Brokelyn

Richard Hayne, the man who dresses thousands of college students.

Corporations are in the business of making money, which means their styles may not be as authentically hip as they would have you believe, yadda yadda yadda, you know this drill. Hipster Walmart Urban Outfitters has been particularly stonewashed with controversy all year: accusations of stealing Etsy artisans’ work, getting busted jacking up prices for simple art, perpetuating the idea that a $70 T shirt is acceptable, among others. Now the company’s co-founder and chairman Richard Hayne is taking heat from Jezebel for giving donations to everyone’s favorite Google bomb, Rick Santorum, causing Miley Cyrus to tweet: ”every time you give them money you help finance a campaign against gay equality.” We don’t get political here at Brokelyn, but we just think you should know where your money is going. It’s not to keep these shirts on the shelves, fyi.

$24 posters at Urban Outfitters, six times the price as a Slope store. Photos by Sarah Bibi.

The buzz about whether Urban Outfitters allegedly makes a habit of stealing artisans’ work has been roaring recently. I recently unearthed one more reason to look elsewhere for my eclectic goods: Cheap wall coverings available for $4 at local paper stores, which cost six times as much at Urban Outfitters!

A year ago, I discovered the huge money saver of buying vintage imagery gift wrap to use as wall art. Last May, I blogged about some of sheets I bought Scaredy Kat, a local Park Slope store, and at the chain Kate’s Paperie, mostly from a line called Cavallini. I found beautiful textbook and vintage anatomy prints for about $4 each. Add a $5 Ikea frame and you have a lovely piece of ready-to-hang art for less than $10. Read the rest of this entry »

10 Brooklyn DIY Classes for the Coming Apocalypse [L Magazine]
Results of WNYC poll on pot laws speak highly of New Yorkers [WNYC]
Free self-defense workshop in DP this weekend [Ditmas Park Blog]
Lethem: BK is “repulsive with novelists, it’s cancerous with novelists” [LAT]
Urban Outfitters’ parent company launches affordable (?) bridal line [Hairpin]
How to make a simple two-string guitar [Boing Boing]
The Barney’s Warehouse Sale Survival Guide [Racked]

Suppose you read on a blog somewhere that Urban Outfitters is now selling these highly customizable single-speed rides, made by Republic, for $399 (roughly the cost of an entry-level hybrid or cruiser). Suppose you found yourself experiencing deep longing for the machine, which lets you choose the color of the frame, seat, handle grips, chain and wheel rims, and even reverse the back wheel so you can actually coast, which you can’t do on a proper fixed-gear bike. (Granny moment: WTF not?) Suppose you also noticed purists dumping all over the bike and wondered, is it wrong to like it? Read the rest of this entry »