I could not have afforded anything at Bendel's but the store was so interesting that I went in anyway to look around. Not my usual M.O.
2
Check out Hudson, NY - all the interesting stores and their quirky owners that I would have associated with and traveled to NYC in earlier years just to see and enjoy - they are there!
4
Henri Bendel’s customer ceased to exist.
That customer was smart, sophisticated, classy, demanding of quality, and more stylish than ‘fashionable.’ People used to dress to go there. They used to dress to go anywhere.
They weren’t particularly ‘powerful’ and they didn’t need to be - they were rich, and authentic in their wealth.
Today the ‘casual’ trend sees consumers seeking comfort, convenience and accessible, obvious ‘Status.’
Metaphorically, the alligator loafer, became the driving shoe, then the sandal and now the ubiquitous flip-flop. And the luxury brands followed not only the downtrend (promulgated by Lagerfeld), but also the move to mass market selling of status. There’s a lot more money to be made selling a billion $10 flip-flops than a few hundred high quality alligator loafers; especially if you slap a ‘luxury’ brand (and price) on them.
Henri Bendel is dead.
Long live Henri Bendel!
12
What a pleasure to read this article. Gina, I havn’t read your work before, but I’ll be looking for it now.
Sad re HB. It’s a different city/world now
3
So sad this wonderful location is closing..remembering all the lunches, teas and hot chocolate shared with friends and family where in NYC shopping there for my wardrobe. It was LUX UNDER LALIQUE...now, another dream of better times, gone.
6
Wholesale margin killed fashion. Now wholesale is getting killed
5
Egads, what will happen to the Lalique windows?
5
It's certainly sad to see legendary department stores close; and Bendel's certainly was a special NY institution. But the essay is foolish--and irrelevant. NY has no shortage of wonderful retail stores for all kinds of consumers, including those who prefer and can afford to purchase luxury brand apparel and other items. The city is a shopping mecca.
1
Amazing that one can feel sorry for the super rich for finding fewer luxury haunts to shop , but this article somehow manages to achieve that.
6
BENDERS is less about the death of luxury than about a lack of a logical business strategy.
Up until fairly recently , the New York store had a mixture of consignment sales by small and independent brands often (but not always) at quite high prices and some of the "Bendel" branded items.
Then it seemed that Bendel branches exploded at local malls with ersatz "luxury" accessories at prices above the norm for similar quality.
About three years ago, the 5th Avenue store dropped its unique inventory and tried to sell only the same ersatz luxury goods, next to actual luxury stores. The only people int he store seemed to be tourists.
The mall shoppers were not fooled that the goods were luxury or worth the higher price than other stores in the mall. The tourists were not fooled that the stuff in the 5th Avenue store was any thing other than what they could buy at home (without paying a high NY sales tax).
So Bendels lost its genuine cache and its new target customers accurately detected a lack of value for the products and the lack of any real cache.
Oh and by the way, Arche is a luxury brand. Its luxury is the fine quality, comfort and good design, something that is very hard to find. And those fancy couture brand shoes (Ferragamo, etc.) are also found at ZAPPOS.
5
@D
Cachet.
4
I used to consider trips to NYC retailers like I would visits to museum's: places to absorb current culture and creative trends in design and display. But no more do I find a trip to NYC essential for this purpose. 5th and Madison Avenues have become versions of any mall in America, and merchandise assortments in Soho/Greenwich Village/Brooklyn independents have become predictable. I now experience a lot more retail variety here in LA compared to the days of my youth; the 70's/80's. Barney's, Opening Ceremony and a deeper variety of luxury brands (beyond those of 1970's Rodeo Drive) opened stores here, many didn't exist locally up till the early 2000's. Even Uniqlo (artists' t shirts!) and H&M (designer collabs!) seemed exotic when their only American outposts were in NYC. I wonder how the spread of fashion to the masses across America affects Manhattan tourism. Many people visit New York to experience "FASHION" first hand and it seems like the rest of the country is experiencing more exposure (even if just through the internet) while NYC has failed to offer up truly new and unique retail experiences.
9
This is such an interesting observation, but the causes are SO much more complicated than just the corporatization of retail or expensive real estate. Rich people - the shoppers - simply aren't as sophisticated as they used to be (or think they are). And the internet combined with fast-fashion has democratized what is cutting edge in terms of fashion and style. Being rich no longer entitles you to first access to new and inspiring styles - it just entitles you expensive styles. Similarly "luxury" items are no longer strongly correlated with well-made things or a rarefied aesthetic, they are just correlated with cost. One luxury car is basically indistinguishable from another nowadays. One luxury apartment looks just like the next.
