self Edge will be receiving a vintage chainstitching machine in the next few weeks to make all alterations consistent with the styles in the store.
As you may have figured, the concept here is 'break them in yourself", meaning wearing jeans unwashed for several months so that all the little whisker marks and worn patches that will appear after the first washing are made by your own body and activity instead of a machine somewhere. Sometimes it's hard to convince people that (as long as you wear underwear!) it's perfectly fine not to wash jeans very often as long as they are aired out regularly and don't get heavily soiled. The end result is better fitting jeans with distressing that matches (and flatters) your own body. Trust us, we were converted by our first pair of Nudies, and if that doesn't convince you, think of the environmental benefit of forgoing all the chemicals and wash cycles that go into creating the stacks of denim at Seven For All Mankind.
Self Edge 157 Orchard Street at Rivington Street, Lower East Side
Previously: Denim Forecast: San Francisco Jeans Experts Heading East?

MIke Albo Goes Shopping: Bargain District Edition

This week's Thursday styles has Critical Shopper Mike Albo taking on not just one store, but an entire hipsterized neighborhood as he explores what he has identified as "the summer’s stylish hot spot". BelDel is identified as the stretch of Orchard Street between Delancey and Canal Streets, begging the question: Is it really necessary to continually micro-subdivide our neighborhoods with little nicknames and contractions? Is 'Lower East Side' not descriptive enough?
Perhaps the area needs to be differentiated from the other four blocks of Orchard Street (not a particularly long thoroughfare in its entirety) whose historical significance continues to be demolished away with glassy new buildings.
Anyway, Mike shops his way through a series of independent boutiques ranging from the arcane denim nostalgist to the scrappy DIY designer to the avant-garde European menswear boutique, all of which are waaay more expensive than the kind of stores that originally made Orchard Street famous. They apparently are too expensive for Mike, too.

I tried a pair of Manchester denim shorts ($198). They fit snugly, with nicely narrow legs and rolled-up cuffs. From the waist down, I looked like the subject of a Helen Levitt photo. From the waist up, I looked like a pathetic freelance writer who couldn’t afford them.

Just like Orchard Street, one half of Mike is now clearly and definitively differentiated from the other.
Critical Shopper: A Neighborhood for Aspirations By Mike Albo (NYTimes) including:
Amoskeag XX 96 Orchard Street between Delancey and Broome Streets
Project No. 8b 38 Orchard Street at Hester Street
By Robert James 75 Orchard Street between Grand and Broome Streets

Mike Albo Goes Shopping: Washing Away Green Guilt Edition

In today's Critical Shopper column, MIke Albo crystallizes the challenge of maintaining environmental responsibility in the modern age:

When I do my whites at the laundromat, I mix my expensive Seventh Generation detergent with toxic but affordable Clorox bleach. I may as well just slap a puppy. I try so hard to be a good citizen of the planet, but I am a murderer of the earth in so many casual ways.

Have we not all been there?
We will even admit to occasionally being just too darn lazy to unfold the re-usable shopping bag stowed in our messenger bag at the grocery counter. And, let's face it, the barrage of green and environmentally conscious products thrown at us can sometimes make us wonder of it all isn't just a ply to get us to pay a few dollars more for toilet paper or hand soap —a few dollars most of us don't have to spare these days.
To that end, Mike has visited Green Depot's newest location on the Bowery for the Thursday Styles. We will admit to not having visited this place yet, mostly because the idea still makes us think of grungy 1970's era health food stores. We know we are wrong, but we can't help it. The Shophound is a fancypants. Duh.
Now, thanks to Mike's investigation, it is at the top of out "To visit" list, because we really do care, and we have found that the environmentally conscious products we do use are just as effective, if not more so than conventional ones (hello, Method dish soap). What we don't like is actual cleaning, but that's a different story. We have not yet been sold on the idea of countertop composting. There will be no $89.95 3-Tray Worm Factories for us, at least not yet. Perhaps this is because our available countertop space is roughly the size of our laptop screen, but, hey, baby steps.
Critical Shopper | Green Depot: An Environmental Cleanup in Every Aisle By Mike Albo (NYTimes)
Green Depot Live 222 Bowery between Prince & Spring Streets, Lower East Side

Today In Pop-UpsReebok Finds Its Moment

It's been a long struggle for Reebok to regain the cachet it held during its 1980s heyday. There was a moment back then, when the only way to exercise was an aerobics class, and the only thing to wear with your cobalt blue and black striped leotard and tights was a set of spanking white Reebok high-tops. The Shophound was obviously but a zygote at the time...but we've heard about it.
Since then, Reebok has slid down a rung or two in the Sneaker Pecking Order as Puma and Adidas ascended during the '90s while Nike seemed to release one classic collector's style after another. Adidas (now Reebok's corporate parent) in particular has been able to mine its considerable archives to take advantage of the seemingly endless '70s revival. As the inevitable '80s revival gathers steam, Reebok is taking a page from its Teutonic owner and reminding everyone of its Golden Moment with the Flash Pop-Up store strategically located on the hipster heavy Bowery.
Once inside, you can marvel at the way the folks at Reebok have meticulously recreated what appears to be the set of a Debbie Gibson video, or maybe one from Wang Chung. If Sheena Easton had appeared shimmying around a graphically painted corner in leg warmers and an asymmetrical hairdo, it wouldn't have been remotely surprising. As we walked in, the sound system was even pumping an updated cover of that mid '80s masterpiece, Sheila E.'s "The Glamorous Life".
Sadly, not very many others were enjoying the moment, and it's possible that this stretch of the Bowery near Broome Street was still home to a few too many of the fabled street's more typical denizens to attract the desired style conscious population. And by "more typical denizens" we mean drunken bums. Oh, sure -we're probably not supposed to use that terminology anymore, but, you know, if the inebriated stupor fits...
Anyway, damned if some of those shoes aren't starting to look good again. Unfortunately, there's only a few more days to enjoy this charming time warp which will close on Sunday, December 14th. If you miss it, be warned: the '80s are coming back, and Rebook is ready for 'em in all their neon glory.
Reebok Flash Pop-Up Through December 14, 169 Bowery between Delancey & Broome Streets, Lower East Side.