The 3 NYC Spots In God We Trust Calls Home

Find yourself an excuse to visit all of them.

Shana Tabor has come a long way: “When I first started, I had a tiny corner of my bedroom where I would sit for 12 hours every day and make jewelry,” she explains of the roots of her line In God We Trust, which now tackles apparel, too. But in 2005, about two years after she started working on her line full-time, Shana decided it was time to set up shop—an interest she had from the very beginning. She now has a trifecta of super-influential, crazy-cool locations in Greenpoint, Soho, and Williamsburg that carry the likes of D.S. & Durga, Billy Kirk, and The Hill-Side, beyond her own creations. Here’s how each shop came to be. —alisha prakash

“The Greenpoint store is where all the magic happens. Our design studio is here, and it’s where all the manufacturing takes place. I found this location in search of a bigger studio space. I loved the idea of our studio being attached to a retail space—it’s the best of both worlds. This space is by far our largest location, allowing freedoms not available in our smaller locations. The brick walls were already here. We added one large-scale piece of furniture, and it was done. Greenpoint has a real sense of community that is lacking in most New York neighborhoods, especially in North Brooklyn.” (70 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn)

“This store is our first Manhattan location. I was prompted to look in that neighborhood by a fellow shop owner, and when I saw the space was available, I left a note under the gate and waited for a call. Thankfully it happened. This stretch of Lafayette is a place that I used to shop in during the nineties. It’s also an interesting location in the city because we are not quite in Soho and also not really in Nolita. That makes for an interesting mix of people and lifestyles. The space is long and narrow, so there’s not much you can do. The main concern was removing the glass walls and six layers of X-Girl wallpaper (even on the ceilings!).” (265 Lafayette St.)

“This Bedford Avenue store is our newest location, which opened last summer. It is home to our perfect customers—this includes tourists and locals. Can’t help it, haters: This is my home. I have lived in Williamsburg since 2000. I love working in the same ‘hood that I live in—even though I sometimes hate it, too.” (129 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn)

You’re not going to want to miss out on Shana’s edition: This crystal-tipped brass cuff is rocking our world.

In God We Trust

“I remember having a moment with myself, asking, ‘What do I like? What am I interested in?’” explains Shana Tabor, the brains behind the apparel and accessories line In God We Trust. “Designing was a choice I made when I was around 12, not something I fell into.” So, as a junior-high kid with access to thrift stores and a sewing machine, Shana started making her own clothes, which led to summer, jewelry-making classes at Parsons.

When it was time to determine her next move, Shana enrolled at FIT for fashion design, but it didn’t take longer than one semester to realize she wanted to switch her major. “Apparel was something I knew I wanted to come back to, but it needed to be on my own terms. On a technical level, there was so much more I could learn with jewelry,” she says.

“On her own terms” is a theme for Shana: After getting some industry experience post-graduation, she quit the office grind and started focusing on making her own killer pieces out of her sick Williamsburg apartment-slash-studio. In 2005, she opened up her first retail location on Wythe Avenue in Brooklyn, selling both accessories and apparel, and she now has three locations around NYC.

So what’s with the name? “It’s supposed to be a commentary on American commerce and the thought-process behind how people spend their money,” Shana says. “I was working with a bunch of coins. I sat there staring at them and thought it was so weird that it said ‘In God We Trust’ on all of our money. We do get a few people calling thinking we’re a religious institution, and the occasional missionary comes into the store.” —alisha prakash

ingodwetrustnyc.com

Cardigan’s Time-Tested Tour of Williamsburg

A half dozen spots that have won over this 10-year resident.

Lynne Hiriak is big on nostalgia—the sweaters she designed for Of a Kind were inspired by her old gym uniform. And the powerhouse behind the knitwear line Cardigan is equally sentimental about her nabe, Williamsburg, where she’s happily resided since 2001. “There used to be one coffee shop—Verb,” Lynne says. “I still get my coffee there.” These are favorite finds over the last decade. —carly pifer

Ready to see these so-adorbs, button-accented sweaters? Well, get to it! Color options await, guys.

“I eat brunch, lunch, and dinner at Walter Foods. I love the oysters (East Coast, please!), the bubbly, and the relaxed mood.” 

“Still getting my morning kick-start at Verb Café—no longer the only coffee shop around but still my favorite.”

“The ‘Burg waterfront is where I go with my iced coffee to meditate. Looking at Manhattan is a great way to start the day!”

“I pass by the Radegast Hall & Biergarten every single day. It’s hard to pass up a grilled sausage and sauerkraut! We round out every photo shoot with a beer here, too.”

“One of my favorite new cocktail joints in the ‘hood is the Ides Bar at the Wythe Hotel, which has the most beautiful lighting.”

“Hunting for polka-dot glasses at the Brooklyn Flea—love it.”

Around the World with Wanderluster

Tag along to Iceland and San Francisco, on staycations and weekend trips.

