Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn - The Top Design Week Store Tour for Innovation

Atlantic Avenue is one of the most unique design and innovation hubs and a must see for Design Week and the NYCxDESIGN Festival.

“There’s a critical mass here. We’ve got enough good shops here to make a trip worthwhile. These are one-of-a-kind stores you don’t see coming and going. They’re highly curated by professionals, powerful women with 10, 20 years experience,” said Mary Jo Pile, owner of the 10-year-old Collier West, which operates three contiguous stores. There’s the main Collier West, at 377a Atlantic Avennue, selling vintage and antique furniture, original art, gifts, chandeliers, bath and body products, candles and jewelry; the Collier West Rugery at 377 Atlantic Avenue, and the Collier West Annex, 375 Atlantic Avenue, which is a rotating art gallery for paintings, prints, photography and etchings.

“There’s been a signicant migration from SoHo to Brooklyn. A lot of creative professionals now live in Brooklyn and that is really my customer base,” said Michele Varian of the shop at 400 Atlantic Avenue that bears her name. Her store sells pillows, lighting, baskets, wallpaper, furniture, tableware, jewelry, art, ceramics and gifts. “I design and manufacture a lot of the lighting, the pillows, wallpaper and some furniture.” Lighting is created downstairs in the shop, which employs a full-time fabricator for the lighting and a seamstress for the pillows.

“I really do believe successful retail is the kind of retail that’s integrated into people’s lifestyles,” Varian said. “We are part of the residential community which is totally how it used to be in SoHo. I live in SoHo. It’s become tourist-driven. We have been robbed of our streets during the day, but it’s a beautiful neighborhood when it’s not overrun with people.”

Varian moved her store from SoHo right before the pandemic, in January 2020. “I can not overstate how important that was. I had the shop in SoHo for 20 years. It was as though my landlord was my boss. I am paying 30 percent of what I was paying in SoHo. If I was still in SoHo I would be out of business.”

Asked what she thinks makes Atlantic Avenue distinctive, Varian said, “The historic storefronts are very striking but within those storefronts you’ve got the owners on site,” bringing their personal taste and preferences to the merchandising and decor.

Eva Dayton opened Consignment Brooklyn in 1999. She formerly was a visual coordinator at Giorgio Armani and Canali, and her store, which sells secondhand clothing from such brands as Celine, Prada, Levi’s and Isabel Marant, reects that. “Even though I’m selling secondhand clothing, I wanted my store to be clean and modern."

“It was all antique shops when I rst moved here,” said Marcia Patmos, a designer who owns M. Patmos at 380 Atlantic Avenue.

Those antique and dusty used furniture shops are mostly gone and have been replaced by contemporary fashion, home and interior design establishments, independently owned, such as the M. Patmos store. It sells a mix of contemporary, vintage and sustainable fashion, including cashmere cardigans, priced $425, and maxi dresses, priced $265, designed by Patmos. There’s also a range of products and prices from other brands that aren’t overly distributed, such as Coclico sandals and Nymane cotton dresses.

WWD: A Major Thoroughfare That Maintains Its Main Street Appeal – by David Moin To read the entire artice:https://wwd.com/business-news/retail/brooklyn-atlantic-avenue-1234891929/ 7/12

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