CHAIN GANG: Pottery Barn To Make A Big Bow In Flatiron

Once a pervasive presence in Manhattan, the Pottery Barn chain has lost some prominent stores over the years in the city, and is now down to two locations in the city while its sibling chains, Williams-Sonoma and West Elm have held their own or grown stronger. That's about to change, as the company has inked a deal to open a major store at 11 West 19th Street in the heart of the Flatiron District as reported by multiple sources. The 20,000 square foot space is currently occupied by Lillian August (pictured above) which has been looking to get out of its lease there, and will surrender the space to make way for the deal. Like the West Elm in Chelsea that sits between Sixth and Seventh Avenues and opens out to both 17th and 18th streets, the new Pottery Barn will have entrances on both 19th and 20th streets. While missing the desirable Fifth Avenue frontage of other chains in the neighborhood, the new store will be right across the street from Muji as well as bakery hotspot Dough. It is in the middle of a home furnishings enclave popular with downtowners, and should still be a potent destination for shoppers. It's still too early to expect a firm opening date, but sometime next year should be a safe bet. In the meantime, shoppers can now check out West Elm's new luxury "Collection" store that has recently opened at 123 West 17th Street right next to its main label mothership.

SAMPLE CIRCUIT: Light Sale Week With Barbara Bui, Vilebrequin & Ligne Roset

You might think that a muggy heatwave would be enough to keep anyone home from sample sale shopping, but even though it is the quietest few weeks of the summer there are still a few sales to hit, and think of the lack of crowds as a plus that leaves more stuff for you.

We do mean a few sales, however, mostly thanks to our friends at 260samplesale whose main space on Fifth Avenue will be hosting the VILEBREQUIN sale starting today the 16th through Sunday. Look for sporty, classic French sportswear for men including their famous swim trunks just in time for a late-summer poolside style refresh.

Downtown at their Greene Street space, French designer BARBARA BUI has returned with her popular sale. Look for savings on ready-to-wear apparel along with shoes, handbags and other accessories. Shop through Sunday.

Finally, starting on Friday the 19th, LIGNE ROSET opens its big 3-day sale featuring reductions of up to 60% off everything from floor models, overstock and discontinued furniture, lighting and home accessories.

Be sure to keep an eye on our SALE ROLL sidebar at left for all times and locations including late-breaking events. Next week, well, there's a Scotch and Soda sale and not much else on the schedule so far. check back to see if anyone is gutsy enough to launch a sample sale during the last weeks of August.

SAMPLE CIRCUIT: A Rare M·A·C Sale Hits Chelsea + Thomas Pink, Zachary Prell & Intermix

We may be heading into the slowest part of the year, Sample Sale-wise, but some of our hardworking venues are doing their best to keep things going with a mix of seasonal favorites and unexpected newcomers this week. Here are the highlights:

Over at Clothingline in the Garment District, British shirtmaker THOMAS PINK has been holding a four-day sale which started yesterday and runs through Thursday the 21st. Do we recall seeing a Pink sample sale in the past? Not really, so this may be a rare chance to pick up some smart shirts, ties & furnishings from the label at a deep discount. This one's mainly for the guys, though a small selection of women's items have been promised.

Fans of  JACK ROGERS's signature woven sandals will be heading to the label's showroom for 75% off a full size range of footwear plus clothing and accessories from a host of labels also found in the brand's boutiques. Shop through Friday the 22nd.

The big, rare event of the week is an unexpected and relatively unprecedented sample sale from the popular makeup brand M·A·C. From Tuesday the 19th through Friday the 22nd, look for throngs of eager fans to converge on the Metropolitan Pavilion for the brand's first ever Sample Sale, at least in New York. While we have often seen sample sales from makeup brands, we rarely see them from ones as big and beloved as M·A·C, so this is something of a major event. 60% discounts are promised on regular merchandise as well as special collaboration collections. Prepare to fight off crowds.

Our friends at 260SampleSale are offering a pair of summer sales that should keep two of their venues humming this week. At the main location at 260 Fifth Avenue, contemporary chain INTERMIX appears to be taking over the sadly departed Scoop NYC's warehouse sale slot. Look for 70% off women's apparel, shoes and accessories with plenty of summer time left to enjoy them.

Down at their Greene Street outpost, emerging menswear designer ZACHARY PRELL will be offering discounts on his refined, classic men's sportswear pieces. Both sales run through Sunday the 24th.

Be sure to keep an eye on our SALE ROLL sidebar at left for locations and hours as well as late-breaking events that we do our best to update as soon as we hear of them. Next week, look for sales from Derek Lam, Nili Lotan, Isaia, Eidos and an always welcome return of the Sferra sale.

