The Shophound

Cintra Wilson Goes Shopping: Retro-Future Edition

This week's Thursday Styles finds critical shopper Cintra Wilson skipping up Madison Avenue and landing at Lisa Perry's new boutique.
Having breezed past the store a few days ago we can only imagine the custodial efforts needed to keep the the spotless, white shop looking pristine. Wilson goes pretty easy on Perry whose design background appears to consist of a marriage to a "hedge fund bazillionaire".  This would seem to put her square in La Cintra's sights for a healthy skewering, but Perry seems to escape relatively unscathed by virtue of sheer enthusiasm and impressive execution of her Courrèges-inspired vision.
The sixties revival look, however, is clearly not Wilson's cup of tea,

I tried the Puff skirt, a black pleated tennis style with an ivory waistband ($495). I found it to be too puffy for my stick legs, as was the Lady dress ($995), which bubbled out at the hips in a way that made me wonder if Ms. Perry’s designs are built with a ’60s hourglass female body in mind.

Overall, our shopper is less focused on Perry's store this week than she is on other Madison Avenue goings on, ending on a scene in front of the new Diptyque boutique. It is perfumer Frédéric Malle who gets the zinger this week whose new shop is described as "a warm little place with a persimmon love seat and three 'scent chambers,' rather like interoffice personnel mailing tubes, or walk-in bongs, in which one can enjoy truly hard-core perfume huffing."
Doesn't sound so exclusive anymore, does it?
Critical Shopper: Lisa Perry Boutique Is Committed to Its Futuristic Mission by Cintra Wilson (NYTimes)
Lisa Perry 976 Madison Avenue between 76^th & 77^th Streets, Upper East Side

The Window Watcher: Barneys Returns To Holiday Humor

After last few years' well-meaning but ultimately not particularly festive "Green" and "Hippie" themes, Barneys has thankfully rediscovered the funny for its Holiday windows this year —and it's about time!
The 35^th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live" has given the store more than enough material for four big windows, and we can't help but celebrate anyone who would highlight The Coneheads, Father Guido Sarducci, King Tut and our all-time favorite, Roseanne Roseannadanna. Yeah we're old school when it comes to SNL, but there are plenty of familiar characters plucked from throughout the years including Will Ferrell's Janet Reno, Wayne & Garth, Mango, Mary Catherine Gallagher and the maddeningly non-gender specific "Pat", all rendered in the store's signature papier-mâché.

Click HERE for a complete slideshow of all four Madison Avenue windows

Madison Avenue Additions: Burberry Launches A Midtown Double Header

Today at 9 AM Burberry will double its retail presence in New York with not one but two shiny new stores on the ground floor of its newly christened American headquarters on Madison Avenue between 49^th and 50^th Streets.
You would think that two well placed boutiques in Manhattan would be enough for an international luxury brand like Burberry, but a pair of 1,500 square foot shops open and available in the building that houses its home base (coupled, no doubt, with favorably slumping retail rents in the neighborhood) proved too appealing of an opportunity to pass up. While neither shop is a flagship, each one will showcase a facet of the brand. One is devoted solely to the most popular and commercial Burberry London label, but it's the other that may attract more interest. It will feature Burberry Brit, a younger sportier label (once known in Europe as "Thomas Burberry") that has been mostly unavailable at retail in the U.S. until now, and possibly serve as a beachhead for a more expansive rollout of the collection.
We haven't been inside yet, but for the first few days, we are counting on there being lots of anxious Burberry executives on hand —mainly because their offices are right upstairs. At the very least, everyone should be on their best behavior.
Burberry Brit & Burberry London 444 Madison Avenue between 49^th and 50^th Streets, Midtown

Upcoming Imports:Fast Shirts From Italy Coming To Madison Avenue

Get used to pronouncing Camicissima.
This Italian chain is taking over The Body Shop's former corner at 509 Madison at 53^rd in midtown for its North American début. The no-nonsense store sells only shirts and ties at affordable prices. Calling itself the Zara of the men’s shirt business, the shop is aiming to bring fast fashion to New York businessmen selling four cotton shirts for $99.90, and three silk ties for $39.90. It almost sounds too good to be true, but we will only have to wait a few weeks to see just what kind of quality we get for those rock bottom prices. The store is set to open on November 27^th, the day after Thanksgiving. At the very least, it should be a godsend to young, entry-level executives who need to build up a wardrobe for work.

