SAMPLE CIRCUIT: The Sales Start Reappearing With Fivestory & Scoop

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Well, shoppers, we have all had a nice break from the sample sales to pick through the department store clearance, but now it's time for the post-Holiday sale phase to begin. It may not be quite as hectic as last month's sale schedule, but we all know that there are a few designers who have yet to throw open their warehouses for our shopping pleasure. In the meantime, though, two prominent retailers are offering final clearances that are always worth making time for:

On the more rarefied side, FIVESTORY, the elegant, Upper East Side jewel box of a boutique is kicking off its seasonal off-site Warehouse Sale at the Bowery Hotel this Friday. We'll preview it later this week, but the lovely proprietress Claire Distenfeld has sent us a bunch of promising preview images with prices that you can see in the gallery above. It is one of the best sales for fans of sexy shoes and the more advanced pieces from the most directional designers like Mary Katranzou, Roland Mouret, Giambattista Valli, Thakoon and many more. There's also great stuff for men where we have typically seen labels like Michael Bastian, Wings + Horns, Mark McNairy, Sacai and Visvim to name a few. It is something of a hunt-through-the-racks-and-bins kind of sale in a particularly unglamorous space, but those with patience and perseverance are generally rewarded with discounts of 60% to 80% off some really special items that you won't see yourself coming and going in. You have until Wednesday the 21st to catch it.

Also launching on Friday is SCOOP NYC's final CLOSET CLEAN-UP Sale with discounts that generally add up to about 75% to 80% off original prices. This time, the clearance is consolidated at Scoop's SoHo store (usually in the back section) so if you have been scoping something at Scoop and waiting for the final price break, this is your chance to pounce. The labels include Scoop's usual lineup of designers including IRO, Missoni, Rag & Bone, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Alice + Olivia, Burberry, Clover Canyon, Diane Von Furstenberg, Helmut Lang, Michael Kors, MSGM, Roberto Cavalli, Sea, Stuart Weitzman, T by Alexander Wang, and Zac Posen for women and AG, Billy Reid, CLOSED, DSquared2, Etro, GANT, Hartford, J. Brand, John Varvatos, Just Cavalli, Maison Martin Margiela, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Paul Smith for men. This one draws a crowd, so the store is opening early at 9 AM this Friday, and it's well worth going as early as possible.

Those are the weekend's big events, but there are also promising sales from KATHERINE HOOKER, MAGASCHONI and COCLICO happening this week as well. Keep an eye on our SALE ROLL at left for locations, hours and other details as well as late breaking events.

WEEKEND SHOPPING: Fivestory's Clearance Returns Downtown + Dover Street Market Transforms For Fall

The Sample Sale Season has tapered off by now, and if you haven't gotten your fill from Proenza Schouler's one day sale yesterday, then you might want to head to the Bowery Hotel sometime between today and Wednesday the 23rd for the return of FIVESTORY's Hotel Sale (pictured above). The Upper East Side's quirkiest luxury store has brought back its off-site clearance for what looks to be a seasonal event. The Shophound stopped by for a preview yesterday and found the unassuming basement space crammed with goods. A broad range of the store's exclusive range of designers was included on those tight rolling racks, but as with most such sales there wasn't more of one or maybe two of a particular style to be seen, so there is a little bit of luck in finding a great item in your size —but that's really what these things are all about. We saw notable pieces from labels like Balmain, Alexander Wang, Carven and Giambattista Valli to name a few. Spring '14 items were marked at 60% off the original retail, but the real deals were the previous season items at 80% off. There were greater size ranges for men, and many sportier items whose sale prices even fell under $100 from cult labels like Wings + Horns, White Mountaineering, Sacai and Visvim. Beautifully made leathergoods from Lotuff were standouts as well as bins full of cashmere knitwear from designers like Christophe Lemaire as well as classics from Fivestory's own label. What you may want to do first is check the shoe stacks, of which there was an abundance. Gianvito Rossi, Aperlai, Sergio Rossi were all well represented for women, and Mark McNairy New Amsterdam fans should head there immediately for the men's shoes which also offered Del Toro slippers, Ovadia & Sons classics and Maison Martin Margiela's Converse collaboration. The space is a bit cramped and can crowd up easily, but anyone hankering for just one more Summer bargain should make a point of visiting before the sale ends. Have a few looks at the sale in the gallery below.

