VIllage mainstay Cherry, where Rebecca Walsh (above) tries on a 1950s outfit, is also on the verge of shutting its doors (Helayne Seidman)
It’s a nightmare for hipsters!
The East Village’s vintage-clothing shops are about to go the way of leisure suits and flapper dresses, as a wave of closures hits home.
The latest blow to the corduroy-wearing set came yesterday when O Mistress Mine — which counted Madonna, Paul McCartney and Marc Jacobs as customers — closed its East 11th Street shop after some four decades in business.
Its owner, finding the city too expensive, is moving to cheaper space in Hoboken, NJ.
“I just couldn’t make it,” Wanda Hanlon said last week as she packed up her furs, beaded bags and gowns.
The boutique is one of three in New York to close in the last year.
Love Saves the Day, an emporium of kitsch and clothes on Second Avenue that had been in business since 1966, shut its doors a year ago.
Poppet, an East Ninth Street boutique known for its inventory of platform shoes, went out of business later in ’09.
Others are hanging on by a thread.
Atomic Passion, which opened on East Ninth Street 17 years ago, may close in February if its landlord doesn’t lower the rent.
“This has been the worst year we’ve had since 1992,” co-owner Justin Vogel said last week, while sitting at the counter in front of a 1920s beaded gown.
He said customers used to cram the shop, where it is possible to find a velvet cape from the early 1900s, a plaid blouse with Peter Pan collar from the 1940s or a patchwork maxiskirt from the 1970s.
Vogel said his business never fully recovered after 9/11, with a steep decline beginning in 2008.
Hanlon said the problem for O Mistress Mine was taxes, which rose during the last two years. At the same time, her customers started disappearing because of the economy.
“People don’t have the money,” she said. “A lot of them say they’re out of work.”
O Mistress Mine was among a handful of vintage-clothing stores in the city when it opened in the West Village in the 1960s. Hanlon moved to the East Village in 2007, where vintage-clothing stores — including many lining Ninth Street — are a draw to stylists, celebrities, artists and others.
Cherry, in the West Village, is also in trouble, said owner Radford Brown.
At the end of 2008, Brown closed the smaller of his two locations. He plans to move out of the larger one on Jan. 31, because his landlord did not renew his lease, he said.
Brown said a lot of the boutique’s business relied on selling period clothing to fashion designers looking for inspiration.
“I know a lot of their budgets have been cut with the recession,” Brown said. “That really hurt us.”
Brown said he would hold a big sale this month and then look for a cheaper location.
He will also continue to sell by appointment and through his Web site, cherryboutique.com.
“It’s just been a crappy year,” he said.