Artists & Fleas

Create a checklist of the spots where you love shopping or hanging out. You are going to come up with one constant; all those places are destinations where more than one store, bar or restaurant hangs next to another.

A key factor to a commercial neighborhood’s success is to attract a sense of community.

Artists & Fleas understands the needs of emerging designers, vintage collectors, and craftsmen. Up and coming artists need cheap rent and a customer friendly environment. They need to sell, sell, sell. Amy Abrams & Ronen Glimer, founders of A&F, came up with a solution so the fancy shopper could shop, and the arts-and-crafts seller could sell underneath the same roof.

Amy and Ronen planted a seed in Williamsburg in 2003 that bloomed into a flourishing gathering spot for entrepreneurial artists.

Artists & Fleas is an indie bazaar offering an atmosphere ignited by the young designer’s creative energy, the trend hunter’s fashion eye and a guest DJ keeping the crowd humming while shopping. They are a market open only on the weekends from noon to 8pm, providing designers an affordable spot to rent, even if only for one day. Every week, one can find a fresh new face behind the stands or a fashion addict snorting up the indie vibe and loving every second of it.

What:: Visit Artist & Fleas
www:: www.artistsandfleas.com
Where:: N. 6^th St between Bedford & Berry
Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY
When:: Weekends noon to 8pm
Why:: It’s about a community gathering!

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Guvnor’s

Guvnor’s, a thrift store located in Parkside, New York, greets you with a Honky Tonk atmosphere, providing burlesque, rockabilly, vaudeville and western fashion. Come in to sell or exchange clothes. Or, customize your new acquisitions with an in-house tailoring master. The Guvnor’s smirk invites any rock and roll fan to come inside and encounter pre-1990s original vintage clothing for the Danny Zuko or Sandy Ollsen hidden in you. This boutique holds in its chest a musical stage, P/A system and DJ booth. The Guv’ takes his music fixation seriously providing live musical events, roof parties and a scandalous grease lightin’ vibe for your shopping entertainment.

What:: The Guvnor’s
www:: www.guvnorsnyc.com
Where:: 178 Fifth Avenue
Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Call:: 718 230 4887
Why:: Grease Lightin’

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Odd Twin

Odd Twin resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Quirky but versatile, varied yet charming, this store will appeal to anyone proud to stand out in a crowd. They represent oddity over conformism and individuality instead of routine.

Odd Twin is a vintage and thrift store treasuring original clothes, accessories, jewelry and home decorations from back in the day. Every item hangs with an air of history and coquette. You’ll find on the tags the exact year and epoch the clothes once belonged to. Transcend time with their garments. Have one foot in the 1950s and the other on a 21^st century dance floor.

Odd Twin proudly stands as one of the few vintage stores holding a perfectly extensive and unique men’s collection. 1950’s suits, pants, dress shirts and shoes, all in a well-organized manner, array of colors and styles.

It’s sexy to be odd.

What:: Odd Twin
www:: www.oddtwin.com
Where:: 164 5^th Avenue
Park Slope, Brooklyn NY 11217
Call:: 718 ODD TWIN
Why:: It’s sexy to be od

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Peach Frog

Hardly will you discover an indie store like Peach Frog. The odds are as rare as literally seeing a peach frog.
On the tags you’ll find two prices, first, the original price of the precious item you hold in your arms that looks unaffordable, and second, your lucky number. The original price is reduced up to ninety percent.

In their collection you’ll find brands like Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Narcizo Rodriguez, Betsey Johnson, D&G, Levis, Penguin, Von Dutch, Lucky Brand and Junk Food amongst others. As well as vintage furniture, accessories, footwear and leather purses. All items are blessed with the two-price peach frog tag.

Peach Frog also serves as a welcomed neighbor for New York residents. The boutique hosts contests open to patrons to select “Sexy Sunday Models” for an in-store fashion show. The winners get to be the star of the show and receive a $100 certificate to spend at Peach Frog. “Sexy Sunday Bands” is another event hosting fresh talent at the store.

