Brokelyn

Ms. Dahlia's pastries & cakes

It’s the original stomping ground of Jay-Z, Chris Rock, Lil’ Kim and that old ear-biter, Mike Tyson. It’s the showcase for epic wall art, gorgeous brownstones and some old-school, no-frills block parties. It’s Bed-Stuy. And in recent years, this chunk of Brooklyn has birthed a crop of seriously clutch (and cheap) spots to dine, drink and shop… on top of all the incredible, long-standing neighborhood staples. We know the secret’s been out for a while, but here are 10 deals we love in Bed-Stuy. Read the rest of this entry »

Time to part with those mini-Guccis and Gap onesies. Monk’s Trunk, a children’s resale shop opening this fall in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, wants to stock its shelves your kids’ old stuff—and they’re paying. If you’ve been saving everything of junior’s out of an over-developed sense of sentimentality, we understand… really, we do. But this is your big chance to get a little in return, because the next stop for this stuff might just be Goodwill. And Monk’s Trunk will even pick it all up. Read the rest of this entry »

Our standard clothing-swap photo, by Jenene Chesbrough. It has no connection to this event.

Kioka, organizer of the Brooklyn Clothing Exchange, writes in to tell us about a clothing swap in Bed-Stuy this weekend. The details:

Saturday March 13, noon – 4 p.m. at Brooklyn Public Library, Macon Branch
361 Lewis Ave. at Macon Street, Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn, 718-573-5606
A to Utica
B15 to Macon or B25, B26 to Lewis

Bring at least one bag of clean clothing. For other rules, see the Brooklyn Clothing Exchange’s MySpace page.

Last winter's sale. Photo by Katya Wachtel.

Warning: this post isn’t for everyone. But if you’re a designer-label obsessive and you still have disposable income (congrats!), get to bed early tonight. Tomorrow, starting at 8 a.m., is the first day of the biannual Barneys Warehouse Sale, which is the retail scrum of the year for bargain-loving fashionites, with clothing, shoes, accessories and housewares marked 50 to 75 percent off.

Bargains being a relative term, of course. Last year, on a magazine mission to find Christian Louboutins at the sale, I scouted a pair of red patent ankle-strap stilettos for $310 (originally $780), white patent wedges for $260 ($625), and camel slingbacks for $230 ($625). And so on. There were also loads of Miu Miu, Prada, Lanvin and YSL shoes, also for less than half the original prices. Read the rest of this entry »

Brooklyn's Tracie Howarth, an Etsy success story. Photo by Patrick Fagan.

Maybe you knit or throw pottery. Or make jewelry out of Phillips screw heads. Or crochet hamster huts (that makes three of you). Maybe all you ever wanted was to sell your handiwork and never work for anyone else, ever.

You may have heard that all you have to do is open your own shop on Etsy.com, the online marketplace that aims to provide artists with the technology they need to “make a living, making things.” You simply upload product shots, tack on prices, write cute captions, then wait for those millions of members to start placing orders.

It sounds perfect. And easy. But it’s not. Read the rest of this entry »

The Gap probably doesn’t need free advertising from tiny little us, but we thought you might want to know that they’re having a $19.99 deal on jeans until Thursday, in stores only. We called the three Brooklyn outposts to see what was on sale and each has a variety of styles at that price, which normally go for $49.50 to $69.50. Two questions: What’s wrong with a Gap in say, Atlantic Center Mall? And what happened to the one on Montague Street?

Marine Park/Mill Basin Gap, 5100 Kings Plaza, 718-253-1125; Bay Ridge Gap, 423 86th St., 718-833-6621; Bensonhurst Gap, 2101 86th St., 718-372-3170.