Instead, the truly beautiful, the new, and the culture-defining belong to the people who have the vision to seek them out, from the deepest corners of the internet and the dankest corners of upstate thrift stores. This is as it should be - let the rich rot with their bleached and boring overpriced and underwhelming junk.
5
From 1991 to 1998 I worked in the office tower above Henri Bendel's. I was making good money and spending some of it on good clothes. Naturally I looked around occasionally in Bendel's. In the first few years I bought a few pieces there. But at some point the selection became less and less suitable for someone who wasn't in a creative business themselves. Actually, I thought a lot of the newer stuff was just tacky. Also a lot more chachkes began to appear. Frankly I am surprised the demise took thie long.
1
This is happening in San Francisco as well. Union Square is empty, sometimes filled with tourists trying to ride the cable car, etc.. Natives don't shop there. Two reasons: e-commerce has evolved to take care of the basics. One can buy cans of soup and Brooks Brothers button-downs on-line. This means that shoppers don't need to see "what else" is out there by shopping in person . The other reason is that neighborhood shopping has improved. These are small shops that offer more personally selected goods and are serviced by retailers that know what they are selling.
4
Cavanagh Hats went out of business too. Things change. I imagine Henri Bendel was in the red so much the real estate became more valuable than the brand. The owners are opting to flip now while prices are decent. They'll get compensated for the brand's death by turning the real estate for new business. Buy low, sell high.
As anyone seeking luxury or fashion in New York already knows, go where the people aren't. I'm guessing tourism is pushing the general avoidance of 5th avenue. People will spend money on the destination even if the product is inferior. The high end shops therefore move downtown. The truly wealthy aren't looking for a convenience shopping experience anyway. Everyone else orders online or bodega shops.
Think of 5th avenue as one big outdoor mall. Cool New Yorkers wouldn't go there in the first place and wealthy New Yorkers will pay to avoid the place. That's the future of 5th Avenue retail.
1
in 1972 i bought my wedding dress and shoes at bendel's, treated like royalty. as it is off-white, i sent the cummerbund down to them to have cream and taupe ribbons added, and wore it again to my cousin's wedding at the plaza.
my dress was a sample which had been used to elicit sales of the style at their annual in-store preview. it cost $72.00, and the quality still shines from it.
anything i've purchased from the store in following years has been easily as fine, without an attitude. pity a store such as this is gone.
9
As a native New Yorker who lives in LA, I have to say that the City's overall culture feels if not Walmart (way too harsh and untrue) then Macy's. And by that I mean a generic Macy's in any mall in America.
Let's face it, the yuppies we derided and feared in the 80s won. The worrywarts and doomsayers were right about the effects of gentrification. That gentrification is really just an interface, however; natives, particularly those with family there, have always experienced a different New York to the one that is mythologized by transplants for its gritty, bohemian past, which was in itself a veneer brought on by the culture and circumstances of the era.
I still love it. But, honestly, from where I sit in my office in the middle of Hollywood today, this feels grittier, cooler, and far more creative.
9
I am not so much sad for Bendels as I am sad to watch a city lose its authenticity. It was once a place of much more grit. People said New Yorkers were rude but I never found that to be true. It was a city of bustle and making your way. Now most people don't make a living wage and the apartments, and bars, and small shops where people made a life are vacant, or overpriced, or selling a few seemingly crucial items like sneakers, a phone or coffee. I wonder if someday people will ever mourn the loss. Or do cities slowly just get reduced to the tourist essentials you can see from a polluting bus? The soul of the place - the ones who made it happen - all moved on.
26
Somehow, it should be illegal to buy a company and then shut it down. Why buy it in the first place? It's deeply unethical to plunder businesses for limited gain.
Why shouldn't everyone have access to luxury? Luxury can exist at any price point. Especially if you have a modest mark-up. If the sole purpose of luxury is to pamper the super-rich, to create aspiration for wealth that feeds selfish greed, then good riddance. I prefer to think its purpose is to support fine craftsmanship and creativity, but that doesn't have to require super-rich customers. Maybe the problem with department stores is who they market to.
9
The beginning of the end of opulent New York City for the commoner
5
@Sue And the end of more retail jobs, ones that actually pay.
7
I wrote about the Wexner takeover in 1987. It can take a long time to kill a store legendary for its creativity, but if you try hard enough.. you can get it done.
https://books.google.com/books?id=peMCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&am...'s%20Kornbluth&f=false
18
The city that has put so much effort into courting the wealthiest people on earth — trashing soul, artistry, vibrant chaos and originality in the process — now offers them less in the way of a certain kind of luxury experience. This sentence says it all......New York is dead!!!
