Penny Candy and Bandana Prints

Store 518

Store 518; 518 Court Street, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY; 646-256-5041 

Store 518 is located in Carroll Gardens. It’s owned by Nadia Tarr, a dancer-turned-designer, who is known for creating an "oragami" dress that can fold into 15 different shapes, becoming 15 other dresses. Designed to look like an old general store, it functions as a compilation of whatever Nadia is in the mood to sell: vintage dresses, clogs, unique jewelry, housewares, electrical equipment, cookie jars, dolls, games—a pretty random mix to say the least. I love these plastic fruit and shell necklaces I took a photo of too.

My favorite things sold at 518 is the selection of hard-to-find penny candies like Cherry Mash and Charleston Chews (I actually hate Charleston Chews, but I thought I’d put in here because my whole family is single handedly keeping the brand alive and stocked up on them when were at the store last).

Ruby Moriarty

A few doors down from Store 518 is Ruby Moriarty. I was immediately enticed by this store because of its haphazard design; the windows of the shop are filled with a clothes and a sea of books to match.  Once inside, my eyes went straight to left wall where the original Alice in Wonderland movie was being projected. In an interview I read here, owner, Jessica Dineen says,  “I always have an old movie playing on the projector. I like to play a lot of Westerns because they show a lot of sky. I like movies that blend with my color pallet, bright movies with good colors.” I think this is a very interesting idea, and one that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a store that sells all handmade clothing and Japanese accessories. Yup, Jessica and makes all the dresses, skirts, t-shirts, ties, and pajamas in the back of her store!

My lovely new bandana skirt

The back has couches where piles and piles of neatly folded clothing were strewn for sifting through, but you can also choose from an array of patterns for her to make you your own one-of-a-kind garment. Located directly below the projection of Alice in Wonderland, I found this red bandana print skirt (boots, hats, guitars, included in the print!!!) and knew it was fate.

Ruby Moriarty; 516 Court Street, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, New York; 347-275-0770

Dispersed throughout the store are also all of these Japanese tote bags and candies. Pockys just happen to be one of my favorite snacks so I asked Jessica the story behind them. She told me “they’re Japanese candy tote bags, made in Taiwan, using English words, so it’s funny seeing what gets lost in translation.” Jessica also made adorable pajamas with prints of Japanese cartoon characters but as of now she only makes them for kids.

I look in love with this ice cream cone... and maybe I am. SUMMER VIBIN', HOLLA!

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Frida Freak

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIDA!

A Frida Kahlo pin from The National Museum of Women and the Arts

Lately, I’ve been a Frida Freak (new band name, perhaps ?). I’ve been looking for Frida socks, rummaging through my mom’s stuff to find her Frida pin, and got this Frida Kahlo backpack from my best friend. There was an article in The New York Times recently published about The Guerrilla Girls, a group of women who seek to portray women more prominently in the arts. They asked pedestrians: “Can you name three female artists? The people asked that question outside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art can’t get much beyond Frida You-Know-Who-I-Mean. That’s old, sad news to Lynn Hershman Leeson, the director of ‘Women Art Revolution’ — ‘W.A.R.’ — a documentary history of the feminist art movement.” It's extremely sad that in 2011 there's still a complete inequality the art community, a community which is supposed to be based on the freedom of expression, and yet remains oppressive when it comes to gender and race (of course, it is also ironic that Guerrilla Girls asked people standing in front of the SFMoMA, who seemingly have an interest in the arts). But although Frida Kahlo maybe the most easily recognizable of female artists to even the most misogynistic of art consumers (indubitably because of her signature uni-brow and sometimes akin to wearing menswear), that doesn't in any way lessen her message that continues to stay relevant today.

My Frida Kahlo backpack from Things Built on Etsy

Frida Kahlo, though now one of the most well-known female artists,  had a hard time making her way to fame. Even though she suffered domestic abuse, polio, a horrible car accident, and a multitude of other problems throughout her life, Frida remained a strong-willed voice of politics and feminism through her art and has been a powerful role model for women for a long time.  Frida often curses in her writing, and clearly wasn't going to succumb to the role of domesticity that women of the 1940's/50's were conforming to. I love reading her quotes like this one, on why she painted so many self-portraits: "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." It's speaks so much to my inner teen angst and the quote is written in many of my journals as a reminder that individualists eventually persevere.

My best friend bought this backpack for me for my birthday off of Etsy and it brightens my day when I put it on. I’ve worn it to school every day since I got it and will wear it once school starts up again in September. It’s so colorful just like Frida’s paintings and epitomizes the spirit of Mexico. I just love Frida's use of Dia de Los Muertos skulls, velvet, monkeys, and bright colors throughout her work. Everything she touches brilliant colors tinged with melancholy. 

For my birthday I also got The Diary of Frida Kahlo, which is a book that shows an inside look at Frida’s diary and then page by page transcribes the symbolism behind her words and drawings. The following are some pages from the book:

Frida always dressed so beautifully, too. Not constrained to gender norms, she often times wore men’s clothes and cut her hair short. Frida definitely also started the velvet trend with her “Self-portrait in a Velvet Dress” painting. In our society, we are so narrow in our vision of beauty, we have it ingrained in our brains that for women, we have to be like hairless, naked mole rats to be beautiful. And yet, I find Frida Kahlo's unibrow to be beautiful in it of itself. One of the best Frida Kahlo quotes is when she said, "I used to think I was the strangest person in the world. But then I thought, there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like be who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true, I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you."

The New York Times article I was referring to before really struck me. I had heard of  The Guerrilla Girls' organization before, and really admire their mission. It's so true that if you walk into any  museum, many of the images of women portrayed is them naked, either in sculpture, canvas, or photographic form. But there are so many female artists I admire! To think that these artgoers outside of SFMoMA could only name one, and at that, not even know any of the nuances of Frida's work, is so sad but says so much about our culture. 


For those of you who can’t name three female artists, I suggest you start by checking out more of The Guerrilla Girls, Barbara Kruger, Georgia O’Keefe, Grace Miceli, Lauren DiCioccio, and Cindy Sherman  (not to say there aren't a bazillion other amazing women artists out there, and not all of these are even my favorites. They're just the very start of where to branch your girl power art knowledge)!

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