For those of you who are sick of clearance and ready for new goods, DOVER STREET MARKET is undergoing its first tachaigari in New York. This is the Comme des Garçons-operated store's seasonal "new beginning" for the upcoming season in which a whole new look id created for the multi-level boutique. Promised changes include a redesigned 4th floor and new environments for Prada's and Nike's shops with new exclusive items throughout the store. Closed since yesterday, the store reopens on Saturday when it will introduce new collections like Hood by Air, Melitta Baumeister and J.W. Anderson's first collection for Loewe as well as a host of fresh collaborations including Sacai x Vans, Rick Owens x Adidas, Raf Simons x Adidas and the latest batch of Riccardo Tisci's Nike x R.T. sneakers. If that's not enough to entice you to Kips Bay, remember that on Saturday only, the store's popular Rose Bakery will be serving free drinks and snacks all day long, which is definitely not something that happens every day.

FIVESTORY Hotel Sale through July 23 at the Bowery Hotel, 355 Bowery, entrance on 3rd Street, East Village
Dover Street Market reopens on July 19, 160 Lexington Avenue at 3rd Street, Kips Bay. 

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POP-UP IMPORTS: New York Gets A Triple Dose Of English Religion This Month

No, the Church of England is not staging an invasion. The London-based sportswear brand Religion is simply making up for ignoring the U.S. market by launching no less than three pop-up stores at the same time running through the end of July. The three stores are clustered in Manhattan's trendiest areas including SoHo at 25 Howard Street, The East Village at 355 Bowery and NoLita's Openhouse Gallery at 379 Broome Street. The Bowery and Broome Street locations are open now with the Howard Street shop set to open on Monday. A quick look through the label's lookbooks reveal lots of black and white photo-prints, draped tank tops, skeleton patterns, drop crotch pants, and more than a couple of bowler hats for just a touch of "Clockwork Orange". It's a look that never seems to go out of style for a certain set, so we wouldn't be surprised to see more of Religion in the city before long. All shops will close on July 31, giving New Yorkers just enough time to spruce up their Summer wardrobes with the label's clubby, Goth-y style if such a look would be one's persuasion.

Religion Pop-Up Shops at 25 Howard St, Openhouse Gallery at 379 Broome St, and 355 Bowery

JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Connoisseur Edition

In this week's Thursday Styles, Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica finds his way to a store so low key and deliberately innocuous that it is located on a street that is literally an afterthought.
Were we supposed to be familiar with a half-block long street called Extra Place on East 1st street? Probably not, which is why Inventory magazine chose to put its store there.

It should be said that there is no bliss in nostalgia, no sense in craving a better-designed past. Inventory’s choices are about streamlining, not looking backward...

The store carries "designers who have made careful choices and stuck by them", so rather than flashy editor's darlings, our shopper finds meticulously designed Japanese labels and some American and European ones that share the same detail obsessed sensibility, leaving him with the question of what to do after you have found the ultimate?

The quest would be over; you’d have somewhere to shop for time eternal. Pick up your essential pieces. Hit send on the column. Drop the microphone.
Where’s the fun in that, though?

Critical Shopper:  Inventory Makes All the Right Choices for You By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Inventory 12 Extra Place off East 1st Street between Bowery & Second Avenue, East Village

SUPER SOLDIER SKIN CARE: Kiehl's Introduces Captain America's Moisturizer

Admit it.
You would love to have the same, smooth, youthful skin as a genetically enhanced superhero who has survived decades of being frozen in an arctic iceberg with barely the slightest wrinkle on his brow. Never mind that he is a fictional character who never ages, Kiehl's has engaged Captain America himself to help launch its latest product, Facial Fuel “Heavy Lifting” Firming, Lifting, Anti-Wrinkle Moisturizer for Men ($40).Yes, at some point in the future, our attention will be completely monopolized by Superheores. Kiehl's is just getting a jump on things.