12
@Jim
Ive become a lay monk devoted to drooling over late Monet paintings, Daniil Trifanov, and my own art in a much needed retreat from the fickle world of materialistic decheance, and it's a lovely time to be old in New York, with pursuit of career and raising a family well behind me. But admittedly I've nothing good to say about what Mrs. Bloomberg and Giuliani have done to the cultural life of New York and our wonderful cultural diversity, the remnants of which are huddled in Queens and Staten Island. It's very common now when downtown to see scads of blonde white women pver 6 ft.tall. It's beginning to feel like Wagner's Valhalla. Very white and primed for totalitarianism which means the death of art.
1
In the Early 80s ( when I was in my early twenties), I was working at Saks 5th Avenue .
My very heady, shoulder- padded emboldened self dared to shop at Bendels.
It was a tough call.
I got a 30% discount at Saks, not at Bendels.
I just remember being enrobed by the smell of the perfume counter, and being addressed by the rather aggressive sales people.
Still, I felt rich.
Thanks Henri.
15
The people who can't see 20 floors up will still for luxury in New York. Not to worry.
5
I am heartbroken at how so many fell for the Henri Bendel business strategy of dividing the rich from the poor, in America.
3
@Gerald
Forgot to say... I Love New York
4
Yup. It was 2001 when I move to NYC, and I remember going into Bendel's (when it was still Bendel's) and buying a few beautiful pieces of clothing. I feel like it wasn't much later....2003?...2004?...when I remember going back there, and the place felt 'empty'. Gone was the former Bendel's, and in its place, a ground floor of salespeople trying to desperately sell fancy makeup, and other floors with less-than fancy 'accessories'. It really felt quite depressed there. I don't think I ever bought anything from them again.
Does anyone remember Takashimaya on 5th? I used to love going there as well. Their floral shop on the ground floor was stunning, and they had some really beautiful things on the upper floors, even if much of it was overpriced for what it was.
I've not been to Barney's in 7 years or so, and while they had (still have?) some great stuff for sale, my biggest problem was the less-than-stellar staff on the upper floors, most of whom are clueless as to what 'customer service' means, and who mainly seem to be working there for the chance to wear nice clothes while working there...for the employee discounts?...and knowing that so long as the clothes sell themselves that they (the employee) will still get a nice commission? Considering the clientele they cater to, and the prices they charge, I was always shocked at the comparatively low level of employee there. For me personally, that will be the cause of their demise. But we still have Bergdorf's!
24
@Lisa Takashimaya was my favorite stop in NYC. I still have a beautiful modern cuckoo clock I bought there and a cashmere baby blanket I bought ten years before I actually was a mom. It just felt so New York to me.
Zitomer's better not be next.
5
I LOVED Takashimaya's!
2
I am making a beeline for The Armoury on my next trip to New York City.
5
Sigh.....this nostalgia is interesting as a sign of how powerful, even in NYC where change is a mantra, the hold of the past and resistance to change can be. The lamentation here reminds me of the black-clad, gray pony-tailed denizen of the general SoHo area complaining sometime in the early aughts that “there is no more art in New York”. My reply to him, and to the author of this surprisingly provincial article is, “ have you been to Brooklyn in the last 15 years?” Art thrives there as does a lovely, robust, and modest (along with a growing luxury culture) and unique shopping culture. The sentiments expressed here in this article demonstrate the same materialism bemoaned by so many of the commenters. I moved out of the city a few years ago and when I return to visit, I aim for Brooklyn with a rare stop in Manhattan for a museum or to see what’s going on at Hudson Yards. What’s the problem here?
@Daniel Doern
bc it's not Manhattan...that's the problem
10
I don't blame you for bemoaning the end of Blendels. Not because it was a luxury store, but because it was a local one that contributed to the uniqueness and character of the neighborhood in which it was situated. Doesn't matter so much that it catered to the rich. What mattered was that it was representative of the neighborhood surrounding it. But that is what's dying. Eventually everything will be a homogenized chain. You'll walk into any shopping district in any town in any place in this country and find the same 10 conglomerates' mid-range shopping experience represented there. It isn't the death of luxury. Or even the death of shopping. But it is the death-knell for what makes one place distinct from another. Why go to New York on a shopping excursion if you find the same stores there carrying the same styles that you find at your local mall? (Or insert any other big-city shopping destination...Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc.) Why leave your own neighborhood if the stores on the other side of town are exactly the same? Or at the very least selling exactly the same styles? The excursion used to be part of the shopping experience. YOu went to the ritzy neighborhood and shopped there to see how the other half lived, and imagine it for yourself. Each neighborhood was distinct with its own character. THAT's what is dying.
45
Maybe the post millennials will spark an artistic revolution from the ashes of venture capitalism and the loss of creativity due to passive addiction to Netflix and IPhones. Who knows? They may begin to pronounce their consonants again when they speak (see Louis CKs sketch on Starbucks)!
