STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

(Current events didn't seem the right place to post this, and it is about shopping, so...)

From WWD today. This is sort of interesting... I have gotten some cute things from vendors in SoHo. 

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Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Other Roadside Attractions
By Meenal Mistry
 
Bustling masses and a smoky, meaty smell wafting from the nearby pretzel and hot dog cart are the norm at Astou Mdaye's jewelry stand, set up just below the corner of Broadway and 14th Street. Though she shrugs when asked if she's heard of Prada or Lanvin, two of the labels that kick-started the current jumbo necklace craze, Mdaye is well aware of the trend.

"Right now, the necklace is very popular," says Mdaye, a Senegalese native who has been selling jewelry on the street for 13 years. "It's summer, you know? You just wear it with a T-shirt." In fact, Mdaye's double-strand, wooden-bead versions — which sell for $20 a pop — make a great complement to this season's colorful printed dresses and bohemian cotton tunics. "This is just something that you expect to be doing in New York," says a college student from Florida while browsing Mdaye's wares. "It's sort of part of the trip."

Shopping alfresco is a New York tradition that dates back to the 19th century, when pushcarts crowded the streets. Along with concerts in Central Park and suddenly easy Saturday night reservations at Nobu and Babbo, street shopping is one of the biggest perks of summer. Stroll around Manhattan on any given day and you will discover a vast variety of non-edible, run-of-the-mill merchandise: watches, sunglasses, sport socks, cell phone holders, incense, framed prints. However, the lack of four walls and a door doesn't always signal substandard goods. With a modicum of exploration, a street shopper can score some quality merch. And for fashion lovers in particular, whether quick-stepping New Yorkers or sauntering tourists, the city sidewalks offer many treasures, such as well-crafted original jewelry and inexpensive, summery cotton dresses, skirts and tunics.

As for price, there is both good and bad news. To start with the bad, bargaining is, in most cases, futile. "This isn't the Casbah," says Frank Bruno, a Vietnam veteran who sells beaded leather slippers for $25 in front of the new Whole Foods on 14th Street. "I don't bargain. Ever. It's a good price." Most vendors second Bruno's sentiment, though some admit to making deals for customers who buy multiple items. The good news is that most items are in fact a pretty good deal. The average price for beaded chandelier earrings in the city's Tibetan emporiums is $45, but on the street, a similar style starts at $10 and tops out around $40.

If a street-shopping Olympics were to be had, SoHo would most likely edge out other neighborhoods for its first-place goods. South of Houston Street, well-heeled, achingly hip Manhattanites mingle with well-heeled, achingly hip tourists, making the area a retailer's utopia — for both brick-and-mortar and street types. "SoHo is the best for making money," says one vendor, standing over his table of beaded chandelier earrings, long-strand necklaces and pearly-sheened shell earrings. On this specific day, the shell jewelry, which he says is the new hot item, is discounted from $15 to $10.

SoHo also gets points for creativity, as the merchandise transcends what is typically seen on fold-out tables in the rest of the city. Here, many vendors design and hawk their original wares. Dawn Ebony Martin sets up her racks of cotton dresses at the corner of Prince and Wooster, in front of the Camper store. For five years the native Trinidadian owned a store on Thompson Street, where she paid $3,000 a month for a 600-square-foot space that she closed after 9/11. "It's a different energy when you sell on the street," says Martin, who usually sells about eight or nine dresses a day. "On the street, you get masses of people, while in the store, it would just be one or two. And then you felt pressure to make a sale, because you have this huge overhead."

Martin's tidy setup — two umbrellas, a full-length mirror lashed to a pole and a credit card machine — is probably the most advanced in the area and attracts a clientele willing to pay up to $85 for one of her two styles of cotton dresses and skirts, which she makes in a rainbow of colors. She claims Sarah Jessica Parker, Angelina Jolie and Eva Amurri among her star-studded clientele. "There are probably others, but I don't know their names," she says.

A couple of blocks over is another Prince Street denizen, jewelry designer Kristen Howard, who has been peddling her wares for less than a year. Her speciality is encasing flower petals in resin to make distinctive earrings priced from $25 to $40. Many of Howard's neighbors also craft original pieces. Vernon, a man who does not give his last name, says he used to own a store in the East Village. He now sells original filigree creations for $15 and up. Another single-name type is Lupe, a Peruvian native who makes earrings crafted from dyed coconut shell inlaid with brass ($10 to $25), as well as printed cloth headbands ($10) and cotton skirts with crocheted waistbands ($35). Meanwhile, at the open-air market at the corner of Spring and Wooster, several stalls sell reworked vintage Ts, quirky printed cotton skirts and halter tops crafted by fledgling designers.

But there's more to street shopping than SoHo. A trip North to Union Square is well worth the two subway stops (or 15-minute walk), where visitors buying plants and veggies at the Greenmarket are already in the mood to spend their money in the open air. Though the jewelry tends to be more of the garden variety, Mdaye's wooden beaded necklaces prove that the hunt can result in a chic find. Over on Fifth Avenue, a moment of lingering at a table of bright sterling silver jewelry yields a $10 pair of tear-drop-shaped earrings. Another Fifth Avenue purchase includes a bright coarse-weave scarf for $7 that doesn't quite feel like pashmina as advertised, but nevertheless makes for a great lightweight summer scarf.

The Lower East Side has oodles of boutiques to explore, but the street-bound shopper can still score at the outdoor stalls along Orchard Street. Among the baseball caps and nylon army bombers, sequined cotton tunics and printed Indian skirts sell for $15 each. And while one finds little more than Kate Spade and Louis Vuitton knockoffs when sidewalk-shopping in Times Square, a detour off Broadway will present a couple of good buys. On 45th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, bohemian woven belts sell two-for-$10.

Summer in New York also means street fairs, which pop up on weekends as often as Murakami mushrooms. Again, the merchandise runs the gamut, from tube socks to antique jewelry. However, surprises do exist, such as last Sunday's craft fair along the Bleecker Street stretch near the Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren and Intermix boutiques. Holding out against the intermittent rain were vendors such as Ina Loyola, a textile designer who graduated from FIT. She offered chic handwoven handbags for $55 as well as hand-felted scarves from $50 to $90. Down the street from Loyola was Rezah Crook, an Israeli native whose beautiful woven string necklaces and bracelets, studded with rose quartz and lapis, were a great bargain at $35 to $60. "People are really appreciative in New York," says Crook. "They recognize quality, and they get really into it."