PACKED RAT; THE PLACE IS A JUMBLE, IT'S HARD TO SHOP, YET COOL KIDS KEEP FLOCKING TO YELLOW RAT BASTARD. HERE'S WHY.

Daily News Record, September, 2002 by GAVENAS, MARY LISA

The problem with conventional retail wisdom is that it's so conventional.

It says, for instance, that oversized hip-hop should never hang alongside slim-fit techno. That Ecko Unlimited doesn't belong anywhere near Ben Sherman, since the two could easily cancel each other's credibility. That a retail space should be open and bright and inviting. And that any store that's difficult to shop eventually won't get shopped at all.

The problem with conventional retail wisdom is that it can't explain Yellow Rat Bastard, the urban legend that began as a young men's boutique on a bleak block of lower Broadway in November of 1996 and has since begotten a quarterly magazine with a circulation of 250,000, a money-coining Web site and a thriving private-label...