1
Ginia - Fur? How could you?
7
@PrairieFlax — guess you weren’t around decades ago when Bendel featured mannequins in the window dragging dead minks on leashes.
6
Talk about a "dumbing down" of culture and refinement. I'm sincerely afraid that is what this is.
11
Darn shame about the loafers. They were indispensable.
4
My heart bleeds Not for you. Pay your share of taxes and or volunteer to help those in need, instead of whining about the loss of your 'shopping playground', where the price of a frivolous item could feed a poor family for a week.
6
@Belle You've no clue who may shop there, what % of their income they may spend on 'new clothes' vs the often wasteful, always 'shopping', always 'accummulating' Gen Pop, or how they live their lives otherwise, but yet you have decided to 'know them' and what they are all about?
How utterly PC of you, to chastise complete strangers for how they choose to spend their own money.
20
Ahh there’s the true spirit of socialism.
9
This is a very sad loss for 5th avenue and New York. What a beautiful and interesting place to shop where you could discover new and unusual things. Manhattan is starting to look like a mall in Iowa. Whole neighborhoods are decimated by unrented stores as the city gives tax breaks to landlords who hold out for ridiculous rent. These landlords should be penalized, if anything, for doing that. Pitiful really. Let's put a stop to the warehousing of commercial property that New York needs and let's bring back the unique and mom & pops that give it its unique character.
31
@BG I now see it all up and down Steinway Street in Astoria. One empty storefront after another. The level of greed is positively stomach-churning, and I blame the R.E. industry as a whole, and local politicians. Where is the outrage? Nowhere to be seen.
New folks moving into the neighborhood also have zero interest in the long-standing, old school businesses, and are solely focused on moving into the comparatively cheaper neighborhoods and then 'curating them' into their own perfect little hipster worlds. They could care less about who used to live there long before they arrived (and who still live in the area). It's like two divergent worlds now, in neighborhoods all across NYC. The long-standing residents, and the newbies. And most of the newbies are only looking forwards...not back....not sideways...
9
One57 is steps away from Tiffany's, Harry Winston's, Bergdorf's, et al., an 8-minute walk from Barney's. Ms. Bellafante has chosen only to notice the downmarket (as it were) retailers who have flocked to the area while ignoring the high-end ones that replace others. Similarly, what she choses to see as a sign of retail weakness, all the empty storefronts along Madison Ave., actually represents the strip's strength.
One of the crazier manifestations of this city's wildly expensive real estate is the way landlords prefer to ask sky-high rents and keep spaces empty until a retailer bites. The added income of the rent increase more than offsets the cost of a year or more of an empty space. I've no doubt Ms. Bellafante knows this; I only wonder why she so selectively chose to present information here.
1
So sad. Henri Bendel was always fun but LBrands wantsd to focus on poorly made lingerie instead of revitalizing this classic.
As Cole Porter puts it (paraphrasing) Bendel's:
"Your the top...
you're a Bendel bonnet,
you're Whistler's mama
a Shakespeare sonnet..."
10
The store for me was less about luxury and more about innovation.
They supported exciting new designers who were just making their mark in NYC.
Carol Fertig was a friend of mine and in the early 1980s, she went from being a little known designer in SOHO, to often being featured in the street front windows at Bendels.
Barneys was also great like that... but that was many years ago.
19
@S.R. Precisely. Thank you for pointing that out. I passed the Bendel storefront in the early 1990s and saw a beautiful evening gown -- and bought it as my wedding dress. The designer was a young Venezuelan designer, then unknown in the states, named Angel Sanchez. He was so humbled and genuinely excited that I'd be married in his dress that he graciously created a hairpin to go with the dress for my wedding-day chignon. Bendels helped him become established in NY, and in the many years since he has become a go-to designer for celebrities. One can regularly see his gowns on red carpets. I'll always be grateful to Bendels for introducing me to his lovely work, and for helping him flourish.
20
@S.R.
But isn't a lot of luxury more about innovation than about luxury? I don't even really know what "luxury" denotes. I'm a big fan of Isaia sport coats and suits. They are not cheap, but I think they are gorgeous and creative. Does their price point make them luxury items,or are they fabric art?
What makes the Four Seasons downtown a luxury hotel? The rooms and beautiful and tasteful and the design of the hotel is thrilling. isn't that innovation and beauty? If it cost 100 a night instead of 700 a night, would it not be luxury?
1
@richguy
Four Seasons downtown is 100% luxury... it is not at all innovative.
A Mercedes Benz is a luxury car.
A Toyota Prius is innovative. Or is was when they first hit the market.
