MIDTOWN EAST — There’s a Kardashian living in Midtown East who loves high-end, designer clothing with low necklines and stylish flairs — only this beautiful brunette isn’t trailed by paparazzi or plagued by tabloid rumors.
Her name is Janetta Kardashian, and she runs a tiny but swanky second-hand store called NY Vintage Club at 1073 First Ave. near East 59th Street. She’s never met the reality TV-friendly trio of Armenian sisters who share her name, but she supposes there is a distant connection.
“All Kardashians are related,” said the storeowner, 40, an Armenian from Russia who came to the United States in 1993.
Despite the reality TV ups and downs that have befallen her possibly distant relatives, Kardashian has managed to maintain a drama-free lifestyle. Over the past decade or so, she has built a business and a reputation all on her own.
Her store on First Avenue doesn’t stock old prom dresses or run-of-the-mill Louis Vuitton purses. Instead, her racks are full of sable fur coats, mink dresses, $1,000 evening gowns and a coat made of real leopard skin.
Kardashian has helped Yoko Ono, the Olsen twins and Oscar winner Frances McDormand sift through her stock, which is now overflowing with Jimmy Choo stilettos and at least one handbag made out of ostrich. The desktop image on her work computer features a photo of her and fashion designer Marc Jacobs at one of his infamous soirees.
Hers is really the only vintage shop in the neighborhood, and though the area lacks the retail prowess of shopping hubs further west, she makes up for it in spades.
“This place, it’s like a clubhouse,” Kardashian said. “[My customers] all share their secrets here, their love affairs.”
Her shoppers like to linger inside for hours, she said, trying on a few things, gossiping over cups of tea and rarely leaving empty-handed.
On her website, Kardashian notes that she will validate parking for customers who spend more than $800 inside her store. Reaching that amount is surprisingly easy, she explained, since she rarely prices any of her items at less than $350.
Kardashian came to New York 18 years ago for love. Her romance didn’t last, but her affair with New York City did.
“Saw all the lights. Never went back,” she recalled.
Kardashian started her career in finance and technology, but she always had “a tremendous passion for fashion,” she said.
In Russia, she worked for an Italian oil company. On business trips to Italy, she would purchase mounds of clothes, stuff them into suitcases and sell them to her Russian friends.
“I would come [home] with three suitcases — gone in two days,” she explained.
In New York, her coworkers would solicit Kardashian’s opinion on new purchases or style choices, often summoning her into the bathroom for impromptu fashion appraisals, she said.
Eventually, Kardashian decided to leave the corporate world and launch her own business, NY Vintage Club. She nabbed a little storefront on First Avenue and East 59th Street, just a few feet from her current spot. A month later, her shop was written up in Elle magazine.
“I wanted one-of-a-kind pieces. I wanted not to follow fashion. I wanted to create style,” she explained.
“I have to be honest,” she added, “it worked from day one.”
Over the years, the shop has seen its share of “soap operas” and customers with odd proclivities, and Kardashian said that nothing surprises her anymore.
One woman from Brazil shops there just four times a year — and only at 10 p.m., long after the store’s official close.
Every visit, the customer orders sushi from a restaurant nearby and sips flutes of champagne, Kardashian said. She never tries anything on, instead asking her driver, “Do you think I will look good in this?”
Kardashian moved NY Vintage Club to its current location at 1073 First Ave. about three years ago, and by the end of the year she is hoping to move yet again. She has her heart set on either East 57th Street and Madison Avenue or East 60th Street and Lexington Avenue — although on the second floor, not the first.
“Obviously, I cannot pull this off on the first floor,” she said, gesturing at her small but selective stock of specialty items, including an ornate jacket she said was once worn by Cher and a sable fur coat that she claims could easily fetch $50,000 retail.
Kardashian’s sticker price for the item is just $2,500.
Her clientele — a loyal following that often accompanies her on girls’ outings to the opera or the ballet — are sad to see her leave the stretch of First Avenue. But although Kardashian may be a little farther west, she will still be in the neighborhood, she explained.
“I live here. I know everyone,” she said. “You need to know the spirit [of a neighborhood].”
