Friday, June 17, 2011

Lolita Bra Sign

There's been a lot of news in the news about the Orchard Street boutique owner who was thrown through his plate-glass window when he tried to stop a shoplifter who was walking out with a $2,200 vintage Chanel purse.

Said the boutique's co-owner of the shoplifter's accomplice, "She wanted Chanel. She was willing to die for it." DNA also reported that the boutique had "two prior shoplifting incidents in which a $1,800 vintage Chanel makeup bag was stolen."



Before this boutique was here, before there was vintage Chanel on Orchard, this was the location of the Lolita Bra shop.


photo: verplanck's flickr

On a recent walk down Orchard Street, filled with the same feelings I have when walking down Elizabeth Street, I noticed that the sign for Lolita Bras had vanished. I always loved this sign and guess it's been gone a few years now. It's likely that I noted its vanishing, then forgot, so when I saw it was gone (again) I felt the loss as if it were fresh.

Not for nothing, but whoever was willing to die for a Lolita brassiere?

Also read:
Underwear on Orchard
Orchard Corset Center

9 comments:

Mykola ( Mick) Dementiuk said...

“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms, she was always Lolita.”

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

EV Grieve said...

I always liked the Lolita Bra sign too. Where do you suppose it is now?

Rebeca said...

When I lived on E. Broadway and Pitt St. I used to cut over to Grand and then cut over to Orchard to go to Two Boots (remember them?). My partner and I bought two great leather jacket on Orchard for a very reasonable price and they were nicely made. I bought another one from another years later from another store that was closer to Houston.

Last summer while spending a few days in the city, I thought I would go to Orchard and see what was new. I actually thought I had walked by it until I saw a street sign. Unrecognizable! My poor Lower Eastside has been sold out.

Jeremiah Moss said...

see this? Orchard "has its own 'alarm system,' in which many of the area's tight-knit merchants share information regarding unseemly characters spotted in the neighborhood," DNA reports.

unseemly characters? on the LES? no!

the link:
http://bit.ly/iv8hwe

Marty Wombacher said...

Classic sign! I hope somebody's got it and that it didn't get destroyed. $2,200 purses on Orchard Street? Nobody would've believed it back in the day.

Melanie said...

Off topic but still good..the Chinese Bakery is open again after being closed for 2 days due to work on the upper floors. (Clinton St. off Delancey). Chocolate cake is back on my menu.

chris flash said...

Not to condone theft or other criminal behavior, but I hardly feel sympathy for a business that caters to monied transients willing to pony up big bucks for crap, esp. one that displaced a genuine LES business selling bras and affordable undergarments to real New Yorkers. Why not sell their over-priced garbage uptown where the big money is???

In my opinion, these interlopers have no business doing business here!!

laura said...

chris flash: its called business. AND in this case its a private business, not a chain store. some people are NEVER happy! its america- thats why my great grandparents came here. & lived right there! one of my grandfathers made custom suits. quite expensive. no one complained.

Anonymous said...

Interlopers? It's called change. It's not a chain store. They are independent retailers, just like the Bra shop was in it's day. I know the store you are referring to, it has items for $30 and up. Hardly "uptown crap". Before you go off as well, the proprietors of this store have lived in downtown NYC for 30 years. So who is the interloper? I remember also when heroin was freely sold on Allen and Chrystie street and someone was murdered on Orchard with a gun about 10 years ago. No thanks, I'd rather see independent boutiques. Get over yourself and go back to Billyburg. Fraud Hipster