Tommy Hilfiger Was Once a Trash & Vaudeville Regular

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Now that Vogue, the The Costume Institute, Anna Wintour, and Beyonce have sanctioned punk fit for mainstream consumption, The Times naturally profiled the sole retail survivors in the effort: Trash & Vaudeville. Owner Ray Goodman and manager, Jimmy Webb—described by the paper as a "sinewy peacock with a bleached shag")—recalled the ups and downs of selling the punk look, and a few fashion heavyweights chime in with memories old and new. After the jump, five of our favorite excerpts from the article.

1.) Owner Ray Goodman graduated from FIT with a degree in merchandising.
He started Trash & Vaudeville when he was 21 because he "loved rock 'n' roll, but wasn't a good enough drummer to make it in a band. [He] had to figure out how I could stay close to the scene." It quickly became the go-to shop for punk rockers famous and non. "The only other place you could find studded cuffs was at a gay leather shop," Webb told The Times.

2.) T&V was and is a good resource for leggy punk rockers.
Joey Ramone, at nearly six and a half feet tall, had trouble finding jeans that fit. The punk store stocked the skinny black pants that did the trick, and they still do. The house brand is called Tripp, and now sells in over 300 stores worldwide.

3.) They were the first US store to carry Doc Martens. 'Nuff said.

4.) Nicola Formichetti headed straight to the store for his first Lady Gaga styling job.
"I went there and got her amazing stripper shoes and created an entire wardrobe for her dancers... [The store] smells of punk rock."

5.) Tommy Hilfiger was a regular, and re-sold T&V stock at his stores.
At the time, he owned two shops upstate. "We would buy clothes from Trash and Vaudeville and resell them," he said. "We ran newspaper ads with a photograph of my brother Andy's band, Vaudeville. They took the name from them they thought it was so cool. They were in punk gear, and the headline said, 'Would you buy clothes from these people?'"
· The Shop That Punk Built[NYTimes]
· All Trash & Vaudeville coverage [Racked NY]