There's no hastily-scrawled sign proclaiming "Girls keep out!" outside the Jack Spade store, but that's certainly the feeling inside. The brainchild of Andy Spade (yep, that's handbag queen Kate Spade's hubby), Jack Spade sells boxy, functional bags for boys in canvas and waxwear.
While the totes are quite nice, it's really the other stuff--most of it for sale--that is to be admired. Function is the overarching theme. Plaid thermoses and twine get arranged into artistic vignettes, while the store's card is printed on a traffic-cone orange matchbook. Emblems of preppiness--Tretorns, stripey scarves, wellies--mingle with vaguely mod vintage Braun stereos. Issues of Playboy from 1964 rest next to taxidermied animals. And the iconic (Timex watches and Ray-Ban aviators) hang out with the uberboyish (model rockets, microscopes, model cars, a bench from a locker room and trophies). This is classic cool--not downtown techno cool or snarky hipper-than-thou retro cool, just good, old-school cool.
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