注釈:”IRL”とは、”In Real Life”(実生活の中で)の略語。Eコマースが普及し、ヴァーチャル空間での買い物が進化した結果、逆に、実生活、つまり、実店舗での買い物や実際に空間を訪れる体験の価値や魅力が高まり、研究されるようになり、その結果、アメリカでは、その重要性を強調する専門用語として”In Real Life”、略して”IRL”をよく見かけるようになっております。
しかも、その2つのお店は、マンハッタンのローワー・イースト・サイド(Lower East Side)地区にあるスタントン通り(Stanton St.)沿いに、隣同士でオープンしたということで、そのエリア自体が「TikTokブロック」(ティックトックの一角、TikTok Block)と呼ばれるようになるほど。
はい、そうです、「TikTokブロック」です。
さらに、上述の記事では:
The opening of her new store Rogue on New York’s “TikTok Block” proves the app is changing the face of retail.
The latest industry to feel TikTok’s ripple effect? Fashion, specifically retail. Walking down Stanton Street on the Lower East Side of New York City, you’ll find two new vintage “Gen Z stores”: Bowery Showroom, opened by Matt Choon, and Rogue, founded by viral TikTok thrifter Emma Rogue. The street has already been dubbed the “TikTok block”.
The close proximity of the stores was no coincidence, Emma tells i-D. Already friends, Matt had let Emma know about a vacancy next door after Bowery Showroom’s opening weekend (where Emma sold some of her vintage finds on consignment). The following Monday, in the first week of May, Emma was visiting the space, speaking with a realtor about the storefront and looking over the lease. “I started moving everything in on May 16, so it all happened literally within a month,” she says. Emma officially opened Rogue on June 5.
“The TikTok algorithm is really insane, there's nothing like it,” Emma says. “With geolocation, you can touch so many people in a centralised area.” Emma notes that they had close to 400 people show up at Rogue’s launch day, forming a line that snaked around the block, waiting to purchase the store’s vintage pieces — all handpicked and sourced by Emma herself.
Emma Rogue is well-versed in the art of the thrift. Growing up in Jersey City, she and her mom would visit their local Unique Boutique — a fabled chain of vintage clothing and trinket stores, now defunct — after school or gymnastics practice. “My mom always loved looking around at all the knickknacks. It was a fun activity for both of us to do together,” Rogue reflects.
Back then, Rogue wasn’t thrifting for hidden gems or buried designer, the purpose of most secondhand sellers nowadays. For her and her mom, visits to Unique were a bonding experience, as well as a chance to restock her childhood wardrobe. But as Rogue grew up, her shopping trips soon evolved as she realized her thrift store knowhow could translate into a full-blown business.
When Rogue started college at NYU, she developed an interest in fashion, a natural progression from her afternoons spent shopping in Jersey. While perusing secondhand stores in New York City, Rogue would come across clothing she loved that wasn’t in her size — “I was thinking to myself, ‘Man, I know somebody would love this but, but it won’t fit me,’” she recounts.
In 2018, Rogue made an account on Depop, the rapidly expanding resale app that Etsy recently acquired for a whopping $1.6 billion USD. She listed two pairs of vintage Skechers. Both sold the same day. From there, Rogue’s online business took off. At her mom’s behest, she started tracking her expenses and profit on a spreadsheet. Rogue eventually began working at Depop’s brick-and-mortar store in New York, helping customers and appearing as a regular fixture on the app‘s Instagram Stories.
Then, the pandemic hit. One day in May 2020, Rogue was scrolling on TikTok, the short form video app beloved by Gen-Z’ers. The 25-year-old — who had scant experience making videos for the platform — came across a video documenting how one Depop seller packaged her orders.Rogue was inspired to make her own version of the clip. “I thought nothing of it, posted it that night at like, seven o’clock,” Rogue recalls. “By the next day, I hit over a million views on it. I gained 40,000 followers overnight.” Thanks to the power of virality, her post garnered seven million views and resulted in 300 Depop sales by the end of that week.
As Rogue’s TikTok following expanded, she realized she could use her online fame to fuel her vintage retail business. It started with a stint selling clothing on consignment at Bowery Showroom, a concept store and vintage retailer on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — while helping promote the store on TikTok, she came to the realization: “Why am I promoting other people’s shops when I can be promoting my own space?” Matt, the owner of Bowery Showroom, alerted Emma of a vacant storefront down the block. “He said, ‘If you don’t get it, I’m gonna make it my office.’ So literally the next day, I called the realtor.” In a matter of weeks, Rogue negotiated, signed a lease and set up shop on Stanton Street, which she fondly refers to as “TikTok Block.” Rogue, the store, was born.