there's a simple reason why Filene's is going under -- they sell the unsellable UGLY unwearable expensive bridge stuff (I'm looking at YOU, Vera Wang Lavender Label)that no one wanted full price anyway, so what difference does it make if it's 60% off?
I bought some Vineyard Vines for my kid at Filenes, complete with the tags from the Darien Sport Shop.Of course at the rate this economy is going, pretty soon anything like that VV that caters to that so called monied set is going to go right under. Won't be anyone to impress for long...
@arirang: That is not true. Last time I went to a Filene's, I walked out with a Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti silk satin cocktail dress identical to one once worn by Anne Hathaway on the cover of a magazine. Original retail was something like $2300. I paid $112. There is an awful lot of the "bridge" tat, but if you dig a little, you can find the designer stuff.
My only exposure to Filene's basement is in The Bell Jar, if I remember correctly, and so I was very startled when I found out it wasn't just a Boston store, and also that it existed in real life.
"The only thing that's holding our foreleg bones attached to our thigh bones are these little ligaments around the knee," said Hutton. "And once they go, the bones fall sideways inside the bag of skin."
Srsly, who needs health insurance when we have moddles to give us medical information?
Many years ago when I subscribed to Vogue I got a bag that looked like the picture on my subscription postcard, but it was 5x7 inches! I gave it to my god-daughter and she put her polly pocket doll (one doll) in it.
@luxylux: I just subscribed and they promised me the top bag in the above picture. I got it, but it's about 4" tall, unlined, and un-hemmed. It's just fake croc cut-and-sewn into a rough "purse" shape. I left it in my building's lobby and it was gone by the next morning.
..when businesses' leases turn over, landlords are asking for steep increases in rent, because the high-end retailers are able to pay up to $60,000/month. "They are killing the Village," the man said. "Ten years ago - mom-and-pop stores gone, restaurants gone, they're all gone."
um, DUH. wtf did you expect? it's called greed, google it!
@hortense: The Clinique bags are higher-quality than the one I got (the top bag in the above pic). I'd rather have gotten a free Guava Stain lipstick and a Naturally Glossy mascara.
Oh fine Anya Hindmarch. So I suppose it's bad for me to have a giant pile of shoes in the middle of the floor I trip over all the time? Or for me to continue my experiment to see if old wifebeaters I slept in will walk themselves to the laundry hamper? And I suppose you do your dishes EVERY time you eat, judgey wudgie?
Oh, you do? Really? I didn't know that was possible.
@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): Oh man. I know! I am probably the person she speaks of- my handbag is always full of all sorts of usless crap. But who knows if I will suddenly need a pair of dance pants, black nail polish, receipts from the last 42 times I went out, an assortment of change, a book I've been meaning to read, and 65 pens? Emergencies happen Anya!
@skatez: This is why my purse has gotten so large that the guy at the local bodega made comments about its size, and the next step will be a steamer trunk on wheels.
@Understater: For some reason I have a REALLY difficult time puzzling out store names. The swooshy cursive script on "Lord and Taylor" stores? Had me MYSTIFIED for far, far too long.
@tscheese: as a kid i thought disney was gisney because of all that swirly stuff--like they were making the G backwards. i knew to say disney, but thought it was a weird pronounciation.
Hudson St. in New York's West Village has 15 empty storefronts on one six-block stretch - and, like, 14 Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Ralph Lauren shops. Some see a connection: one retailer, who did not want to be named, said that when businesses' leases turn over, landlords are asking for steep increases in rent, because the high-end retailers are able to pay up to $60,000/month. "They are killing the Village," the man said. "Ten years ago - mom-and-pop stores gone, restaurants gone, they're all gone."
So true. There's a vintagey bookstore there that I'm always expecting to not be there if and when I have the time to walk thru the village. (and no not the late Oscar Wilde)
@IrockIroll: Akk. Depressing. Whenever I start to miss NYC, I remind myself of stuff like this and then I don't miss it so much...also our economy would be better if mom and pop stores were allowed to thrive and be forced to wither in the shadow of corporate greed.
Yeeeeahhh I moved out of the Village last fall. And the Marc Jacobs stores, and the vapid rich fashion set they attracted, were a big reason why. If I want to live among pretentious white people at least in Brooklyn they read books.
@NefariousNewt: Ditto. Elettra is pretty cool, herself. I had the pleasure of being at a dinner party with her back in the day in Boston. She was nice and not at all pretentious.....I didn't know who she was, she just introduced herself as Elettra (this was before she got married). Another party-goer told me who she was.
I'm way to cynical to fall for free gimmicks. I know that whatever I'm getting costs less than a dollar and was manufactured by poor children in Bangkok. Thanks but no thanks.
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I bought some Vineyard Vines for my kid at Filenes, complete with the tags from the Darien Sport Shop.Of course at the rate this economy is going, pretty soon anything like that VV that caters to that so called monied set is going to go right under. Won't be anyone to impress for long...
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Srsly, who needs health insurance when we have moddles to give us medical information?
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um, DUH. wtf did you expect? it's called greed, google it!
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Oh, you do? Really? I didn't know that was possible.
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Fucking Mondays.
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So true. There's a vintagey bookstore there that I'm always expecting to not be there if and when I have the time to walk thru the village. (and no not the late Oscar Wilde)
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I cannot lie, I love the cheap MJ accessories store, but damn. Four MJ stores on Bleecker? Really?
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