Where’s Williamsburg’s Vintage Culture Heading?
How Gentrification in Williamsburg is Changing Retail & The Ways in Which Small Vintage Stores are Protecting Themselves
Lydia Rockett considers herself an expert in thrifting. At the age of five, Rockett and her siblings went through bags of hand-me-downs picking out the best pieces. Her growing vintage collection put Rockett ahead of most trends, including the 90s grunge phase during Rockett’s teen years. In 2009, Rockett’s love for vintage shopping led to her opening a retail space named Velma Vintage in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — a place where she connected with her neighbors, helped customers hunt for vintage treasures, and where she ultimately met her husband.
Yet after 14 years, Lydia is now closing her doors.
“I’m in my last few weeks at my location,” said Rockett. “I burned through all my savings.”
Currently, Velma Vintage’s storefront is concealed by cranes, cement pouring trucks, and numerous construction workers operating on buildings close to Velma Vintage. “I can’t open during the week,” said Rockett. “I have three sidewalks blocked off, so nobody even comes walking down my street anymore.”
According to New York Yimby, the project in development close to Velma Vintage is an eight-story residential building at 88 N 1 St. A block down, another residential building is nearing completion, set to hold 59 units with seven stories. The rise in residential buildings stems back to the rezoning process passed by New York City Council in 2005 — the milestone that many mark as the beginning of gentrification in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Industrial plants and warehouses soon flipped into loft spaces and high-rises with exorbitant asking prices that appealed to a new demographic of people. As of 2018, over 19 mega-projects are in development in Williamsburg and Greenpoint for residential use.
Retail’s no different. Once known for its charming unique vintage stores and art scene, retail in Williamsburg is being replaced by commercial mainstream brands — brands such as Madewell, Lululemon, and Everlane began popping up in Williamsburg as early as 2014 (most recently H&M opened an experimental “retail experience” in 2022). Future luxury brand retail projects include a Chanel beauty store on N 6th St, opening in June of this year. Rent itself has skyrocketed; according to the Wall Street Journal, the average rent for an amenity-rich building was $4,500 in 2022. As for retail space, landlords began asking for $70 per square foot prior to the pandemic. This spike in rent, along with the influx of mainstream brands, has no doubt placed small business fashion and thrift stores on high alert, but surviving in a booming real estate economy is increasingly taxing — and some owners, like Rockett, are throwing in the towel after operating for over 10 years. But for others, the increase in foot traffic and tourism seems to be the saving grace for thrifting culture.
“The idea of Brooklyn becoming a brand…that was in the mid 2000's,” said Ronen Glimer, co-founder of Artists & Fleas, a market type retail space that hosts vintage sellers and independent artists. “There were places and spaces that were big. They were cheap, they were raw, they were grimy and dingy. So they were affordable and attracted artists…Williamsburg was such fertile ground for all of that.”
Glimer lived in East Williamsburg with wife and business partner, Amy Abrams, prior to starting Artists & Fleas. With Glimer working in marketing at the time, and Abrams completing her degree in counseling psychology, the couple’s routine pilgrimages to scour local flea markets and visit vintage shows became more than just a hobby.
“It was a combination of wanderlust and an itch that we needed to scratch,” said Glimer. “We liked this neighborhood…we said, ‘What if we got a warehouse and invited people to come, set up and sell, for a weekend…wouldn’t it be fun?’”
In December of 2003, Glimer and Abrams opened their first Artist & Fleas retail space on N 6th St. — a block that mostly consisted of a grocery store and a Thai restaurant. “There wasn’t much,” Glimer said. “It was kind of a forlorn strip. But it was funky and it was fun…a lot of creative people and artists lived in Williamsburg at the time. The buildings were industrial and it was cheap rent, all the stuff that typically attracts a certain cohort and community.”
