The Shophound

ACCESSORIES UPGRADE: Dior & Prada Shops Coming Soon To Bloomingdale's

Though the massive overhaul of Bloomingdale's main floor designer accessory boutiques is only about halfway finished, the store is boldly positioning itself to take on its biggest competitors once it is done. The most impressive change will be the addition of major Prada and Christian Dior boutiques as well as the just-opened Jimmy Choo shop to the already heady mix of handbags on the Lexington Avenue side of the floor. This puts Bloomingdale's on a better footing to compete with stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman whose limited distribution arrangements with most luxury brands left the East Side favorite out of the loop, until now. A big, expanded Chanel shop recently opened alongside newly refreshed spaces for Ferragamo, Marc Jacobs, Fendi and Chloé.

While there was a time when Bloomingdale's would have been first place a a hot brand would want to be seen, the store's prestige took a critical hit during the recession of the 1990s when management made a decision to trade down and de-emphasize its high end assortments. While the store hung on to sterling labels like Chanel and Giorgio Armani, it lost its place in the pecking order for emerging brands and missed out on much of the status "It" bag business as the century turned. It has been a long, hard fought battle to rebuild the store's snob appeal, and the store's ongoing renovations appears to have helped convince picky vendors like Prada and Dior that it has the proper environment for their labels. Sharp-eyed shoppers will have noticed that earlier in the year, cluttery counters were removed from the Lexington Avenue entrances, giving the floor a more genteel, elegant feeling while more aspirational labels like Burberrry, Longchamp and Coach got kicked half a flight upstairs to the cosmetics level. That leaves the lower section as pure luxury player that will ultimately be anchored by Prada at one end and Louis Vuitton at the other.

We are guessing that the new accessory shops will be completed sometime before the Holiday season, so we should see the reults of the overhaul in a few weeks. Settled firmly in the city's wealthiest zip code, Bloomingdale's should now have a lot more enticement to lure back the nearby customers who abandoned it for tonier options years ago.

Important Sale News: The Prada Sale Goes To Hell

Well, Hell's Kitchen, that is.
Oh come on. we couldn't resist the little pun.
Anyway, what we are talking about is that Prada's fabled sample sale, which we have been missing for the last few seasons, is changing strategies and locations.
Once a complicated affair with set reservation times arranged through an annoying website, the sale will now be a first-come-first-serve event, according to Guerilla Shopper NYC. The sale starts next Saturday October 17^th through the following Friday the 23^rd at 609 West 51^st Street, and will reportedly include Miu Miu and Prada from Fall 2008 and before. As the Guerilla said: If you're reading this, you're invited. No reservations or invitations necessary, just get there early, and if this thing is running for a solid week, there should be plenty of goods to unload. As always, line up early.
Hot Hot Prada News ...if you're reading this..you're invited (Guerilla Shopper NYC)
Prada Sample Sale at 609 West 51^st Street between 11^th & 12^th Avenues
Saturday, October 17^th and Sunday, October 18^th, 9am - 6pm
Monday, October 20^th- Friday October 23^rd, 10am - 7pm
Registers close promptly at 6 PM and 7 PM respectively.

Cintra Wilson Goes Shopping: Attention Surplus Disorder Edition

We figured that it was only a matter of time before Critical Shopper Cintra Wilson got around to Prada. The only question was, which one? Would it be the hushed, Madison Avenue multi-level location with its signature pistachio hued walls (otherwise known as the one that does all the business)? Perhaps she would take a shot at the busy Fifth Avenue location, or the flashy Soho showplace, the billboard for the brand.
Well, flashy SoHo won out, of course, in today's Thursday Styles. It hardly seems like nearly seven years have passed since Prada's "epicenter" store opened, and, apparently, it's looking a little worse for the wear:

Neither the corner nor the Koolhaas has improved since then. Outside, SoHo has devolved into a gritty stadium-crowd mall. The zebrawood paneling is beginning to get the scratchiti veneer of a grade-school desktop. Rugs are stained, corners are scuffed; the staff looks frazzled. The music is angular and nervous.

