Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photos: Retailers
A Japanese clothing boutique that’s also a 2,000-book library, a furniture showroom that looks like a StreetEasy listing, and other standout shops of the season.
383 Broadway; shopquarters.com
Their Pick: In Common With Dune Table Lamp, $495.
From the street, Quarters looks like an unassuming walk-up apartment. Climb the stairs, though, and you’ll find an 8,000-square-foot mock home that’s entirely shoppable down to the $12 Solano-Arriola anchovies that will be served in the soon-to-open wine bar. Nick Ozemba and Felicia Hung of design studio In Common With have filled the rooms with a mix of their own lighting designs, including mushroomlike table lamps ($4,750) and bouquet-shaped chandeliers ($12,500), and décor made in collaboration with artisan friends such as glassmaker Sophie Lou Jacobsen. There are also dozens of antique tapestries and rare vintage pieces including a rust-colored velvet Mario Bellini sofa (price upon request), which won’t be there for long. Ozemba and Hung plan to redecorate three times a year.
76 Bowery; vowels.net; appointment only
Their Pick: The Black Chore Jacket, $725.
With Supreme just a few blocks away, it’s no surprise stores that have a similar streetwear aesthetic, including Fugazi and now Vowels, a new showroom for Yuki Yagi’s Japanese-made line, would begin to cluster around Chinatown. On the racks are his (very) upscale basics, including Japanese selvage denim ($390–$575), sweats made from heavy-gauge cotton ($245), and boxy blank tees ($195). He has also set up a reading room with forum-style seating and some 2,000 rare and vintage Japanese books (an exhibition catalogue from Bruno Taut’s 1984 retrospective at the National Museum of Art in Osaka, for example) and art magazines.
49 E. 10th St.; nickeykehoe.com
Their Pick: Boot Scraper, $48.
Sixteen years after opening their furniture shop and design studio in Los Angeles, Todd Nickey and Amy Kehoe decided to bring their new and antique housewares to a brownstone on a residential block in Noho. (As it happens, the shop is in Jackson Pollock’s former home.) Upon walking through the bright-red basement-level entryway, you’ll find a flea market’s worth of one-of-a-kind treasures sourced just for the store, plus a curated collection of new items, like Nickey Kehoe lanterns ($4,500) and bouclé wool dog beds by Henri Jute ($280).
118 Norman Ave., Greenpoint; stormbookstore.com
Their Pick: Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems From Gaza, by Mosab Abu Toha, $16.
Nour Sabbagh’s business is often mistaken for an ice-cream parlor. The Lebanese-born photographer set up shop in a former 1940s ice-cream-and-candy store and restored its stained-glass windows to showcase the original advertising. Inside, though, it’s a bookstore with a focus on authors from Southwest Asia and North Africa. Storm regularly hosts readings and is stocked with poetry, hard-to-find zines, art books like All Roads Lead to You, by Lebanese photographer Rhea Karam ($960), and children’s books by Palestinian writers and artists. Inspired by the store’s former life, Sabbagh plans to set up an ice-cream freezer in the corner of the shop this summer.
181 Franklin St., Greenpoint; bernardjames.com
Their Pick: 14K 2024 Mirror Pendant, from $750.
Late last year, jewelry designer Bernard James opened his new living-room-like Greenpoint showroom and studio. It’s decorated with valet trays and jewelry cases from James’s recent collaboration with USM Modular Furniture, all of which are for sale, but James’s unisex jewelry is the main draw. There are simple gold and silver pieces for everyday wear, diamond engagement rings, and less subtle offerings, like black-diamond-and-gold sunflower earrings ($345) and personalizable solid-gold friendship bracelets (starting at $990). This summer, James will open the shop’s backyard for events.
55 Washington St., Ste. 461, Dumbo; lensemble.us; appointment only
Their Pick: Celestine Lingerie Eleni Shorty Set, $252
Former La Garçonne buyer Dawn Nguyen has turned a sunny space on the fourth floor of a Dumbo office building (smack in the middle of the neighborhood’s–slash–the world’s most Instagrammed street) into an appointment-only clothing boutique. Visitors are greeted with Champagne and sparkling water, and Nguyen walks each one through her selection of casual suiting and dressy tank tops by Kallmeyer, summer dresses from Proenza Schouler, jeans by B Sides, and more New York–based labels. If you’re looking for something in particular — a cocktail dress for a wedding, a suit for an interview — tell Nguyen in advance, and she’ll have selections ready upon your arrival.
88 Franklin St.; Greenpoint; million-goods.com
Their Pick: Nicholas Dailey Corduroy Shirt, $495, and Matching Wide Short, $425.
At this 600-square-foot boutique, you could go on a date or buy an outfit for one: It’s part menswear shop, part bar, and part hi-fi listening lounge. DJs like Marco Weibel, a weekly resident at Lot Radio, play Fridays and Saturdays, and from behind a sprawling terrazzo countertop, a bartender serves up organic wine, She Wolf bread, and Partanna olives. The clothes are excellent, too: packed racks of high-fashion workwear by Lite Year and more androgynous pieces from Études Studio. The shoppy-shop element of the store includes candles by Fragile Glass and a range of records hand-picked by owner Drew Kaufmann, former assistant buyer at Brooklyn boutique Bird.