Ooh-la-wha?
A fancy Paris department store is presenting an expo dedicated entirely to Brooklyn’s hipster wares this month, and one of the featured artisans is hoping he can finally teach the French a thing or two about fine food.
“It’s cool to be able to bring is this different level of quality and variety to Paris,” said Shamus Jones, founder of Sunset Park pickle company Brooklyn Brine, which will be on sale for the next six weeks at Le Bon Marche’s “Brooklyn Left Bank” exhibit. “In France, in a lot of places the only pickles you can find are cornichons — a smaller French pickle, which are more often than not jarred in somewhere like India with all kinds of less than desirable ingredients.”
Le Bon Marche — a 163-year-old emporium on the City of Light’s tres chic Left Bank — will deck out part of its building like an exposed-brick loft for the next six weeks and fill the space with commodities from around 100 Kings County brands, including I-heart-Brooklyn-emblazoned onesies from Etsy store Brooklyn Animal, dog leashes from Downtown’s Ware of the Dog, and kale granola from the Kale Factory in Crown Heights, according to its latest catalog.
The high-end market is flying in a real live Williamsburg tattoo artist — celebrity ink-wielder Scott Campbell of Saved Tattoo on Union Avenue — to leave a lasting impression on the locals, according to a report in French Vogue.
And it has also recruited a local disc-jockey duo to create an video installation for the store dubbed “Brooklyn Amusement Park,” which inexplicably shows Coney Island roller coasters careening around Dumbo.
The mega-boutique is promoting the entire thing via ads featuring images of water towers alongside words and phrases including “Long Island,” “Jamaica Bay,” and “kale.”
The Brooklyn brands involved could not explain the bizarre bazaar and say they have had little to do with the fete — scouts from the department store just came knocking on their doors a few months ago and started buying up products for the expo, they said.
But the peddlers think their products will nevertheless rep their home-town well, showcasing the kind of high-quality, locally-made goods they say have become synonymous with “Brooklyn” abroad.
“This is the Brooklyn way — products and services that don’t mind smaller profit margins for better goods,” said Simon Howell, co-founder of Williamsburg beanie company Lynn and Lawrence.
Brooklyn Rive Gauche at Le Bon Marche [24 Rue de Sevres between Reu du Bac and Rue Velpeau in Paris, +33 (144) 398–000, www.lebon
