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Brooklyn Beautician Laura
Lee Williams is pleased as punch with her new
vintage chapeau from The Mystery
Spot, a snappy, floppy, tasseled Forties
suede hat called (we kid you not!)
The Humdinger ($45.) |
Our
good pal author Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics),
and daughter Anya stopped by The
Mystery Spot for a visit the other day, and
while they were here they picked up a few vintage additions
to Anya's wardrobe. Anya was thrilled to take home this
adorable 1950's baby blue girl's dress with
white eyelet trim ($30.) and extra-long
beaded necklace ($20.) as well as
a bunch of other goodies! |
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Our very good friend
Io Flower is five (where does the time go?)
and placed this pair of jaunty ceramic dog salt
and pepper shakers ($12.) at her feet
for her photo in this lovely Fifties vintage gray
and white pinstripe cotton frock ($30.). |
Every now and then the perfect
vintage Sixties worn-in leather jacket ($125.)
meets the perfect owner, a bell rings, and an angel
gets its wings.
Jacket, meet Melissa.
Melissa, meet Jacket.
Melissa is 23, lives
in Brooklyn, and is a certified mixologist. Jacket
is 37, has authentic Woodstock hippie provenance,
and is so happy to have found a home and be worn again.
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We've known journalist/author
Judith Matloff since we were twelve years
old. She's travelled the globe as a war correspondent,
but has never come across anything quite as scary as
Petey The Piranha. Husband (and fellow journalist)
John Von Schaick and son Anton
agree. |
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at The Mystery Spot we have a secret
shop within a shop: Homer's Books d'Arte,
tucked away in the back room, where you can find everything
from a Garry Winogrand first edition
to this Sixties paperback of Lolita
($6.). Io Flower, wearing
a 50's plaid and eyelet ruffle girl's dress
($24.), reminds us how important it
is to R-E-A-D.
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| Emily,
Tess and Samantha are spending
their seventeenth summer as counselors at the YMCA Frost
Valley Camp in the Catskills, and stopped by on their
day off to pick up some summery fashions. Emily
is wearing a vintage cotton print sundress
($28.) with a Fifties white straw basket
purse embellished with mesh butterflies ($48.).
Tess took home this utterly
mod Sixties green and white polka dot sleeveless tent
dress ($29.), and Samantha
couldn't live without this awesome Fifties Little
Red Riding Hood novelty print sundress ($28.)
which she accessorized with her own belt and a
Sixties wicker and leather box bag ($28.) Oh,
and they said to tell you that they're having a great
summer!
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Tony's
been a regular visitor to The Mystery Spot since
he was nine years old. He's now fourteen and has fantastic
taste in music. He saves up his chore money (mowing
lawns and what-have-you) to buy vintage vinyl. Here
he adds some mint copies of The Who's Tommy
(on our recommendation, since he liked Quadrophenia
so much!), The Doors and some
classic Led Zeppelin to his ever-expanding
and very impressive record collection. |
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Nick and Nicole
Miller are both New York schoolteachers and long-time
customers of The Mystery Spot. Nicole
manages a smile for the camera as she's secretly thinking,
"I'm going to throw him out if he keeps collecting
stuff!" But even she agrees it's impossible
to turn down such a cool and
colorful abstract chalkware mid-century Fifties
lamp for only $20.! Not to mention a
classic hand-screened Mystery Spot T-shirt ($10.).
What the heck, maybe she'll keep him too. |
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Io Flower
looks positively Jazz Age in this Twenties
cotton gauze child's day dress with colorful striped trim
($55.) and vintage green felt flapper
cloche ($22.). |
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Wilhemina model Jessica Chalkley is twenty-one
years old, hails from Virginia, likes to bake brownies,
and has a weakness for thrift store shopping. She took
this awesome deadstock Seventies Climax label
floral halter hostess gown ($55.)
back home to New York City, where she will no doubt
be the Belle of the Ball! |
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Another Young Miss falls
for the charms of Timmy, The CPR Dummy Factory
Reject. Azalea, age six months,
expresses her love for Timmy by trying to eat his big
molded rubber head. |
Legendary
book and CD designer Beth Middleworth (Bats4Bones
Design) happily models this mint condition
vintage 1950's Ruby Fire Department red jacket
($65.) which - of course! - went home
with her. |
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Filmmaker
Lloyd Handwerker and food stylist Leslie
Siegel are good friends of Le Spot
and always have interesting projects up their sleeves.
