Coming Soon (53 Canal Street), founded by Fabiana Faria and Helena Barquet, used to be just half a block from its new larger outpost. Though silly-ware and specialty mirrors (Gaetano Pesce, $500) may feel a little overdone (“I do feel like I’m on Instagram,” a shopper noted inside the store), the sheer joy of immediate attraction to an object is readily available and extremely fun in person. If hand-making curvy candles in your sink didn’t go as well as it looked on TikTok, there are plenty to pick up here, along with wiggle-handled glass carafes, a chunky pineapple stool and hand-tufted novelty rugs by Cold Picnic.
The best part about Coming Soon, however, is how everything in the store makes for great gifts. Grab some playing cards for your beach day or hand towels as a hostess gift for friends. Remember friends?
Back in Brooklyn, the Somerset House (76 North Sixth Street), founded by Alan Eckstein, has all the refined vintage investment pieces you realized you couldn’t live without but were too nervous to buy over social media. To be fair, “I bought my Eero Saarinen on Instagram” doesn’t sound as sparkling as you’d like it to now that you can finally entertain guests. Two floors await, filled with shearling side chairs, oblong wooden stools, Italian glass, Danish leather and ideas for those who hope they can get lucky someday at an estate sale. K.B.
Curators of the New Old
There’s a new old on the market: The early aughts are now vintage. John Koenig, creator of the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, invented the term “anemoia” to describe the feeling of nostalgia for a time you’ve never known, and Gen Z has embraced its collective anemoia for the early aughts. Those seemingly recent trends and silhouettes are rushing back, aided by three aughty-anemoia specialty shops in Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn.
If you are too tired to scour thrift stores, check out Tired Thrift (10 Bedford Avenue), which has a goofy assemblage of selects inspired by the Greatest Hits of Hilary Duff’s 2003 red carpet looks. Low-rise Express jeans, platform wedge sandals with rhinestone straps, Mudd camo-print side-tie capris manufactured at the dawn of the Iraq War ($45), a Hawaiian print tankini ($35) and a New York & Company mini-vest priced for more than it was new ($40) are among the gems here.