Marc Jacobs, the fashion brand ... is an image of grungy, sweater-clad Jacobs circa the mid-’90s, lounging on a bed with stylist Venetia Scott and directors Sofia Coppola and Zoe Cassavetes.

And yet for almost a decade in the aughts, Marc Jacobs stores triangulated around Bleecker, Perry, and Bank streets were a transportive haven of fashionable tchotchkes—mostly under $75!— ...