We recently received an intriguing reader tip about a shop in Williamsburg, appealingly called Peachfrog: “This is a great store,” Patrick wrote. “I love them, they get all the closeout stuff from all over the nation and world and resell a lot of hip clothes for way cheaper.”
It turns out that Peachfrog is a fairly new overstock liquidator, like TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, that homes in on trendier labels rather than the Jones New York and Anne Klein merch that fills the racks at more mainstream discounters.
For women, you’ll find a smattering of $50 dresses from Betsey Johnson and alice+olivia; hundreds of pairs of $25 jeans from J.Brand, Hudson and Joe’s Jeans; and $20 slinky animal-print tanks by Torn by Ronny Kobo, which sell for $75-ish on sites like Shopbop. “These fly out of the store,” said William Norton, a co-owner. They do? “The girls in this neighborhood live in them.”
The somewhat slenderer men’s department has Von Dutch everything, acres of canvas sneakers in garish prints and a table of deliciously soft cotton t-shirts for $3.75. There’s also a rack of garish vintage Quiana shirts for $7.50 a piece.
“Those are for a really wild type of guy,” said JIna Huh, a 29-year-old poet, grad student, and once-a-week Peachfrog shopper.
Besides the jeans (“I love the fact that they sell in Bloomingdales for $150 and up!”) Jina is a frequent buyer of the shower gels, candles and lotions that line the shelves near the register. She pulls out a box of white soaps in earthily slick packaging. “I would give these to my professor friends,” she said.
Partners William Norton and Howie Blumberg, a veteran of the liquidation business, opened the store last November in the site of a former eggroll factory (ventilation hoods serve as dressing-room roofs), and it has been attracting steady foot traffic from women who can pull off the colorful and at times risky pieces they traffic in. Blumberg explains that he deals in a sector of the market overlooked by discount giants—smaller stocks and trendier labels.
Students of Hollywood street fashion will find the styles familiar, if a few of the brands less so. Alongside household names you’ll find Radcliffe London, LOVELIFE from Florida and slip-on sandals from a company called Soixante Neuf.
Right now, the duo is trying to empty the summer stock to make way for fall. They won’t say what’s coming, possibly because they don’t know, given the unpredictability of the liquidation business, but they do plan to expand the home section, which now consists of planters fashioned from recycled tires, pastel plastic outdoor dishware, and various square trays that look like West Elm runaways, along with odds and ends like fur Christmas ornaments.
Peachfrog is worth a visit, and between the sunglasses, the fragrances, the scarves and other goodies, it’s hard to resist at least one impulse purchase. If you’re young, skinny and have your own finely tuned trend GPS, you can leave with armloads of finds and your budget in tact.
Peachfrog, 136 N. 10th St., Williamsburg, 718-387-3224, www.peachfrog.com.
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Wow, this store sounds amazing! I cannot believe that they sell such sought after brands for such low prices. Sounds like a great place to drop a lot of money. I would love a gift certificate to a place like this!