Old Hollywood Finds a New Location

Alex Shulhafer and Tiffany Porter, the ladies behind Old Hollywood, the vintage meets independent designer boutique, always knew they would outgrow their first home; they just didn’t know when. That when is now. The original Old Hollywood (there are two, one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan in the Limelight Marketplace) located at 110 Meserole Avenue for the past two years, went out in style on Thursday, July 22 with an extensive sale. The ladies will celebrate their first day in the new store at 99 Franklin Street on Saturday, July 31 in conjunction with the second Last Saturdays of Summer, the Greenpoint Business Association’s neighborhood-wide shopping event.

“It was a great place to start but it’s very easy to outgrow. So we think we’ll be able to really expand the brand [in the new store],” Shulhafer said. In addition to more space, the new store has a backyard, as well, which the girls fully plan to utilize at their opening party on Saturday with a BBQ plus a small open bar and keg from 7:00-9:00 p.m. to start the event. But the party doesn’t stop—or start for that matter—there. It goes until 11:00 p.m. with special guest DJ’s Lucas Walters, SunSplash and the Rude Dudes.

Earlier in the day, from 12:00-5:00 p.m., the store kicks off with the first of their weekly Trunk Show Saturdays, each week featuring a different designer. This week it will be Harlow in Chains, and in honor of the opening, there will be Trunk Show specials from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

“We have a great time creating new spaces so it’s been really fun doing that . . . The new space is looking really beautiful and we’re excited to be closer to all the other boutiques in the neighborhood,” Shulhafer said.

In the new location, Shulhafer and Porter will find themselves in similar company, surrounded by analogous stores they love such as Alter, In God We Trust and Dalaga. Though all the shops mentioned are small, indie boutiques targeted toward the same emerging buyer, aka the hipster all grown up, this conglomerate of businesses is not worried about competition. As a collection, they are more like a gaggle of girl best friends who contentedly agree to hit on boys according to whoever first calls dibs.

All of the stores pretty much have a policy not to sell the same lines as each other. Old Hollywood carries In God We Trust’s jewelry at their Manhattan location, but not at their Brooklyn store since there they are right down the street from In God We Trust’s own store. They are just a stone’s throw away from Alter, who also carries vintage, but it’s no sweat off either vendors back because the vintage they each carry is from completely different eras.

Alter’s vintage has more of an eighties and nineties mod feel while Old Hollywood has more of a, well, old Hollywood antique kind of vibe—everything they carry is more fifties through seventies, or even earlier. “I think we all compliment each other really well and have similar but very different aesthetics,” Shulhafer said.

The new Old Hollywood is located at 99 Franklin Street between Greenpoint Avenue and Milton Street and the store hours are Monday-Saturday 12:00-7:00 p.m. and Sunday 12:00-5:00 p.m. Be sure not to miss the opening party this Saturday, July 31 from 7:00-11:00 p.m. And in the future, remember to catch their trunk shows every Saturday from 12:00-5:00 p.m.