The Shophound

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Almost Incognito Edition

In this week's Thursday Styles, Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica finally makes it to New York's latest menswear mecca, Carson Street Clothiers in SoHo. The Shophound visited the store about six weeks ago, when it opened, and we were expecting Caramanica's take on it shortly afterwards since the Critical Shoppers are usually quick to cover prominent new stores. It turns out that our shopper had to put it off only because his anonymity was compromised on his initial visit by one of the very #menswear "illuminati" whose collective tastes and opinions appear to have strongly shaped the store's aesthetic.

But he finally made it there and found it "so fully in character that it was as much a shopping experience as a series of perfectly planted vignettes, an off-off-Broadway production of a well-dressed life."

Like The Shophound, Caramanica seems ready to cynically marvel at what seems like a collection of style blogs brought to life, except that the store's so full of great stuff, neither he nor we could even attempt to resist it. From what we can gather, nobody else can either.

Critical Shopper: Relaxing Into Masculinity By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Carson Street Clothiers 63 Crosby Street between Spring & Broome Streets, SoHo
Previously:
New Arrivals: Carson Street Clothiers Is SoHo's Most Perfectly Composed New Store

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Short-Burn Nostalgia Edition

In this week's Thursday Styles, Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica presents readers with what seems like a first. VFiles is, apparently, a store based on a social platform. While we were wrapping our heads around that idea, we took a quick look at Vfiles.com, which appears to be a compendium of fashion and pop-culture images and media that could easily send the distracted down a rabbit hole of time-wasting from which there may be no escape. Caramanica calls it "consuming the existing in order to make something new." The value of the result may be open to debate.

But back to the store. Our shopper compares it to "shopping in an office," but finds fascination in the shop's fixation with 90s fashion, nightlife and media —think of it as the internet discovering the last minute before everything in our culture got processed through the World Wide Web.

But the items themselves are alive with history, building blocks for someone inclined to mainline the 1990s in all its forms. That’s the sea VFiles is swimming in — short-burn nostalgia, a choice based on beauty or convenience or both.

It puts Caramanica (and The Shophound, for that matter) in the odd position of seeing someone pore over the detritus of a lost era that doesn't actually seem too far away. It also reminded us that when retro styles come around you need to think twice about re-embracing them if you wore them the first time around.

Critical Shopper: Building Blocks All in a Row By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
VFiles 12 Mercer Street at Howard Street, SoHo

ALEXANDRA JACOBS GOES SHOPPING: Witchy Hippie Edition

In this week's Thursday Styles, Critical Shopper Alexandra Jacobs alerts us all to the arrival in SoHo of Gudrun Sjoden;s first American store, which as you may have deduced, comes to us from Sweden. Our shopper cannot help herself from recalling various poems about getting old and fat, which makes it pretty clear that she sees it as a store for not just any old lady, but a peculiarly eccentric one —the sort who really doesn't care if the various components of her outfit have anything to do with each other as long as each piece amuses her in some way. Our shopper describes the offerings as "more fanciful than practical, returning the mature woman to a presexual, innocent time of frolicking in the fields, mud pies and fingerpaint."

Ultimately, the store doesn't seem to really fit in with the slick, ever more designer laden SoHo storescape,

Ms. Sjoden’s outpost also seems an odd addition to the slick, condopped SoHo of today. It harks back rather to the long-gone eccentric, sculptor’s neighborhood that mandated colorful oversize jewelry clanking atop overalls, rompers, smocks and tunics, like the Sus & Dus cotton-rayon artist’s blouse ($90) with “generous fit over the hips,” as the spring catalog promises.

So Hervé Leger, it isn't, but with more and more tourists converging on the neighborhood, it hardly seems to matter if any store there caters to a particular image of a New York woman. And, eventually, all those tourists who continue to line up in front of the Kardashian sisters' pseudo-store Dash, are probably going to get old and want to transition into something loose, loud and flower-printed.

Critical Shopper: Glinda Would Be at Ease By Alexandra Jacobs (NYTimes)
Gudrun Sjoden 50 Greene Street between Broome & Grand Streets, SoHo

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Under-Prepped Edition

This week's Critical Shopper column sends Jon Caramanica down to Bleecker Street for his response to the new J.Press York Street boutique where he is essentially underwhelmed. His main concern is that the venerable retailer's new, younger line, should —according to our shopper— emphasize and amplify the most eccentric and daring aspects of the Preppy style it has represented for decades, but it doesn't exactly.