:)
1
The prime retail location in NYC never seems to stay in one place too long. It was once on lower Broadway (Wanamaker's, Klein's), then along 6th Ave. in the teens (Siegel-Cooper), Herald Square (Gimbel's, Saks, Macy's), 5th Ave. (Altman's, Arnold Constable, Lord & Taylor, Bonwit Teller),across 57th and up Madison. I remember when 5th retail thinned out between 34th St.and the St. Pat's in the '70s, and there were complaints of all the banks and airline offices (if you can remember what they were.) It is always sad to watch the "Miracle on 34th" film where they page through a book of newspaper advertising from now vanished stores. New York City is constantly changing and not all the changes seem good, but over the half century of my residence, there has been an improvement.
2
I worked on the creative end of luxury brands for several decades. I dealt with the in store environment, the advertising, the creative development in several ways. I can tell you how a luxury brand dies — corporate culture.
Rule one of corporate culture - get the salaries down.
How? Pay all the creative staff as if they were temp workers. Oh you'll still have some talent for a while because people can't shift careers immediately but in the end you have the salaries where you want them but the creatives who will put up with that sort of abuse are desperate and mediocre. It's the same at couture houses, fashion magazines, retail branding.
Rule two of corporate culture — centralized command. One monster careerist with an ego that bounces you of the wall makes all the decisions for not just the entire brand but several others held at the holding company. They do this quickly and easily with their lack of vision by making everything the same. One luxury accessory designer once told me, "I've figured out she'll approve anything as long as it's blue." Yes the corporate manager really is that unfit for purpose, at least in creative fields. Often this person lives in Paris or London, but sometimes they're simply across town, they're still an absentee landlord pinching pennies and stamping their name on every project. No one down below doing the work ever gets enough to live very well. The talent migrates as soon as it can.
59
I also recognize the down-marketing that the author describes because I witness it here in Minneapolis at the Mall of America. My wife and I were walking around the mall just last week (1 mile circuit on each of 3 levels, then some more on a 4th level) and we were bemoaning the lack of high-end offerings. That's over 3 miles of mostly unremarkable retail stores that could be found in nearly any shopping mall in the U.S. It seems that they're about the open a Walgreen's pharmacy there now. How depressing! It's become bland and frankly boring. The fashion on display in many storefront windows featured rubbish "styles" like slashed jeans that nobody would have worn years ago unless they were completely down-and-out.
If luxury is only affordable by the wealthy, well, that's how it's always been, but it was pretty to look at even if the experience was only while window-shopping. We've lost something that was exciting and enjoyable for many of us.
20
@Tony-K
Good taste is what's been lost, but it was lost when the creative talent lost their careers with corporate consolidation. The people designing and marketing those rubbish styles you speak of get paid nothing, really less than any union worker picking up the trash left behind the store. How could the styles look good when the industry has lowered salaries that far? But they have.
9
Victoria's Secret used to sell well made beautiful products, Bath and Body Works used to be a fun place to shop for gifts and home fragrance. Both of them now sell shoddy, tacky products that I aren't worth even the few dollars they charge.
29
Where exactly is the demand, anyway? My Betty Draper-era mom just passed away, someone who relished dressing smartly, and wore color, and stockings, and perfume, and jewelry. Now I look around and see even the wealthy and the professional who look like they're dressed and groomed to clean out the basement.
41
@Blair
That can be misleading. Pierre Balmain sells torn jeans for 900 dollars. Dolce & Gabbana sell pre-fatigued sport coat for 2500 and up. Golden Goose sneakers *look*cheap and worn, but cost 600 dollars. Granted, I'm still talking about clothing priced far less that Loro Piana and Berluti.
2
Pardon me if I don't feel sorry for those who can no longer find bespoke luxury in their playgrounds.
It's the same in London, and I could care less. I can get a gently used Brooks Brothers shirt on eBay for $10 and a castoff, hand-tailored sports coat at Goodwill for $15.
Meanwhile, a "civilization" that has $3000 sports coats on the racks at Harrods, while millions go without insurance and 50-somethings laid off to die of despair? It needs to fall.
38
@Peak Oiler The probelm is that soon there may no longer be a Brooks Brothers for others to shop at and then donate their clothes to Goodwill or sell on eBay - somehow I doubt that a gently used Uniqlo shirt will hold the same appeal.
It's also worth noting that the $3,000 sport coat was made by folks who probably are paid a living wage and have access to healthcare.
28
Brooks Brothers has sunk beneath its name so abysmally for so long that only geriatric nostalgia keeps the flame, and that for its pyre.
2
@Nathaniel a very good riposte, and one worth considering.
1
Now Duane Reade/Walgreens will prob. over the old Henri Bendel space to create a three-story "retail experience" unlike any other on that block--for the moment, at least.