If you kiss this frog, it might turn into a prince. Is it not royalty treatment to have such accessible prices at the reach of your fingertips?

What:: Peach Frog
www:: www.peachfrog.com
Buy Online:: www.stores.ebay.com/peachfrogny
Where:: 136 N, 10^th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Call:: 718 387 3224
When:: Monday- Friday 12pm- 9pm
Saturday- Sunday 11am- 8pm
Why:: Sexy Sunday Shopping

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Monk

Williamsburg, home to an array of funky thrift and vintage stores. They are splashed along its streets and avenues—rubbing stylie shoulders with cozy little bars and vegan restaurants. Monk is no exception.

One of the few stores that allocates equal space and quality for both genders, Monk is a store where you can bump into a set designer or a wardrobe stylist. Like a good vintage store, all clothes are in perfect condition, and the merchandise is organized by size directing you to fall in love with the garment that suits you right.

What:: Monk
Where:: 496 Driggs Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Call:: 718 384 6665
Why:: Be the character of your own movie

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Mini Minimarket

Mini Minimarket is your fashion bodega of Williamsburg. Any impulse you may have to get a new pair of shoes for a party, or maybe a desire to accseorize your most precious outfit with cheap colorful sunglasses. It can be found here.

The store exudes a vintage breeze–relaxed clothes, soft fabrics and practical dresses, yet items are brand new. This place is fun and friendly, even their custumer service. They have random merchandise piled high on walls, sitting tight with a humorous presence–an eclectic selection of clothes, accessories and jewelry arranged just to make your life a little bit more colorful.

What:: Mini Minimarket, the fashion bodega
www:: www.miniminimarket.com
Where:: 218 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Call:: 718 218 7849
Why:: Girls just wanna have fun

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Meme Antenna

Have you ever been called the black sheep of your family? Glad you’ve heard that term before. Meme Antenna is the right shepherd for you. It is a gift store offering jewelry, decorations, stationary, furniture, vinyl, cds and rare synthesizers. Their common characteristic is that they are not common at all. Wear your “I love Nerds” shirt if going to Meme Antenna. And if you’re not that type, but have that type of friend, then for birthdays you know where to go.

What:: Meme Antenna, gift shop.
www:: www.memeantenna.com
Where:: 218 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Why:: I heart nerds

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Junk

Mirrors, old photographs, frames, Life Magazines, books, wooden cabinets, dolls, typewriters, lamps, broken mannequins, recliners, cowboy hats, spoons, vinyl, tape recorders, polaroids, glass candlesticks, Playboy, Jesus Christs, hair pins, bras, fortune teller machines. Do you get it? Everything you don’t need to have but you want to make your life a little bit more dusty, fun or heavy. Junk.

What:: Junk
Where:: 197 North 9^th St.
Brooklyn, NY
Why: Why not.

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Buffalo Exchange

Sometimes the words “We have to let you go” are not very pleasing to your ears. Your world will immediately change. But the fortune of your destiny falls upon one variable, your positive or negative outtake on your present.

Meet Kerstin Block, the heroine of entrepreneurship making 60 million dollars a year. It started back in the mid 70’s when she lost her furniture display job in Tucson, Arizona. Fortunately for Kerstin, that is. Back then she knew her passions, thrifting and swapping clothes. And she listened to her gut instinct.

In a 400 sq.ft area she opened the first consignment, buy, sell and exchange store offering used, new, vintage or contemporary styles of clothes for both men and women. She was the first person to give the trade clothing business a fashionable perspective. She called it Buffalo Exchange. And the rest is history.

Her business grew into a chain of 37 stores throughout 14 states attracting wardrobe stylists, designers, artists, students and those with an eye for fashion or an obsession for thrifting.

Everything in her stores range for around $15 dollars, except for designer jeans. Those old clothes you don’t remember you have, they are also welcome at the store for store credit, exchange or cash.

