Finally, somewhere to outfit your mouth with hipness. (Photography: Marco Novak; picture: A BANDA MAIS BONITA DA CIDADE/Curitiba/Brazil)

As you may have heard, not only is Williamsburg getting that Urban Outfitters it’s always needed, but the company is applying for a liquor license to open a cafe within the store. Befitting any major destination drinking spot in Brooklyn these days, they’re going to have an extensive artisanal cocktail menu, which sources close to the company have leaked to Brokelyn. Presented for your perusal, an exclusive first look at the menu of Cafe Urban Outfitters:  (more…)

Now when you get in a cab to go home, you can just point at your shirt!

It’s almost summer, allegedly, even if the best you can hope for from the weather right now is freezing your ass off in Citi Field’s cheap seats. Summer, of course, means going to thrift shops and finding basketball jerseys to wear both because they are comfortable and because they’re still timely, because the NBA playoffs last until around August or it feels like that anyway. What if you don’t want to go to a thrift store though, because they’re too dirty or you’re taking a (non-violent) stand against Macklemore? Well, Urban Outfiters has your back with their Bushwick jersey/tanktop thing! (more…)

Urban Outfitters shopper or Williamsburg resident? Trick question, she’s both! via Facebook

Obviously it’s been a long time since Williamsburg was thought of as anything approaching edgy (unless you were making a terrible pun about the condos), but even with the slowly encroaching i-banker hordes and upscale Salvation Armies, it at was at least a little weird. Now though, assuredly not weird purveyor-of-hipsterdom-to-the-suburbs headband warehouse Urban Outfitters may be getting ready to move in to the neighborhood. Your revolution is over, Mr. Adebimpe. Condolences. The beards lost. (more…)

Your rent is paid and you’re ready to take on the world.

As we previously noted, the sexual hijinks and financial emptiness (or is it the other way around?) of Girls is coming back to our pictocubes illegal downloads parents’ HBO Go accounts this year. Sunday in fact. And because they know we can use the money so as to better focus on our memoirs, HBO is going to give you a free year of rent just for following them on Twitter. (more…)

Occupy Sandy volunteers, dominating the good feels in 2012. Photo by Jenna Pope.

Oh 2012. Everyone kept worrying about you being the last year in human history before you happened, and then by the time the election hit fifth gear, they were hoping you really would be. Despite all this, you readers managed to have a hell of a lot fun reading topless in the park, giving Philadelphia an inferiority complex and getting into the politics of Urban Outfitters and endlessly debating the merits of Girls. Even as the year ended with a powerful hurricane, it was met with an equally powerful outpouring of support from in-the-muck volunteers. We’ve been happy to bring you these stories this year, and we hope you had fun reading; so without further ado, here are our top stories of 2012: (more…)

Is this Bushwick’s future?

Our pals at Bushwick Daily found a story about plans for a mall to come to Bogart Street, right across from the Morgan L stop. Yes, if it weren’t already apparent, the Eye of Sauron-like gaze of New York City real estate is now peering intently at Bushwick. If the plan goes through, and as currently constructed it’s apparently going be a “retail and nightlife complex,” we’ll probably be able to pinpoint the exact day some idiot starts pushing the idea that “Morgantown” is a real neighborhood. (more…)

Ryan Malarkey, a 23-year-old designer, says she spent “probably close to $10,000″ on ink. Photo (c) Paul Nathan / Generation Ink.

How many people do you know with epic tattoos? Of those people, how many of them are in a pretty much constant state of fiscal-overdrawnery and/or unemployment (AKA: “freelancing”)? Do they live in Williamsburg? Do they wish they did? They might be in photographer Paul Nathan’s new coffee table book, “Generation Ink: Williamsburg, Brooklyn,” featuring portraits of walking canvases who have spent upwards of $10,000 on their ink. Who are these people, where did they get $10,000 and why did they spend it on tattoos? And who are you to judge? You have a Louis Vuitton bag but are a month behind on rent! Oh, wait, that’s me. Did these people get their money’s worth? And what’s your number? (more…)

Outfitters are people, my friend.

For anyone with actually had doubts, Urban Outfitters revealed itself as just another heartless corporation when this whole donating-to-Santorum controversy popped up a ways back. Now the hipster Walmart has eschewed Che Guevara in lieu of a new T-shirt mascot: Mitt “Americia” Romney. This line of Romney shirts would be some mawkish form of irony (UO’s bread and butter) were the election over, much like this Nixon tee, but with the heat still on and the outcome unclear, is there any other way to interpret the wearing of it as an endorsement of Mittens? (more…)

Richard Hayne, the man who dresses thousands of college students.

Corporations are in the business of making money, which means their styles may not be as authentically hip as they would have you believe, yadda yadda yadda, you know this drill. Hipster Walmart Urban Outfitters has been particularly stonewashed with controversy all year: accusations of stealing Etsy artisans’ work, getting busted jacking up prices for simple art, perpetuating the idea that a $70 T shirt is acceptable, among others. Now the company’s co-founder and chairman Richard Hayne is taking heat from Jezebel for giving donations to everyone’s favorite Google bomb, Rick Santorum, causing Miley Cyrus to tweet: ”every time you give them money you help finance a campaign against gay equality.” We don’t get political here at Brokelyn, but we just think you should know where your money is going. It’s not to keep these shirts on the shelves, fyi.

$24 posters at Urban Outfitters, six times the price as a Slope store. Photos by Sarah Bibi.

The buzz about whether Urban Outfitters allegedly makes a habit of stealing artisans’ work has been roaring recently. I recently unearthed one more reason to look elsewhere for my eclectic goods: Cheap wall coverings available for $4 at local paper stores, which cost six times as much at Urban Outfitters!

A year ago, I discovered the huge money saver of buying vintage imagery gift wrap to use as wall art. Last May, I blogged about some of sheets I bought Scaredy Kat, a local Park Slope store, and at the chain Kate’s Paperie, mostly from a line called Cavallini. I found beautiful textbook and vintage anatomy prints for about $4 each. Add a $5 Ikea frame and you have a lovely piece of ready-to-hang art for less than $10. (more…)