STOREFRONT SHUFFLE: Bally & Georg Jensen To Move A Few Blocks Up Madison Avenue

The game of Musical Stores on Madison Avenue will continue as famed Swiss shoe and accessory brand Bally will move from its current home in the GM Building to Georg Jensen's shop at 687 Madison. Georg Jensen, by the same token will relocate further uptown to 698 Madison.
what may seem like lateral move for both companies may in fact be something of marginal improvement for Bally, which has endured continuing efforts to reposition and improve its fashion image in its GM building location through a series of creative directors. The move will have it taking the entire southeast corner of 62nd and Madison including not only the Jensen store but also the adjacent former Church's shop which has been closed for several months now creating a total of about 3,000 square feet. It is a somewhat more favorable location just a block up from Barneys with a much more intimate scale than the cavernous GM Building space.
Georg Jensen's new home will have be the former Kentshire shop where, between the ground floor and the basement, it will have 1,600 square feet to display the famous Danish jewelry and silver designs.
No word yet on who will takeover the current Bally store which is on the back end of a wing that features a temporary (or possibly not so temporary if rumors are to be believed) Cartier store, and if there is a new Church's store in the works, something New York City hasn't been long without in decades, then it is still under wraps.

The WTC transit hub is an exhausting mess (NYPost via The Real Deal)

SAMPLE CIRCUIT: This Weekend Check Out Sales From Morgane Le Fay & Ralph Lauren Home

There's not a whole lot going on Sample Sale-wise these days, but starting tomorrow, there will be two events worth checking out.

Fans of ethereal women's apparel collection MORGANE LE FAY will be lining up at the SoHo boutique tomorrow morning for the seasonal sample sale that runs through next Thursday. Particularly popular among brides and wedding parties, the label is known for its signature mix of romantic and modernist elements, and the line can include everything from hoop skirts to bomber jackets including the looks pictured above. Look for discounts up to 70% off.

One of the most anticipated sales is always the RALPH LAUREN HOME clearance which starts tomorrow. The four-day blowout typically includes all of the designer's home collections from his top label including furniture, lighting, home accessories, bedding, dining collections and more from his top signature label. Part of the appeal comes from the one-of-a-kind antiques and props from Lauren's visual merchandising warehouse which can include all manner of quirky decorative items. As usual, independent shipping services will be available on-site for extra fees, and, as this is an off-site Soiffer-Haskin sale, leave the kids at home.

Thing will pick up a bit more next week with BESPOKEN, BONOBOS and a long awaited DOLCE & GABBANA sale, so keep an eye on our SALE ROLL sidebar for details and late breaking events.

FOND FAREWELL: Kitchen Cult Store Broadway Panhandler To Close This Year

Some things just aren't meant to last forever.
While we have become accustomed to hearing about beloved independent retailers forced to close after exorbitant rent hikes or predatory competition, Broadway Panhandler will close its doors sometime this spring for a less painful reason: retirement. Store owner Norman Kornbleuth is 72 years old, and has simply reached the point where he is ready to wind the business down. Since his children are not interested in carrying on the business, and his attempts to sell the store have proved fruitless, Mr. Kornbleuth will shutter it when he decides the time has come. “We were never just about housewares,” he tells the Times' Florence Fabricant. “With my background, we could continue to sell equipment to restaurants.” Originally opened in SoHo about 40 years ago, Broadway Panhandler migrated from its namesake address in 1995 to Broome Street and then again up to East 8th Street in 2o6. Through the years, Kornbleuth developed a destination for chefs, celebrities and celebrity chefs alike thanks to the kind of personal service that is hard to replicate outside independent stores. Despite heavy competition from upscale chains like Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table and even discount laden Bed Bath & Beyond, the store thrived with most of the same top brands they carried plus more arcane fare and more exclusive suppliers. The store has been known as the first stop for obscure cooking items that are easily overlooked by bigger chains. Most notable was the extensive knife counter with a selection tough to match in the city. Culinary minded New Yorkers will still have independent stores like Whisk and Bowery Kitchen Supply in Chelsea Market to look to, but it will be tough for them to match the wide selection and depth of expertise that made Broadway Panhandler a mainstay.

Broadway Panhandler, Longtime Manhattan Cookware Retailer, to Close in Spring By Florence Fabricant (NYTimes)

