Whether gifting an out-of-towner with a bit of local flair, or you just want to show off your neighborhood pride, repping Greenpoint is sure to get you major street cred. See below for our favorite picks from around the ‘hood.
CAFÉ GRUMPY TOTE – $14
Café Grumpy – 193 Meserole Ave
Already loved by GP locals, Café Grumpy is almost famous for it’s reoccurring role on ‘Girls’ as the place of work for Hannah and [real life Greenpoint fixture] Ray. This tote is sure to impress by displaying a dual appreciation for artisanal coffee and local pop culture.
GREENPOINT TERMINAL WAREHOUSE TEE – $38
Alter – 140 Franklin St
A major neighborhood fixture, the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse is a place of mystery and history. Originally established as the largest rope factory in the country, this structure has seen some of the best and worst of our neighborhood’s past, from a women-fueled 1910 riot to a 2003 Santacon after party (dubbed the Sick Santa Explorathon). Get in a nostalgic spirit by rocking one of these – just be sure to know something about the establishment first.
BROOKLYNSKI NECKLACE – $55
In God We Trust – 70 Greenpoint Ave
Add some love to your layers with this brass-etched Greenpoint signage necklace made by local jewelry designer ‘Brooklynski’. Available in both black and white on 16″ chains. Bonus: Half of all proceeds go to funding arts programs at Brooklyn public schools.
GREENPOINT TEE – $14.95
Cato’s Army & Navy – 654 Manhattan Ave
Maybe the best gift on the list, this comfy tee comes in 4 colors and ranges in sizes from Small to 2XL. It is sure to suit anyone from your Great Aunt Margo to your obese cousin Timmy.
GREENPOINT PHOTO BOOK – $25
Kill Devil Hill, 170 Franklin St
Compiled by Greenpointers’ owner, Jen G., this photographic journal of our beloved ‘hood makes a perfect coffee table book – slash – conversation starter. Mosey on over to Kill Devil Hill to show GP some love while dually helping to support our beloved boss.
WORD TOTE AND TEES – $8 & $20
Word, 126 Franklin Street
Show off your nerdy know-how by supporting our amazing local bookshop with the purchase and sporting of either of these versatile products. Think a T-shirt isn’t versatile? Think again. Try wearing it under a blazer paired with skinny jeans and pumps (OK – go ahead and add the horn-rimmed glasses) and voilà, geek chic.
We found this T-Shirt designed by Greenpoint artist Chris Smith AKA Subtexture at the recent Greenpoint Gallery Night. The copy on the website reads: “Celebrate gentrification and the taste of fresh chicken with this shirt!” When asked why it doesn’t read “Live Poultry Laughter” as the actual sign on Greenpoint Ave reads since vandals erased the S, Chris said – “because that isn’t funny!”
Get awesome clothes for virtually no money: who could argue with that?
Are you broke, but yearning to spruce up your summer wardrobe? Lady, it’s your lucky day. Dusty Rose Vintage is Greenpoint’s largest vintage clothing warehouse, and will host their first annual “This For That” clothing swap on Thursday May 30th.
Here’s how it works:
…just rock up with a bag of spring/summer garments and accessories you’re done wearing but want to find another loving home.
$3 gets you in the door, then swap to your heart’s content. With a packed crowd of other Greenpoint fashion addicts, you’re bound to make awesome trades.
Plus it’s a perfect opportunity to spring-clean your closet, and go shopping without a shred of guilt. Can’t put a bag together? Just pay a little more: $5 at the door.
Dusty Rose will lay out free punch for to quench your thrifty thirst, and if you can’t make the swap but still want to donate, you’re welcome to drop clothes off at the warehouse in the week before the event.
If you’re a true vintage fan, this is a great chance to get a sneak-peak at Dusty Rose Vintage BEFORE they officially throw their doors open to the public in June. Trust us: this place is going to be a goldmine of affordable vintage, unlike anything in New York City. It has to be seen to be believed.
