Macy's Unwraps This Saturday

Set your Tivos Shophounders. This Saturday brings the premiere of "Unwrapping Macy's" the reality series set in Macy's Herald Square Flagship. It will either be fascinating or deadly dull, but we are going to check out the first episode at 10 PM on WE: Women's Entertainment. It appears to concern men's underwear model casting, so perhaps it will be more entertaining than we are expecting. Can it possibly be better than "America's Next Top Model" or Project Runway? We'll know after this weekend.

Thrifty Designer Exclusive Update: Thakoon at Nine West

Time's running out to get Vivienne Westwood's exclusive collection at Nine West which will go away on September 30th. If Westwood's irreverent tartans are a little much for your taste, don't despair, because the very next day will bring a very sophisticated line from rising New York designer Thakoon Panichgul which will be available throughout October. After that, a group from London's Sophia Kokosalaki (we love saying her name) will appear just in time for the holidays. Normally, we wouldn't pay much attention to Nine West, which has always been a good resource for well priced "interpretations" of designer shoes, but this season, they have stepped up their game with these three special collections. While they are a bit mor e expensive than Nine West's normal fare, they are priced less than a typical designer shoe and accessory line (the elegant Thakoon boots pictured are $425). For those on a tighter budget, Abaeté designer Laura Poretsky has created a line for Payless (Seriously, Payless!) which she showcased at Olympus Fashion Week. That collection tops out at about $45, making this an excellent season for thrifty shoeholics.

Thakoon pictures after the jump

Contdown to Frenzy: Viktor & Rolf Hit H&M this November

Mark your calendars! H&M's annual exclusive designer free-for-all will begin on November 9th when they release this year's one-time-only collection by Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf. We will start seeing the advertising next month, and H&M is going first class for this campaign photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and starring model-of-the-moment Raquel Zimmerman as a bride in the most expensive item in the collection, a white gown priced at €298, or around $375. Only 1,000 gowns will be made and distributed to the 250 H&M locations that will carry the line. The rest of the line will include men's and women's apparel, accessories, shoes and even underwear. The romantic theme will be carried through the collection with hearts on the women's pieces and arrows on the men's. Presumably they will be produced in greater abundance than the wedding gown. It remains to be seen whether Viktor & Rolf are well known enough to spark the frenzies that Karl Lagerfeld's and Stella McCartney's collections did, but McCartney's collection in particular incited much greater demand than anyone expected. This could be V&R's moment to make themselves known to a wider public, and reap the rewards. for years to come.

Alex K Goes Shopping: Levi's Fornication Pants Edition

This week in The New York Times' Thursday Styles, our favorite consumer Alex Kuczynski makes her way to the new Levi's Store on 14th Street and finds an excuse to display some of her most endearing qualities, false modesty and narcissism, as she writes about the transformative properties of her newly purchased jeans.We love the way Alex write about herself as if nobody knows what she actually looks like.

I wore the jeans out of the store, and at that very instant a pedicab driver pulled up alongside and told me I had on one great-looking pair of pants. Then he asked if I needed a ride.
He probably just wanted a fare or an excuse to stop and take a breath — truth be told, he was a little chubby to be driving a pedicab — but I was happy to strut along the avenue in my brand-new come-hither pants. After all, I’m at an age that, when some guy on the street says something suggestive, my reaction is to whip around, make sure I am the object of the suggestion and then effuse: “Thank you! Really? Wow! You’ve made my day!”
In fact, the construction workers on my block are the only ones in the city who take their lunches and cross quietly to the other side of the street when they see me coming.

Oh, sure. We are to believe that she has become such a broken down old crone that even the lewdest construction worker must avert his eyes. We're glad she feels so sexy in her new jeans, and, of course, we wouldn't be so presumptuous at give Alex advice, but that sort of self-deprecation is best left to Joan Rivers.

More after the jump

Tribeca Rising: Nili Lotan on Duane Street

Tribeca is starting to feel a little bit like SoHo for people who hate SoHo. Quieter, cleaner, and without all those street vendor tables that make walking down Prince street an exercise in in artful pushing and shoving. The retailers are descending, however, in their paradoxical way. They like to go to an less traveled location to distinguish themselves, and then proceed to attract crowds and more stores. The overcrowding of Tribeca is still a long way away, and its retail mix currently alternates a smattering of small boutiques with restaurants and home furnishing stores most of which maintain a casual, independent ambiance. The latest addition is New York designer Nili Lotan's smartly designed new boutique on Duane Street. It's the only store we've ever entered with windows in the floor.

