Vogue Editor-at-Large Buys in East Village for $1.5 M.

The well-heeled but sleepy Sutton Place enclave does not seem particularly well-suited to Manhattan's most renowned British dandy, so perhaps it’s fitting that fashion editor Hamish Bowles has decided to take up residence in the East Village.

The European editor-at-large for U.S. Vogue has gone to contract on a $1.5 million, two-bedroom, eighth-floor co-op at 45 East 9^th Street, city records show. The 1,500 square-foot, duplex apartment is outfitted with “all the bells and whistles” one would expect of a male fashionista’s residence, according to the Corcoran listing: A gracious entry foyer leading to a spacious double-height living room with domed decorative ceiling and romantic Juliet balcony overlooking the living room with a wall of windows.

With a total of seven closets—four regular and three walk-in—Mr. Bowles will have ample space for what we can only imagine is a hefty wardrobe after 16 years working at Vogue. New York magazine wrote that Mr. Bowles "appreciates fashion with a scholar’s dedication and a poet’s passion. But all of this pales beside Bowles’s supreme contribution to city life: the glorious pageant of his personal wardrobe."

The listing says "after 40 years with one owner, this classic gem is in the market and longs for tender loving care." With good taste to spare and an eye for detail, Mr. Bowles sounds like the right man to spearhead a makeover.

He bought the apartment from the estate of the late Carol Hale, the wife of former Texas Congressman L. Dewitt Hale, who passed away on Jan. 3. Mr. Bowles' old (but by no means run-down) pad on Sutton Place is currently on the market for $975,000.

Listing brokerage Brown Harris Stevens says the pre-war co-op boasts a renovated windowed kitchen, beamed ceilings, hardwood floors, good closets, and moldings. In a bold interior design move few men outside the fashion industry could pull off, the living room is painted pink.