(Courtesy of The Baroness)
Fifty Shades of Grey is out in theaters today, amidst a flurry of criticism that its portrayal of BDSM closer resembles domestic violence than a consensual erotic relationship. In search of an authority on the matter, we ventured over to East 13th Street to spend an afternoon with The Baroness, a dominatrix and latex clothing designer who, rumor has it, once spit-roasted a man for three and a half hours.
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Pink Olive (Photo: Paula Ho)
Lingerie aside, there’s nothing quite as sexy as penning deep, mad feels onto paper. Whether you’re professing romantic love, friend love, or even self love, we’ve hunted down the best stationery stores for the most poignant, passionate, and tastefully blunt Valentine’s Day cards. So, make like an E L James and put your brain (and metaphors) to good use.
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Cilice, with a cilice. (Photo: Lindsey Smith)
The inspiration for the fragrance that Euphorium Brooklyn is debuting this month isn’t exactly typical: Cilice is supposed to invoke “the sensuality of the environment and the intensity of emotion when a young nun is encountered in her cloistered cell,” according to their website. “An intimate and ecstatic moment is observed as she becomes transcendent.”
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La Nonna isn’t the only Williamsburger that’s closing its original location. Jane is closing the North 6th Street location it opened as a pop-up in 2010 and moving over to its two-year-old store on Grand Street.
Manager Katie Brainer pointed to a shift in demographic similar to the one the owner of Lavai Maria observed when that store moved to Greenpoint in November. “With all the bigger retailers moving in – J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, American Apparel — a lot of the smaller stores that were here when we first opened up, stores that we grew with, have closed,” said Brainer. “Which is kind of sad.” (Let’s not forget Madewell, which opened down the block in October.)
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Jars of angora, cotton and flax at the BF + DA’s “petting zoo” of materials. (Photo: Heidi Harrington-Johnson)
Gone are the mom-and-pop sewing shops that once lined the area between Fifth and Ninth Avenues, from 34th to 42nd Streets in Manhattan. Fashion mongers no longer haul their wares on racks down the street. In fact, there are very few signs that the Garment District — once responsible for producing 95 percent of all the clothing sold in the United States — still exists here at all.
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(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
Williamsburg’s new J.Crew store has taken gruff from everyone from TV on the Radio to Reggie Watts, but that isn’t stopping it from selling these new totes. Now you can carry a constant reminder of J.Crew’s presence in the hood, as if all the times it comes up in shellshocked conversation weren’t enough.
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Forma de Ser.
Been too busy drinking to get any holiday shopping done? You know you can combine those two things, right? And maybe you better, because you’re about a week away from making your loved ones feel very unloved. Here are the latest one-stop shopping experiences we’ve caught wind of.
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(Courtesy Rudy’s)
After expanding along the West Coast, Rudy’s debuted its first NYC location in the Ace in 2012. Calderwood picked out the Williamsburg location — inside of a 125-year-old bank at 33 Grand Street, adjacent the waterfront — about three years ago, before his unexpected death last year. A quote from him (“I’m just a barber and a tattoo pimp”) now hangs from the tall ceilings of the new spot along with banners quoting Oscar Wilde and Charles Bukowski.
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Soap Cherié, the artisanal soapmaker we gave you the heads-up about last week is now open in the former Verb Cafe space on Bedford Avenue. This outpost sells the same cupcake- and milkshake-shaped soaps, made in Bushwick, that are sold at the original Williamsburg shop over on Grand Street.
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