Pippin Vintage Jewelry and Pippin Home

Today, Shareen Mitchell is a bicoastal business owner, a sought-after entrepreneur with fourteen employees and a celebrity following. But no one would have guessed it eleven years ago, when Shareen was, in her own words, “broke, in debt, and selling at a flea market. ” That flea market booth soon grew into a 7, 000 square foot vintage warehouse in LA, and within a few years, Shareen had expanded to New York City. In spite of her success, Shareen’s location on West 17th Street is one of the best-kept secrets in Manhattan. Hidden away on the second floor of an old walk-up, the only sign of its existence is a red dress hanging from the fire escape, and sometimes—like the day I visited—not even that. Fortunately, a friendly employee from the salon next door pointed me in the right direction, but if I had not been in the know, I would have missed Shareen entirely. This secret location may seem like a bad business decision, but it is actually one of the keys to Shareen’s success. Her stores have always fostered a sense of exclusivity, and Shareen told me that her warehouse, especially in the early days, was not only the hottest vintage store in LA, but also a gathering place for a society of hip young women. “It was a crazy, fun secret, ” she told me. “No one knew where they were getting their vintage. ”Because there are no dressing rooms at Shareen—women change out in the open—both store locations have the same “no boys allowed” policy. But the resemblance between Shareen’s two stores ends there. While the LA warehouse is constantly buzzing with youthful energy, the New York location has a quiet, sophisticated feel that caters to a slightly older crowd. The reason for the difference, Shareen explained, is that by 2009, many of her original customers at the LA warehouse were now young professionals living in New York City. “They told me there was nothing like Shareen in the city, ” she said, “so I decided to test the waters. ” She opened a shop in a train station parking lot on Long Island, above an auto shop. “People like Ivanka Trump would get off the train, ” she told me, laughing, “and walk into this auto shop with their dogs and babies and everything. ” But after a while, the trip to Long Island became exhausting, and Shareen decided to open a location in the city. “It was kind of a secret, ” she said. “I had no money for a sign, so I put the red dress out on the fire escape. ”Though she did not put much effort into the store’s exterior, Shareen transformed the inside. The former apartment is now an elegant retail space, filled with ornate mirrors and old-fashioned couches, and yet it still manages to feel warm and welcoming. One large room is devoted entirely to wedding dresses, while another two rooms are filled with vintage clothing of all kinds, from evening gowns to 1950s prom dresses. When I asked Shareen about the bridal section, she told me that the store is in the process of transitioning. “A lot of my clients are starting to get married, ” she told me, “but they don’t want to look like traditional brides. ” These young women, many of whom get married in unorthodox venues—upstate farms, Brooklyn lofts, and Manhattan rooftops—are looking for unique dresses that will express their personalities. Over the past few years, the demand for these “indie wedding dresses” has grown so much that Shareen predicts that the store may soon be entirely bridal. “A year ago, we were half bridal and half vintage, and now it’s more like seventy-thirty, ” Shareen told me. “We’re double-booked on the weekends with brides. ”The New York location may be transitioning into bridal wear, but Shareen insisted that the store will not abandon its vintage roots. Along with her bridal collection, which is all under $2, 000, many of the wedding dresses for sale in the store are reworked vintage. Shareen added that her collection is designed to flatter all kinds of body types, to celebrate women rather than inhibit them. She always tells her brides, “I want to see you looking beautiful, not you in a beautiful dress. ”