8
Let's exercise a little judgement and proportionality here in terms of what constitutes a real tragedy in retail patterns. The super-rich losing neighborhood luxury brands - not so bad; they can compensate. Poor people without a nearby grocery story - an increasingly common and significant problem in many cities - really bad.
An article like this, however, does succeed in reflecting the increasing luxury fixation of the Times, which apparently believes that much of its readership can identify with houses that sell for millions and makeup products that can break the bank. Note to editors: That's not how many of us live.
46
It is the corporatization of commerce. Every corner has or will have a bank branch or a duane reade or a starbucks. Amazon uber alles. It is cheap, efficient and boring. Affordable vs unique.
22
Bloomberg sought to remake the city into a metropolis which reflected his own distorted self-conceits. When he looked in the mirror, he saw Cosimo de' Medici presiding at a dinners filled with bold artistic luminaries and sparkling conversation, but in reality, he was just a crony capitalist in a room filled with jackals from the real estate and finance industry. The city now reflects the real Bloomberg: sterile, artless, and mercenary. And this is the man the Times is now touting for President? Blah!
28
@stan continople I thought that the idea that one "great" man causes changes in history had been abandoned by even those who live mentally in the 19th century. Look at individuals so you won't see processes and structural changes.
@stan continople- Oh Please! The Medicis were the most enlightened despots in history, unlike our pseudo-elite parvenus today, and you know every well what Plato said about the noble tyrant and not entirely incorrectly. Kvetch all you like, but this is something else. Bloomberg had little to do with it.
6
@stan continople
But NYC is full of gorgeous design. Isn't design art? You say NYC is artless, but I see a great deal of lovely architecture and design. Methinks you think art = CBGB and GG Allin. Versailles is art, isn't it? Hampton Court is art, isn't it?
The truth is that only two types of people like literature and art: Rich people and depressives.
1
Fashion is creating obsolescence and Bendels is obsolete. While luxury brands are still doing business it is simply a different business. It is a new breed and they are no longer buying at Bendel.
1
The author states, "The last time I went to Henri Bendel on Fifth Avenue, I bought a short-cropped jacket made of rabbit fur, dyed lavender, from the British designer Matthew Williamson, who would go on to dress the duchess of Cambridge and become the creative director of Pucci".
She goes on to say,"That had to have been at least 12 or 13 years ago, before middle age dictated its own spending protocols". I would have preferred her to acknowledge that with middle age, also, comes a recognition that wearing animal furs /pelts is not an ethical way to treat animals.
She has until old age to work this out.
24
The problem is as much a function of refined accountancy as greed. Boutique or niche is just not able to offer the required paperwork satisfying assurances craved by landlords with large portfolios. It's a complex problem with how risk is misperceived not some steam aged Marxist conspiracy.
3
I am thrilled there is one less place to purchase the flesh of dead rabbits.
27
@Amy
The flesh was probably eaten in a stew at a downtown bistro. She just purchased the fur. Unlike mink the meat isn't discarded but for all I know the mink goes into dog food, wouldn't surprise me. Both would have come from Quebec. Not everyone is a vegan or a vegetarian. If it's like a religion with you, I understand but if you're going to bother to preach it's worth doing with kind persuasion instead of simply pointing the long finger of SIN at someone who doesn't practice your faith.
17
@Arthur Honestly, this liberal is thinking that maybe it's time to end her NYT.com subscription and find another good alternative news source. The level of PC talk by my own Lefties is turning me off so much, that I'm actually starting to feel more in common with the other side. I get it...really I do... why those on the Right are so utterly tired of the smugness and robot-like PC rhetoric.
7
Actully Mink innards are used for cat food and for disection in schools where students are not expected to kill live creatures for disecting.
That may or may not make you feel better about mink coats.
2
It's not the passing of "luxury" that bothers me but the decreasing individuality that makes NYC exciting. Neighborhood become homogeneous when real estate is filled with phone stores and banks and Leslie Wexler's stores . I bemoan the destruction of small one of a kind mom and pop stores which are razed to be replaced by glass towers.
'Henri Bendel and mom and pop stores are both examples of establishments that provide individuality and vitality to NYC.
76
@Lisam Really? As I noted on Facebook when a friend moaned about how a three-year-old menswear store in Hell's Kitchen that closed was another death knell to the city's culture, it's hard to bewail the end of a store that charged $43 for a pair of underwear.
3
"The last time I went to Henri Bendel on Fifth Avenue, I bought a short-cropped jacket made of rabbit fur, dyed lavender, from the British designer Matthew Williamson, who would go on to dress the duchess of Cambridge and become the creative director of Pucci."