What: THIS FOR THAT Spring Clothing Swap
When: Thursday, May 30th, 7 – 10 ((we won’t kick you out if you want to hang later))
Where: Dusty Rose Vintage Wholesale Warehouse, 233 Norman Avenue, Greenpoint
We are pretty pumped about the Brooklyn Vintage Crawl happening this Saturday, April 27th, 2013 from noon-8pm! Not only is shopping vintage cooler and more uniquely stylish than buying cheaply mass produced fashion that will have you looking like everyone else; buying recycled fashion is greener and supports local businesses in your own neighborhood!
We chatted with Kathy Irby and Emily Lichtenberg, the organizers of this weekend’s Vintage Crawl who are passionate about shopping vintage, having a great time, and supporting small businesses.
GP: Why is the Brooklyn Vintage Crawl bigger and better than last year?
Emily: This year we have teamed up with our friends at Neon Gold Records to present a post-crawl after party at Brooklyn Bowl– and what’s even better is that if you buy a ticket to the show and bring it with you on the crawl (either printed or on your phone) you get even more discounts at all of our stores and bars.
GP: How did it get started organizing the crawl? Emily: I had actually been organizing vintage crawls on a MUCH smaller scale for me and my friends since I moved to the neighborhood in the Spring of 2010 … I’m just VERY passionate about drinking and shopping!
GP: What is Brooklyn Vintage Crawl’s mission? Bigger picture? Emily: We’ve always aimed to help promote shopping small businesses and have fun doing it… With nearly three Vintage Crawls under our belts, we’re ready to take our concept on the road and are already in the process of brainstorming.
GP: Do ethical fashion choices related to sustainability and concerns of the environment make vintage a better alternative to mass produced fashion? Kathy: All those things are great side effects of vintaging but really we just value having a good time with our friends and supporting small business. Especially since there really is a true community of re-sellers throughout our neighborhoods and shoppers who actually “get it.” We all just need to do our part in shopping our smaller boutiques in order to KEEP them in our neighborhood!”
GP: How do you two know each other and come to work on the crawl together? Kathy: We met as two perfect strangers, naturally in a vintage store, Antoinette, in Williamsburg. Emily casually mentioned how she takes her girlfriends on “vintage crawls” through the neighborhood and it just HIT me that we could make this idea BIG! Continue reading →
If you’re in the South Side tonight (4/12) and want to check out a cool party, stop by Swords-Smith (98C S. 4th St) for the Degen Pop-Up Shop from 5-9pm. There will be drinks, giveaways, an installation by the designer and discounts.
Yes – that’s a knit pizza blouse on the left!
Stay tuned for a write-up on Sword-Smith and all the talented independent designers this new Williamsburg shop supports.
Spring is in the air! Birds are chirping, coats are coming off, and we’re all dreading the necessary (yet evil!) spring cleaning. Instead of going full-throttle into organization mode, how about buying something to give your apartment that much-needed facelift? Our local shops have plenty of home decor options at a variety of price points that are sure to help your abode get out of it’s winter rut. And now that it’s warm enough to paint outside, try investing in a fixer upper/game changer that just needs a little TLC. (Try not to use aerosol paint.)
A few weeks ago the L Magazine ran a featureof the top five places to get your nails done in Brooklyn. Sadly, it overlooked FreckleSalon’s very own Claire Beaudreault, one of Greenpoint’s most exciting emerging nail artists since Ria Lopez of Nail Art by Ria. Claire is the cool girl on the block who will make you tea, paint something amazing like tiny cats on your nails (or in my latest experience, pink ombre) and leave you feeling like you can point at world with very beautiful fingers and know exactly what you want from it. She fits right in at Freckle, which from Greenpointer’s prior coverage you’ll recall is the salon you’d hoped one day would open in our neighborhood. Continue reading →
Boutique’s along Franklin St are packed with great buys that will get you through the worst of winter and well into spring. Check out some of our favorite merch, all currently available in stores (and some online). Happy shopping!
This weekend is your last chance to the make the most of a sad departure.
As reported earlier, Julia James boutique announced their closing and this Sunday, Feb 24th will be your last day to help them move their inventory. Stop by for the last weekend of the Goodbye Sale, 80% off plus take an additional 25% off everything.
