The downstairs is even smaller but mercifully bereft of books. By his feet is a paper bag full of loose ties and pocket squares, as well as a belted balmacaan that Stephon has already poached for himself. Yet there’s nothing amateur about Shane’s trad-leaning assortment, which includes a double-breasted Paul Stuart seersucker suit, a tartan-lined Brooks Brothers duffel and a bullet proof-feeling overcoat made from Donegal tweed. “I just like to find stuff and buy it,” he says. Shane explains that it’s just something he does for fun on the side in his day job, he’s a teaching assistant at a special needs school. We’re joined upstairs by a bearded guy in an old gun-club tweed and a white dad cap that reads “Punk Rock.” The cap-wearer is Shane Curry, who, unlike most vendors, doesn’t sell online and hasn’t even given his operation a name. “That kind of setup where menswear, second-hand vintage and new vintage that hadn’t been sold could be sold in-person instead of all online.” “I feel like that’s what was missing,” he says. In a short phone conversation, Stephon tells me that Alfargo’s was his attempt at bringing online, independent sellers into a single physical space. It’s the brainchild of Stephon Carson, a nattily dressed employee of The Armoury Tribeca and a member of the NYC-based menswear clique known as Team Cozy Boys. The answer seemed to come via Alfargo’s Marketplace, a self-described “menswear garage sale” that began hosting monthly pop-up markets for new and used vintage in September 2021. The online community that meets virtually to buy, sell or trade saw its ranks swell as brick-and-mortar retail was forced to close and closets were cleaned from coast-to-coast.Īs cities hummed back to life, I wondered if that same community might step out into reality like the rest of us. If you have even a passing interest in menswear, there’s a good chance you spent the peak-COVID doldrums perusing eBay listings or lurking swap threads on Styleforum.
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