Screaming Mimi’s is a time capsule and treasure chest rolled into one. When I walked into the store with Manhattan Sideways team member Julia, she immediately began to touch everything. Fur, chain mail, velvet, and numerous other textiles poured out from the racks to form corridors to walk down. Julia excitedly described the feeling as being in an interactive museum. As I observed her with a smile on my face, an alarmingly plush pair of leather underwear challenged her to reach out and confirm it was as heavy as it looked. She then delicately handled a cream-colored dress from the 1920’s - one of the store’s oldest items - which she found to be equally enticing. As she allowed the lace to slip through her fingers, she reflected on the many decades the dress had experienced. The store is a mecca for creativity, with clientele ranging from walk-ins to artists seeking inspiration. Some of these artists include television and stage costume designers, as well as fashion designers and editors. When we walked in, Laura Wills, the store’s charismatic owner, was casually chatting with someone whom we would later learn was Lynn Yaeger, a fashion editor for Vogue magazine and a personal friend of Laura's. Laura opened her first location on the Upper West Side in 1978, “before vintage was popular. ” She had just left a position tailored especially for her at department store Abraham & Straus to begin her own business, and now says, “I just wasn’t a corporate animal, so I thought maybe I can do this myself. ” A standout among typical vintage boutiques that sold “ye olde” clothing, Laura offered "Rockabilly" items and later moved to styles inspired by contemporary and designer fashion. Her discerning eye has helped keep her merchandise selling, as all the pieces must pass her careful inspection before going on the rack. “Just because it’s vintage doesn’t mean it’s good, ” she quipped. The store’s name is as loud as the clothes it holds, a far cry from usual vintage shop titles that tend to include adjectives about recycling and time. We learned that the name arose from Laura's days at A& S, when she and her best friend were working in the fashion department. Laughing, Laura recounted, “We were the two wild ones in the store. ” They could be heard loudly chatting while deciding which festivities to attend in the wild 1970s New York party scene. Her co-workers would say of the two, “Oh, goodness, there goes the Screaming Mimis down the hall. ” Laura maintains a sense of humor about the title, and admits that she would have given it a little more thought if she had known the store would survive so many decades. One of Laura's first salesgirls was none other than Cyndi Lauper, who worked at the store in the early 1980s. After Lauper became well known, Laura went on tour with her as one of her stylists. “She worked for me, then I worked for her for the next fifteen years. ” Much of Laura's early staff can be found dancing in Lauper’s music video, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun. ” The vintage shop’s items are arranged by decade, article type, and price. We even discovered an eighteenth century Frenchman’s coat with fur ruffling, saved from a costume warehouse. This coat hangs in the men’s section, which features a variety of shoes, including golden glitter heeled boots. Menswear has been a staple since the business’s original opening and, according to Laura, helps draw in a significant male clientele. Although Screaming Mimi’s sees regulars who stop in frequently to inspect the new arrivals, most customers come in to construct looks for events, including masquerade parties, jazz themed parties, and 20’s-style proms. Prices range from $8 accessories to $1, 500 designer clothing. Dani Cabot, a stylist at the store, said, “There’s something for everybody, any budget. ” Dani is one of the several stylists who helps customers construct looks, a service which is rare for thrift shops. This interaction is an integral element of Mimi’s. Laura mourns the diminishing connection between customers and employees in other retail businesses. "Here, we offer an experience. ” Unlike many fashion stores, Laura goes out searching for her inventory instead of ordering it online. “I’ve always like the hunt, ” she admitted, and told us that she would much prefer a quick trip to Brooklyn than an internet search. Her pieces come from flea markets and auctions across the country - there are even a few pieces from the Metropolitan Opera. This careful selection helps to ensure that her pieces are one-of-a-kind; every item has a story to tell, and Laura's heavy curating gives those stories a voice. “It’ll be forty years next year, but I’ve never gotten tired of it, ” Laura noted, and then Dani added, "The excitement is palpable, which is why I love working here. ” When Julia and I were getting ready to leave, we looked around at the numerous boxes surrounding the two women, and inquired as to what was happening next. Grinning, they told us that they were gearing up for a huge jazz-themed lawn party, which would bring in an influx of customers. Even after all this time, Laura ended, “I still feel equally passionate and excited about all of it. ”

Established in Brooklyn in 1997, this vintage store purchases and sells clothing and shoes. Drop by any day of the week during store hours and bring in unwanted clothing that is in good condition. The staff at Beacon is happy to assess your items and give you either 35% cash on the retail value that they decide on, or a 55% credit towards shopping in their store.