Upon their opening, the duo attracted numbers of vintage enthusiasts who, like Glimer and Abrams, craved the hunt. But today, N 6th St strip looks a lot different — with a Glossier around the corner from Artists & Fleas and an Urban Outfitters two streets down, Glimer and Abrams needed to rebrand, and their answer was opening a separate retail company called Regeneration that caters specifically to curated vintage clothing. Its bright, neon look is what draws in the younger clientele, among them tourists.
According to a survey by locations analytics group Placer.ai, domestic tourism in Brooklyn has beaten out Manhattan between 2019 & 2022 — Manhattan’s tourism fell 14% in June of 2022 compared to their percentage in 2019, while Brooklyn’s foot traffic spiked into the double digits throughout early 2022. Brooklyn also has smaller retail visit gaps compared to Manhattan, Brooklyn having 17% below 2019 retail visit levels in 2022, while Manhattan had 27% below 2019 percentages.
Domestic tourism could be the push to help offline retail spaces, like Artists & Fleas, but it still has its faults.
“With tourists…you’re more sort of like an animal in the circus,” said Rockett. “They just kind of want to come and see, and not participate. It doesn’t really justify the amount of rents that are being asked. I’ll have regulars maybe for a year, best two, before they move to a different neighborhood because Williamsburg is so expensive.”
Awoke Vintage has had a different experience with tourism. Operations manager Rachel Despeaux finds that Manhattan locals hop over to Williamsburg more often to scope out the vintage scene. “I think we see a lot more of the Manhattan crowd entering Williamsburg to shop on the weekends,” said Despeaux. “We’ve always seen tourists, but now we’re seeing people coming to shop vintage that isn’t as easy to find in Manhattan.”
Working for Awoke for over seven years, Despeaux is optimistic about the future of small vintage stores in Williamsburg. She attributes the mainstream thrifting culture as a sign of profitability for curated vintage sellers. The rise in commercial retail space is also something Despeaux approaches with confidence.
“The change to many more corporations isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” said Despeaux. “This is probably just the natural evolution of a prime retail neighborhood…there may be some suffering due to increased rents, but the hope is that it’s offset by increased foot traffic and spending due to the new stores incoming.”
On top of foot traffic, younger customers also have a major role in vintage survival. “A lot of young people are coming in with a unique sense of style,” said Maria Belvis, an employee who’s been with Awoke Vintage for over a year. “Everybody wants to be a little different, so usually when you shop vintage, it takes a long time scouring. That sense of style is what luxury brands are missing, especially when it comes to inclusion like size inclusion.”
Neither Despeaux, Glimer, or Rockett have seen a huge spotlight on the harm induced by bigger brands pushing out smaller retail spaces, but a major solution seems to be on the commercial brands’ side of business. With foot traffic increasing alongside the trend of luxury brands opening retail spaces in Williamsburg, a potential for collaborating with small businesses could be the saving grace for local fashion retail.
“I feel like that could also be a way to maybe preserve more smaller businesses,” said Rockett. “A way of working with businesses that are in the area…make sure that they don’t die.”
“I’d love to see the new luxury brands really make an effort to integrate or endear themselves to our small businesses,” said Despeaux. “I think collabs and pop-ups would be amazing, and it would really help to elevate the reach of the small businesses in Williamsburg.”
The Madewell location in North Williamsburg declined an interview to address their position in Williamsburg and how they have been mindful of smaller businesses in the area.
Nonetheless, Williamsburg’s traditional uniqueness with quirky thrift stores is still holding strong against the backdrop of gentrification. Small businesses, along with long-time Williamsburg residents, are without a doubt suffering the consequences of high rent prices and on-going construction in the area, but the rise in foot traffic and tourism, along with a younger generation’s eye for statement street style pieces may be the redeeming feature for vintage sellers.
“If everyone’s got the same Birkin bag, you’re pretty lame,” said Glimer. “But if you have that pair of earrings or necklace that you found from some one-of-a-kind store, it makes you stand out. If you can find all the same stores on every single high street across the country and across the world, it’s pretty fucking boring.”
