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Best Bets: Week of November 17, 2014

Moving In
David Yurman, he of the signature twisted-metal-jewelry motif, on his brand’s downtown flagship (114 Prince St.), debuting November 26.


“It wasn’t till halfway through this project that I realized, ‘I’m actually going to have a store in Soho.’ In the late ’60s, early ’70s, I had a basement studio on Thompson where I welded bronze statues: Two of my bronze angels will be on display in the store, standing five feet tall by the entrance. We’ve reserved two central display cases for the capsule collection, which is sort of a black-and-ruby mélange, plus one of our classic cable bracelets in copper, with a patina inspired by the Statue of Liberty. We figured out a way to keep it from rubbing off on your wrist.”


Side by Side
Two handbag designers­—Milanese Valextra and longtime Manhattanite Rebecca Minkoff—have just debuted futuristic New York flagships.


Bags from Rebecca Minkoff (left) and Valextra.  

Rebecca Minkoff
96 Greene St.

Aesthetic: Structured grainy-leather totes and cross-body bags ($265) targeting the post-sorority set.
Amenities: Smart dressing rooms, with touchscreen mirrors for new size requests.
A-list fans: Selena Gomez.

Valextra
833 Madison Ave.

Aesthetic: Structured grainy-leather totes ($1,960) and cross-body bags ($970) hand-lacquered in Milan.
Amenities: VIP room with embossing station; in-store app for custom handbags.
A-list fans: Michelle Obama.


First Look
Online plant purveyor the Sill has just opened its inaugural storefront at 84 Hester Street.


Illustrations by Jason Lee  


2x2: Servers
Let me see those tongs.


Reasonable:
Salad: Rösle tongs, $29 at rosleusa.com.
Entrée: Carl Mertens spaghetti tongs, $45 at allmodern.com.


More Reasonable:
Salad: Zyliss tongs, $10 at bedbathandbeyond.com.
Entrée: Kuhn Rikon chef’s tongs, $10 at Sur La Table, 75 Spring St.


Ask a Shop Clerk
On November 17, Tull Price and his brother Josh will unveil the first Stateside outpost for their Australian ecoluxury sneaker line Feit (pronounced “fight”) at 2 Prince Street.



Illustration by Murphy Lippincott  

What’s in the name? It has to do with what we’re fighting—waste. In the ’90s, I founded a laceless-sneaker company called Royal Elastics, and I realized that relying on plastics and synthetics inevitably led to a lot of industrial waste. Now I only make 60 of each shoe, and each one is cut from a single piece of leather.

How will that leather hold up in winter? I actually designed our New York–exclusive boots last winter, during the polar vortex, to complement the sneakers. The leather is extra thick, and it’s sewn into the sole. No water is getting in.


Pop-Ups of the Month
From midtown to Fort Greene, the influx of here-for-the-holidays shops is upon us.


Soho: OnePiece
(577 Broadway; through January 15)
A favorite of athletes during the Sochi Winter Olympics, this Norwegian streetwear brand has made the adult onesie (from $89) a thing.




Tribeca: Libra Leather Home
(72 Franklin St.; through January 31)
“Leather King” Mitch Alfus, whose clients include Alexander Wang, offers $1,500 python skateboards and $1,200 alligator footballs.




Fort Greene: Coil + Drift
(370 Myrtle Ave.; December 5 through 23)
Brooklyn furniture designer complements reclaimed-wood tables ($2,595) with ceramic bowls by Btw (from $39).




Midtown: Bestall Moda Shirts
(501 Lexington Ave.; through January 30)
Men’s gingham and striped cotton dress shirts ($69), designed in Spain since 1936, come Stateside for the first time.




East Village: Sennheiser
(11 Kenmare St.; November 22 through December 28)
Test an array of foldable, steel-hinged German headphones ($250) at DJ turntables.


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