IMPENDING DOOM:

Patricia Field To Close Her Store After Nearly 50 Years

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It's hard to imagine Downtown New York without a Patricia Field store, but we will have to get used to the idea next Spring when the ageless, flame-haired fashion fixture will shutter her eponymous boutique. When she closes the store, it will have been just about 50 years since its founding in the West Village in swinging 1966. The store settled on East 8th Street in 1971 and remained there to wardrobe flamboyant dressers and clubgoers through the eras of Studio 54, Area, Pyramid, Palladium, Twilo, Jackie 60, and beyond. In 2006, she moved her store to the still-gritty Bowery, and during her decades as a cutting-edge retailer, Field has supported many an outrageous indie designer, launched her own House of Field label and provided day jobs and nighttime outfits to more fierce ruling New York drag queens than we could begin to count. Hers has been a store like no other —a funky and fantastical celebration of style for customers who have been fearless, eclectic and just a bit kinky. It's the kind of place you can count on if you have decided that you needed a pair of  shiny patent leather leggings, a crystal festooned showgirl outfit, or maybe just another feather boa. When Field started garnering acclaim for designing costumes for Sex and the City, her store became something of a tourist attraction as well, spawning a satellite store in SoHo The TV and film work she started during the 1980s has only been growing steadily since. Field is not closing the store due to a rent hike or some other real estate pressure. She owns the now highly desirable space herself, but running a retail store for five decades can exhaust even the tireless, and the time she gains will allow her to take advantage of the opportunities that have come her way that she has had to turn down in recent years. We may still see her shopkeeper's touch at the occasional curated pop-up shop like the one currently found at Dover Street Market. “I’m going to miss my clients, the face-to-face time with them, the most. I make people look beautiful and feel happy, and I’ve been fortunate to make a career out of that,” Field tells the New York Daily News. While she will leave a niche that will be very difficult for someone to come and fill, her work as a costume designer, currently for TV Land's Younger and multiple film projects, continues to go strong, and faithful customers can look forward to next Spring when Field will empty out her stockrooms and warehouse for a blowout closing sale that should be as good for people-watching as it will be for bargains, if not better.

‘Sex and the City’ costume designer Patricia Field closing store (NY Daily News)


URBAN JUNGLE:

You'll Get The Hard Sell At The HIKE NIKE Pop-Up On The Bowery

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It's a constant struggle in stores to find the correct balance between being welcoming to customers and smothering them with attention, information and "experience". At this month's HIKE NIKE pop-up on the Bowery, we aren't sure thatchy are even bothering to try.
A typical complaint in New York City stores is that people either can't find sale help or are treated dismissively by the ones who are available. Not so at Hike Nike. The moment The Shophound walked into the temporary store a couple of days ago, we were descended upon by a genial Nike representative who proceeded to give us a lengthy spiel about the store and its various attributes, which while informative was also slightly oppressive. Let us breathe Nike people. It's not that the store doesn't need a bit of explanation. The front room serves as a mini-museum of sorts featuring the evolution of classic Nike styles such as the iconic Cortez into the more rugged ACG styles that fuse sneakers with hiking boots. If that designation sounds familiar, you may remember the ACG sub-brand from the '90s when it was created for the brand's trail running and hiking styles. Now, ACG is being relaunched more for style under the Nike Lab division, aimed at the city dwellers who probably accounted for much of the brand's success the first time around when they snapped up now classic styles like the Lava Dome and the Terra Humara. The store has even organized a series of "city hikes" over the course of the month to re-acquaint New Yorkers with the concept. Upstairs, there is a preview display of the sleek new ACG capsule collection launching on December 2, and in the back room visitors can try on ACG items to purchase or pre-order —and you will get a lot of help. In fact, we couldn't even enter the back area without making sure we were registered with Nike.com. Once past the gate, the new Nike Lab Sneaker-boots on display looked great, mixing classic Nike looks and flyknit styles with heftier, more rugged soles in serious shades of black and army green. Getting the fashion right has never been Nike's problem, but a lighter touch on the service might do a bit better on selling the Hike Nike concept.

Hike Nike NYC 135 Bowery between Broome & Grand Streets, Lower East Side
Have a look inside of the store after the jump

Continue reading "URBAN JUNGLE:

You'll Get The Hard Sell At The HIKE NIKE Pop-Up On The Bowery" »


YOUR WEEKEND PLANS:

Fivestory Brings Uptown Downtown
For This Weekend's Sale

FivestorySaleHave you fully picked through the final clearance racks at Saks, Barneys and Bergdorf's without finding shopping fulfillment? Don't worry. There's still some serious sale shopping to be done before you need to turn your attention to the spring collections. FIVESTORY, the luxe boutique just off Madison Avenue has shipped its trove of clearance merchandise to the Bowery Hotel for its Off-Site Sale with reductions from 60% to 80% off original retail prices. The Shophound stopped by the VIP preview  this morning to get a idea of what shoppers can expect. 

Look for the sign on West 3rd street (at right) that will guide you to the side entrance of the hotel. Down some rustic stairs and into a fairly stripped down room you will find the racks and tables carefully organized. Fivestory is not a huge retail establishment, and so, there is not necessarily an abundance of anything in particular, but there is a little bit of everything if you have the patience to sift through the racks. Pricing is simple. A red dot on the tag is 60% off and a blue one means 80% off what appeared to be previous seasons' merchandise. The women's racks ranged from sportswear to extravagant eveningwear. A quick glance through revealed labels like Thakoon, Carven and Giambattista Valli. There were plenty of shoes arranged around the perimeter of the selling area neatly in boxes from labels like Nina Ricci, Aquazurra and Aperlai. Staffers were still setting up a couple of children's racks near the entrance, and two large tables in the center held men's shirts and sweaters, while more racks for men were found toward the back of the room. It wasn't terribly crowded, but the shoppers who were there were snapping things up enthusiastically.

We actually saw more menswear than we were expecting, so guys shouldn't feel like there won't be anything for them. We saw good pieces from Ovadia & Sons, White Mountaneering, Michael Bastian, Bespoken, Comme des Garçons Homme and Orlebar Brown to name a few. There was a particularly good selection of outerwear in technical fabrics from Ten C. There was even some stock from Japanese cult label Visvim as well as sporty and now quite inexpensive things from Wings + Horns. Possibly the best bargain was an abundance of basic but high quality private label Scottish cashmere knits for men on the center tables which at 80% off came in at Uniqlo prices.

Anyone who still has a clearance shopping urge should definitely stop by. The sale officially opens to the public tomorrow, January 17th (although you can probably get in today without any problem) and runs through Wednesday the 22nd. As always, we suggest getting there as early as possible. Have a look at below a couple shots of the sale in very quiet mode earlier today. Check our SALE ROLL at left for more details.

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