BOUTIQUE CRITIQUE :: A. Turen : Look 3

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

For Ashley Turen, owning a shop runs in her blood. She tells us, “My grandmother had an incredible store in Alabama. I fell in love with the art and creative freedom of having your own shop. I wanted to open a shop that represented my dream one stop shop.” She recently moved to this new space on Stanton Street from just a few blocks away on Ludlow to make room for shop in the one stop. “My old space was very small, and mainly housed my line, and some jewelry. This store has men’s, women’s, shoes, accessories, lifestyle products, all under one roof.”

Like what you see? Go to A. Turen, mention Fashion Indie and get 10% off!

BOUTIQUE CRITIQUE :: A. Turen : Look 1

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

Across from the comically delicious Meatball Shop on Stanton St. in New York sits a boutique that boasts some ballsy moves of its own. Alongside brands like Timo Weiland, Martin Margiela and other emerging talents, storeowner Ashley Turen carries her own collection of hand painted pieces. Here’s where balls of steel come in to play: she hand paints vintage Chanel bags and coveted concert tees (see them here this week). For the shopper that wants something rich with history and a fresh coat of paint, A. Turen is the destination.

Want the look? Shop A. Turen and get 10% off when you mention you FashionIndie!

Boutique Critique:: The Reformation NYC: Look 5

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

The Reformation, named for both Martin Luther’s Reformation to a simpler approach, and for the concept of reforming vintage clothes, is a favorite among reformed shoppers like Leighton Meester, Emma Roberts, and Shenae Grimes. Their reasons for shopping The Reformation on the regular could be its low environmental impact from only using vintage clothing and dead stock fabric, or the one-of-a-kind quality of it being made by hand in-house, or the sexy effects of lace, washed silk, breezy prints and zippers. All of those points and more have driven Fashion Indie to it, making this week’s Boutique Critique sustainably sexy.

Boutique Critique:: The Reformation NYC: Look 4

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

Yael Aflalo and her business partner Chi Bui have not only filled their stores with reworked vintage, but other stores as well. They sell their one of a kind pieces at Saks Fifth Avenue, Nieman Marcus, Intermix and Bluefly (among others) and have created lines for Urban Outfitters: Reformed and Nom de Plume YaYa. Now, enjoy another look straight from their Lower East Side location: The Reformation NYC.

Boutique Critique:: The Reformation NYC: Look 3

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

Yael Aflalo founded The Reformation with her business partner Chi Bui with the initiative of finding vintage pieces to rework into cohesive collections. They scour estate sales and the likes for garments that belong together and redesign them in house. The store is brimming with washed silks, and so is look 3.

Boutique Critique:: The Reformation NYC: Look 2

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

At 20 years of age, Yael Aflalo founded her fashion empire YaYa Aflalo out in LA in 1999. Ten years into that business, she switched gears to and began reworking vintage pieces into one-of-a-kind designs. She opened The Reformation LA in 2008 with that concept, and opened this Lower East Side location a few months later.

Check here for Look 1 and more about The Reformation NYC.

Boutique Critique:: The Reformation NYC: Look 1

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

Ring the doorbell to gain entrance to a trove of treated treasures. The Reformation is a store of lace, fringe, washed silk and ultra femininity. It also happens to be made entirely of reworked vintage clothing. Yael Aflalo is the designer behind the store and everything is made in house. Take a peek at what can be made from what’s been made before.

Boutique Critique:: Ava Maria: Look 4

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

Buckling under the weight of such beautiful objects, and body falling into a standing broken-down doll, this outfit may take you down the rabbit hole. This outfit is seeped in French history; several pieces have a long lineage in Paris. Sought out by store owner Katherine Virketiene, she’s brought into Ava Maria pour toi.

BOUTIQUE CRITIQUE Cozbi of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Edited by admin

Since I started this blog, I’ve been lucky enough to visit a lot of small boutiques, meet their owners and talk clothes and fashion. My recent trip to New York was no different. My goal was to find a really unique, small, and out of the way cool boutique and only spend money on clothing that I felt I couldn’t find anywhere except at this store and only in New York.

On my first day out, thanks to one of my oldest friends Michelle, I found the snowflake of boutiques in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn called Cozbi. As we walked in, we were greeted by the owner, Cozbi A. Cabrera.

Cabrera is a tall, statuesque, dark-skinned beauty. She was wearing one of her own creations, the “must have” dress for the summer season; made of white eyelet, under which she wore a soft cotton white slip. I was taken.

Her clothes are the ultimate in classical femininity. The designs are sexy because they are cut and tailored to fit a woman’s body perfectly. All handmade in Brooklyn. Most of her dresses are in either Jackie Onassis style or shift dresses in prints as bold as Pucci, but with a distinctly African twist.

I tried things on, and asked her to hold my favorites. I needed to think. We went back to Michelle’s apartment to check the Cozbi website. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design. She began her career making handmade collectible cloth dolls called Muñecas; dolls in Spanish. The dolls are collectors favorites and have been featured on Oprah. Her heritage is Honduran. She is the illustrator of the picture book Beauty, Her Basket which Publishers Weekly called “a quiet treasure” in a starred review.

After much debate, calls to my fashion guru Jamie, many hours of shopping/shmying around Brooklyn, the lower East side, NoLita and Soho, I ended up back where I started. I bought a dress at Cozbi. It fits like a glove. It’s one-of-a-kind. It makes me feel good to support women like Cozbi Cabrera. I wish I lived closer. My husband is probably glad that we don’t.

SOURCE: Cozbi Boutique