The Death and Life of Great American Retail: NYU Students Trade Jane Jacobs for Marc Jacobs

Whoever said N.Y.U. was full of scruffy, coffee-shop vigilantes may need to update their aesthetic databases. After all, Greenwich Village is no longer a haven for the budding Walt Whitmans and Romany Maries of yesteryear. Nay, the Manhattan neighborhood that houses a growing population of hedge-funders and well-heeled fashionistas is also home to a blossoming set of likeminded youngsters. Natch! Case in point: Chloe, a 22-year-old N.Y.U. student.

The subject of today’s “Streetwalker” profile on Fashionista, Chloe was scouted on Second Avenue in the East Village. Like a cross between Anna Wintour and Little Lord Fauntleroy, Chloe has not only the trendy name of a new village patron, but she sports the perfect getup, too. It was, the blogger says, her combination of red ankle boots, Marni shoulder bag and white coat that caught their eye.

But before any grumpy, nostalgic grousing ensues, one should consider that Chloe, like so many penny-pinching scholars before her, is a sucker for a good sale. Of her ensemble, she said: “My coat is from a vintage shop in England, and I got my Marni bag at an outlet store in Italy, when I was studying abroad there. I like designer things but I don't pay that much for them—I have Prada shoes from Milan that were like 70 Euros. And I just bought these shoes this morning, from the Marc by Marc Jacobs store. They were fifty bucks! I bought like four pairs!”