When Rammy Lee Park started her jewelry line in June 2011, the name Wanderluster came almost instantly. A hardcore traveler, Rammy wanted her architectural, attitudinal pieces to embody the same sense of adventure that the word wanderlust (and she!) does. And these days, like most everybody, she logs her journeys via Instagram (handle: @xwanderluster). These are some of her most recent worth-a-pic moments. —jiayi ying

Rammy made us a necklace (that transforms into a bracelet!) inspired by these travels—check it out, pronto. 

TRAVEL CHARMS
“I never go anywhere without this antique porcelain elephant and blue heart—both were given to me by my boyfriend.”

PACKING
“I try to pack in a way that helps me get through security as quickly as possible. These are my go-to bags for trips under five days long. The larger one is Stella McCartney for LeSportsac from years ago, and I’ve taken it to Ireland, Istanbul, Iceland, and so on.”

REYKJAVIK
“Iceland! I went to celebrate my birthday, and it was one of my most memorable trips. I spent most of my time there with my eyes agog at the natural yet surreal beauty of the land and the elegance and simplicity of the architecture. As a result, my fall/winter 2013 collection is going to be all about Iceland.”

COLORADO SUN
“This was taken on Father’s Day, when my parents and I went boating on a lake in the Rocky Mountains. I’m from Denver, but I never appreciated the mountains until after I moved to New York twelve years ago. Now, I try to explore them every time I’m home.”

SAN FRANCISCO
“I’ve been spending a lot of time in SF lately, and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite American cities. I never actually visited as an adult until last year, and since then, I’ve gone four or five times. I’ve been ceaselessly charmed by the riotous colors, the Victorian homes, and the way the streets slope.”

NEW YORK CITY
“I love moments in the city when I feel transported to another place. Here’s this magical little oasis in midtown. #wanderlocally”

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE
“This is going to make it into a bangle soon. I’m not sure when my NYC-inspired collection will come out, but it can’t be avoided—it’s my home.”

Fleabags

When college freshmen go to parties, they probably expect to encounter a kid from their bio class, a line of people waiting to do keg stands, or, at best, next year’s roommate. They don’t expect to meet a future business partner—but that’s exactly what Alex Bell (right) and Shira Entis, co-founders of Fleabags, found in each other during their first week at Brown University.

From there, the two bonded over many a flea-market outing and, after schlepping their day’s finds home in dowdy canvas bags, the girls contemplated why a great tote made to endure a lifetime’s worth of hauls didn’t exist. “What we needed was something cool and sturdy that didn’t feel disposable,” Alex explains.

The girls spent eight months honing in on the ideal tote back in 2008—when Alex was working full-time as a corporate lawyer, and Shira was an assistant designer. “We made 100 bags because that was the factory minimum—and we were terrified they wouldn’t sell,” Shira explains. Women’s Wear Daily featured them the very same week the duo launched the company, and the orders started flying in.

Today, the girls run Fleabags from their Williamsburg studio, where they make lunch for each other and design everything from sturdy, stylish carryalls to classic clutches—all of which are handmade from locally sourced materials. “Even though our line is eco-friendly, our priority is good design,” Shira explains. And they’ve got that in the bag. —monica derevjanik

fleabg.com

Lisa Levine

Though Lisa Levine probably wouldn’t consider herself as much of a businesswoman as a healer, hand-crafting jewelry has always been lucrative for the Pittsburgh native—both spiritually and in the more standard, money-in-the-bank sense. “When I was a child, I could draw or paint or create to help me clear any bad emotions,” Lisa says in her six-inch voice. “I started making jewelry as a little kid and even selling it.”

Before taking things further as an adult and opening her eponymous Metropolitan Avenue jewelry store in Brooklyn in 2005, Lisa spent a year at Parsons and later shipped off to San Miguel de Allende—an idyllic artist community in Mexico—to study silversmithing with the legendary Billy King.

After a three-year run, Lisa closed her store and took “a 90% break” from designing to focus on breath work and Reiki more intensively, and now her cozy Greenpoint loft is home to a healing center, a yoga and meditation space, and her design studio. The jewelry thing is such a part of who she is that trying to escape it would be plain silly—luckily, all of her endeavors, with their open-endedness, meld together quite nicely. Or, as she puts it, “There’s a lot of positivity and healing that goes into making the jewelry. You can feel if there’s love in it.” —lauren caruso

lisalevinejewelry.com

Meet Caitlin Mociun

It’s been a long (ish) and winding road.

Caitlin Mociun (pronounced like motion) began her design studies with textiles, which—after a brief, unrealized flirtation with wallpaper—led naturally into apparel. But since launching her clothing line in 2005, she’s shifted her energies from software to hardware, choosing to focus instead on jewelry (and keeping up her material skills with beautiful and graphic by-the-yard fabrics).

