Fashion Icon Patricia Field to Close Signature NYC Boutique

Fashionistas, pour out a little Moët: Pat Field’s is closing. 

Her work on The Devil Wears Prada earned her an Oscar nomination, and Pat Field's designs for Sex and the City and Ugly Betty are legend. After 50 years, Patricia Field, the woman who helped make downtown-chic a thing, is closing her storied boutique.

“I know that my clients are going to be sad, because they come in and tell me that there’s no store like this in the world,” the 74-year-old lesbian fashion goddess told the New York Daily News. “But I’ve gotta watch out for my health and myself.”

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Through her work on Sex and the City (she made the Carrie necklace and toutou a thing) she helped to make Blahnik and Oscar de la Renta household names. Most recently, she reuinted with Darren Star’s on his latest series, Younger, and was the costume designer for the cast, including Sutton Foster, Debi Mazar, and Miriam Shor. Some details included giant iridescent earrings and a necklace of different-sized gold links, one of whose diameters is more than half the size of Shor’s head. 

“I’ve enjoyed the game... but I’m getting tired, because the store] has grown to such a size,” Field said. “I want to open my social life back up, and go to the gym for a swim every day. I can’t do normal things anymore, and I’m feeling it.”

Field opened her first shop in in the West Village in 1966 and in 1971, moved to 10 E. Eighth St. There she made New York fabulous for 30 years. Her shop’s been at its current location in the Bowery between Bleecker and Houston Sts. since 2012.

Debbie Harry, Beyoncé, and Miley Cyrus have made her own A-list, while Kelly Osbourne, Anne Hathaway, Avril Lavigne, and Caitlyn Jenner have also been spotted shopping there. 

“When Beyoncé was, like, a teenager and singing with Destiny’s Child, she used to come shop in the Eighth Street store with her mom,” Field says. “I’m going to miss my clients, the face-to-face time with them, the most. I make people look beautiful and feel happy, and I’ve been fortunate to make a career out of that.”

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But just because she’s closing shop doesn’t mean she’s out of the limelight. “I’d like to make a movie with a friend of mine. I’ve had many offers to do a book, but we haven’t had the time,” she said. “So I don’t want to retire and just sit there — that’s not in my nature — but I really felt the need to simplify.”

If there’s a silver lining to this, it’s that the clearance sales are gonna be epic! “Come and help me get rid of all of it. It’s a huge store, a huge job. I’m gonna need help,” Field teases.

And even though she’s closing her flagship location, Pat's still in the game. She's all about the pop-ups, like the Dover Street Market location she opened last week. “That would be fun to do pop-ups, absolutely. We do have a brand identity that people know. And I really don’t want to make my clients sad.”

That being said, it’s not about them, it’s about Patricia, and don’t you forget it!

“My purpose was to ... answer to no one but myself, to be independent,” she said in a statement.

Photo by Danny Ghitis