If you thought a hippie selling used clothes was just a result of peace and love, you were mistaken. It’s a very welcomed and profitable business. Or if you thought “we have to let you go” are the worst words you can hear, think again.

What:: Buffalo Exchange, new and recycled items
www:: www.buffaloexchange.com
Where:: 504 Driggs Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Call:: 718 384-6901
When:: Monday–Saturday 11 am–8 pm
Sunday 12 pm–7 pm
Why:: For a change…

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Brooklyn’s Charm

Brooklyn’s boho district, Williamsburg, is the perfect neighborhood to strike loose your location sense. Ramble around it’s enchanted streets. You’ll encounter secrets and adventures that might just make your day.

You might bump into Brooklyn’s Charm, a cute-sy inviting boutique attracting your innate designer skills and your hidden creative impulse.

Brooklyn’s Charm is a jewelry store offering local NY designers’ collections, hand made pieces and a little something that will make you smile. Find supplies to make your own body decoration. Mix and match charms, cut and braid metal chains and spiral them up your wrist or neck. No rules, but only one ruler. You.

What:: Brooklyn’s Charm
www:: www.brooklyncharmshop.com
Where:: 145 Bedford Ave (N. 9th Entrance)
Why:: Invent your future

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Beacon’s Closet

You got what it takes to call yourself a trendsetter? If you do, your sense of style isn’t related to price tags or the name of the designer’s clothes piled up in your closet. It’s all a consequence of one thing, your very own fashion eye.

Check your face, yeah, you know you got one, raise your brow, and give that fierce look. You are about to find fashion heaven. It’s called Beacon’s Closet.

Beacon’s Closet is an exchange clothing and thrift store located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY. Beacon’s understands that your style doesn’t have to fall into a fashion category. It offers an infinite selection of retro and new clothes to suit your fashion desires. On one rack you can find clothes made in Italy, born during your mother’s teenage time, and others worn by your neighbor. Their clothes are used, new, vintage or collectibles. Find them all in perfectly wearable conditions and at a very heavenly affordable price. It’s not a question of buying, but a question of deciding how much you can carry home.

If you are running short on your greens, or your plastics are so scratched they are useless, there is a solution for your economical inconvenience. Pack a bag of clothes that have been forgotten in your closet and bring them over to exchange. Beacon’s will pay 35% cash or 55% store credit on their reselling price. Now, go get yourself a sexy pair of whatever new obsession you got.

Beacon’s acknowledges that your style is your own, and it should be named after you. Stop by and commemorate your vanity.

What:: Beacon’s Closet
www:: www.beaconscloset.com
Where:: 88 n 11th street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Call:: 718 486 0816
When:: Monday-Friday 11am-9pm, Saturday-Sunday 11am-8pm
Why:: You are “it”

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The Sock Man

They say New York has everything. Name it. Between the gray asphalt and the blue horizon the apple city will have it.

Meet The Sock Man, a Newyorkee born in the 80’s, located in the east side’s trendsetter neighborhood. This store grew up in times when Madonna had black hair and Cindy Lauper sang “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Remember those socks? Neon tights and laced pantyhose? A-ha!

Well, The Sock Man was the store selling the eccentric rockers and the 80’s music fans their hosiery. Throughout thirty years of existence the store has maintained its walls, filling them even more with accessories to sock your legs with tights, thigh highs, leg warmers, stockings and pantyhose.

Yes, you read right, a complete store that pays its rent selling just one thing, socks. It might be a limited category but the colors, materials and designs that these leg-gloves reflect are endless.

What:: The Sock Man
www:: www.thesockman.com
Where:: 27 St.Mark’s Place, Manhattan NY 10003
Call:: 212 529 0300
Why:: Socks are shoes best friends.

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Search & Destroy

Laying on St. Marks’ torso a particular store is resting. Close your mouth. Dry your hanging saliva. You have seen zombies, chopped head dolls and skulls before. They are just decoration for S&D’s dangerous clothing store’s window.