...none of the vibrant, lightning-bright color choices; none of the eyebrow-raising patterns; none of the insouciance of a wearer who directly correlates income level with risk-taking. Prep never apologized. Just ask all the less-privileged people underfoot.

Of course, whether or not the line's creative directors, Shimon and Ariel Ovadia, of the up and coming label Ovadia & Sons, share that point of view remains in question. They seem more concerned with remaking the classic J.Press look in trimmer cuts and more casual fabrics to maximize its commercial appeal to a younger, hipper customer, and to stores like Bloomingdale's which is also selling the line. It's not like there aren't enough designers already deconstructing the prepster. After all, the Gant Rugger shop is only a block or two up the street from J. Press York Street, along with Brooks Brothers' Black Fleece boutique. Still, our shopper does not leave the store empty handed. A blazing red barracuda jacket has caught his eye, amongst the copious Yale memorabilia, but that's really more of a James Dean look —not to be confused with preppy at all.

J.Press York Street 304 Bleecker Street between Grove & Barrow Streets, West Village
Critical Shopper: Preppy Gets a Tweak By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Previously:
Today In Brand Estensions: J. Press Brings York Street To Bleecker Street

ALEXANDRA JACOBS GOES SHOPPING: Symbolist Easter Candy Edition

Critical Shopper Alexandra Jacobs spent her Easter Sunday shopping the new Cynthia Rowley boutique off Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. In this era of multi-tasking, it turns out that the ageless designer has combined her new apparel boutique with a confectionery called CuRious Candy on the second floor, despite the fact, which our shopper points out, that Rowley's collection continues to be geared toward slender, likely non-candy eaters. In fact, though the designer herself is now a resilient industry veteran, her clothes have not exactly matured along with her, even if her once demure creations have developed a tougher edge in recent seasons.

Skirts tend to be flouncy, way above the kneecaps, or both. Sleeves are batwing or nonexistent. If a fabric can be covered with repeating logos, appliquéd with glitter or otherwise embellished, it probably will be.

Somehow Jacobs also manages to drop the name of the quasi-obscure 19th Century Belgian Nobel Prize-winning Symbolist playwright Maurice Maeterlinck in reference to the candy shop. We still have not been able to figure out how this makes any sense whatsoever, but perhaps that's just our fault for not being acceptably well-versed in Belgian Symbolist Theater.

Critical Shopper: More Rizzo Than Sandra Dee By Alexandra Jacobs (NYTimes)
Cynthia Rowley 43 East 78th Street between Madison & Park Avenues, Upper East Side

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Assisted Review Edition

Today's Thursday Styles finds Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica in the unusual position of reviewing a store that is geared more toward women than men. At Owen in the Meatpacking District, he calls in three female 'superfriends' to help him navigate the boutique that "merges Lower East Side sensibilities with Upper East Side prices." Unfortunately, this does not mean, as we had immediately thought, that he recruited Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Hawkgirl to help him with his column —because that would have been awesome!

Instead, he recruited three ladyfriends whose collective tastes cover pretty much all the bases, so somebody would have had to like something in the place, and essentially that's what happened. Our shopper doesn't pawn the effort off entirely, finding a few things for himself in the mix, although we can't really figure out what is the root of his personal style? Is he the neo-classicist heritage hipster, or the sort of person who would get excited over loud floral jeans as he does this week?

Critical Shopper: Jetsons in Their Comfort Zone By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Owen 809 Washington Street between Gansevoort and Horatio Streets, Meatpacking District

ALEXANDRA JACOBS GOES SHOPPING: Harem Dance Edition

This week's Critical Shopper column showed up early, as Alexandra Jacobs gives the once-over to SoHo's new Chloé boutique for tomorrow's Thursday Styles. To her, the obsequiously welcoming salesperson is the new snooty one. Too nice, she say, is not too helpful, but in fairness, we would say that if you are the kind of person who would seriously consider the label's (or anyone's) harem pants as a fashion choice, you probably don't need or even care to hear the salesperson's actual opinion. And here's the thing: salespeople are not girlfriends, unless your girlfriends are on commission (in which case you have our sympathy —and where do we sign up?).