There are few better signs that you picked the right thing to wear to an event than walking in and finding that the designer of your clothes went with the same choice. While normally finding your twin out in public is an annoyance, at Williamsburg Fashion Weekend it’s a sign of maturity: styles incubated in their most intense forms on the stage here bleed onto the bodies in the crowd and out the doors towards the street.
In the most recent occurrence of the biannual show this past Friday and Saturday, the scene opened with terse, politically pointed words from charismatic frontman Arthur Arbit: it’s simply not possible to come home from H&M or Bloomingdale’s with a $29 blouse without slave-like labor being involved in some stage of that supply chain. He then quickly stepped aside to show us several dreams and a couple nightmares of the alternative. Selected photos are below, but you can find my full gallery from the first night here.
The first showing of the night was Uta Brauser (photos in gallery) with her Got Armor? collection. Meant to be a critique of modern gun violence, the stylish vests and shields of this collection are perhaps too plausible, and I loved the image of models pantomiming classic runway moves as they deflected the on-stage barrage of (soft foam) bullets. Continue reading →
Freeman and Manhattan feels like the boondocks, especially for me who happens to live in the “other” Greenpoint. However, the trek was worth it.
Tucked in a nondescript building on Freeman St, lies Artifact. : Cozy from the outside, cozier on the inside. Exposed brick walls, reclaimed shelves and hand-made copper pipe racks are reminiscent of the lost art of workmanship of years past.
The ever-so-mysterious logo of an hourglass encircled by an Ouroboros, fully encapsulates the goodies that Artifact. has: timeless vintage. The store houses works of local artists and designers, novelty items and found objects, as well as hard-to-find zines and books. The owner Josephine Trzaska and her partner Timothy Aaron Huston, both designers in their respective fields, have been roomies and friends for years.
Artifact. is the product of their meticulous eye for design and fused aesthetics. It was such a pleasure to sit down with them and pick their brains over beers in their wonderful store.
GP: What was the history behind artifact? What was the concept behind it?
TAH: The history is that Jodie and I both had cool collections of weird interesting objects, books, housewares, etc. and when I moved in with her a couple years ago, we always had fun showing stuff to each other, then we started talking about creating a brand of found objects turned into furniture and functional art called Hüska (Huston+Trzaska), which is still a future idea … but then we also talked about how cool it would be to actually be able to sell vintage/new stuff that we like, sort of turning our hoarding tendencies into something productive! Fast forward a year or so, she found this space and then we sort of melded the ideas, and 155 Freeman is just Phase One of our Big Plan.
GP: I know you guys have been open for a while, but when is the official opening?
A: We are having the Grand Opening on Feb 28th. RSVP! Special thanks to Dandelion Wines for sponsoring the refreshments!
GP: What sets Artifact. apart from the other vintage stores in Greenpoint/ Williamsburg area? What’s the main focus/ outstanding feature of the store?
TAH: I think Artifact has a distinct personality and we are both VERY particular and idiosyncratic. Oh, and of course the other designers we’ve collected bring their own flavor into the mix as well. The media has picked up on the PBR lip balm as a focus, but that was actually an afterthought. Jodie had them, and I threw them in a little box and marked $5 each on it. I mean there’s not a real focus per se, it’s an amalgamation—we aren’t trying to be the “vintage” store or the “place where you get ………” Things may change with time, things come and go, but you should always get a certain feeling when you visit Artifact. We want to be a destination for the unexpected, and push the boundaries a bit. We aren’t here for “sellable” and “safe” — if we both like it, and it sends out the right vibes, we’ll jump on it. Jodie is psychic and I have a visceral reaction towards clothing & objects I like, so we have a sort of second sense that says “yes” or “no” — not sure if that answers the question. Continue reading →
CAFÉ GRUMPY TOTE – $14
GREENPOINT TERMINAL WAREHOUSE TEE – $38
BROOKLYNSKI NECKLACE – $55
GREENPOINT TEE – $14.95
GREENPOINT PHOTO BOOK – $25
WORD TOTE AND TEES – $8 & $20
LIVE POULTRY SLAUGHTER TEE – $20
