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Bleecker Street: From boho to high fashion

BY LAUREN JOHNSTON | STAFF WRITER

Bleecker Street (Photo/NYNewsday.com)

Destination: Bleecker Street.

The name carries mythic weight in New York City's Greenwich Village, calling up images of beat writers huddled in smoke-filled cafes and guitar-slung folkies wailing songs of protest. In its artistic heyday back when rents were cheaper than most Con Edison bills a great many of New York's cultural heroes prowled around Bleecker Street, among them Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg and Diane Arbus.

The meandering cross-town thoroughfare once a humble cow path has over the years morphed from folk haven to gay rights springboard to antiques nook. In its latest reincarnation, Bleecker has become a highway of high fashion. These days, pedestrians strolling down its tree-shaded twists and bends are most likely toting shiny, carry-bags with embossed logos and silken rope handles, not protest boards or poetry books.

The designer makeover swept the street fast. Bleecker enjoyed a couple of cameos on HBO's "Sex and the City," Miranda scored a date dishing about John Adams at the Biography bookstore, and she and Carrie dissected relationships over cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery and the masses appeared overnight.

Lewis Manalo, 27, worked as a clerk at the bookstore while he was a student at NYU. Manalo left New York after graduating in 2001 and moved back to Brooklyn this past January, resuming his post at the store.

"When I first came back, I thought I was lost. It had changed that much," he said.

Bleecker Street stretches from the East Village all the way to Eighth Avenue, but the allure for most shoppers lies west of Seventh Avenue, where Bleecker cuts across the maze of West Village side streets, and each block brings a new wave of designer store fronts.

Marc by Marc Jacobs opened on the corner of Bleecker and West 11th Street in 2000, and was the first upscale label to arrive on what was then a string of blocks clotted with antiques stores.

Before long, Cynthia Rowley moved in between Charles and Perry streets with her flirty, frothy frocks and spindly t-strap heels. Lulu Guinness opened shop next door, lining shelves with her signature, patterned totes and smart city girl pumps. Ralph Lauren has taken residence on both sides of Bleecker, and Marc has since opened a second store.

Some neighborhood retailers mourn Bleecker's new designer duds, which they say brought the usual drawback of gentrification: rising rents that force out the old-timers.

"It has definitely gone more upscale in recent years, and some of the smaller family owned places have closed up," said Anne Marie Romanczyk, owner of children's clothier City Cricket. The store opened at West 10th just off Bleecker about five years ago, but Romanczyk has lived in the neighborhood since 1987.

City Cricket follows a newer trend in fashion: high-end kids clothes, including a selection of $160 sweaters, white cotton kimono pajamas imported from Japan, and tot-sized vintage Levis priced at $98.

Though some small shops have suffered from the invasion of big name neighbors, the increased street traffic has allowed several specialty shops selling hand-crafted, vintage or imported merchandise to thrive.

Best bets at newcomer Lori McLean, located on Grove Street just off Bleecker, are a line of delicate charm necklaces and a collection of funky felt bracelets that look like rings of rainbow jawbreakers.

Just down the street, the racks at Beautiful Tibet are bursting with vibrant silk tunics imported from India and Nepal. Jeweler Satya offers spiritual creations inspired by symbols found in yoga and meditation. Prayer beads and flat, buffed silver pendants imprinted with lotus flowers and trees of life dot the display cases.

Even with its new look, "Bleecker Street is the heart of the Village," said Romanczyk, and she accepts cyclical facelifts as one of New York's essential traits. The city doesn't sleep because it's way too busy rebuilding.

"Change is good," she said. "That's the nature of New York. It can always absorb that change."