And La Cintra is in full "impress me" mode.
We have always said that no matter how wacked out a Prada show might look, once you get to the boutique there is always plenty of wearable, appealing merch. In this case, there is also an overly aggressive and underly perceptive salesperson to push it.

Knock, knock. “How’s it going?”
The door slid open. I loathe being barged in on while half dressed.
“We can alter that. Try this!” Zelda handed me a shirt I had rejected with her earlier.
She left the door open. Male sales assistants stomped by. I dug to find the items I wanted.
Knock, knock.
“Yes?” (Translation: “Come in! Bring a guest!”)
I stood in my camisole as Zelda exposed me to the seamstress: a small woman with a pin-filled tomato on her wrist.
“She’s leaving,” Zelda cried. “Can you come back tomorrow?”
“Yes. Could I get some clothes on, please?”
“Oh!”
Zelda left the door wide open. A construction engineer in work boots walked by. I tried the lock again.

This article could be used as a case study in how to kill a sale that was practically dropped in your lap.
Knowing what we know about the three big Prada stores, it's not so terribly surprising that this happened in SoHo, however. Considering the neighborhood, this store tends to attract the tourists and some downtown regular customers, but the serious Prada-philes shop uptown, usually at the Madison Avenue store, and the downtown staff is both starved for serious customers and under pressure to make sales. This doesn't excuse the bad service that Cintra recieved, but it may give a frame of reference. Frankly, we don't particularly like browsing in the SoHo store, which is saying a lot because we will browse anywhere. For all it's open space, the lower level, where all the goods are, is cramped and tiny. It's a great display opportunity, but in terms of actual shopping pleasure, it has always left us pretty cold.
And, surely a greater offense, it left La Cintra without a purchase.
Critical Shopper: Prada - Better Angel, Out of the Dressing Room! by Cintra Wilson (NYTimes)
Prada 575 Broadway at Prince Street, SoHo

Disturbing Runway Trends: Prada's Girly Man

Here at The Shophound, we have always joked that, in Manhattan, people are so blasé that a guy can walk down the street in a ballet tutu without anyone anyone taking much notice. We have never  actually said it directly to Miuccia Prada, but she, apparently, is trying to prove that point with her Fall 2008 men's show. Generally, we understand that it's not always fair to judge a collection on internet photos, but we're going to do it anyway because, in this case, we just can't resist. Typically, whenever Prada shows get kooky, you can rest assured that the boutiques will have plenty of classic, easy to wear clothes and shoes on hand to buy. In this show, however, precious double collars, tiny ruffled overskirts, back-buttoning silk blouses, cropped halter tops and some disturbing, thong-y undergarment worn over the shirt but halfway under the pants give a clear message of "Don't try this at home," or better yet, "Try this only at home".
This is only the frst men's show we have looked at.  If this is any indication of things to come, it should be very entertaining.
Prada Men's Fall/Winter 2008 runway pictures can be seen here.

Wednesday Afternoon Spree

• This just in! Prada finally, officially, definitely going public for real. (WWD)
• Is Hedi Slimane ready to rejoin LVMH to finally launch his own label? Time will tell. (DNR)
• Tired of New York Shopping? How 'bout a trip to Rotterdam? (Refinery 29)
• H&M recruits a host of designers and celebrities for an awareness raising "Fashion Against Aids" collection to debut next year. Will this just raise awareness, or contribute to a cure? Exactly who shops at H&M who isn't aware of AIDS? (Style File)
• Procrastinating? Here's an extensive last minute gift guide from a discerning source. (Coolhunting)
• Having trouble finding French made-to-measure shirts? Listerougeimagine.com has come to your rescue. (Material Interest)
• Costco is coming to a mall near you to fill up all those empty May Company spaces. (WWD)

