Brokelyn

We do! This ring from the Claypot made the cut.

When you’ve found the dame of your dreams, you want to give her the engagement ring of hers: one her friends will gush over, her family will discuss at the dinner table, and her cousin studying abroad will demand to see pics of on Facebook. While not everyone’s into mega-rocks (thankfully for you) even the most non-trad alterna girl wants a ring that she considers beautiful—whatever her taste may be. And you don’t have to eviscerate your savings accounts to find it. With a maximum budget of $1,000, we visited local jewelry stores in search of some baubles for every kind of Brooklyn bride. 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 storefronts don’t exactly scream “style destination,” but Blessed be Allah: there is some fine shopping along the stretch of Coney Island Avenue between Foster and Avenue H that we’ll affectionately call Little Pakistan. (By the way, is it kosher for infidels to mention Allah—in a nice way?) When Brokelyn style scout Eliza Gran went on a recent jaunt, phrases like “exactly like John Robshaw” (about block-print fabrics for $4 a yard) and “Omigod, just like Calypso!” (cotton sequinned pajamas, $30) were all over her lips and money was flying out of her wallet (in singles). Read the rest of this entry »