http://secure.www.oldnavy.com/assets/product/main/ona314450-00p1.jpgBY DAVID LEPESKA and DEBORAH KOLBEN
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Is it the death of Williamsburg cool, or has the Brooklyn neighborhood finally arrived?
Old Navy is now hawking T-shirts with the name of the hipster neighborhood emblazoned on the front in glittery letters.
Artsy residents who have stuck it out in the gentrifying neighborhood despite the influx of trendy bars and soaring rents say this is the last straw.
"I think it's time to move out," said artist Burke Wilmore. "Nothing before was as bad as this."
Other residents were also turning up their noses at the idea.
"I wouldn't wear it," said Alexa Kokinos, who has lived in the neighborhood for the past three years.
"Does anyone who shops at Old Navy know about Williamsburg?" she asked.
Williamsburg has become a popular destination for trendy twentysomethings arriving in the city.
Old Navy - the mega mainstream retailer with 800 stores nationwide, including three in Brooklyn - started selling the shirt last month along with "Brooklyn" and "East Village" tees.
"Teens and young adults respond to place and location tees," said Old Navy spokeswoman Andrea Lui when asked why the company started making the shirts.
"This super-laid-back cotton style celebrates Brooklyn's hippest locale!" reads the description on Old Navy's Web site.
But the retailer could be a little too late.
"That image is already over," insisted Tara FitzGerald as she stood outside the Bedford Ave. subway station in the heart of Williamsburg.
The shirt is being sold across the country - although not in the town of Williamsburg, Iowa, according to a manager there.
Lui would not comment on sales or the shirt's popularity, but the online price has been slashed in half to $6.25. In SoHo the shirt was still selling - in both blue and bright yellow - for $12.50.
Williamsburg bartender and playwright Daniel Fried wasn't surprised to hear about the new fashion item.
"The consumer makes a choice," Fried said. "But you've got to live it to be it - you can't just buy a lifestyle."
Originally published on July 12, 2005
― She's built like a steakhouse, but she handles like a bistro! (Adrian Langston), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:00 (twenty years ago)
"So now, hipsters, it's time to fuck. Do you have an irregular haircut? How about REALLY tight pants that are cutting off your circulation? Do you really love the 80's and insist it's not in an ironic way when, in fact, it is? Do you insist you live in East Williamsburg when you really live in Bushwick? Or maybe you've started calling your Park Slope pad South Williamsburg. Anyway, let's fuck...it'll be fun."
― tehresa (tehresa), Friday, 15 July 2005 02:12 (twenty years ago)