Matthew Marden's Maze of Glossies Is on Eighth Avenue

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New York City has more stores than anyone could physically tackle, but somehow we always keep returning to the usual suspects. To break out of the rut, we've asked some local shopping and fashion gurus to provide their hidden retail gems—those unique stores around our fantastic city that we might not all know about. Cue the Beatles: We're about to get a little help from our friends.

Image via Yelp

As the Fashion Market Director for Details, Matthew Marden has held his spot at one of the most iconic men's magazines around the globe for more than eight years. In this role, Marden is wholly responsible for conceptualizing fashion and cover shoots based on current seasonal trends. He's appeared on ABC's Good Morning America, where he discussed his intricate knowledge of menswear, regularly contributes to the Daily Details Blog, and as we've recently learned, he kick-started his career at the fine art fashion photography gallery Staley-Wise. But his favorite shop in New York City goes by the name of Casa Magazines, and if we were to offer you one piece of advice, it's to befriend either Mohammed or Ali.

Casa Magazines is a maze of glossies, as the tiny space on Eighth Avenue is crammed with piles and piles of titles from all over the world. I come here for the men's fashion books I am obsessed with Arena Homme Plus, Fantastic Man, L'Officiel Hommes, Fashion For Men, Numero Homme, Vogue Hommes International, 10 Men, Another Man and more, but I always leave with something not on my usual list. Last time it was a copy of the art quarterly Elephant.

If you don't see what you came for, definitely ask Mohammed or Ali and they'll direct you to the right stack or if they don't have it, they will happily special order it for you. Talk about service. Places like this are a rarity in New York, and its nice to see that some of the things I fell in love with when I moved here 17 years ago are still around.

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Casa Magazines

22 8th Avenue New York, NY 10014