Don't say the "R" word in the shelter community, but it seems that a few companies are already feeling the pinch. In the past month we've seen the closing of the Smith & Hawken and the Marston & Langinger shops, both of which had become part of our roadmap for useful odds and ends..
They will probably be replaced with another Chanel store, which we really don't need.
Meanwhile, uptown Ralph Lauren Home is expanding his home collection store and TAKING OVER Madison Avenue. We received a letter yesterday alerting us to the future opening of "a new flagship store at our 888 Madison Avenue address to showcase our complete Women's and Home collections." Look for the new shop in Fall 2009 and also look for it to mirror the "grand detail of the classical Beaux-Arts limestone architecture and the subtle elegance... of the Duke and Frick mansions...."
Who would have thought that Ralph Lauren's studied, vintage copy style would keep going and going and going and going......
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Comments (6)
Who says we don't need another Chanel store?
I was on Filmore street here in SF recently and saw that the Smith Hawken here was closed too.
It's sad, but I rarely spent much money there anyway...
Our Smith and Hawken near Hartford CT is still open. While they are expensive and not entirely useful, it is still great to visit the store on a raw late winter afternoon for encouragement and inspiration, especially here in New England.
I fell in love with decorating in Ralph Lauren's Madison Avenue store. It was in the heyday of country and his take was exquisite. Old painted furniture and beautiful vintage fabrics. This was before cows and watermelons became central themes of "country" thremed decorating.
I love the Smith & Hawken shop on Broadway, what a shame!
you can always visit your local target for smith and hawken merchandise (sadly, the brand seems to be undergoing a major shift in strategy... downstream.)