Storecasting: Earnest Sewn To Bring Its Denim To BelDel

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Lower East Side: About a month ago, we snapped a photo of the empty storefront on Broome and Orchard Streets that had housed the Tenement Museum's shop, wondering what business would fill this retail space in the quainter, quieter section of the Lower East Side. Yesterday, WWD gave us an answer: Expensive denim purveyor Earnest Sewn. This will be the company's second Manhattan outpost (the first is located in the Meatpacking District). Earnest Sewn picked the space after a LES-dwelling staffer noticed a note in the window announcing that the spot was available for lease. "'We got down there and started peering through the windows and thought, wow, this is totally us,' said Morrison [Earnest Sewn's president and designer]." Of course, a jeans store opening on Broome and Orchard isn't the end of the world—and we guess that hoping that retail scene down there would continue to be dominated by small-scale, local operations wasn't realistic—but still. This is a clear sign that national retailers have their eye on the area below Delancey Street. We fear the chain stores that will inevitably follow. [WWD, subscription req]