Profile

After fourteen years as an art dealer, Marion Alexander opened this upscale vintage-couture shop in 2005. New items arrive weekly, touting labels like Chanel, Valentino, Dries Van Noten, Badgley Mischka, and Geoffrey Beene—a Beene coat recently in stock was previously displayed at the Met. The handpicked selection is divided into day and eveningwear, with a particularly impressive assortment of embellished designer cocktail gowns (which can fetch several thousand dollars apiece). Leather and alligator handbags from the fifties and sixties are displayed throughout the store, and costume jewels spill from a red antique jewelry box. An adjacent wall is adorned with glittering rhinestone- and gemstone-studded necklaces to top off the glamorous styles. — Margaret Pickering