Thursday, February 28, 2002


the much-beloved designer discount clothing store century 21 officially re-opened today, just about 5-1/2 months after shards of the world trade center crashed through its windows.

i arrived at about 12:35pm. all three main doors where open, and it was crowded going in, but possible to move after you had entered the store. this lasted for about 10 mins. by 12:45pm, it was tough going anywhere at all. you literally could not move, it was so full of women. the line to the dressing room snaked around the corner and up and down two aisles. not that it mattered; you couldn't take a step forward or back. women were tearing off their tops to try on missoni sweaters, marked down to $125 from $600.

all the usual designers were there, in the usual spots. at the moment human gridlock set in, i was actually in the third-floor dressing room line, holding a blumarine silk top ($60 from $300), a missoni sweater, and a marc jacobs denim skirt ($50 from $250).

surprisingly, no one was upset. all the women were flushed with happiness. those next to the century 21 staff were actually giving them hugs and thanking them! the mood was festive, like a giant pajama party with total strangers -- everyone was united by their love of european designer clothes at dizzingly low prices.

after about 20 mins. of literally being unable to move more than 6 inches in any direction, the crowd cleared a bit, and the line inched forward. but alas! my lunch hour was fast ending!

i was forced to abandon the clothes, go down to the second floor, and move towards the escalator, past the todd's suede driving loafers ($109, down from $325). then gridlock struck again. i stood on the 4th or 5th stair of the stopped escalator for another 10 minutes. finally, the staff on the first floor worked out a traffic system, and i got down to the church street exit in just another 10 minutes.

as we stood hip to hip on the silent escalator stairs, suspended between floors, everyone started talking to everyone else. about what they had bought. how they had managed to check out, i don't know, because the checkout lines had to be 30 people deep each, even with 8 registers open on each floor.

new york -- it's coming back alive. in retrospect, somehow it seems as if the 20th century didn't really end until that tragic day. then time held itself in some crazy half-dream abeyance until this today at 1:15pm. there, on the escalators, century 21 truly began. again.


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