Sample Sale Report: Prada Puts Out The Dregs

It's been a strangely cold and dreary bunch of days feeling more like April than August, so The Shophound would have thought that a Prada Sample Sale would have been an excellent way to brighten the day.
Prada's sale is a more exclusive affair than your average "line up in front of the showroom with the masses and rummage through boxes as fast as you can before someone else gets the good stuff" event. You have to log in and register online and choose a particular one-hour appointment for your shopping time. You also have to know when to do this, because the site is non functional during the rest of the year, and you may not get a notification when it comes alive again.
So, this morning we traipsed up to the second floor of the Fuller Building at 57th and Madison to see what we could score, only to discover that they should have been paying us to cart what little they had away.
Now, we have been to many a sample sale in our day, and we know the hazards. Sometimes odd items form previous seasons get tossed in with the extra stock, as well as damaged items and, of course, the actual samples.
At Prada, we found a remarkable assortment of the shopworn and the too-ugly-to-sell. We all know Miuccia has a penchant for the shoe with too much going on. It's too bright and too chunky and too weird, but it appeals to her perhaps in a perverse way, as palate cleanser after all the pretty things. Nobody actually buys those shoes, so they wind up at the sample sale, aparently in abundance. And that goes double for the menswear, which contained a lot of items that were in disturbingly poor condition, from who knows what season. As for the bags, customers were allowed to purchase only one, and most of the selection consisted of one small style of white nylon shoulder bag. It looks like this is what's left after they unload the decent stuff to Bluefly or their outlets.
Having said that, there were probably gems hidden here and there for those lucky few with the patience to rummage through, and thanks to the not terribly strictly enforced appointment schedule (we were late for ours, but nobody seemed top mind) the place is not crowded in the least, allowing a refreshingly relaxing experience.
Our guess is that the good stuff goes fast on the first day, which is further restricted to specially invited customers.
Our advice? Go make friends with someone at Prada for next season.

Behind The Scenes at Prada: Worse Than We Thought

We have known for a while that working for Prada in nearly any capacity can be a holy nightmare. In fact they offered to hire The Shophound for their store in Miami just over a decade ago, and we shocked ourselves by turning them down despite our devotion to the brand (Hey, it was the mid-nineties when Prada was golden - before it was everywhere). Apparently, they felt that the honor of working for Prada would compensate for the incredibly small salary they were offering. Like we were working retail for fun or something. Since then we have heard one horror story after another about goings on at all levels of the company, and now comes a scandalous first-hand report from Jezebel about life at the Prada Epicenter store in SoHo. Even after taking standard retail sales associate bitterness and disgruntlement into consideration, it's a shocking yet amusing tale.

All day long, you smile at the grayed sixtysomething rich guys as they escort their dewy faced young girlfriends into the high-tech dressing rooms for a little pre-splurge BJ action. You smile at fourteen year olds carrying handbags that could pay your rent for a semester. You smile at tourists who mistake Prada for a cultural attraction -- it did, after all, used to be the Guggenheim -- and the other tourists who mistook their fake Prada bags for real ones they could bring in for repair. And you smile as Kimora Lee Simmons DEMANDS that you furnish her with a skirt two sizes too small for her and throws a tantrum when it doesn't fit.

And that barely scratches the surface.
We still love the shoes, though.
I Work Retail: The Devil Wears Prada Because Prada Is Hell (Jezebel via RACKED)

Prada's Phone Not Coming To a Store Near You

In a marked contrast to the media hurricane surrounding the launch of the iPhone, that other magical touch-screen phone is slinking into the marketplace with nary a peep. In fact, it's not going to be officially available in the United States at all. It seems that no major U.S. wireless carrier could be convinced to support the LG/Prada phone. The attractive device is being sold through several outlets online including Amazon and eBay for various prices ranging from $549 up to nearly $800. In Sunday's New York Times we caught J&R advertising an unlocked Prada phone for $549, but when when we visited the store later that day, a salesperson told us they were sold out of them and had no idea when they would be getting more. The next step was to go directly to the source, and at Prada SoHo, an informative staff member was surprised to hear that other stores were selling the phone. "We were supposed to get them in April or May," he told us, "but our orders were canceled, and we had list of people waiting for them."
Does this make it a bomb? 

