The first time I was in New York - on my school exchange - and living with the girl who has become the sister I never had with her family in Brooklyn, I learnt three things. The first was never eat something that comes from a cart on the street (a rule that was changed as soon as I met the Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice cream trucks in a later visit, and the mud coffee vans in the one after that). The second was wear crappy shoes for the walk to school and keep a nice pair in your bag. We lived about a 15 minute walk from the subway station, and then we got off at 86th street for the walk up to 91st and across to 5th. In slushy, mushy, new york winter weather it was not wise to wear your cute little ruby slippers. So I learnt to stash them in my bag, ready to change at the gates of the school in preparation for a hard day's work. The third thing was that Williamsburg was a hipster locale and not to be entered for fear of too much facial hair and plaid shirts. I remember hearing about shops I wanted to go to or cafes to visit that were buried deep in the heart of hipster-williamsburg and my friend and her parents succumbing to uncontrollable laughter. "Don't go to Williamsburg" they would say. "You'll never come back". "The hipsters will eat you". and so on and so forth..
It took a couple more trips to New York, and carefully testing the waters across Brooklyn to get into Williamsburg. I met Abby there for tea and soup with stars in our eyes at Roebling. I went to fashion boutique Bird and cooed over the PS1s. I tried, unsuccessfully, to take my friends to an australian cafe that had just opened over there, but we couldn't find it, and ended up back in our comfort zone in cobble hill instead. I don't love Williamsburg the way I love Cobble Hill - maybe only because I have spent so much time in that part of Brooklyn and I have such good memories of it that any other part won't be quite as magical. I never saw my first snow in Williamsburg, I never got ready for my ticket-holding first fashion show in Williamsburg, I never spent hours upon hours in Williamsburg cafes, plotting plans for future fabulous-ness and, even more exciting, dinner. And maybe I'm just not hip enough for it - the sad truth, but the truth nonetheless. A favourite haunt of Alexa Chung - who shares with you her Williamsburg fashion faves in the above video - Peaches Geldof et al, it is definitely the new Soho. Still, it is nice to venture in, every now and then, soak up some of that long-haired, grungey cool, and then swiftly retreat to more familiar territory. That's why I love this video, it gives me some tips for where to go next time I'm in Williamsburg. Who knows, I might even find that cafe... here's hoping!
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