While the Kiehl's brand has a remarkably high proportion of male customers already, many American men are still resistant to skincare that goes beyond soap and water —even one that has been created specifically to treat their thicker, rougher skin like this one. Starting today, every Kiehl's purchase will include a special limited edition comic book, "Captain America: Transformation & Triumph" (pictured above) created with Marvel Custom Solutions that features 12 pages of Cap battling his classic foe Cobra at Kiehl's original East Village store, while supplies last, of course (Read it online HERE). In addition, you will likely be seeing images of Captain America all over Kiehl's counters in department stores this summer. Whether or not this marketing partnership will get the Comic-Con crowd to venture into the cosmetics department remains to be seen. They have not, after all, been known for their fastidious grooming practices, but perhaps Captain America can change all that, which might be a superhero-sized accomplishment itself.
Your move, Superman.

Kiehl's (Official Site)

NOW OPEN: MUJI's Fifth New York Store Hits Cooper Square Today

It may have been the disgusting weather this morning that made the Press Preview for MUJI's new store on Cooper Square a bit more subdued than one would have expected. Of course, this in New York's fifth store from the Japanese chain, so we are all pretty familiar with what they have to offer by now, and yet the company has made each store a bit different.

In a certain sense, it's a surprise that it took Muji so long to get to the East Village, which, for years has been home to a number of smaller restaurants and stores specializing in Japanese food and products that are harder to find elsewhere. The new Muji store is a few doors away from a Japanese barbecue, so it fits in the neighborhood just fine, especially on a block that has recently become home to some dramatic, futuristic architecture. Muji is not, however in one of those buildings, but in a more traditional sort of space that makes it the first New York store to offer two levels of shopping. On the street level, there are all the familiar offerings from clothing to home and kitchen items to ever more of the brand's fascinating pens and paper products. Downstairs, however, holds an expanded offering of the brand's furniture. Browse around long enough and find yourself longing to live in an environment defined by simple, functional wooden furniture and walls filled with pristine stacks of polypropylene shelves and drawers. As we have mentioned before, part if the appeal of Muji's furniture is that it is scaled to small living spaces, a quality that any New York Apartment dweller can appreciate.

We hadn't had a good browse around Muji for a little while, and there are always ingenious new gadgets and clever items to discover. We were kindly gifted with a Silicone Ice Ball Maker —designed for those who prefer a single sphere of ice— inside a special edition of the store's re-usable canvas My Bag made just for the store that will be distributed to the first 1,000 customers. Check out our gallery below for a look inside the new store.

MUJI Cooper Square 52 Cooper Square between East 6th & 7th Streets, East Village

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SALE UPDATE: The Odin & Pas De Deux Clearance Is Better Than Barneys Warehouse Sale + What Goes Around Comes Around & DKNY Sales

Normally, The Shophound doesn't report on special sales in the middle of their runs, but when The Odin and Pas De Deux Clearance Sale began, we were busy bitching and moaning about how much the Barneys Warehouse Sale sucked. Usually, the Warehouse is the grand finale for our clearance shopping season, but as it was such a disappointment this season, and since the fine folks at Odin -one of our favorite NYC stores- reminded us of their two-week long clearance consolidation, we trucked on down to East 11th Street to see if what they had to offer.

Stuffed into Odin's tiny Annex, the sale is a little bit cramped and crowded, as we expected, but we would rather squeeze our way into an undersized space full of good bargains than wander around around a Chelsea basement looking for something, anything, that we would want. Odin's tight racks included great pieces from last Fall and previous seasons from designers like Duckie Brown, Mark McNairy, Engineered Garments, Todd Snyder, Burkman Brothers, Thom Brown, Oliver Spencer and others. Even after a week, there were still worthwhile buys left at around 75% off the original prices. The center tables were still piled high with sweaters, and throughout the store, there were shoes from Florsheim by Duckie Brown and Common Projects. A few feet away on the Pas De Deux side there was slightly less merchandise, but still good pieces from Richard Chai, Carven, Thakoon Addition and Alexander Wang. Another plus: since the space is tiny, you can tell pretty quickly if there is anything you will want, and then you can stop next door and check out what's new for Spring at the side-by-side brother and sister stores.

