Out of the Closet, Onto the Stoop
<p>In her third dispatch from the secondary market, Erika Kawalek explores a Brooklyn stoop sale.</p>
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Setting Up the Stoop
Nora Malone, the “starving filmmaker,” lugs a garment rack form her apartment to set up for her “Designer Stoop Sale.” I arrived at the scene after reading her ad on craigslist, a major venue for woman-to-woman fashion exchanges.
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Cute Jammies Cast Aside
A coffee table (not for sale) displaying Malone’s barely-worn polka dot pajamas. Last year she made the decision to be more cutely attired for bedtime, but the plan didn’t stick. “I never wear them,” she said, “I always end up in a T-shirt or naked.”
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Craigslist Confusion
“When I posted the ad I sort of exaggerated,” said Tania Sandler, who blogs about bars. Sandler advertised the sale on craigslist as a “Designer Stoop Sale.” There weren’t any covetous designer labels, though. “But we do have Splendid, Mango, Zara…”
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Too-Short Skirt
Women have always sold off excess belongings to earn a little pocket money. In the case of Malone and Sandler it was “cocktail money” they were after. The 30-year-old Sandler was just seized by the nagging concept of age-appropriate dressing. “This skirt is the first thing that I feel too old to wear,” she confessed. “I bought it at a vintage store in LA, Out of The Closet; it feels silly on, even with leggings. If I don’t sell it maybe I’ll have another go at it.”
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T-Shirt Trouble
Brooklyn resident Michelle Roy tried on one of Malone’s 100 percent cotton T-shirts. She didn’t take it. “I buy secondhand as much as possible,” she said.
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6 of 6 Child-Size Suit
Nora Malone shows off her favorite vintage suit, a 1950s model made of purple wool with black stripes that she found at Philadelphia thrift shop ten years ago. “I washed it in the washing machine hoping that it would shrink a little, “ she said, “but it shrunk a lot. Now it’s child-size, or anorexic-woman-size.”
