The Shophound

Fashion Unchained: SoHo's Sol De Ibiza Lives

A couple of weeks ago we reported that the SoHo boutique Sol de Ibiza had been closed in a manner that was clearly.... involuntary.
Owner Leslie Bettison has contacted The Shophound to let us all know that her eviction has been ruled illegal in court, and the chains pictured above have been removed from the front doors.
Sol de Ibiza is fully stocked and once again open for business.
Previously:
Fashion In Chains: SoHo's Sol de Ibiza Gets The Lockup
Sol de Ibiza 52 Greene Street between Broome & Grand Streets

Today in Scrapbooking: Welcome To Tchotchkeland Michael's Arrives In Manhattan

Considering that they have like a zillion locations in New York State alone, we're actually pretty surprised that it took this long for Michael's, the big box crafts category killer, to make it to Manhattan. The wait is over now. Although the Grand Opening is this Sunday, the doors are already open, and the store, which is basically like a Bed Bath & Beyond for all kinds of arts and crafts, is offering pre-opening specials. Flyers are currently circulating around the Upper West Side offering 40% off a single item through this Saturday the 24^th.
We have to admit that we aren't particularly familiar with Michael's. Like most respectable Manhattanites, The Shophound fulfills most of our crafty needs at places like Pearl Paint, Utrecht or Dick Blick, but since Michael's is in the new Columbus Square complex only a stone's throw from Shophound HQ, we gave it a look-see.
The first thing we noticed as we descended the escalator to the entirely subterranean store was the spicy aroma if holiday candles.
We decided to proceed anyway.
There are certainly useful things to be found here, like a huge selection of custom and ready-made picture frames. It's not by accident that Martha Stewart is a featured brand there, but then there's a sizable section devoted to scrapbooking, a pastime we still don't entirely understand. Apparently it involves lots of little things that get glued or fastened into books like pictures and felt. It also involves many of the same sorts of tools one might find at Home Depot, but are sold here in pink versions. Nearby, we find sections devoted to flower arranging (real and fake) knitting (mostly acrylic yarn), and rows and rows of all sorts of ribbon. Given the time of year, it was not surprising to find a large portion of the store given over to tinsel-y Christmas notions, hence the spicy candle smell. Essentially, the store is a compendium of any and all sorts of doodads and thingamajigs which, though hopelessly suburban-feeling, will probably prove indispensable at some point.
We never know when the desire will strike to do some embroidery, macramé or weave a lanyard. When we get the uncontrollable urge to découpage, we'll know where to go.
Michael's 808 Columbus Avenue at 100^th Street, Upper West Side

More Chocolate Is Always Good: Jacques Torres Arrives At The Chelsea Market

Regular customers at The Chelsea Market will have noticed that the large event space at the center of the complex has been undergoing renovations, but rather than preparing the place for a large retailer, it is being divided into smaller stalls with a prominent centerpiece, Jacques Torres Chocolate along with a branch of the Gramercy Park Flower Shop, returning a floral component to the market that has been missing for a while now. The popular sweet shop has just opened a new outpost that inaugurates the reconfigured space with all its temptations in tow. If you can resist the various bakeries and brownie shops you have to pass to get to the new counter, then Torres is cunningly situated to finally make sure that nobody gets out of that place without something to ruin a diet.
Jacques Torres Chocolate & Gramercy Park Flower Shop at the Chelsea Market 75 9^th Ave between 15^th & 16^th Streets.

New Additions: Zilli's Luxe Lands In Midtown

If The Shophound wasn't on our way to Los Angeles, we would scrambling over to East 57^th Street to check out Zilli's first U.S. boutique in the Four Seasons Hotel. The opulent French brand sells in only two other U.S. stores, Battaglia Shop in Beverly Hills, and Da Vinci in Scottsdale, Arizona, so it hasn't been seen in New York for quite a few years.WWD 's report suggests a glitzy store which is no surprise since dress shirts start at about $600, and leather jackets, the label's signature item, average around $11,000. Don't leave your wallet at home! We look forward to visiting next week when we get back because we need some socks and we can never think of anything to do with that extra gazillion bucks we always have lying around.
French Men's Wear Brand Zilli Opens N.Y. Flagship (WWD)
Zilli (Official Site)
Previously:
Recession? What Recession? Zilli's French Luxury To Hit Midtown ...Whether You're Ready Or Not

Launch After Launch: Gilt Unveils An iPhone App & Jetsetter Officially Opens

Having settled their differences with an angry blogger over some pricing issues, Gilt Groupe is back to reeling in those customers. Those of you who have been planning your day around being in front of the computer to click away when Gilt's noontime sales début can move about freely now that an iPhone App has been released through Apple's iTunes Store. It will allow you to shop wherever WiFi or AT&T's 3G network will allow it. The new Gilt On The Go App will send sale alerts directly to your iPhone and allow you shop active sales from wherever you are, so feel free to go out to lunch any day you want. Upcoming sales include Seven for All Mankind,Kiki de Montparnasse, Issey Miyake Men's, Michael Kors, and Rag & Bone with Steven Alan. If you aren't yet a member, click HERE for an invitation.
In other Gilt news, their new discount travel site Jetsetter is now fully operational in Beta format after a very limited preview last month. Anyone who already has a Gilt membership will now have access to the site's deals which include The Cotton House in Mustique, The Standard Hotels in New York, Downtown LA and West Hollywood, The Bauer Hotel in Venice, Italy among others.
Jetsetter (Official Site)
Gilt On The Go iPhone App