Today, Shareen Mitchell is a bicoastal business owner, a sought-after entrepreneur with fourteen employees and a celebrity following. But no one would have guessed it eleven years ago, when Shareen was, in her own words, “broke, in debt, and selling at a flea market. ” That flea market booth soon grew into a 7, 000 square foot vintage warehouse in LA, and within a few years, Shareen had expanded to New York City. In spite of her success, Shareen’s location on West 17th Street is one of the best-kept secrets in Manhattan. Hidden away on the second floor of an old walk-up, the only sign of its existence is a red dress hanging from the fire escape, and sometimes—like the day I visited—not even that. Fortunately, a friendly employee from the salon next door pointed me in the right direction, but if I had not been in the know, I would have missed Shareen entirely. This secret location may seem like a bad business decision, but it is actually one of the keys to Shareen’s success. Her stores have always fostered a sense of exclusivity, and Shareen told me that her warehouse, especially in the early days, was not only the hottest vintage store in LA, but also a gathering place for a society of hip young women. “It was a crazy, fun secret, ” she told me. “No one knew where they were getting their vintage. ”Because there are no dressing rooms at Shareen—women change out in the open—both store locations have the same “no boys allowed” policy. But the resemblance between Shareen’s two stores ends there. While the LA warehouse is constantly buzzing with youthful energy, the New York location has a quiet, sophisticated feel that caters to a slightly older crowd. The reason for the difference, Shareen explained, is that by 2009, many of her original customers at the LA warehouse were now young professionals living in New York City. “They told me there was nothing like Shareen in the city, ” she said, “so I decided to test the waters. ” She opened a shop in a train station parking lot on Long Island, above an auto shop. “People like Ivanka Trump would get off the train, ” she told me, laughing, “and walk into this auto shop with their dogs and babies and everything. ” But after a while, the trip to Long Island became exhausting, and Shareen decided to open a location in the city. “It was kind of a secret, ” she said. “I had no money for a sign, so I put the red dress out on the fire escape. ”Though she did not put much effort into the store’s exterior, Shareen transformed the inside. The former apartment is now an elegant retail space, filled with ornate mirrors and old-fashioned couches, and yet it still manages to feel warm and welcoming. One large room is devoted entirely to wedding dresses, while another two rooms are filled with vintage clothing of all kinds, from evening gowns to 1950s prom dresses. When I asked Shareen about the bridal section, she told me that the store is in the process of transitioning. “A lot of my clients are starting to get married, ” she told me, “but they don’t want to look like traditional brides. ” These young women, many of whom get married in unorthodox venues—upstate farms, Brooklyn lofts, and Manhattan rooftops—are looking for unique dresses that will express their personalities. Over the past few years, the demand for these “indie wedding dresses” has grown so much that Shareen predicts that the store may soon be entirely bridal. “A year ago, we were half bridal and half vintage, and now it’s more like seventy-thirty, ” Shareen told me. “We’re double-booked on the weekends with brides. ”The New York location may be transitioning into bridal wear, but Shareen insisted that the store will not abandon its vintage roots. Along with her bridal collection, which is all under $2, 000, many of the wedding dresses for sale in the store are reworked vintage. Shareen added that her collection is designed to flatter all kinds of body types, to celebrate women rather than inhibit them. She always tells her brides, “I want to see you looking beautiful, not you in a beautiful dress. ”

The third time was the charm for Mohamed Jamal, who cycled through several business ventures before settling on the perfect one. He first opened a candy store on 17th Street in 1989, which he then transformed into a juice bar, before finally arriving at the space’s current iteration: Rainbow Falafel. Mohamed used the recipes he learned at his grandmother’s knee during his childhood in Syria to create a healthy, Middle Eastern menu. “We stick to all of the old-fashioned, classic foods and never change them, ” Mohamed affirmed, adding that the freshness and preservative-free nature of everything he serves is key to his philosophy. Offerings include the eponymous falafels served in veggie-filled sandwiches and platters, as well as stuffed vine leaves, spanakopita, hummus and other spreads. Impressively, most of the spices and special ingredients are imported, such as tahini from Lebanon, olives from Greece and mango juice from Egypt. To Mohamed, who runs Rainbow Falafel alongside his wife and son, the restaurant’s prosperity is easy to explain — “We are always here and we are always happy. ”

This little urban oasis provides families and individuals acupuncture treatment for a wide range of ailments – infertility, stress, and muscular and skeletal pain. Husband and wife founding team Jill Blakeway and Noah Rubinstein have been a functional medical and media presence in the world of acupuncture for years, publishing a number of books, appearing on Bravo, CBS, The Today Show, and lecturing on the benefits of Chinese medicine.