Notice the anarchy sign on the entrance, the UK flag and the queen’s pierced lip banner, definitely signs of rebellion.

Search & Destroy is a punk thrift and vintage store. It’s operated by Japanese fashionable dudes that will teach Paris Hilton a lesson. Fashion has to be dirty, aggressive and saturated in studs. Music is madness and hard core punk is playing at all times. Browsing their clothes is like sneaking through the Sex Pistols’ luggage on tour.

Prices are tough but and so is life, Punk!

What:: Search & Destroy
Where:: 25 St.Marks Place, Manhattan NY 10003
Call:: 212 358 1120
Why:: I’m a revolutionary, I don’t just dress like one.

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Trash & Vaudeville

This is the type of store that when pronouncing its name will make a bad-ass, sexy tatt’ lady make a pierced high pitch scream like a spoiled brat. Trash & Vaudeville is a, spell-it-out, Oh Em Gee fashion institution.

All your symptoms of rebellion will be cherished. It is your fashion hospital. Do you have a pain for Rock and Roll? Well, savor it like tough love. Trash won’t cure your ache but will help spread your I-do-what-I-want disease.

Do you have the guts is the question? The guts to wear your style out and not give a damn about what they say? If so, T&V is a two-story boutique holding every necessary item to dress your body and help you flick your finger at those to whom individualism knows not.

Upstairs find tops, jackets, denim, dresses and bags. Downstairs rock and roll T’s, shoes, underwear, hair dyes and accessories. Everything is saturated in color and animal prints. And splashed in leather, denim and rock and roll graphics.

Trash also holds Iron Fist’s deadly heels and bloody sexy T’s. A Wasabi old time favorite

What:: Trash & Vaudeville
Where:: 4 St.Marks, Manhattan NY 10003
Call:: 212 982 3590
Why:: Do you think it is easy being this beautiful!

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Patricia Field’s  “House of Field”

Patricia Field has an audacious eagle eye for fashion. She scrapes out the best of the best of music and fashion’s decades. Like an alchemist, she blends it together with a little bit of the now and turns it into gold. That’s style in its most glowing state–one who is able to capture the great, recreate it and make it her own.

Browse her colorful collections, swimwear to ready-to-wear, accessories, jewelry collection and her collaborations with other brands. It’s apparel meant to be worn by outraged expressionists and artists.

Experience face to face her magical powers throughout her different fierce lines.
David Dalrymple: Metallic suits and leggings.
Keith Haring by Patricia Field: African-inspired, black and white print coloring accessories, leather, jeans and T’s.
Field salutes Sprouse: Oversized solid color prints with Field’s name written all over it. Have a taste of her swagger in different colors and items: hot pink, blue, red and gray.
Barbie by Field: Bags and golden jewelry with a retro 50’s Barbie communicating her message: I’m a doll.

Patricia Field has reached her elixir.

What:: House of Field
WWW:: Patricia Field
Where:: 302 Bowery, Manhattan NY 10012
Call:: 212 9666 4066
Why:: Hail to Patricia Field’s immortality

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Hottie

Gotta sweet tooth for color? Hottie is that type of candy store.
Don’t worry about saccharine. You are not going to be eating. Hottie offers candy for your gluttonous craves for bling-bling plastic accessories.

You only have ten fingers, too bad. Me too, but I wish I had more. Three rings a finger? That seems a little intense.

Your decision skills rot after you are eaten by Hottie’s entrance glass doors. Who are you going to please? Your hair, your head, your ears, your neck, your waist, your wrist, your fingers, your legs or your feet? Go on. The unthinkable hangs from the saturated accessory store’s red walls: headbands with ears, Edie Sedgwick’s entire collection-like earrings, two-finger rings, colored metal hip chains, ties, bow ties, bows in your head. Feeling lucky–charms, charmed chains, heart charms…the list continues. It’s a never-ending list of accessories. It will raise the sugar level in your blood.

