For nearly a year now, vintage fashion has had a cozy abode along Williamsburg’s Grand St corridor.
No, literally an abode. The interior setup of Grand St boutique Franny and Roey is evocative of a 1960s bedroom, styled somewhat in homage to the mise-en-scène of near namesake J.D. Salinger’s 1961 novel “Franny and Zooey,” according to owner Ilyane Roey.
“I wanted to the place to be comfortable and welcoming, like their best friend’s room,” Roey continues, as I’m seated atop a bed covered in a turquoise and green-checked bedspread.
The store’s “make yourself at home” vibe is executed down to the last detail, with customers encouraged via placard to sort through the dresser in search of vintage finds. Even the bed is flecked with odds and ends to give off Franny and Roey’s lived-in feel. That is, if every home were choc-a-bloc full of mint-condition vintage goods—and cleaner than my own bedroom, for that matter.
A sampling of the merchandise on offer at Franny and Roey includes racks full of dresses, mostly priced in the $60-80 range, vintage shoes, albums and, as Roey terms them, “vintage-inspired” accessories from emerging local designers alatete, Mela, Kiel Mead and Box & Flea. Roey’s proudest store selection? A peach-colored silk crepe dress from the 1970s, pictured here. 
But—going back to the local partnership bit. Roey feels that the Grand St business circuit is thriving largely due to what she sees as neighborhood togetherness and community, citing fellow vintage and emerging designers boutique Sodafine. “Grand Street has really been up and coming this year,” Roey says. “Bedford Ave used to be the only thing going. But now, the side streets in Williamsburg are popping up and things are going off the Bedford path.”
Roey also credits the success of her own business to the tightly knit spirit of Grand St. Franny and Roey opened in October 2008, weeks after the demise of investment bank Lehman Brothers and the sale of investment bank Merrill Lynch. “Just after I signed the lease, everything was down the toilet.”
Yet current economic conditions have fostered ingenuity among local business owners. “You gotta get a little clever,” Roey says.
Perhaps this creativity out of necessity will spread to contemporary fashion. I asked Roey, given that she is a curator of sorts of fashion history, what trend she sees springing forth during the 2010s. She responded that the past decade has been but a hodgepodge of trends from throughout the later half of the 20th century.
“I’m waiting for our generation’s version of the miniskirt,” says Roey.
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