20 years of selling vintage clothes in the East Village

On March 1, 1990, Richard Colligan opened Metropolis Vintage Apparel at 96 Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. In 1995, he moved to 43 Third Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street. Starting tomorrow, the store is celebrating its 20th anniversary, a long time for any type of independent business hereabouts... On the eve of the anniversary, Colligan, a Rockaway Beach native, answered a few questions via e-mail for EV Grieve ....

On Jan. 3, the Post reported: "The East Village's vintage-clothing shops are about to go the way of leisure suits and flapper dresses, as a wave of closures hits home." What was your reaction to the story, which didn't take into account the many stores that remain open and are doing well...?

My reaction to that story, which surprised me, was that so many stores said they're not doing well. The East Village over the last few years has seen a lot of growth of people who have money to spend and, if you don't cater to them, you fall victim of being out of touch. Look, vintage is fashion and fashion changes, if you want to stick to your guns and keep selling what you sold 10 years ago, well go ahead, but be prepared to watch your sales go down as your customers get older and move out of the area. The EV has always been — and I think always will be — a place for young people, as the beatniks, the hippies, the Punks (as myself) the hair metal rockers, the grunge rockers or THE HIPSTERS and young college students of today prove. Today I feature late 80's early 90's in my store. Well, some people say that's not vintage and I say, "What sells is vintage," 1990 was 20 years a go, get used to it. Thirty-year-old eyeballs don't see what a 20-year-old eyeballs see what will be attractive.

Biggest change — for better or worse — that you've seen in the EV/LES in these 20 years?

Crime has been reduced a lot. But never would I have thought that the reduction of crime brought such a bigger increase of prices in RENT. The rent at Avenue B was $1,000 a month, now I pay $10,000 on 3rd Ave. Do I want it to go back to "the good old days?" NO, I will take the rent over the crime. If one day I can't afford the rent, then it's my time to move on.

Many stores have come and gone in the EV through the years... what do you think has made your store successful?

I think I have been able to tap in to what the younger customer wants in vintage. Pushing forward is my motive. I can write a novel of what sold well over the years, but if you get stuck in a rut you rust. The EV is for young people who are finding out about themselves. I just try and help them on that journey.

And Colligan sent along two photos from 1994 of the store when it was on Avenue B....




And tomorrow...

Long dormant Dance Tracks soon to be home to a vintage clothing store

Looks as if the former Dance Tracks, which closed in November 2007, finally has a new tenant here on Third Street near First Avenue.



Here's what a source tells us:

-- This will become a vintage clothing store that buys and sells, kind of like Buffalo Exchange.

-- That the woman who owns the store also has other locations, kind of like Buffalo Exchange.

The source thought this could be part of a vintage store chain.

In any event, a worker was renovating the space the other night... and there are clothing racks brought in...





Last we looked, the rent here was $9,500 a month... and at one point, as East Village Podcasts pointed out, a wine store was opening here.

[Top photo via EVP]

East Village vintage store shutterings continue: Andy's Chee-Pees on St. Mark's Place is closing

Just one week after the Post's trends piece on East Village thrift stores hurting...Andy's Chee-Pees on St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue is closing this location...And after the sidewalk shed was finally removed from this corner last Wednesday.



...they have another store on Eight Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. Andy's was established in 1977. (And I remember that the store used to be on the other side of St. Mark's Place, closer to Trash and Vaudeville...)



Hard to believe a store like this can't make it on St. Mark's Place. Of course, the pricey Theatre Condos are upstairs...and the developer has been advertising commerical space for lease...

Update: Walked by tonight, and the store was cleared out...

So let's take a quick tally of some of the neighborhood's unique vintagey stores that have closed of late:

Love Saves the Day
Howdy Do
99X

East Village vintage stores doomed?

According to the Post yesterday:

It's a nightmare for hipsters!

The East Village's vintage-clothing shops are about to go the way of leisure suits and flapper dresses, as a wave of closures hits home.

The latest blow to the corduroy-wearing set came [Saturday] when O Mistress Mine -- which counted Madonna, Paul McCartney and Marc Jacobs as customers -- closed its East 11th Street shop after some four decades in business.

Its owner, finding the city too expensive, is moving to cheaper space in Hoboken, NJ.

"I just couldn't make it," Wanda Hanlon said last week as she packed up her furs, beaded bags and gowns.

The article also notes that "Atomic Passion, which opened on East Ninth Street 17 years ago, may close in February if its landlord doesn't lower the rent. 'This has been the worst year we've had since 1992,' said co-owner Justin Vogel."



This Page 3 trends piece also noted that Loves Saves the Day and Poppet (East Ninth Street) closed last year. (No mention of Howdy Do, though.)

While the closure of these stores is a sad, troubling development, the article makes it seem as if you'll never be able to find another Wrangler snap-button western shirt from the 1970s anywhere in the neighborhood. The article doesn't mention any thrift/vintage shops that remain, such as Physical Graffiti on St. Mark's Place, Buffalo Exchange on 11th Street and No Relation on First Avenue. (And you could do a piece on any mom-and-pop shop with a specialty struggling now in NYC.)

Plus, there's more to it than higher rents/bad economy, at least in the case of vintage clothing stores. There's also the mindset of the younger generation, the privileged post-NYU/wherever-they-came-from crowd.

For instance. Late one Saturday afternoon this past summer, I bought a bunch of books and albums and a stupid shirt from a veteran sidewalk vendor on Second Street. I said that I was surprised such seemingly good items remained so late in the day. He shrugged and said "the kids who have moved into the neighborhood don't want used stuff. Everything has to be new. I call them the 'Ikea Generation.'"

An unemployed friend recently took a stack of clothes over to Beacon's Closet to try to get some cash. She said that they didn't want any of the vintage stuff. The only thing the store bought was a Banana Republic shirt that her sister gave her.

Or maybe more people are scoring vintage finds at thrift stores away from NYC. Like my unemployed friend who returns from visiting her parents far away with $2 shirts that would run about $200 at Cheap Jack's.

Or maybe we can just blame all this on Bloomberg, which is always fun. This all falls in step with the Bloomyberg mindset: Unique vintage stores don't fit in with his vision of a suburban American city.

Whatever the case, the neighborhood continues to slowly slip away....

Noted

"You know times are tough when the tony cafe at a prestigious Manhattan bank gets turned into a thrift store." (New York Post)

Oh, and anything good?

There were no Rolex watches or Gucci bags on hand to be picked from the tables in the Midtown cafe, on Third Avenue at 58th Street. A Versace jacket was spotted among the items, although it was at least a decade old.

And most of the other odds and ends were just old hand-me-downs, such as a can opener from the 1970s, a coffee maker with its lid missing, a book on ancient Indian head massage and a goblet in the shape of the comic-book villain the Joker.