If you want to make a day of shopping downtown, this week also offers a DKNY Sample Sale at 260 Fifth Avenue that by all reports is stuffed full of merchandise at deep discounts. For the quirkier minded, vintage emporium What Goes Around Comes Around is celebrating the last week of its Lafayette Street pop-up store (pictured below) by taking 70% off the ticket price of everything in the store. That includes vintage items, which will now sell for thrift shop prices, and lots of brand-new never worn items from the store's vintage inspired private label collection for men and women. That's three good sales in one week, which should please anyone whose hankering for bargains was left unsatisfied by Barneys Warehouse

The Odin and Pas De Deux Clearance Sale Ends Sunday March 10th at 330 East 11th Street Between First & Second Avenues, East Village
DKNY Sample Sale Ends Saturday March 9th at 260 Fifth Avenue at 28th Street, Flatiron District
What Goes Around Comes Around Pop-up store Ends Saturday March 9th at 440 Lafayette Street at Astor Place, NoHo

BACK FROM THE DEAD: Bettie Page Clothing Makes Its Bowery Debut

The Shophound can't help pondering whether or not the iconic 1950s pin-up Bettie Page, if she were still alive, would be especially thrilled to see that The Bowery is where a sizable store bearing her name and image has opened. After all, in her day, the Bowery was not a place where respectable people went shopping or even where people who posed for racy fetish pictures, like Ms. Page did, would want to spend any amount of time.

Of course, we know that the Bowery has changed, and Bettie Page Clothing, which opened late last year in a gleaming modern building, is flanked by the luxury boutique Blue & Cream and Daniel Boulud's DBGB restaurant. Patricia Field is only a stone's throw away as are John Varvatos' and Billy Reid's boutiques, so she is now in good company. What we wondered as we strolled through the store was how Ms. Page, who died in 2008, managed to create an 11-unit dress chain? Well, it turns out that Bettie Page is one of the wealthiest dead celebrities, with an estate that reaps several million dollars a year in royalties. There are Bettie Page Lingerie, Swimwear and Shoe lines along with a healthy business in prints, photos and even a line of erotic fiction. Fortunately for the late model and erstwhile Christian missionary, she eventually found her way to reputable licensing representation during the 1990s, though she lived much of her post-modeling life troubled and penniless before she discovered that she had become a cult figure.

So what to make of Bettie Page Clothing today? The brainchild of one Tatyana Khomyakova, the store does not, as one might expect, trade in the kind of fetish gear that made its namesake so infamous. It actually offers reproductions of the kind of 1950s-style clothes Ms. Page might have worn off-duty —Think of what Dita von Teese might wear offstage if she didn't have the money for couture (Bettie Page dresses retail in the $150 to $200 range). The store does its best to recreate a vintage dress shop feeling without all the musty patina —tidy but not luxurious or slick. In a weird sort of disconnect, brand-new old fashioned mannequins wear pristine thrift shop dresses available in multiple sizes on the racks a few steps away. In case you don't recognize the novelty aspect of the store, the staff is in full costume, dressed head to toe in current merchandise, and if they can't pull off Ms. Page's signature bangs, they are encouraged to sport beehives or some other elaborate 50s hairstyle. The store is cheery with a  relatively wholesome atmosphere, although there is a bit of officially sanctioned Bettie Page memorabilia here and there. If you didn't know who Page really was, you might think she was some kind of raven haired Donna Reed. As for East Village New Yorkers, who have been mining the 1950s for authentic vintage apparel since the days of "Desperately Seeking Susan", we can't see them being too impressed with ersatz nostalgia-wear despite its licensed pedigree. Of course, we all know that such stores aren't necessarily aimed at the locals. Consider it a part of the extended New York City theme park created expressly for tourists. Thanks, Mayor Bloomberg!