Monday Fashion News: Human Resources Edition

◊ Gap has finally found a new CEO in Canadian Glenn Murphy who comes from a drugstore and supermarket background, but is said to have much needed expertise in turning around ailing businesses. The move surprised the industry, who generally expected the retail giant to choose a strong apparel merchant, especially since the last guy who screwed up royally there held the position came from Disney. but potential candidates those resumes couldn't be swayed from their current positions. Frankly, it's not an enticing position unless you are looking for a huge challenge, or you are hungry to impress people. Murphy will be in charge of all Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy business, which each need varying degrees of revamp.
Gap Picks a Canadian Retailer as Its New Chief (NYTimes)
Gap Inc. Taps Glenn Murphy to Be CEO (WWD)
◊ Also newly hired, Peter Som , who will take over creative direction at Bill Blass after Michael Vollbracht's departure earlier this year. In a surprising move, the brand also named up-and-coming menswear Michael Bastian in the same position for menswear. Both designers will oversee all products including licensees in their respective divisions. Som, who had been an assistant to Mr. Blass earlier in his career, will begin to make his influence visible for the Pre-Fall '08 collection. Bastian, a current finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and former Men's Fashion Director at Bergdorf Goodman who launched his eponymous line last fall, will be in charge of launching a new designer-level men's collection at Blass as well as managing existing lines. While the label is know known as a more moderate Men's resource, it was actually one of the first American designer men's lines, and was highly influential in the 1960s and '70s. Bastian's debut collection for Blass will happen sometime after Som's, and both will continue to design for the labels which bear their own names.
◊ Kate and Andy Spade will be exiting the label that bears their name as the terms of its sale to Liz Claiborne Inc. are fulfilled. Kate, in particular, has been such a public face for the brand that one would have thought the folks at Liz would have wanted to hang on to her in some capacity, but with the company in a state of flux, new management may have its own ideas about what to do with the Kate Spade brand which has been at a critical point in its growth, and those ideas evidently don't include the Spades.
The Spades Bow Out (Vogue UK)
◊ Tunisian-born designer Azzedine Alaïa has bought his own label back from Prada. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Choosing to focus on their core labels as they prepare for the IPO we have been hearing about for 15 years, Prada has mostly pared away the brands they purchased in the 1990's when they were attempting to become a luxury conglomerate. Paris-based Alaïa was the only designer not driven out by disagreements with management after selling to them, and the only one to have experienced significant growth under their stewardship. This is not surprising since before Prada's involvement, Alaïa refrained from following any set fashion calendar choosing to produce collections pretty much whenever he felt like it, often frustrating retailers who were used to a steadier flow of goods. For their part, Prada will continue to develop and produce Alaïa's shoe and accessory collections, but otherwise the diminutive man with the cultlike following will be on his own again.
Alaïa Buys Back Prada’s Stake in his House (FWD)

Prada's Online Auction - Beats a Sampe Sale?

Well, it beats standing in line and fighting over the last handbag, but we suspect the discount won't be as steep. Rather than throw their odds and ends in a sample sale, Prada is running an online auction of 24 prototype items from the fall 2007 collection. Each item is one of a kind, made in colors and fabrics that were never put into full production, so you won't see them at Bergdorf's or Barneys, or even a Prada boutique. Three items will be auctioned off every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until July 24 with bidding open for seven days per item. A countdown will tick away on the site. The profits will benefit Fondazione San Raffaele, one of Italy's premier research hospitals.
The prices appear to be in Euros, so keep your eyes on the exchange rates, and, sadly, the clothing items appear to be in sample sizes, though the auction includes shoes and accessories.
It's certainly a way to keep shopping without having to slog through the deadly Summer humidity.
Happy bidding!