When Aelfie Oudghiri was 17 years old, she sat in a Turkish rug shop and negotiated with the dealer for six hours. She bartered so long her brother fell asleep, and the store closed while they haggled. “It just felt really natural and fun,” recalls Oudghiri, who’s half Turkish on her mother’s side. Bargain concluded, she parted with two prizes: a flat-woven tribal rug, or kilim, that now decorates her Bushwick showroom, and an admirer. “The owner sent me Christmas cards for years!” she says. “I think we connected because I’ve always loved talking to people, be they Upper East Side doyennes or old Middle Eastern dudes.”

This gift for gab serves Oudghiri well, along with her innate ability to sort through heaps of tapestries from around the world and pick the distinctive pieces best suited for a New York market. “I buy partly what I like, but also think in terms of what will most match an American couch,” she says. In business for only two years, the Columbia University grad has already established her reputation as an accomplished kilim dealer. Stacks of folded carpets made in Tunisia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Morocco, Mexico, the former Yugoslavia, or the Caucasus fill her spacious 12,000-square-foot Varick Avenue studio.
 

Great Young Designers Flock to Brooklyn
What they lack in experience they make up for with raw talent and determination. The owners of Ferris (ferrisnewyork.com), Williamsburg’s funky new clothing shop, may be young, but A.J. Livingston, 20; Taylor Conlin, 21; and Taylor Spong, 22, are reinventing men’s fashion while most of their peers are still in college. Their cozy 600-foot space— previously a pet store before they gutted it, painted over a giant cat mural, and filled it with furniture built by Spong— boasts an eclectic mix of vintage garments and trademark Ferris apparel.

San Diego native Livingston designs most of the signature pieces, like “The Borough of Life” fleece ($50) bearing the motto “Made for Destruction,” or the beloved “Underdog” T-shirt ($37), featuring a prancing pup logo. Apart from providing a livelihood, handcrafted T-shirts brought Conlin and Livingston together (Spong and Livingston have been pals since high school), and they’re partially responsible for why the business exists today. “I was at a Parsons party last October when I noticed this guy wearing a sick shirt that I could tell he’d made,” says Conlin of Livingston. “We started talking and realized we both had clothing backgrounds.”

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If classic Lipton-and-lemon isn’t your cup of tea, maybe it’s time to try kombucha, an effervescent tea-based beverage that bubbles with the satisfying fizz of soda, yet is purported to actually be good for you. Though many are still unfamiliar with the concoction, Williamsburg-based brewer Brett Casper has lately created a local stir with his Kombucha Party™ (kombuchapartynyc.com) libations, all of which are made via a simple—albeit time-intensive—process.

“I first brew fair-trade tea in five-gallon glass jars that look like honey pots,” says Casper. Next, he adds organic sugar and what’s called a starter, or a small portion of already fermented tea. Biology soon takes over. Left unrefrigerated for anywhere from seven days to four weeks, each concoction forms a colony of friendly yeast and bacteria, similar to the kind found in probiotic foods. Such “living” products (like yogurt and miso) are reportedly good for the gut, because they stimulate natural digestive juices and prevent indigestion. “If I get bloated after a heavy meal, I’ll drink kombucha and instantly feel better,” says Casper. “It’s also a great hangover cure!” Others claim it boosts immunity and can even help fight cancer, though all health benefits have yet to be scientifically proven.

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By Meghan Cass

From the outside it may appear to be just another industrial warehouse, but furniture firm From the Source is a diamond in the rough along Greenpoint’s waterfront. Beyond the unassuming façade, 23,000 square feet unfold into a vast labyrinth of storerooms and work spaces filled with dramatic Indonesian wood furnishings.

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By Marley Magaziner

 

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