ROVING BOUTIQUE: Paul Smith Is Leaving Flatiron For Bleecker Street. . . For Now

The Flatiron District will be dealt a blow next week when the Paul Smith boutique at 108 Fifth Avenue (pictured above) permanently closes its doors and moves to a temporary space on Bleecker Street in the West Village. While the designer has a flagship store in SoHo, a Williamsburg location and a new outpost at Brookfield Place in the Financial District, the Fifth Avenue store was Smith's first in New York opening in 1987. It was one of the first designer stores in the neighborhood and, along with Emporio Armani on the other side of 16th Street (now a closed Joe Fresh), established Fifth Avenue between 23rd and 14th Streets as a bona fide shopping destination that seemed to be geared more toward downtown dwelling New Yorkers than tourists or bridge-and-tunnel shoppers. Even though the neighborhood eventually became more of a destination for chain stores that made it something of a mall without the mall (Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, H&M, Victoria's Secret etc.), The Paul Smith boutique maintained its place as the high-end lynchpin for the neighborhood for nearly 30 years, even expanding downstairs.
Smith won't miss a beat, however. As clearly stipulated in the window (pictured below) the Bleecker Street store will open on Monday It is a more compact 1,000 square feet to Fifth Avenue's 1,800, but it is technically a temporary location to serve until a more suitable permanent spot is found. Where it will ultimately land remains to be seen, but the hands-on designer has been known to be extremely picky about where he places his boutiques, so wherever it is, expect it to be perfectly chosen all in good time.

Paul Smith Relocates to Temporary Site in Manhattan (WWD)

FLAGSHIP FLASH: Muji's New Concept Fifth Avenue Flagship Opens Today

New York has had a few Muji stores for quite some time now, but the new 12,000 square foot, two-level flagship (pictured above) opening today on Fifth Avenue across the street from the New York Public Library is promising new departments and products that will bring the store much closer to the full Muji experience that customers in its Japanese stores have come to know.
For starters, it will have the biggest assortment of clothing yet seen in any of Muji's U.S. stores, including a full selection of children's clothes for ages 2 to 10. Customers will now be able to create a customized scent at the Aroma Bar, and, for the first time, personalize their purchases with monograms or a selection of other designs at the embroidery machine station. Other additions include a Cafe Grumpy coffee bar, plants sold in partnership with Green Fingers New York, and a book section focusing on Japanese lifestyle topics. Most notably, for a store so intensely focused on Japan and its day-to-day culture, the retailer is introducing Found Muji, a section devoted to merchandise curated by its creative staff from around the world, currently featuring France's Basque region (pictured below).
Muji almost always has a few opening day surprised up its sleeve, so today will definitely be a great day to check out the new store, but it sounds like we are starting to see more of full breadth of the products that has made the chain so popular back home in Japan.

MUJI 475 Fifth Avenue between 40th & 41st Street, Midtown
Muji Unveils Experiential Concept in Fifth Avenue New York Store (WWD)
See some more images of the new store after the jump

TOUCH OF LUXURY: Christofle Is Coming To Bleecker Street

In perhaps a new direction for Bleecker Street, the French luxury silver and tabletop brand Chrostofle is opening a small but undoubtedly elegant shop at no. 396 (pictured above), a new space reconfigured to create a retail shop in what was formerly a ground-floor apartment. We aren't exactly sure when the store's official opening is, but it appears that the company has already held a few preview events, and a peek through the sides of the window reveals that the store is fully stocked with the tabletop silver and holloware that Christofle is known for.
For a shopping stretch that has become known mainly for designer fashion, the new store has a whiff of a throwback to Bleecker Street's previous incarnation when it was a destination for fine antiques and luxurious home furnishings. But then the designers came and, well, you know...

Interestingly, for the first time in a while, there is suddenly an abundance of available space on the prized stretch of Bleecker Street between Christoper and Hudson Streets. As it happens, the new Christofle store is currently flaked by the empty former homes of Lulu Guinness and Jack Spade. Ten years after most of the street's longtime independent tenants were ousted in favor of more glamorous fashion brands, leases are coming up for renewal at dramatically increased rents, but where available storefronts were once snapped up as fast as they came up, they now linger. Aside form the Guinness and Spade sites, James Perse took over the large, defunct Juicy Couture store, leaving his previous two storefronts still wanting inhabitants. The former Jean Michel Cazabat turned ASH shoe store is now fully available, and the Manatus restaurant whose ejection bitterly disappointed neighborhood residents, has seen no one take over its space over a year after its departure. Perhaps the new Christofle store is signaling a broader mix of merchants for the West Village, but perhaps an ever richer one.

BIG BOX RUMORS: Is This The Entrance To A New Bed Bath & Beyond On Columbus Avenue?

There have been rumors for months that the popular home chain Bed Bath & Beyond was getting ready to open a second Upper West Side store, and if they are true, it looks like the opening may not be far off. About a Year ago, stories began circulating that the residents of a high-rise apartment building at 100 West 93rd Street and Columbus Avenue were receiving coupons for a new branch of the chain set to open in the new cluster of stores being constructed at the base of their building. The store's representatives refused to confirm the news, and the actual building seemed at the time to be a long way from completion. Now, the plywood has come down, and the entrance to the kind of basement space that would comply with Columbus Avenue's new storefront zoning regulations appears to be nearly finished. The folks at Bed Bath & Beyond are still mum, but that's not unusual for chains these days who often want the element of surprise to help publicize new stores.
At any rate, something is ready to go in down there, and it looks like it may only be a matter of weeks before we find out for sure.