Well, then you may be grateful that they no longer sell such things. I'm not sure that piling up your cash and setting it afire would be a worse use than buying this junk considering that the resultant blaze might at least provide light and heat to someone who needed it. BTW, I hear that the bakery where Marie Antoinette used to get her cake was turned into a Dunkin' Donuts. Another tragedy.
25
There are plenty of stores left that offer luxury, luxurious services and goods. They're just not accessible: You just can't walk in off the street.
7
You're probably right. A recent article bemoaned the end of the mid-range art market. The wealth distribution has become so skewed that only the super-rich can afford art; only artists who cater to them can flourish; and then, it is just kept in a vault in Switzerland, like a pile of gold bricks as it "appreciates". The "merely" wealthy are hesitant to buy, and tastes for anything not ultra-contemporary have waned. Nobody wants or values antiques or the skill that went into them. Galleries cannot make a go of it anymore, so the business is left to an invisible coterie of buyers and consultants who definitely don't work out of storefronts, even on Fifth Avenue.
2
HB closing after 125 years is not about the death of luxury so much as it is the death of a once great brand. Luxury still sells everywhere in NYC and the USA. HB closing is about poor decision making and management. That's the story. Adapt or die. Whether it's Sears, HB, Radio Shack or Toys R Us, the failure of the brand can be tracked back to the failure in management.
58
@Douglas Ritter Toys R Us? Blame Bain Capital.
4
@Douglas Ritter Exactly. It's insane to believe that this represents anything more significant than that a brand like this should not be run out of Columbus, Ohio.
1
It’s not called the “tragedy of the commons” for no reason. This is why we can’t have nice things.
17
What's happening to our city is analogous to the way businesses are broken up for their useful parts with no regard for human needs, such as culture, and dancing in the streets. Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street' laid it out for us thirty years ago.
I don't think the soul of New York will die, but it is on life support, its heart run by machines, its beauty on hold as nameless, faceless, greed-heads try to sell off her very breath.
Broadway, Washington Square and the Village, The Statue of Liberty offering hope to the hopeless...was it all just a real estate scam?
If you can break it here, you can break it anywhere. New York, New York.
54
@Sera
Down by Washington we don't like what the French tried to give us lately.
Yesterday I went by Gumps in downtown SF on my way to work and saw: ' Going Out of Business' 'Everything must Go'.
Gumps is/was a high end store catering to a high class, discriminating client base. Even though I have never been one of them I'm sorry to see such a storied LOCAL store go by the wayside.
BTW they are located in a district with so-called 'luxury' brands such as Coach, Dior etc.- stores you can find anywhere.
27
@dimseng I have gone to Gumps and bought something (never spent more the $50) at Christmas every year since I moved to SF 25 years ago. I've take my daughter there for the last 10 to blow her mind with the array of Xmas ornaments...it's part of what San Francisco is. Having a store like that, one you can walk thru and enjoy and feel welcome even if you can't afford anything. It makes a lot of things feel possible.
8
@dimseng
When China opened to trade, I bought a lot of items imported by Gumps - antique? plates, ivory bibelots, etc. They had so many unique interesting things that I can’t afford anymore.
5
Once they stopped selling makeup, I stopped going. It was once of my favorite places to go for a little fun.
10
I was sad to see no mention of the brilliant Geraldine Stutz who ran Henri Bendel before the generic Wexler conglomorate took over. The old store, at 9 West 57th, featured the most luxurious and original clothing, shoes, accessories, stationery from Mrs. John Strong, and Agraria pot pourri. The legendary Bob Currie was the window designer and his weekly premieres were eagerly awaited. As well, Mrs. Stutz, dedicated to discovering new talent, held "open calls" for young designers to show their wares. She facilitated the rise of Stephen Burrows, Perry Ellis, Jean Muir, Sonia Rykiel, Carlos Falchi, Mary McFadden, Holly Harp and Ralph Lauren among others. Not to be forgotten was the beloved doorman Max, a fixture for over 50 years in his smart uniform. Nothing like this will ever be seen again and I feel blessed to have known it.
91
My mother Celia Sebiri, was one of the designers whose career was started by Geraldine Stutz. I am sure that her support and inspiration was a contributing factor to my mothers winning a prestigious Coty award.
18
@Bella Wilfer I am a loyal HB customer. I bought Custo de Barcelona blouses and DVF knitted coat (which I still use). Anick Goutal perfumes were first carried by Henri Bendel. The sales people are wonderful - they will tell you if the clothes doesn't fit or if looks good on you,
Now, I buy bags and have it monogrammed as gifts and for myself. The bags look pricier than it is. I get more compliments from my HB blue tote than my LVs. And it's less than a zero or two. Too sad.