Included in WWD's story on Madison Avenue's newest entry to is a hint that retail rents are easing up considerably. Liberio Romano, managing director of Camicissima’s U.S. operations tells the paper, “We thought it would be two years before we came to the U.S., but the rents are down and we saw the opportunity to come into an expensive market.” The chain's goal is to become bigger in the U.S. than they are at home in Italy, and at those prices, it's looking entirely possible to achieve.
Italian Shirtmaker to Open First U.S. Store (WWD)
Camicissima (Official Site)

Mystery Solved: Track & Field Explained On Madison

Last week we noticed that a new athletic store called Track & Field was opening on upper Madison Avenue in the same block as Missoni. Naturally we thought that this was an unusually posh location for what looked like a runner's shop, especially one we had never heard of and couldn't find any information about. They usually migrate further east to more prosaic climates on Lexington or Third.
A helpful Shophound reader has come to the rescue!
Track & Field is, according to our tipster, "a very cool Brazilian fitness store".
Sorry, that's all we got, but if you can read Portuguese, you can find out more at their website HERE, and feel free to pass on the translated information.
We're kind of intrigued, because if anyone can make running gear sexy and appealing, it's the Brazilians, right? After all, look what they did for bathing suits.
Track & Field (Official Site)
Previously:
East Side Bounces Back:Madison Avenue Gets Ready For Newcomers

East Side Bounces Back: Madison Avenue Gets Ready For Newcomers

We have all been watching some favorite stores' departures, leaving some prominent gaps high profile locations like Madison Avenue over the past year, but now that rents fallen accordingly,  new settlers have come to fill at least some of that conspicuously empty space.
Above, see Brunello Cucinelli's future home at 683 Madison, a prime location once occupied by Ghurka, which is now ensconced in the basement of the Plaza Hotel. We always thought the Italian cashmere expert was far better suited to this uptown shopping strip than to its debut location on Bleecker street (though that store will remain). It is not far from Devi Kroell's shocking pink plywood which should be unveiled later this fall.
At the corner of 67^th and Madison, Creed fragrances will be returning to the Manhattan retail scene after a moderate absence. Though touted as the perfumer's first freestanding American boutique, sharp-eyed shoppers will remember that Creed had stores here not very long ago that were converted to Bond no.9 shops by its American distributor, who wound up going into business for itself and jettisoning the Parisian brand. This new store would appear to be company owned.
Further up Madison, the block between 77^th and 78^th Streets is getting two new additions.
In&Out is a Swiss beauty company that promotes a holistic "inside and outside" beauty regime including combinations of nutritional supplements, essential oils and cosmetics. They will be launching in the U.S. with their first freestanding boutique at 1007 Madison right next to Missoni.
A few doors down the block, signs point to "The Track & Field Store" which certainly sounds like an unlikely addition to the posh Upper East Side —unless pale-vaulting has suddenly become the latest fitness craze without anyone telling us (or maybe it's running underwater, as the slick signs in the windows would suggest). There is less information to be found about this venture, so if anyone out there knows more about it, drop us a line.

Today In Visual Display: Barneys Does Homeless? Really?

Is this a self referential display mocking Barneys' continually rumored financial instability? We think not.
Usually, the OMG blog is focused on what celebrities are naked/fat/drunk on any given day, but one of their editors has a sharp eye for the offensive, and snapped the above picture at the Barneys' Co-op department on Madison Avenue. Interpreting it as visual allusion to homelessness, they asked the pointed question:

Which part of "Taste. Luxury. Humor." is this?

We'll say they scored an 0 for 3 on this one.

