RUTH LA FERLA & JON CARAMANICA GO SHOPPING: Recovery Edition

Last week, The Shophound just didn't have a chance to follow up on Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica's visit to Times Square's big new Superdry flagship. Like so many others in the city, we were busy trying to make up for lost work time once most of Manhattan had returned to something resembling normalcy. Looking back, his account seemed fairly joyless, like he really would rather have been somewhere else after the disaster the city had endured. We would certainly rather be almost anywhere other than a Superdry in Times Square at any given moment, let alone during the aftermath of a natural disaster.
So let's move on.

In this week's Thursday Styles, Ruth La Ferla makes a rare return appearance in the Critical Shopper seat. She has taken on shoe designer Brian Atwood's new Madison Avenue boutique, and scores a coup of sorts by bringing along not just any shopping , but Debbie Bancroft, a real live Upper East Side socialite. This lady can be credibly seen as representing the sort of person who will seriously shop at Atwood's store, and shop she does,

Ms. Bancroft beelined to a pair of pumps that would have been subdued had they not been snakeskin patterned, in disco-ball silver. She snapped them up while I checked out, and bought, an identical pair in inky blue.

And what more do you really need to know? Inside the lavish and fancifully turned out store, ladies of means will snap up flamboyantly designed footwear at staggering prices. It seems that at least one part of New York City has bounced back to normal just fine.

Critical Shopper: Just Try Putting Yourself in His Shoes By Ruth La Ferla (NYTimes)
Brian Atwood 655 Madison Avenue at between 60th & 61st Streets, Upper East Side

Critical Shopper: At Superdry in Times Square, Taking Respite, Ambivalently, From Nature by Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Superdry 729 Seventh Avenue at 49th Street, Times Square