5
@Bella Wilfer
Thank you. So many angry people. The city can encompass all kinds of things. I remember going to Bendel's with my great-aunt. It was a beautiful store, once upon a time--and it's nice to see Jean Muir's name in print again. One of the great British designers. Mrs. Stutz as you say was devoted to seeking out new talent. I find it always interesting that those commentators who love knocking luxury none the less are themselves buying knock-off brands...I can't and could never afford most of the things in the old Bendel's, but that doesn't mean I couldn't appreciate their beauty and artistry.
17
I have some crocodile tears for you, my dear.
But there’s still Brookfield Mall, on the edge of the financial district, with its luxe brands! With yachts owned by their various masters of the universe parked just outside.
Then again — Brookfield’s luxe stores are usually empty, as curious tourists, after a glimpse of the sky-high prices, laugh in embarrassment and quickly walk out. I feel sorry for the sales clerks, who sit around looking bored all day. My guess is, Brookfield’s days are numbered as well.
That’s just fine by me.
17
@Thomas D.
Those stores are there to whet consumer's appetites. I own a lot of Ferragamo shoes, Burberry and Zegna shirts, and might, someday, buy an Omega watch, but I tend to buy that stuff online from stores at which I earn shopper points (Bloomingdales, Saks). It all goes into the brand's coffers. Also, I have bought stuff at the Saks and Theory in Brookfield, and I did buy a belt at Ferragamo. Lots of people in finance people work in that building or nearby buildings. They see those stores on the way to work or during lunch break. So, those stores are a type of advertising. Also, I am sure people dart in after work to buy something. I think most people who buy Burberry and Ferragamo know what they want. They don't browse. they buy something to be part of an outfit. So, they target pieces. At least, that's how I shop. I think those stores do more business than you want to believe.
4
@richguy
oops. consumers'.
@Thomas D. Nordstrom's men's store opened on Broadway and 57th Street. I never see anyone in the place. The main store isn't supposed to upon until the Fall of 2019. Either way I don't really care.
3
Things change. And in this case the change was exacerbated by poor Limited (the parent company) decisions. Stop mourning and if yr after chic stroll on Elizabeth St, thru Dover Market or the new 10 Corso Como. The later two in fact mirror the old Bendel concept of a store of small shops.
3
@GC The tiny, chic boutiques on Elizabeth St. in "Little Italy" (ha-ha) are MORE expensive than the ones on Fifth and Madison!
2
Scratched and clawed our way to the middle, eh? Intellectuals out, Trumpy playground of decorative water features and glimmering cell phone covers akimbo selfie sticks? Yeah, New York City was once a place to escape your parents with fertile ground to start fresh, but in a world where adults don children's Halloween costumes beginning the last week of September there is no hope.
Back around the '64 World's Fair they deemed us Fun City, now the whole thing feels like the puppet show It's A Small World After All. A small Trumpy world after all.
And Wallmart is moving in this year.
54
@rubbernecking Maybe so, but it's still a heck of a lot nicer and more fun than the rest of the country — and I realize that says more about the rest of the country than it does New York!
1
@rubbernecking Sad today the City turned way beforeTrump
I haven't lived near NYC in a long time BUT Henri Bendel was part of the -well, I don't know how to say it-it was just part of my life-walking down 5th Avenue, browsing, buying -a whole day with friends. Ending at the bar across from the Plaza.It was my 20's and 30's and I loved the store.
I'm sad to see it go.
34
Part of me wants to say... good? The view of New York City as a luxury product has also gone hand-in-hand with its overall continued productization, largely driven by the ultra-wealthy now without the Bendels of the world to soothe them, as they turned housing stock into investment vehicles, scrapped what was unique for what was ubiquitous, and let everyone else in the city who wasn't them (or a wealthy tourist) eat cake.
What did they think would happen? Now at least this hubris and oversight might lead to a DE-valuation of New York City, opening opportunities for something organic and without excessive privilege to take root once again once the moneyed locusts find a new feasting ground.
Sure, they'll be back, but it will be nice until then.
13
@Mister
But hasn't NYC been a place for wealthy families since the time of Edith Wharton? I feel like plenty of Victorian novels depict NYC as a land of wealthy families and their spending habits. We're talking almost two centuries.
7
@richguy- I agree wholeheartedly. And BTW Mister, you are never going to get New York to be anything less that what it has become historically. You'll always have to be rich to afford to buy the 'affordable' housing, or have an astoundingly great job in order to rent a studio. Your "organic" will always cost a month's salary as it does now. Your class "hubris" will simply find another outlet to express itself with no real change. I don't know what you hoped was going to happen, but that's not it.
1
@laguna greg Bingo! It's not that NYC is no longer a haven for the ultra-wealthy; rather, Manhattan and much of Brooklyn (and now Queens) have become a vast haven for the nearly-ultra wealthy.