Photos: Daniel Maurer
The Patricia Field store, which was on East Eighth Street for many years and then moved to a former kitchen supply store at 302 Bowery, moved a couple of doors over last week and has reopened at 306 Bowery in the designer’s former home.
Ms. Field, who has outfitted everyone from drag queens to club kids to Carrie Bradshaw, first made a home at 306 Bowery in 2005, after many years of living above her previous store in Greenwich Village. She eventually acquired the ground floor of the building behind her apartment, at 298 Elizabeth Street, knocked down its exterior wall, and connected it to her home by building a skylight between the two buildings.
Now that Ms. Field has moved to a smaller place in the Seward Park area, her former Bowery digs are serving as the new location of her boutique. At 4,000 square feet, the bi-level space is nearly twice the size of the previous location, leaving space for more inventory from brands like Boy London, M.Y.O.B., and Noir.
Though Ms. Field gut renovated her home before reopening it as a store, elements of her former abode linger: her television set is built into a wall in the basement hair salon, her kitchen shelving unit is nudged into another back corner, and items from her art collection, including a four-panel painting by Paul Chelstad based on photographs of her 1988 Grand Street Ball, still adorn the glittered brick walls. A rhinestone-studded “disco shark” by Kevin McHugh hangs from the skylight.
In the back of the store, items are displayed on racks that originally served as the wardrobe closet in “The Devil Wears Prada” (Ms. Field was the movie’s costume designer). If you missed last week’s opening party, attended by downtown fixtures like designer Patrick “The Dandy” MacDonald and rock-and-roll photographer Bob Gruen, have a look at the space via our slideshow.
The store’s former location at 302 Bowery is currently for lease at $30,000 a month.