A Trip to the Brooklyn Flea

Fantastic window boxes on Lafayette Street.

TD and I went to Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon to visit a friend in Fort Greene, a neighborhood near Pratt Institute of Technology, the renowned school of art and design. We stopped first at the Brooklyn Flea. You may remember we went to the indoor Brooklyn Flea over the winter in the cold weather. The outdoor one is great too, located in the sports field of a Catholic high school on Lafayette Street.
Darlings, it was hot. I have lived in New York City a long time, and I don't remember it ever being this hot. On Saturday it was almost too hot to stop and take pictures, but I snapped out a few.
I loved this wooden rolling rack. I asked the vendor about it. She said, "Are you a shop owner?" Do I look like a shop owner? Perhaps. No, I said, just admiring. She said it was an antique rack from a shoe factory. I think it would be great piled high with books. You could roll it around the house with you. But I have no room. It had funny tilted wheels, can you see those? I hadn't seen those before, but she said they work perfectly fine.

Out on the sidewalk a guy was hand-cutting silhouette portraits out of black paper. He had a long line of customers.

Right out of Charles Dickens. So charming.

Back inside the market, I stopped at this vendor. I liked the old clocks and watches, and it was located under a shady tent. A pleasant place to escape.

Out in the sun I spotted another rolling cart

with similar tilted wheels. I wonder what those are called.

Then, these oversized industrial carts. But who would have room? I suppose if you lived in a big loft you could put your artist's supplies on them.

The Brooklyn Flea attracts the best-looking people in New York, boys and girls. It's really fun for people watching, with lots of style going on – the style is like a combination of New York City, Chilmark, Mass., and Pratt: very confident, natural, easy, American. One girl was wearing a cropped vintage cotton top, boy's pajama shorts and a straw hat with its wide brim tilted over one eye. Chic. You have to know what you're doing to pull off something like that.

A Trip to Chelsea Market

The new Anthropologie store, with Prince Lumber across 15th Street.

I recently had the chance to go through the great Chelsea Market which is located two blocks away from us, between Ninth Avenue and Tenth Avenue, and 15th Street and 16th Street. The building was originally constructed in the 1890s and was a factory which housed the ovens of the National Biscuit Company. In the 1990s it was bought and developed and redesigned into a food concourse filled with wonderful vendors selling fresh produce, meat, fish, wine, imported Italian goods, all kinds of good things. It's an entertaining destination. If you are visiting New York, don't miss the Chelsea Market.
The developer and designers have wisely and sensitively retained the industrial character of the building with exposed pipes and beams, and at the same time made it modern and comfortable. I love that style, which is called Industrial Chic or Rough Luxe, and mixes materials like wood, metal and brick.
The front door area of Chelsea Market on Ninth Avenue has recently been redesigned. I really like the oversized industrial metal light shades crowded together. Wood signage with metal plaques of companies in the building hangs on the weathered brick wall.

This Chelsea Market sign is crafted in metal and curves perfectly to fill the space.

The shiny metal elevator doors are etched with designs. The frame that holds the doors is a dull, sculpted metal. These metals contrast with the soft look of the worn brick.

Going up.

An Anthropologie store recently opened in the Chelsea Market in a big space which was a florist that we really liked. I'm a fan of Anthropologie too – they do some clever things. For example, in the new store this metal column has been camouflaged and collaged with scraps of newspaper, burlap and floral fabric.

Fabric was draped haphazardly over the back wall; I liked the white country table in the foreground.

Back out on the concourse, I admired the light fixtures. They look like Art Deco, from Paris.

A funny photography show was mounted on the walls. I believe facial hair was the theme.

I picked up some tilapia for dinner at the good fish market.

On the way out I stopped into Anthropologie again and saw a wonderful coffee table made out of an artist's paint-splotched surface mounted on rolling wheels. Behind it was a couch covered with flower-printed linen. I think that's a great way to live.

I think the whole Chelsea Market is a great way to live.