DESIGN:New York's trendiest borough is full of hip shops and even more hip people. Irish-born retailer Brian Cousins has capitalised on this by opening two unique shops for collectors, writes John Fleming
TWO MEN DRIVE a nondescript van through Brooklyn. Somewhere deep in the edgy heart of the sprawling New York borough, Brian Cousins and Micham Benmira pull up outside a converted industrial space and lug a massive mercury-backed gilt-framed mirror up to a client. The apartment has exposed concrete columns, a concrete ceiling and a white-painted floor - it is a functional box with a gleaming face. And it's now home to the 140-year-old, 7ft-by-5ft mirror that came from a governor's manor in Pennsylvania.
Cousins (43) left his native Dublin for New York in the gritty end of the late 1980s. After years in various jobs, furthering his studies of the media and pursuing some video production projects, he found himself waitering in the famed Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. With Casablanca-born business partner Benmira (37), he set up the Darr home furnishings store on Atlantic Avenue in May, 2003. And business is booming.
"A lot of people don't have the time or the eye or the imagination to see how a metal table from a hospital or clinic might work in their home. Or something from an early 19th-century textile factory. We go through junk in warehouses and barns to find a diamond in the rough. Rummaging - that's our MO," says Cousins. "We don't, as a rule, strip things down - essentially we re- imagine them into different contexts."
Darr (the Arabic word for "household" lent an extra "r" to fit New York phonetics) started as a conventional furniture store, but is now more a place for furnishings and "found objects". These include distressed furniture from Amish communities and industrial settings, mid-century American and Danish teak pieces and African taxidermy of non-endangered species. Their stock features late 19th-century apothecary glass, hand-forged iron tools and cast-bronze torsos and heads. Rummage around and you'll find old anatomical prints of humans and animals.
Cousins is particularly proud of their OC White vintage machine-shop lamps. "White was an early 20th-century dentist who started designing his own lamps for his work with teeth. He then started to create angle-poise lamps for different work purposes." One of these original pieces will set you back more than $1,000 (€642).
Having started as a Brooklyn store, Darr now has a reputation all over the city - photographers and set designers come over from Manhattan to furnish their "shoots". Interior designers wander in and out. "We get a lot of people from the visual arts. Artist and film director Julian Schnabel has purchased from Darr, as has metal installation artist Richard Serra and visual artist David Sale. Oh, and Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly has been in."
Almost two years ago, the two men created a second, strangely complementary, outlet for their finds: a men's clothing shop. Taking their name from two pioneering early 20th-century plastic surgeons, they established a shop called Hollander & Lexer across the road from Darr.
"We went looking for clothes with an elegantly dishevelled look. Having dealt in furniture and found objects for a few years, our perspective was different. We brought a certain critical regard to what was out there."
A touchstone of Hollander & Lexer's taste is a brand called Engineered Garments: its approach to clothes is the same as that of Darr to furniture, taking old garments and incorporating elements of function and style. The shop carries Paul Smith, Rag and Bone, Helmut Lang, Cydwoq shoes and You Must Create. They get leather belts, bags and wallets made for them by Billykirk in Amish country.
"The store was immediately successful and we had a great write-up in the New York Times. This really honed our credibility. Then Time Out gave us a write-up. These reviews put us on the map. In October 2007, Village Voice named us 'Friendliest Men's Store in NY'." Just recently, New York magazine named Hollander & Lexer the city's "Best Men's Clothing Store".
The shop has launched its own line of goods. "Several Japanese stores have visited us, looking for ideas. They asked to buy wholesale and this is mushrooming as we are selling our own-design hats, shirts, ties and other items into top-of-the-range outlets in Japan such as United Arrows, Ships and Isetan. And we have added a store called Darwin in Kyoto," says Cousins.
"We are high-quality, and our designs are made in the US. This is not high-street shopping. We are bracing ourselves for a huge order for autumn - the onus will be on us to produce greater volume at the same quality."
Any sign of a US consumer slump? "We hope that, because of our select market, our strong customer base will not be affected. But we know people in both fashion and furnishings are feeling the pinch. We may wait before we expand or relocate Darr or Hollander & Lexer. As always, we employ a tempered optimism."
Darr, 369 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, 00-1-718-7979733; Hollander & Lexer, 358 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, 00-1-718-7979190 (both between Bond and Hoyt).
Subway: A and C to Hoyt and Schermerhorn Both shops open every day (Monday to Saturday 11am-7pm and Sunday noon-6pm)