Yesterday, when Williamsburg revealed its designs for the old Domino sugar factory site, people marveled at the gleaming new towers planned for the waterfront, or, more specifically, the giant gaping holes planned inside them. If solid buildings were the past, empty space-buildings are the future. Everything seemed very cool and neat and, at the end of the day, who doesn't love sugar so what were we talking about?
Indeed, it seemed that, once the development was complete, Williamsburg would have just about everything chic: gingerbread condos, expensive food trucks, and a pool used by white people and black people.
Only one thing would still be missing: people who knew how to dress in a manner that was very unique, groovy, and "a la mode," as they say say.
Then Crain's reported that Williamsburg would soon be getting its first Urban Outfitters and its first Anthropologie.
Finally.
Long have the denizens of Williamsburg languished in the barren fashion badlands, wearing clothes that their mom picked out and looking not hip or hep at all.
Women flock to the borough's famous loft parties wearing graphic tanks and bubble skirts purchased from Aeropostale. On their feet, they wear sensible Comfort Plus pumps from Payless. Their hair is adorned, not with a whimsical crown of artificial flowers, but with human hair. Their own hair.
Meanwhile a typical outfit for a male consists of an old coffee sack with holes cut out for arms, worn over ragged trousers. Upon his head, he wears an inverted mushpan. Upon his feet, he wears his hands.
But now the fashions of the nineties—babydoll dresses and open-back baby doll dresses, mostly—can be purchased right there in Williamsburg. Finally these "hip people" can dress like their idols in Indiana (which has three stores) and Georgia (which has four, including one at the Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody).
Will this retail explosion herald the birth of a new "cool dressing scene" in Williamsburg?
(Note: If you live in some parts of Brooklyn, it may be more convenient for you to continue shopping the Manhattan Urban Outfitters locations.)