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A few weeks ago, Carroll Gardens boutique Epaulet opened a Manhattan location, joining Oak and Otte on the list of Brooklyn success stories to jump the river. Their new space, on Orchard between Stanton and Rivington, doesn't look hugely different from the Smith Street location, but it's less cluttered and comes with more storage.
Back in the day, it used to be Dutch fetish shop Demask—a history that prompted some minor moaning from Bowery Boogie about the taming of the Lower East Side. But while Epaulet isn't selling leather gimp masks, it's not exactly the Steve Madden outlet either. Owners Mike Kuhle and Adele Berne are the kind of detail-oriented shopkeepers who know exactly how and by whom everything in their store is made. If they did carry gimp masks, they'd find a fourth-generation bondage-cobbler in rural New Hampshire to sew them by hand.
Epaulet mainly focuses on menswear, and their new store carries all sorts of things for guys to get excited about, from house-brand suits and new double-faced shirts—plaid on one side, gingham on the other—to two different, exclusive styles of shoes by hot heritage footwear brand Alden. Female shoppers aren't neglected, though; the boutique just created a line of clogs with Swedish company Ugglebo. In typically obsessed fashion, Berne shot a short documentary about the Ugglebo factory and the clog-making process. Check it out below.
Epaulet presents: Ugglebo Clogs from Epaulet Shop on Vimeo.
· Brooklyn's Epaulet Crosses the River [Racked NY]
· Epaulet Opens Boutique at 144 Orchard Street [Bowery Boogie]
· Epaulet's New Digs [Valet]