Lloyd is making a documentary film about his grandfather,
Nathan Handwerker - (yes, that Nathan,
of Nathan's Hot Dogs!) - and was thrilled
to pick up a copy of Lou Reed's Coney Island
Baby ($5.). Leslie is putting
the finishing touches on a book about pies, and nabbed
this 1960's clock/radio ($20.)
to use as a set prop. |
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Tallulah wants to be a clothing
designer when she grows up, and Chiara
wants to be a detective.
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Tallulah
and Chiara are both 8, both live in NYC,
and have been best friends since they were two. They have
impeccable fashion sense, as evidenced by Tallulah's choice
of a vintage white satin smocked bed jacket ($18.)
over a simple white slip ($10.)
and Chiara's 60's orange striped sheer minidress
($15.), Twenties green felt
cloche hat ($20.), and and Sixties
electric green patent leather handbag ($26.). |
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A
former doula with 22 births
under her belt (and now in nursing school), Kate
Maples made a major fashion score when she
picked up this awesome vintage Balenciaga-like
Fifties black and white houndstooth wool tent coat
($85.) with a truly amazing collar which you
can't see in this photo but take our word for it, it's
fabulous!
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Yes,
it's the Fabulous Fungus Family! Thierry,
Amy, Julien and Claire Farges are not only
nice people, but they're really fun guys! ( Get it?).
They import exotic
mushrooms from all over the world, and we always
love to compare notes about our favorite secret chanterelle
patches up here in the Catskills. (They also have terrific
taste in illustrated children's books! |
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Finally, we meet!
We've been travelling in parallel orbits with Duplex
Planet mastermind David Greenberger
since the early 80s, and lo and behold, one fine day
this summer David and his lovely wife Barbara
Price walked through our door and introduced
themselves! If you don't know about the Duplex Planet
empire, we strongly suggest you check
it out. Kind of how David and Barbara are checking
out this pair of vintage leiderhosen
($38.) and our new picture book,
Honky-Tonk
Heroes & Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneer of Country &
Western Music.
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Photographer
Ben Caswell thinks fondly back on his childhood
and his favorite toy, the Erector Set
($28.) |
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Six
year old Balthazar is one of our best
friends, and a brand new Cub Scout!
He's been a Tiger Scout for two weeks now, and has already
sold more caramel popcorn than practically anyone else
in his den! We're so proud of you, Bal! (And sign us
up for two more boxes of the sweet stuff!). Here he
gets ready for his upcoming camping trips with a super
big vintage aluminum flashlight from the 1950's
($10.). |
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Pimp and ho Robert
Peacock and Rie Norregaard are
better known in their "cover jobs" as a book
packager and a creative director. Rie works the corner
of the Boardwalk and Main Street in a vintage
belted white wool trench coat ($65.)
and Sixties fluffy white lamb's wool hat
($25.) while Robert protects his favorite moneymaker
in a Holstein cow pattern faux fur jacket ($68.)
and fuzzy faux leopard fur hat ($24.). |
Our
friend, writer Mark Dorrity, is a serious
thinker who reads serious books. Preferably in the original
tongue. He was quite taken with this vintage 1950's
French pulp style paperback edition of Andre
Malraux's La Condition Humaine ($8.).
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Lovely Asia
models this fetching vintage Twenties green
felt flapper cloche hat ($20.). |
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Our
new NYC friends, animators Aaron Hughes
and Lisa LaBracio stopped by to say
howdy while they were in town for the Woodstock
Film Festival, where Lisa's animated short
film, Sideshow, was playing.
Texan Aaron felt right at home in this vintage
Lazy-H embroidered Western shirt ($38.)
as his lovely filly Lisa did prairie justice to this
mod Sixties polka dot sleeveless dress with
pleated chiffon collar ($25.) |
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Theater
director Josh Hecht and L.A. hair stylist
Rick Gradone were thrilled to take
home this pair of carved wooden elephants
($50.) and a 1967 Vogue
($10.). Rick told us his recent clients included
Billie Jean King and a stint at the
Playboy Mansion with Hef and
his three girlfriends. Sometimes we wonder
if there's more to life than working behind the counter
here at The Mystery Spot....? |
Well,
it's almost winter once again, so out come our favorite
Snow Bunnies to model the latest in
Phoenician cold weather fashions. Viva's
in our favorite coat of the season, a vintage
belted white wool trench coat ($65.)
and Sixties fluffy white lamb's wool hat
($25.). Sylvia's in a
monstrously tall 60's white faux fur hat ($35.)
and cropped Macintosh faux curly lamb jacket
($85.) and Asia's in a green
suede and shearling hat ($25.) and
Sixties white faux fur jacket ($65.).
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Sylvia
channels Veruschka in this monstrously
tall 60's white faux fur hat ($35.)
and cropped Macintosh faux curly lamb jacket
($85.) . |
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Our Motto: "Clutter My World"
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