Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Melanie Fiona, Erykah Badu, Blahzay, Ishmael Butler and many more celebrities, stylists, editors and bon vivants have flown into 66 Blak Birds since it opened it's coop in July of 2011.
The quaint little shipping container boutique with it's omni present deer head, vintage sunnies and specs and it's one of a kind, customized clothing shuttered for good on a cloudy August 19th 2012.
The store located in the Dekalb Market in Downtown Brooklyn, NY was celebrated by locals, tourists and merchants alike. The charismatic and always dapper co-owners and friends (who were often mistaken for brothers),Briian Dargon (The 66 in 66 Blak Birds) and Carlos Ameen Cully (The.... Do I really need to spell it out? Okay! The Blak in YakBlak) created an atmosphere in their 8x20 that prided itself on the lost art of customer service as well as an inviting and authentic smile.
Surely you are now making these observations and asking yourself these questions.Customer service is a lost art!, Who doesn't like a warm smile? Why are they closing?
Well kiddies, if it were left up to these two gentlemen, 66 Blak Birds would be around for another twenty years but unfortunately it is not.
"BIG BUSINESS" has shot them out of the sky. After re-signing a lease agreement that would have at least allowed them to roost in the location until the end of the year, they were informed in early June that they would have to vacate to make way for a new and much larger hen house (ie: Century 21, high rise, etc.).
"I'm sure this has nothing to do with the revitalization of Fulton Street and the Barclay Center" Briian says sarcastically. Even though small business is as vital if not more so to any community says the southern raised designer and photographer. The developers, Urban Space and Young Woo and it's associated associates and what not's have bigger fowl to fry.
"I could wax poetic about the shady dealings of the aforementioned but have decided to lay my eggs elsewhere" Briian also states sarcastically. I will say this, sex, drugs and artists you've never heard of and probably never will hear of may have won this war but history has proven that if you do not learn from your mistakes, you are deemed to repeat them. War is a spiteful, malicious, lying, ugly and greedy bitch. There is always another one waiting to be fought and I am more prepared now than I was before.
I won't lie and say I am not saddened or that I won't even shed a tear but my Grandmother use to say "This too shall pass".
We are so thankful for our friends and now extended family, old and new who made this experience so enjoyable and as my friend Clive says ONWARD! UPWARD!
love you guys!!
ReplyDeleteLove you too!!!
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