While the stock market has crossed 10K and retail seems to be moving forward slowly, the same cannot be said for the retail envionrment surrounding Madison Ave in New York City. In a earlier report we started to show the slow demise of this once great retail avenue, but six months later there is more carnage on the streets with even more stores closing up shop.
The latest victim on Madison Ave is YSL! One could not even believe that this long standing house would shut its doors but sadly it has. The 57Th Street store remains open which is the flagship. We see this as a current trend with other houses such as Blvgari who also closed on Madison but operates a midtown location. A few other shops who have closed are Herve Leger and Morgane Le Faye. Legre has relocated on Madison but as for Le Faye we see no re-opening as of yet.
The newest addition to Madison Avenue is Devi Kroell who took a two level spot in the mid 60's. The space is expansive and well constructed but from a design standpoint it seems Kroell has followed in the footsteps of Prada regarding her evening bags with large chunky stones. This by our standards is two seasons old and does not offer the consumer anything "special" in our opinion, as for her evening clutches we love them, very sleek and modern in design. As for how long this new comer stays on the avenue is any body's guess, but with the shopping bag index way down this could be like Lambertson Truex who opened and closed in the blink of an eye!
Michael Kors wasted no time in acquiring the Celine space on Madison and 60Th Street, we find it funny that he once designed for this house and probably designed some of its best collection the house ever saw. The closure and takeover was less then two weeks time! As for the Kors shop on Madison and 76Th Street its still open but time will tell if they shut that one down.
A few new stores which have yet to open are Creed, Girard-Perregaux and Brunello Cucinelli. As to when they will open we have no idea but rest assured it will be interesting to see how well they perform in the retail climate we are now facing.
As for who could be the next victim of closing their doors in the future we would toss a few bucks on the house of Valentino. Our bet on this one is due to the fact that we feel ever since Mr. Valentino left as head designer the house has never been the same. He is getting more press regarding his documentary movie then the clothes. The space on Madison Avenue is one of the larger shops compared to others and we feel the rent is sky high. With the vacation/resort season already here many of their customers has gone to warmer climates and will be left with Worth Avenue in Palm Beach to satisfy shopping desires. But as we noticed during summer the store was empty like all others due to the economy.
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