The Standard SPiN New York Classic

Words by Gee & The Hotstepper

With a sizable line at the door, and fashionistas milling about everywhere, the debut of the SPiN New York ping pong club seemed more like a couture event than a sporting one. But with a sport championed by tennis pro, international playboy, and fashion tastemaker Fred Perry what else could you expect. Five gorgeous German ping-pong tables, complete with the Standard Hotel’s logo, stood in the middle of a cavernous room with beautiful wood-paneled ceilings and floor-length glass windows showing off the ridiculously dope view of the Hudson River. The crowd piled up on either side, anxiously awaiting the start of the tournament.

Over sixty contestants had signed up to try out their Chop and Drop shots (check your table tennis handbooks for more on what that actually means!). While most were just party-goers eager to smack a ball around for a few, we did spot some seasoned pros, including a granny who was rockin’ a table-tennis-ready outfit and had her own customized ping-pong gear in tote. After a brief speech by the SPiN club’s chairman, who gave special thanks to celebrity investor Susan Sarandon and props to the other celebs in the house (a very handsome Tim Robbins and Judah Friedlander, decked out in full hipster attire, were also in attendance),  the tournament was underway! Back and forth, the balls were flying across the table, and in most cases across the room, since there weren’t too many seasoned pros on the courts. The Standard’s league did especially well, proving that fashionistas and hipsters weren’t as bad at ping-pong as one would have suspected.

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A rendering of Topshop’s first U.S. store, to open in Manhattan in September.Topshop has announced its first news to step foot into the US back in 2006 and there has been continuous rumors on where the first location will land. According to WWD, Topshop’s first Manhattan store will be at 478 Broadway in SoHo, which is currently Yellow Rat Bastard. Topshop’s owner, Sir Philip Green has an option to take a 9,500-square-foot space on the building’s top floor to use as his U.S. office and said further store openings in America are likely to come sooner rather than later. Expect the first Topshop/Topman unit in September, he is planning two more Manhattan stores, as well as flagships on the West Coast, and other units in cities including Las Vegas, Miami and Boston.

The new Topshop stores in the U.S. will be a minimum of 20,000 square feet and they all will be flagships. “I don’t want hundreds of little stores in the U.S. They all have to make economic sense,� he said.The Broadway flagship will cover 40,000 square feet over three floors — basement, ground floor and first floor — and Green said he’s hoping to preserve the “spirit� of the brand’s iconic Oxford Circus flagship. Green said he and his team are mulling the design for the Broadway store, but there likely will be a spiral staircase in addition to escalators, and customers in the basement will be able to view the two upper floors.He also has no plans to advertise in the U.S. as of yet, although there likely will be two or three events next year to mark the flagship’s opening.