Less than a year after opening their acclaimed Nolita boutique, the three fashion folks behind Inven.tory have gone and done it again--only this time the space is warehouse-sized. With the same retail concept in mind, to sell emerging brands at wholesale prices, Inven.tory makes it that much easier for independent brands to sell overstock, samples, and one-offs without resorting to Century 21 standards. After a successful Cheap Monday pop-up event to kick things off, the new shop is now fully stocked and open for business. A look in the new space in the gallery below.
On March 18th, Cheap Monday will be landing at Inven.tory in New York to sell off fifty limited and numbered pairs of jeans as part of their custom jeans tour. The patched/ripped/dyed jeans retail for just $70 each, so it comes as no surprise to learn that the batch assigned to each leg of the tour--in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, and London--were all but sold out by the time the second case of beer was finished. See Cheap Monday's photo diary below and, for more, check out the brand's Fall 09 collection where these denim incarnations first made an appearance.
This weekend, having gone to Nolita to celebrate one of the last Mayle sample sales, we found ourselves gloomy about the state of the contemporary brand and the expense of a simple silk dress. We walked over to our friend's pop-up thereafter, not really knowing much about its permanence or scope. When we got to talking we realized that their new store, Inven.tory, is neither a pop-up nor a sample sale frenzy. Inven.tory, we discovered, is a permanent shopping destination that sells contemporary brands at wholesale prices. The items are, in fact, overstock, but are edited and curated, like any other boutique, to tell a story. On our first visit we found brands like Corpus and Orthodox at prices that made our jaws drop (sixty dollars?!). The store has both women's and men's clothing, and both had us drooling--especially, for the ladies, did Secta's brushed cotton separates. There was no 'sifting', there were no 'mass dressing rooms'. When we left we felt happy for our friends, who we are sure will profit from this well-timed idea, for the contemporary brands who can maintain integrity when selling off extras, and for ourselves because, well, we're growing tired of supporting brands whose 'contemporary' clothing is still five hundred dollars at a sample sale.
Photo via Thrillist.
McQ by Alexander McQueen
T-Bags
Rosato
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