The Brooklyn Tower Style Guide

This widely-adored Boerum Hill shop is a peaceful respite off the buzzing Atlantic Avenue. A great spot for gifts, the thoughtful edit of home goods strives to elevate the everyday moments in life.

The Brooklyn Circus is somewhere between a shop and a living cultural archive. The menswear brand driven by creative director Ouigi Theodore has lived in this same Boerum Hill corner since its founding in 2006. Constantly inspired by the past, Ouigi and his close company of BKc creatives and shopkeepers push style forward in the form of apparel and accessories with their signature flair of scholastic nostalgia, and through their newly launched editorial platform dedicated to telling the wider BKc community and their stories.

This gem nested in the heart of DUMBO feels like walking into a cabinet of curiosities for vintage Americana fashion and home goods. The Japanese-owned shop sprung from the owner’s obsession with flea market finds after the owner, Hideya Sagawa, moved to the States in 1990. He subtly mixes Japanese aesthetic and approach into the teleportive, tradepost-feeling shop to present a massive collection of restored vintage, designer vintage, and their own brand of wares. Things here feel both precious and un-precious at the same time.

A well-appointed and light-flooded ceramics studio to get a little messy and very creative. BKLYN Clay offers 24/7 membership, private lessons and events, and a comprehensive suite of classes spanning all skill levels, including a single-evening class (offering beer and wine for sale onsite) for the novice but curious.

A cozy shop whose vibrant and exotic petals beckon you in from the streets. The owners, husband-and-wife duo Delgis Canahuate and Rado Bomba, are responsible for many brightened days since their opening of the quaint space in 2009.

As a bonus floral idea, check our local artist Fernando Kabating especially for subscription deliveries of his sculpturally minded bouquets.

Fort Greene resident Jill Lindsey sees her eponymous shop as community space, not just a shop. Throughout the store, including the cafe counter and the backyard, you may find neighbors mingling with new customers, a public-invited wellness event, tarot card reading session, and, of course, an eclectic selection of apparel, jewelry, self-care products, and home goods whose selection reflects Jill’s values of supporting individual makers and small businesses.

Designer Michele Varian sets her Boerum Hill shop as stage to her own lighting, pillows, wallpaper, and furniture (the lighting and pillows are made just downstairs) in the good company of hundreds of inspiring forms, colors, and textures from artisans locally and abroad. Of particular note is the collection of more than 70 locally-based jewelery designers’ pieces, plus the many one-of-a-kind and some-of-a-kind ceramics. 

You will find quaint but modern things for the home at this cafe-shop hybrid, with an emphasis on aesthetically considered utilitarian goods. The shop is run by Sandeep Salter, who, in partnership with Sarah McNally of McNally Jackson, is also behind Goods for the Study and the appointment-only art shop Picture Room, located just next door.