More after the jump

Tommy Hilfiger Blackout in SoHo

Perhaps no recently constructed SoHo building has been as universally disliked, resented and generally disparaged as the one that houses Tommy Hilfiger's flagship store at West Broadway and Broome Street. We're not sure if it's because it's a fakey, cheap looking building or because it houses a Tommy Hilfiger store. (We suspect it's a little of both.) When Hilfiger shut down the "H Hilfiger" line that it sold, The Shophound briefly wondered if they might vacate the space, but it was simply turned into a regular Hilfiger store. Now the ersatz cast-iron style edifice has been painted black, (or very dark brown) and what a surprise! It looks....marginally less janky! It looks better in the way a black suit is more slimming than a white one. Unfortunately, it's still a Tommy Hilfiger store. Baby steps.

News: Marc Jacobs Hits the Table + Which T-Shirt Are You?

Who's the most popular designer on this blog? Marc Jacobs of course. It seems The Shophounders can't get enough of him, and it doesn't hurt that he gets Brandon Boyd,  Christy Turlington, Dita Von Teese, Hilary Swank, Julianne Moore, Naomi Campbell, Rufus Wainwright, Selma Blair and Winona Ryder to strip and pose for nudie t-shirts for him, and even joins in himself. A few months back, we were briefly considering changing this blog to "The Christina Aguilera/Marc Jacobs Shopping Blog"  purely to increase traffic, but we decided to maintain a shred of integrity.
The latest news from Marc (via WWD) is that he is teaming up with Waterford, the venerable Irish crystal firm, to launch a tabletop collection set to start arriving in stores by the Holiday season. Jacobs has been producing a few special home items which have been available only in his stores, but this will be a full line selling at select specialty stores as well (we're guessing Barney's, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue for starters). The range will include flatware, dishes, and naturally, crystal stemware, as well as barware, gift items and vases.
At the more democratic end of the scale, His own boutiques have added their seasonal specials, so besides the T-shirts, be sure to pick up special edition rain boots (pictured) in a variety of colors for around $35, as well as a host of plastic key chains and other baubles for under $5.
And there are still some T-shirts left while they last.
After the jump,

Which Marc Jacobs nudie t-shirt are you?

Employee Of The Week: Dave Ortiz at Dave's Quality Meat

The media and The Shophound are on the same wavelength these days. Once again we find ourselves sent to a store we were aware of, but hadn't quite made it into yet. This week, New York Magazine has sent us to find Dave Ortiz at Dave's Quality Meat which is neither a butcher shop nor a gay strip joint, but a sneaker store of the Skater variety, one of many populating certain sections of the east Village and SoHo. Lafayette Street is fairly brimming with them. As you may have guessed, Dave is not really a shop clerk. He is in fact a shop owner, a distinction we have quibbled about in the past, but since it's not actually our column, it's really out of our hands.
Dave's Quality Meat is directed at a very specialized clientele, one that is young and usually rolling down the sidewalk on a board with wheels. As such, it is not the place to look for running shoes or cross trainers for the gym. Here you will find Nikes and Adidas and Van's that may lok ordinary, but for some reason sell for Prada prices. They are limted editions, or special colors and materials, or perhaps a desirable model that is no longer in production, like a rare out-of-print book. This is where one finds styles that you won't find at Paragon.

More after the jump

Hide and Seek Part V: Oak Spreads Its Roots in Brooklyn

We decided to take advantage of being led around Brooklyn a few days ago to hunt down a store that had popped up on our radar. Let us clarify that Oak is not a hidden store simply because it is in Brooklyn. We're not that snobby. In both its locations, however,  Oak is just far enough off the beaten path to be easily missed by anyone searching the obvious thoroughfares, and well camouflaged enough to evade anyone but the truly serious. Let's start with the original Williamsburg store pictured above, after the jump.

Final Ultimate Runway Roundup

For you Shophounders out there whose appetites for runway news know no bounds, our new friend, the tireless Lesley at the Fashiontribes blog has posted the complete, exhaustive, no-show-spared roundup of reviews of the New York Collections for next Spring from all the best blogs.
If that's not enough, the lovely and glamorous Trisha at Omiru.com has broken down every trend and who showed it.
Bon Appetit!