Mike Albo Goes Shopping: At The Center Of The Trend Edition

This week, Critical Shopper Mike Albo wastes no time in getting himself to Odin's brand new branch in the West Village for the Thursday Styles. From his report we can basically deduce that this new Odin is much like the other two: slightly cramped, but full of appealing stuff.
By running the leading men's boutique in the city, at the moment, and one of the country's most influential stores, the folks at Odin bear some responsibility for the trends that are currently cresting in the world of men's fashion, and in his way, Mike crystallizes exactly what they are:

Steeped as we are in decades of postmodern self-referential artifice, we don’t just want to look like backwoodsmen; we want to look like actors from the 1950s playing backwoodsmen of the 1890s, but in a totally fresh, laid-back 2009 kind of way.

It's all rugged authenticity these days for a guy out shopping, and in some quarters, that leaves you a choice of looking like a lumberjack or a longshoreman. While Odin does a very good job of keeping things fresh, flaws in the formula are starting to appear.

A Richard Chai short-sleeve striped T-shirt, for $95, felt soft and had interesting vertical seams, but if I see one more hipster horizontal-stripe shirt, I will scream.

So will we.
Critical Shopper | Odin: Neighborhood Preservation By Mike Albo (NYTimes)
Odin 750 Greenwich Street at West 11th Street, West Village

A Mini-Chain Is Born: Odin Opens Store #3

It was still under construction when we walked by last week, but WWD is reporting that Odin's third location at Greenwich and West 11^th Streets in the West Village is now open for business, officially creating a mini-chain. The antiques-filled interior should feel familiar to regular customers of the trailblazing contemporary men's boutique's other locations. “Every neighborhood has a different need, and the customers here want the basic essentials: toothpaste, socks, cotton T-shirts, things you can’t find all that easily in the West Village,” Co-owner Eddy Chai tells WWD. Don't go looking for this to be Odin's version of the Gap. This branch of store will carry its stalwart labels like Engineered Garments, Woolrich, Our Legacy and 3.1 Phillip Lim. 'Basic' is, after all, a relative term.
Holiday will bring the début of a new sportswear line produced by the retailer in collaboration with the folks at Duckie Brown, whose shoe line for Florsheim is sold there (and practically everywhere else in Manhattan as far as we can tell).
Odin Opens in West Village (WWD)
Odin New York (Official Site)

Flagship Alert: It's Tommy Time On Fifth Avenue

Being preoccupied with every little Fashion Week detail almost made us forget that Fifth Avenue just got a major addition: Tommy Hilfiger's 22,000 square foot brand palace on Fifth Avenue between 53^rd and 54^th Streets.
The store has been a long time coming because Hilfiger obviously had to fully gut what had been a Fortunoff store. The good news is that he has erased the garish '70's era metal and glass façade and replaced it with something more in keeping with what was left of the McKim, Mead & White building. Inside he has installed a traditionally appointed interior, with a strangely incongruous modern spiral staircase connecting the levels.
Of course, he has filled it with five floors of Tommy Hilfiger.
We'll admit that The Shophound has never been much of a Tommy fan. It's not that anything he makes is so awful, it's just that it's all so very familiar. This is nothing that others haven't been saying for decades, and, for the most part, it hasn't held Hilfiger back. Lack of fashion cred aside, Tommy is big business, and though he's had his ups and downs, he seems to be on an upswing these days, so the public has spoken. In response, he has given them a big fancy Fifth Avenue store that tourists can appreciate because it sells stuff they can easily afford. Tommy is using the high profile store to launch more expensive labels like a more deluxe women's collection, but even that pretty much tops out at bridge-level prices. Mixing in vintage items with his regular stock is another idea he has hardly originated (he also does it in his Bleecker Street store) but it does spice up the visuals on women's floors, although we're pretty sure that the Tommy Hilfiger store is not the best place to shop for vintage clothing.
On the men's floors, Hilfiger is also undertaking an upgrade, offering a special collection of suits retailing around the $1,000 mark, but again, we don't think the folks at Paul Stuart are looking over their shoulders. It seems more like a ploy to add prestige to the store than a serious repositioning of the brand. The basement has been devoted to Hilfiger Denim, and is a smaller scale recreation of the SoHo store devoted to that label complete with neon chandelier.
Overall, it's a massive Tommy statement, and, given the resurgence of tourists on Fifth Avenue, it couldn't be better timed. There are no big surprises inside, but neither are there any ill-conceived overreaches. Given the persistent struggles of more exclusive luxury retailers, Tommy's new store has made a timely appearance.
Tommy Hilfiger 681 Fifth Avenue between 53^rd and 54^th Streets, Midtown

Advance Openings: Whole Foods Wine Shop Opens Early

While we are still awaiting the Upper West Side's Whole Foods opening this Thursday, neighborhood wine enthusiasts should know that the chain's only area wine shop has been fully open and operational since late last week.
Completely separate from the main store, the new shop offers popular brands as well as its own private labels.
Should we be concerned that they sell three different kinds of wine from Ed Hardy?
We'll give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment.
The complete Whole Foods Market will be holding a charity preview tonight to benefit the Riverside Park Fund in advance of Thursday's Grand Opening.
Wine at Whole Foods Market 808 Columbus Avenue, Upper West Side

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?