The Shophound

Mike Albo Goes Shopping: Outer Borough Sale Shop Edition

This week's critical shopper Mike Albo discovers that in the world of Paul Smith, service levels directly correlate to discounts in the designer's various boutiques around the city.
The longtime Smith fan finds disappointment at the designer's recently opened sale shop in Williamsburg when the discounts are underwhelming and the sales staff's demeanor and storekeeping skills are downright disagreeable.

When I walked up to the new Paul Smith store in Williamsburg, one of the salesclerks, a young woman, was busy texting in the doorway. She looked up from her keypad. “Hihowareyou,” she said under her breath, with a dead face. (I am fluent in the language of retail, and this means: “Oh, great. A person.”)
“Oh, don’t worry!” I said, like the overfriendly doormat that I am. “You can keep texting!” She glared at me, turned and walked into the store.

Welcome to Williamsburg!
And yet, a few days, a bit of tidying up and, most importantly, a jump in the discount from 30% to 70% makes all the difference for Mike, just as it would for us.
We have to wonder, however, if Smith's year-round clearance store has anything to do with the vexing absence of a Paul Smith sample sale this season, which would be a bummer for us provincial Manhattanites. Are we now to trek to Williamsburg for our seasonal Paul Smith fix instead of having it practically carted to our doorstep via a jumbled room of bargains at the Chelsea Market? Such are the trials we have to suffer for our vocation.
Critical Shopper | Paul Smith Sale Shop: Where Happiness Is on Clearance By Mike Albo (NYTimes)
Paul Smith Sale Shop 280 Grand Street between Roebling and Havermeyer Streets, Williamsburg

Surprise Move Of The Week:A Paul Smith OutletFor Williamsburg?

Is Williamsburg set to become the new Woodbury Commons?
We heard that Paul Smith is set to open a shop in the hipster haven this month, joining A.P.C.'s Surplus store on Grand Street with a discount outlet of his own.
Material Interest tells us that the new shop will sell at 30% off. It seems that the retail focus of Williamsburg is shifting from Beacon's Closet to Designer Discount. We have no word yet on whether or not the shop will keep regular hours, or like it's cult label neighbor, will have more limited availability, but we love the idea of having a permanent source of cut rate Paul Smith to peruse at out leisure instead of waiting for the crush of the seasonal sample sales.
We'll let you know more info as soon as we have it. The shop is said to be opening at 280 Grand Street between Roebling and Havemeyer, and already has a phone number, (718) 218-0020.
We still don't think they're ready for their own Apple Store or Barney's Co-op, but if we could just get Prada and Jil Sander to follow suit, we wouldn't even need to shop in Manhattan at all.
Sir Paul's Brooklyn Bow (Material Interest)

UPDATE:
WWD confirms that the store will open on October 16th, and will sell a revolving selection of markdown goods. "Styles will be priced 30 percent below regular retail prices, but the company spokesman insisted the store isn’t an outlet store," whatever that means. Everything's reduced, but it's not an outlet. Call it what you want. It's a sale store, and we'll be there.
A Brit Grows in Brooklyn: Paul Smith Opens This Month (WWD)

Oh! The Horror: Paul Smith Sample Sale

Usually we look forward to the Paul Smith sample sale. This season, we really felt that The Shophound's closets were bloated enough, and yet we couldn't resist, and found ourselves making some lame excuse to go down to Greene Street. The potential for piling up goods was high, as the prices were low as usual, however, the scene, as you can see, was chaotic to put it mildly.
In the past few seasons, the sale has been held at the Chelsea Market, and moving the sale to the smaller open space at 76 Greene Street (formerly Bagutta, UNIQLO temporary store and countless other short term and pop-up stores) has ramped up the frenzy and created the worst sort of sample sale havoc. Moving the sale to busier SoHo has naturally increased traffic. We saw all sorts of things to buy, Including things we had our eye on form the boutique, but actually getting to them and taking the time to rummage for sizes hit way above our 'I can't be bothered-get me out of here' threshold. It was with some relief that we skipped out without a purchase.
See, we can exercise restraint.
Of course, there is that slim possibility that we may have to stop by on Saturday to check out the last-day-price-slash.
Paul Smith Sample Sale, 76 Greene Street through Saturday March 13, SoHo

Horacio Goes Shopping: Paul Smith Ambivalence Edition

We didn't want you to think we were blowing off last week's Critical Shopper column just because it was Thanksgiving and written by stand-in Horacio Silva. We were simply out of town and busy deciding whether to gorge on apple pie or homemade marble cookies (from a recipe by Angela Missoni no less). In the end the answer was simple. Why not both? Now as we radically rethink our nutritional habits, we are playing catch-up, but Horacio's visit to the new Paul Smith shop in SoHo (which we visited last month) also gives us an opportunity to follow up on one of last weeks clerks, Mark Haldeman of the same store.
we went back a second time yesterday, and we must say we liked the place even better this time. It's just full of appealing stuff, and was made for gift shopping as the front room is filled with jewelry and accessories at a variety of prices, and non-apparel items are scattered throughout the store. Smith adds unique details to everything he makes, so it's no place for minimalists, but if you appreciate subtle details, it should become a home away from home. Horacio discovered that not everyone is a fan.

To the devout fashion flock that worships only at the shrine of aggressive modernism, Mr. Smith is a deliberate-compromise option for the mild-at-heart. (When I asked a fashion editor friend of mine to accompany me to the new Paul Smith store on Greene Street, he told me he would rather eat glass.)

Paul Smith Finally Shows All

Paul Smith's Boutique on Fifth Avenue heralded the Flatiron District as a retail destination, but in the 19 years since its opening, Smith's collections have long since outgrown the modestly sized shop. Never one to settle for the wrong space, the designer has finally opened an expansive flagship-sized emporium in SoHo that showcases the full breadth of the Paul Smith universe with room to spare. Over the years a cult of fans have developed who appreciate his traditionally based styles with unique details like contrast stitching, one oddly colored button on a suit, or a surprise floral lining on the inside of a shirt cuff. Having purchased the entire building at 142 Greene Street, Smith eschews the usual big, airy loft style so common in the neighborhood in favor of a series of five interconnected rooms whose sprawl is belied by the typical SoHo storefront. Never a minimalist, he has filled the store with the quirky details that made him famous, including a re-creation of the façade of Willoughby House, his Nottingham flagship.

More after the jump