Bettie Page Clothing 303 Bowery between Houston & East 1st Streets, East Village

WINDS OF CHANGE: Patagonia To Bring The Outdoors To The Meatpacking District And Surf To The Bowery

The Meatpacking District's shift from high luxury to merely "upscale" is picking up steam as Outdoor specialist Patagonia will be opening a new store at 414 West 14th Street this Fall. Situated right next to the Levi's premium collection store, the spot was recently used as a Holiday pop-up store for men's online retailer Park & Bond, and though, technically, Fall begins in about six weeks (ugh), it doesn't look like much has been done to the space yet. Though Christian Louboutin's shop for his extravagant men's shoe collection is set to open soon (ish?), Patagonia is continuing the shifting trend of the neighborhood toward larger, less exclusive brands. The brand is at the high end of its category pricewise, causing outdoorsy types to refer to it as "PataGucci", even though actual Gucci customers would never confuse the two. Recent months have seen designer Stella McCartney decamp for SoHo as her shop is soon to be taken over by contemporary priced Alice + Olivia. Alexander McQueen is also constantly rumored to be looking for a more exclusive alternative location. Though any cold winter day will show you how Patagonia down jackets are wildly popular among New Yorkers, it is not quite the designer brand one would have expected to see there just a few years ago. The arrival of bigger, more popular brands like Apple and Levi's continue to have an effect on the neighborhood.

And that's not the only new Patagonia store hitting the city this Fall. In a move sure to irk the East Village's cultural preservationists, the brand has also announced that it will be taking over the space at 313 Bowery that was once known as the CBGB Gallery, an annex to the legendary Rock & Roll club that is now a John Varvatos boutique. There will be much hand wringing about how The Bowery is turning into a mall, mostly by people who clearly haven't spent much time in an actual mall. In fact, this particular store will be the chain's first East Coast Patagonia Surf store, with an interior based on the Fletcher Chouinard Designs Surfboards shop that is part of Patagonia's California base. The company promises to preserve the Bowery location's heritage, although it was never a memorable interior, and two other stores have already occupied the space since CBGB's shut down. Perhaps it is time to relax and just accept that CBGB's is gone, and keeping the spaces as a shrine won't bring it back. Things change. It's the nature of the Universe. Get a surfboard.

Bowery Gets First East Coast Patagonia Surf Store (Bowery Boogie)

SCENTS IN SPACE: ODIN Creates A Pop-Up Environment For Its Fragrances

   Click all images for a larger view in a new window

We weren't quite sure what to expect when we were invited down to Odin New York, one of our favorite stores in the East Village (or anywhere, really), to preview a special pop-up store for Odin's Fragrance and Home Fragrance lines in the concept shop next to the mini-chain's original East 11th Street store. After all, don't they sell those things at Odin all the time anyway?

When The Shophound got down there yesterday evening, we immediately understood the point of the whole venture as we encountered a striking environment inside the tiny retail space. Working with the Odin team, the innovative design firm, Snarkitecture created a deceptively expansive installation using plaster casts of the brand's fragrance bottles precisely positioned and suspended to form a pristine and unexpectedly serene setting for the product lines (pictured above). We also got a chance to finally meet Eddy Chai, one of Odin's co-founders, and discovered that their fragrance partner is a former co-worker of ours from way back when The Shophound was just a fledgling sales associate.

The installation opens to the public today, May 1st, and will remain for six weeks. The first 50 customers who make a purchase from the award winning fragrance collection during the first week of the concept shop with receive a plaster cast bottle as an artifact from the shop (which also happens to make an excellent if quirky paperweight). The next week, customers will have to settle for an Odin New York x Snarkitecture tote bag decorated with a rendering of the installation.

Odin New York Fragrance x Snarkitecture Pop-Up 330 East 11th Street Between First & Second Avenues, East Village