“I’m glad that I started with the clothing line—because I couldn’t have gotten here without it,” she says. “But with jewelry, you have the luxury of a much smaller scale. I can make one custom piece as easily as ten or forty of the same design, without losing a lot on experimenting. Or I can add one thing at a time as I come up with new ideas. I guess I finally figured out what work I like best!” That hardly means she’s settling down, though: In March 2012, Caitlin opened her own shop in Williamsburg, where she sells her textiles and jewelry—think delicate necklaces strung with tiny gold-and-turquoise triangles and mismatched stud earrings that mimic a topographical map—alongside a carefully curated mix of home goods and pieces by like-minded designers. “I’ll always happily go off to hunt down cool stuff, and I hope to make the store a kind of destination place in the neighborhood,” she explains. So far, the diverse mix of clients who’ve entered her newest fold are seriously digging her vision—no surprise given her proven ability to shift gears. —mireille hyde

Check out Caitlin’s latest undertaking: an Of a Kind edition. Mismatched gold earrings with black diamonds!

Caitlin Mociun Takes On Williamsburg

Eight under-the-radar spots the plugged-in designer is willing to share.

Caitlin Mociun’s gorgeous, recently opened shop is smack in the heart of Williamsburg, and the airy, spare storefront has the feel of a gallery—as the crazy-thoughtful jewelry designer sees things, the clean-slate approach helps visitors embrace what’s in store. “In so many shops, customers tend to think, ‘My house doesn’t look like this, so these things aren’t for me,’” she explains. “The space is very minimalist—polished cement floors, stark white walls. There’s not even anything built in yet, so I can move things around on a whim.” She also lives in the ‘hood and is thus a full-fledged Billyburg insider. These are the other places she’s willing to let you in on, as long as you don’t tell everyone you know. —mireille hyde


Mociun: 224 Wythe Ave.! Open Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 8p! (mociun.com)


Pilgrim Surf Supply: “This is a great, cool new surf shop just up the street from my house. I don’t even surf myself. But they have swimsuits too, and I just love the way it’s put together.” (pilgrimsurfsupply.com)


Walter Foods: “Among many other fantastic things, they have an incredible lobster roll. Somewhat snobbily, lobster is my favorite food. It’s just delicious!” (walterfoods.com)


Sprout Home: “I stop by Sprout to pick up nice plants for the shop—they have a super pretty flower shop next door as well. I love the idea of putting teeny plants in ceramics.” (sprouthome.com)


St. Anselm: “This is way better than Peter Luger’s—it recently got written up again, so it’s slammed all the time. But if you like meat, it’s worth the wait.”


Brooklyn Fox and Honey: “These next-door-neighbor spots have a great, well-curated selection of nice underwear and lingerie.” (brooklynfox.com; honeygifts.com)


Bakeri: “This is my go-to spot for absolutely delicious sandwiches, iced tea, and amazing baked goods. They close at 5p, so it’s more of a lunch spot—perfect for grabbing something quick on your way though the neighborhood.” (bakeribrooklyn.com)

Caitlin’s edition will be a hit in any ‘hood. These geometric gold earrings with their tiny triad of black diamonds are so killer.

Cold Picnic Sets Up Shop

Combining forces with another on-the-rise line Species by the Thousands, the pair snagged themselves a storefront.

Phoebe Sung and Peter Buer are partners in both life and business, and the duo behind the super-cool accessories company Cold Picnic wanted a way to erase the line between the two sides of their relationship. Their perfect solution: a shop. “With a store we could have pets and kids and everything under the same roof, but we thought it was ages away,” confesses Peter. The stars aligned as they sometimes do, though, and they landed on an ideal Williamsburg location and a perfect collaborator, Erica Bradbury of the jewelry line Species by the Thousands. Course, there was a lot of work to be done and linoleum to be ripped up from there. Here’s how everything came together for the debut of A Thousand Picnics this month, according to Peter. —maggie dolan

On top of opening a store, Phoebe and Peter made an amazing (rhino!) necklace just for Of a Kind. Check it out now!


A completely stunning photo…


…that inspired the use of shingles in the shop.

Peter: “Phoebe made these great mood boards out of images we collected, and we consistently referenced them while decorating. There were mood boards for interiors, for plants, for walls. That’s how we landed on the shingles.”


The sort of retro-woodsy vibe they wanted the space to exude…


…and an exposed-brick wall of the store that captures that whole relaxed-but-refined thing.

Phoebe: “All of us are inspired by seventies Woodstock houses. We didn’t want it to be too hippie but to have a handmade, cabin feel. We wanted a slight California feel, too. We were looking at all these pictures of Joan Didion. You could tell she was chic, but she wore flowy dresses, went barefoot, and had a house with exposed brick walls. Not everyone was a hippie in the seventies, but they all kind of looked like it.”


A mood board image of dried flowers…


…and how it made its way into the mix at A Thousand Picnics.

“It’s nice to be able to experiment with things—put them in the shop as a collection and see how people like them. We want everything to sell, but there are some things that can just be editorial or for character. It’s about an atmosphere, and we’ve gotten such a nice response.”

A Thousand Picnics, 171 S. 4th St., Williamsburg.