What:: Fashion Accessories
Where:: 5 St.Marks Place, Manhattan NY 10003
Call:: 212 228 4989
Why:: Hottie is too hardcore for Charlie and the chocolate factory.

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Gothic Renaissance

Dungeons are not a fantasy in New York. Cross the gate of Gothic Renaissance and that dungeon will be your lair, your home.

Are you thirsty for blood? Is your skin whiter than porcelain? Do you like to lace up your torso in leather? Is fashion your fetish whore?

If you are nodding, you’ve found your nest. It is not by the result of black magic. It is cruel reality that created Gothic Renaissance for your indulgence.

This fashion boutique celebrates the Victorian era. It was written in their holy book. Their 16000 square foot store is a gothic kingdom holding different styled villages; Punk, Cyber Punk, Gothic Lolita, Renaissance and Occult & Fetish. Which one do you belong to?

Their fashion, footwear and accessories arrive from all over the world. They hold the forbidden dress, the killer shoe, the masochist’s dream boned corset and the latex bodysuit. Cheap low-quality items are banned from their vocabulary. If that’s what you are looking for save yourself the journey.

Gothic Renaissance is a lusty feast for your daredevil fashion heart.

What:: Fetish and Gothic Fashion
WWW:: Gothic Renaissance
Where:: 108 4th Ave, Manhattan NY 10003 (East Side)
Call:: 212 780 9558
When:: Monday- Saturday 11am- 8pm. Sunday 12pm to 7pm.
Why:: Fashion is your fetish whore

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-Pronounce New York with an L before the K (City Accent)

-Calves and thighs look like rocks. (The Newyorkee exercise  their legs by going up and down the stairs to the subway.)

-Underground; ears grow cable roots that connect each individual to a MP3 or smart phone.

-Rat is a word that will pop up in your vocabulary more often.

-Above ground and after the subway, there is a need to wash your hands regularly, or to carry a key chain hand sanitizer.

-Lost in the city you ask for directions and you get indications by the application of an iPhone of the person you asked (I thought they lived here).

-If it pours, you don’t run to the car, you open an umbrella.

-If tired you can hang out in Central Park. (Watch it, Danny De Vito might sit next to you. He did!)

-Human bodies look like islands on a sunny day lying down across  a green field.

-Men with no shirts that appear to be taking a nap might snap awake and do impulsively ten pushups and then go back to rest. (What is it, intermission? Or the new silent pick-up line?)

-Most common pick-up line: God bless you

-To refresh your thirst, have an iced coffee.

-Food trucks that do not come to you, you come to them.

-If hungry and in a branded cafeteria you might select your meal accompanied by how many calories it has. (Yes, a guilty sentiment arises when you notice your favorite fruit smoothie contains the most calories)

-In Brooklyn, everyone is photo worthy and surprisingly couples match their outfits.

-Williamsburg (Neighborhood) for the young artist, designer, bohemian, hippy, gypsy, flea and …intensely VEGAN. Billy, I want chicken!

-In Williamsburg,  thearchitecture of studio lofts can easily open as an attraction park.

-Flyers are paper copies, yeap! There are still some punks hanging around.

-Ramblers pay their trip by performing in the street.

-Airport (LGA) has traffic lights at every pedestrian crosswalk, so make sure you arrive with 20 minutes in your pocket to spend at every red light while your cab reaches your airline transportation.

….I wonder New York, what would you think of me.

See related articles::
Williamsburg
http://wasabifashionkult.com/2010/06/new-york-from-a-wasabi-perspective-williamsburg/

East Side
http://wasabifashionkult.com/2010/06/new-york-from-a-wasabi-perspective-east-side/

Central Park
http://wasabifashionkult.com/2010/06/new-york-from-a-wasabi-perspective-strawberry-field/

Coney Island
http://wasabifashionkult.com/2010/06/new-york-from-a-miami-perspective/

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