UPDATE: A RACKED commenter has informed us all that the display is meant to represent not homelessness but "young hungover guys after a hard night", which is perhaps marginally more humorous, but still fails on the taste and luxury fronts. Seriously. Passed out on a park bench? Yeah, everyone wants to be that guy.
!! OMG, Unbelievable: Homeless Display at Barneys !! (OMG Blog via RACKED)
Barneys Loungers Not Homeless? (RACKED)

Window Scandal! Barneys Dismantles Violent Diplay

It's been a while since we had a good window scandal.
If you can't count on customers to buy, you can always bet money that they will tell you what they think, and we are certain that the sales associates at Barneys have gotten more than an earful about the displays pictured above.
We know that some visual associate thought a "Godfather" style massacre display would be cool and edgy without thinking that most people, even those sophisticated enough to shop at Barneys, would be more likely to find it frightening, violent and offensive.
We saw these pictures on RACKED a few days ago, and were curious to see how the displays looked in person, but we will have to live without that privilege, since the scene has been dismantled.
We totally get the thinking on both sides. On the one hand, it sort of reminds us of the cult fashion/slasher film "The Eyes Of Laura Mars", but on the other, without Faye Dunaway's glamour, it's hard to get past the ugly, grisly murder it portrays. Perhaps images of elegant ladies getting riddled with bullets are not as useful in selling party frocks as someone thought. They sure will get attention, though.
The display went up not in the exterior windows, but in the entrance vestibule vitrines while creative director Simon Doonan was reportedly out of town. He tells The Daily News "We encourage our display people to be creative. We give them a lot of latitude, but this clearly crossed the line...It's as if someone saw a bad Hitchcock movie." After multiple press inquiries, the windows were taken down, but we can just imagine what those salespeople posted just inside the doors had to hear until that happened.
Bloody Mess as Barneys Kills Display (NY Daily News)
In the Window: Barneys Dresses In Which To Be Caught Dead (RACKED)

Today In Renaming: British American House Goes Russian Italian

Longtime New York retailer British American House is finally changing its name mainly because almost nothing it sells is either British or American anymore.
The century-old company is being renamed Pravda Abbigliamento e Calzature dal 1908 (if that's a mouthful, you can probably just call it 'Pravda'), which translates from the Italian as "Pravda Apparel and Footwear since 1908".
Before you think the name is a blatant attempt to court Russian born customers, know that the store's owner is named Philip Pravda, representing the fourth generation running a family business that stretches back to 1908. The Italian part refers to the fact that, for decades, the shop has sold mostly Italian made suits from labels like Canali and Belvest.
OK, the red star is pretty Russian looking, but with a name like Pravda, it's tough to resist that reference entirely.
British American House Changing Names (WWD)

Cintra Wilson Goes Shopping:Five-Dollar-Word Edition

Each Critical Shopper column in the Thursday Styles reveals a bit more of its author's inner character. This week's visit to Solange Azagury-Partridge's new Madison Avenue jewel salon exposes a surprising new facet of Cintra Wilson's personality (See what we did there? Facet —get it). Apparently the acerbic shopper is a closet geometer.
If The Shophound were more competitive, we would have found far more syllables to express that thought, but how could we compete with La Cintra's prodigious word application this week? For example:

The designer did sneak a couple of Archimedean solids into her Platonic line. (Naughty girl. I bet she thought her shoppers wouldn’t notice an extra polygon here and there.) But I was delighted, because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that there just aren’t enough truncated cuboctahedrons and rhombicuboctahedrons to be found in jewelry today.

We hear you sister!
Clearly our shopper brought her own jeweler's loupe (not exactly the greatest form when visiting an haute joaillerie), or else she has uncommonly sharp vision. How else to identify Archimedean solid with eight triangular and eighteen square faces through the glass of a display case. As for cuboctahedrons, well, quasiregular solids like that are a little easier to spot for sure, but still.
Of course, none of this technical jargon masks the main point of the story which is that La Cintra is no more immune to the charms of the shiny and sparkly than anyone else.
Critical Shopper | Solange Azagury-Partridge Riches at Rainbow’s End By Cintra Wilson (NYTimes)
Solange Azagury-Partridge 809 Madison Avenue at 68th Street, Upper East Side