Fall wonders of NYC
The vintage find that blew my mind, botanical-dyed sweatshirts, yak-wool sweaters, trippy ceramics, art books, vintage bangers & more Big Apple intel
Welcome to Concorde, a bimonthly edition of the sletter where Erin takes the lead. You could call it a women’s vertical, but the insights, intel and “cute swag information” transcend gender. The full archive lives here.
The B.L.I.S.S. List — our comprehensive guide to Beautiful Life-Improving Spyplane Staples — is here.
The Global Intel Travel Chat Room is here, featuring earth-spanning GOAT-locale recommendations.
Peep our list of the world’s 35 slappiest shops, where Spyfriends have added a ton of gems in the comments.
— Erin & Jonah
Yooo, Erin here — we had a packed trip to NYC last week where, as Jonah already reported, we linked and built with an elite & lovely crew of SpyFriends.
Among them? Some of my favorite designers, like Lauren Manoogian — who let us break the news that she is opening her first store next year — and Rachel Comey, who invited us to her NoHo design studio. Rachel was wearing some excellent white “chic nurse” clogs with a rounded square toe and a thin wedge heel, which will come out in the next few months. (More on Rachel in a few weeks, when she’s due to open her first San Francisco store, on Fillmore St.)
I love being back in NYC for many reasons, and near the top of the list is that I can go C.I.R.L.O.C. mode and see clothes in person. I didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked — and sadly wasn’t able to set foot in Brooklyn to visit Nomia, Front Street General, Outline or Tangerine — but I did manage to cram in a bunch of store pop-ins so I could bestow “Certified IRL Slapper” status on some clothes and other gems I’ve been eyeing in pixel form. Today I’m sharing what I saw and took home — or wish I did — including:
VIBEY pillows from a product designer / kite maker; trippy French ceramics; and vintage mother-of-pearl scarf rings
A treasure trove of ill vintage Issey Miyake in an unlikely place
MAJOR fashion and art books you should have on your radar
Botanical-dyed sweatshirts, rare yak-wool sweaters, organic cotton underwear made in NYC, Japanese cotton separates and much more…
Let’s get to it!
Jonah mentioned the sweet lil private tour we got of Isamu Noguchi’s L.I.C. home studio last week…
Other intel from the ‘guchi visit: While I was there, I bumped into designer Mary Ping, of Slow and Steady Wins the Race fame (previously shouted out in Concorde here). And in one of the galleries they were playing video of Martha Graham’s extraordinary ballet Appalachian Spring because Noguchi designed the set (image 1 below).
Have you seen this sh*t?? It’s stunningly modern for 1944 and I highly recommend (re)watching it — there’s a 1958 TV performance you can view here. Seeing it in the museum, I was struck by the link between some of Graham’s choreography and later moves from the NYC queer ballroom scene. The energy took me back to Paris Is Burning, another phenomenal film I need to rewatch.
In the gift shop there were beautiful things besides Akari, like some charmingly wonky ceramic ghosts and bats by Seattle-based artist Aaron Murray. I copped the lumpy blue bat pictured below (2) and Aaron makes all sorts of clay animals — like the owl, also pictured (2). Aaron Murray’s Etsy shop is here, and he’s on IG here.
Speaking of ill ceramics, I did a quick once-over at John Derian, where there were tables stacked high with handmade marbled ceramics by Paris-based artist Sylvie Saint-Andre Perrin (3 above). I love this kind of trippy tableware ! Imagine getting hypnotized by a salad bowl. These wild pieces are the result of a laborious process that involves combining various oxide-colored clays into swirly patterns and then shaping them with plaster molds — no more than 16 pieces can be formed each day. They’re available here. Also at John Derian my friend Eryn picked up a vintage mother-of-pearl buckle that she ingeniously turned into a scarf slide (4 above) for a hand-knit mohair kerchief. Those aren’t online so you’ll need to call the store or hit them up IRL.
Also on the home-goods tip: