Brooklyn, in addition to being home to delectable meatballs, hipsters that resemble/sometimes actually are Penn Badgley and Zoe Kravitz (fo real. Last time I was in Brooklyn I saw Penn Badgley and Zoe Kravitz at Smorgasburg. She was short and chain smoking. He desperately needed to take a shower. I was not impressed), and the tri-state area’s first un-ironic artisinal mayo shop (also fo real.  There has been some hating on recent news of  Sam Mason’s Empire Mayonnaise, but I, for one, will be planning a field trip there for all my sandwich needs when it opens in November), also contains my favorite vintage and flea shopping in the city.

My stance on vintage and flea is such: I have bought some of my favorite tops, dresses, and jackets at well-curated consignment boutiquess but at large, open-air markets, I tend to stick to the 4 b’s: bling, belts, bags and boots (also scarves and once the sickest studded vest ever, but I couldn’t find a way to fit that into the alliteration). In my shopping experience, I’ve found that although clothing gems can sometimes be found at flea markets, they often if not always require extensive dry-cleaning, tailoring, and modernizing. Thus, I stick with items I can purchase as is–leading to an impressive collection of cross-body bags, one of a kind clutches, awesome leather goods, $20 boots that are oh-so-Isabel-Marant, and jewelry of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Jewelry is my favorite flea market goodie by far–the stuff I’ve picked up  is unique, fashionable, and best of all, cheap.

[P, N, K & L–we missed you, A!]

Last week at the Brooklyn Flea, three of my friends and I stumbled upon a little booth by Fancy Sexy Me (terrible name, adorable vendor–check out his badass rings and unique, on-trend necklaces) and picked up the above “friendship rings” in our initials for $25 a pop! There’s something I quite like about friendship jewelry. It’s a long-lived fondness, which perhaps stems from my unmatched talent at weaving colorful string bracelets for my group of twelve BeSt fRiEndS FoReVer in the middle school era, my penchant towards sparkly, colorful things, or my desire to show strangers on the street how many friends I have. Ever since my blog crush, Man Repeller, popularized her similar feelings towards friendship bracelets and even coined the term arm party to describe the phenomenon of wearing fifteen of these, stacked with your favorite bangles from H&M to Cartier, I have taken my friendship-jewelry craze public (a side note–I once saw  Man Repeller at Alexander Wang in Soho and followed her around the store trying to mentally record everything she was wearing until one of the very hungry less-than-friendly shopgirls took notice and asked me if I needed help with anything, which, since I lack the funds for $500 shoes with a cape on them, I didn’t, and left, crying in self-pity).

[A Man Repeller arm party]

[My  take. Bracelets: Gift from boyfriend’s mom, vintage via Brooklyn Flea, David Yurman, Michael Kors. Rings: House of Harlow, Fancy Sexy Me via Brooklyn Flea, Forever 21. Nail Polish (inspired by Cupcakes and Cashmere, actual result, 12 year old azn pre-teen): Essie Fiesta/Random Silver Nail: Essie Silver Bullions ]

I like my friendship jewelry with a little twist–incorporating a talisman, an initial, or another personal touch.

[Lie Van Kash, $147]

[DanniJo ‘Lindsay‘, $80]

Off to french braid my hair and doodle my boyfriend’s name in hearts with a paint pen!

[Just kidding. My boyfriend’s name is Ross and he has much nicer hair than Justin. Also, my much more age appropriate nail polish is Essie’s Cocktail Bling]