Clothes shop ‘Bird’ closes completely

The Brooklyn-born clothes retailer, Fowl, will shutter completely by the close of the month soon after extra than 20 years, its proprietor announced. 

“As with so several of our buddies and neighbors, the ongoing pandemic has established far too considerably to bear on leading of an currently challenged, speedily switching field, and environment,” Jen Mankins wrote on Instagram on Friday. “[I am] heartbroken to put up this news currently. [Bird] has meant anything to me and has been the core of my personalized and expert daily life for virtually two a long time.”

The men’s and women’s apparel shop — which had four places in Brooklyn and one in Los Angeles at its top — sold luxe-relaxed indie numbers by designers this sort of as Rachel Comey and Dries Van Noten, and was identified for its interiors by Brooklyn architect Ole Sondresen.

Mankins, who labored as a consumer at Barneys and Steven Alan in advance of having about the to start with Hen store, which opened in Park Slope in 1999, told the Business enterprise of Fashion that rising rents and direct-to-consumer competition, all worsened by the pandemic, made business enterprise unachievable.

Bird’s Park Slope, Fort Greene, and Los Angeles areas shuttered in 2020, and the Cobble Hill retailer shut previous weekend. The Williamsburg and online merchants will shut down by the end of the thirty day period.

Tributes came pouring in from customers and distinguished creatives following Mankins’ announcement on Jan. 8.

“Bird was famous. You must sense so happy,” posted fashion icon and Barney’s window dresser, Simon Doonan on Instagram.

“Oh Jen so unhappy!! Fowl will be eternally missed #legend 💔💔💔” explained designer Ulla Johnson, who lives in Fort Greene.

But not all hope is shed for Chicken. In her submit and an e mail to customers Friday, Mankins left open up the chance Bird will return in some sort or one more “on the other aspect.”

“Pausing what Bird has been for so prolonged is not a choice I produced effortlessly nor one particular that I acquire evenly,” she wrote. “I hope to be in a position to use this crack to reimagine what significant function style and retail can have in today’s world. I have not stopped believing in the electrical power and importance of expressing oneself by the act of getting dressed, and I hope to see you on the other side of this with a new eyesight for Bird.”

This story first appeared on Brownstoner.com.