The new Lord & Taylor isn’t on Fifth Avenue. It doesn’t have towering ceilings, glossy beauty counters or zigzagging escalators; there are no racks of sensible shirts hung on plastic hangers, nor any other hallmarks of the American department store.

That’s because the new Lord & Taylor is not a department store. It’s a pop-up shop in SoHo, selling a limited collection of inoffensive holiday gifts to last-minute shoppers.

Almost a year ago, Lord & Taylor left New York City, vacating the 11-story building it had occupied for more than a century. The company’s sales had been declining for years. While a few dozen locations in the eastern United States remained open, the Manhattan flagship closure signaled the beginning of the end.

Then, a plot twist: In August, Lord & Taylor’s parent company announced it would sell the brand to Le Tote, a clothing rental start-up. In November, the $100 million, first-of-its-kind deal officially closed. A little-known tech company in San Francisco now owned a brick-and-mortar chain with no presence west of Schaumburg, Ill.