Still, Chloé's sleek brand message doesn't quite measure up to our shopper's favorite haunts, "I couldn’t help contrast the experience of pretending to shop there to Kirna Zabête across the street (though moving soon), which despite selling items at similar prices, manages warmth and wackiness," she writes. Well, those shortie cowboy boots with the studs and buckles in the picture look pretty wacky to us, and we will all soon see if Kirna Zabête can preserve it's warmth when it moves to a big new space (it probably will).

Critical Shopper: A Newborn, but No Wobbly Legs By Alexandra Jacobs (NYTimes)
Chloé 93 Greene Street between Prince & Greene Streets, SoHo

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Hipster Superstore Edition

In today's Thursday Styles Critical Shopper, Jon Caramanica has taken the odd position of appearing to care less about the store he is reviewing than what it is doing to the neighborhood that surrounds it. The neighborhood is Willamsburg, and the offending gentrifier is H.W. Carter & Sons, a shiny new store named for a recently revived heritage brand offering a new line of neo-vintage workwear (insert eye-roll here).

It’s huge. Bigger than huge. There may not be enough clothes designed for members of its target demographic produced in all the world to fill this space, in which you could host a decent indoor soccer match. The store belongs on a block in Montclair, N.J., or in the Woodbury Common complex. It could be an old-time small-town Piggly Wiggly.

Like any other big store, they use modern technology like inventory control tags and Of course, they carry more than their own label, and our shopper lists a roll-call of editor-approved labels beloved by the almighty Menswear Clique like Mark McNairy, Junya Watanabe, and Engineered Garments —although we must comment that that last label could only be described as being carried in a" few local stores" if you consider Saks, Barneys and Bloomingdale's local stores. Add Odin, Nepenthes NY and Steven Alan, and you have a pretty easy-to-find brand, which doesn't make it any less appealing. In fact the issue here is that H.W. Carter & Sons, sore thumb that it may be, seems to be filled with stuff our shopper loves. Sometimes we have give in a little. After all, the store is really just the inevitable result of years of gentrification, not the cause of it.

Critical Shopper: Last Stop Before the Outlet Center By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
H.W. Carter & Sons 127 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

ALEXANDRA JACOBS GOES SHOPPING: Not Getting Married Today Edition

Here are a few things we learned from today's Critical Shopper column in the Thursday Styles as Alexandra Jacobs checks out Monique Lhuillier's Upper East Side boutique/bridal salon:

The 80's Wham hit "Everything She Wants" is apparently an "old standard" now. Really? George Michael must be so thrilled to finally join the ranks of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.

If you are gown shopping, bring your own shoes. Despite launching a new shoe collection, Lhuillier reportedly does not provide try-on heels (which is, frankly, hard to believe).

Lhuillier is confident enough about her own talents to have glossy volumes featuring Chanel, Balenciaga and Dior arrayed in her salon for the bored shopping companion to peruse.

Jacobs seems to find "brand extensions" like scented candles and home fragrances "cheesy". What must she think of Lhuillier's Waterford china, crystal and flatware collections, or her perfectly relevant stationery and invitation line? How else is a designer supposed to make an extra buck theses days?

The bridal floor upstairs is like one big, plush communal, photo-friendly dressing room, "with visitors casually tossing their purses on the floor and browsing while still half-dressed." We are pretty sure that, in reality, this scene is not nearly as soft-core as it sounds. We have seen "Bridesmaids".

Critical Shopper: Branching Out From the Altar By Alexandra Jacobs (NYTimes)
Monique Lhuillier 19 East 71st Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, Upper East Side

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Just Looking Edition

After a Fashion Week break, the Critical Shopper Jon Caramainca is back in the Thursday Styles with a visit to
Lanvin's new Men's Store on Madison Avenue. We find him engaged and intrigued, but not fully sold, as if to demonstrate that you can admire a label's products all day long without actually needing to participate further as a customer. Or maybe everything's just too expensive. Or both -not that there's anything wrong with just visiting. Even Lanvin's signature sneakers -"elitist clown shoes"- fail to seduce.

In the fitting room, our shopper never fully connects with his choices, and winds up in a super-luxurious tracksuit,

Now this was a look: like an eel with an attitude, or a joyous Mylar parade float. Everyone should be so cozy for at least two minutes in his life. I snapped a picture, so I’d remember it always, and then I slithered out of it and back into my own skin and left.

Critical Shopper: Self-Discovery in a Silk Tracksuit By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Lanvin Men's Boutique 807 Madison Avenue between 67th & 68th Streets, Upper East Side
Previously:
Luxury Expansion: Lanvin's Men's Store Is Now Open