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NEW YORK: Madison Avenue
by Marco De Martino
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Once upon a time Manhattan's Little Italy filled Mulberry Street with spaghetti,
pizza, and espresso. Little Italy is still there, but it's being eaten up
by Chinatown. You'll find the Italians somewhere else--on Madison Avenue,
to be precise. This isn't the little Little Italy of the first wave of immigration, but rather the big Little Italy of high fashion. "The Italians Are Coming!" was The New York Times headline over an article tracing the new Italian invasion. Instead of pizza, these Italians are selling the best clothing in the world. Densely packed into a ten-block stretch, these designers have developed a new way of selling: not from boutiques but from entire mansions, multi-story theme parks that offer not just one season's fashions but a whole world and worldview. This is apparent as soon as you walk into the new stores that opened this past autumn. Armani commissioned the New York architect Peter Marino, who did Armani's Milan home, to create the same intimate atmosphere of luxury simplicity in his new four-story megastore. (This is for the Armani line only; a separate building, farther down Madison, houses Emporio Armani.) Versace appears on Fifth Avenue--in a gutted and rebuilt a former Vanderbilt mansion filled with contemporary art--but his wares are available on Madison too: his Gianni Versace Uomo and Gianni Versace Donna shops on Madison will be joined in 1997 by a store selling his Versus line.
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Valentino's corner palazzo includes what is probably the only indoor greenhouse on Madison Avenue. Moschino's store, like his clothes, is ironic throughout: you won't want to miss the bathroom, upholstered entirely in Lego blocks. In Prada's pale green shop, notice the details hidden in the deceptively minimalist design: the huge transparent elevator, the illumination of the display windows that changes in response to variations in the daylight; and the 150 permutations of the internal lighting. Is this still about fashion? Maybe not; maybe it's really about spectacle. After all, Niketown and the Disney and Warner Brothers megastores are just a stone's throw away. The war of the global brands--all competing for the shopper's dollar--has just begun. |
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