Description: New York is always full of surprises. For one, we were able to find a parking spot on Prince Street on a late Sunday morning; things like this don’t happen, especially if a festival is happening 2 blocks away. Along the walls are vendors standing patiently behind their tables rearranging their displays. I spot mini bowls from Turkey, and we get into a conversation with the vendor about
Istanbul . At the corner, a young man is handing out literature and is quite earnest in his recommendation that we go to
The Market , which is a few yards away at 268 Mulberry St., between Prince and Houston. It sounded great, but a canopy displaying the word "Me Kong" pulled me away! Another Vietnamese restaurant at 44 Prince St. (212/343-8169) was about to open for business. I went inside to look at the back wall print of
HaLong Bay . Their menu is less ambitious than Pho Viet Huong’s, but they have the very essential white coffee.
Fast forward to after the Mulberry Street Festival, as we are walking back toward the car, and suddenly remember the designer market. Surprise again: under this roof is a bevy of talented people who love to design using quality materials and think outside the box. Flea market fans, this is not for you. There’s loads of jewelry, quite original in style, starting at $10 for a pair of earrings that didn’t earn its place here and luxuriously full skirts, cut on the bias, in fabrics so sensuous and flowing, I was not surprised at the $300 price tag. There were fun mixed-media bags, which are all the rage right now in leather/fabric combinations, and squeezed in between the front tables, were the mother-of-pearl handbags that were so prominent in Saigon. I just can’t escape this whole thing, nor do I want to. They had lovely tunics, sizes 4 and 6, which I could probably use as scarves! There is a also belts and lingerie to die for (the designer and I got into a deep conversation about thong underwear); you can have a look at the collection right here . And then there were men’s jackets and shirts that appeared to have been cut or torn in certain places and re-patched with various fabrics. I found a pair of gold earrings designed by Jennifer Young that I wore the very next day. She calls her company Chameleon and will soon have a website at www.nychameleon.com.
The most clever exhibit was one called Dangerous Breed.net; at first, they appear to be ordinary T-shirts, but they are anything except that. Slogans like "Ski Iraq," "Israel: Why Settle?" and "Gaza Strip Club" had me roaring. They were selling for $20 each. Too bad one could not wear them all simultaneously.
The market is open every Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 7pm and free to the general public.
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