Also this issue: Icepack -A.D. Amorosi

November 21-27, 2002

naked city

Thinning Out the Crowd

Skinny flick: Co-owner Bobby Spears says his new shop The Skinny is often mistaken for a film studio. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Stores like South Street's new The Skinny and Old City's Taji Modern cater to shoppers who know their history.

by A.D. Amorosi

Hillary Clinton said it takes a village. For me, all it takes is a party.

A recent event at 1616, “Styles,” produced by Sun in Leo Entertainment (of Nike/Axis Music Group’s Philadelphia Live Soul Series), married fashion, technology and furnishings to the sound of Philly hip-hop. The same synergy can be found on the local shopping scene. Featuring African-American designers -- K-Vaughn’s sizzling scarves, Tribal Home’s haute stuff, Street Fatigues’ relaxed freaky fits -- and big tech like Apple G4s, two stores make a point about the sturdiness, worldiness and educational value of wares beyond the bling bling, while utilizing hip-hop’s smart snap: Old City-ite Taji Modern Gallery and South Street’s new The Skinny.

While "Styles" promoted "jet-setters and trendsetters ... up on the latest technology and home decor," The Skinny and Taji Modern preached the gospel of selective -- not conspicuous -- consumerism, the art of craft, vintage style and how the old can be spliced with the modern, like a DJ snagging a sample from an old tune, for a stunningly swank look.

Where Taji Nahal, 41, is concerned, his museum-vintage furnishings from 20th century mavericks like Charles Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames is a vanguard in a market tied to sleek Swede divans.

"I'm not a new jack," says the localite who warehoused in Lambertville for 15 years before resettling in Old City. "It's not a fad to me, selling chairs and vases from the 1920s to the 1960s. When all the new collectors are done Œcollecting,' I'll still be here. Selling.

"The younger set -- they come in and ogle but then they go to IKEA for what they think is the same design. They don't realize collectible furnishings go up in value." What Taji's selling is education. "Here," says Nahal, "each piece has relevance, depth."

The same is true of The Skinny, a location with a Camden, London, feel that's as scant in its design -- a stark white showroom dotted with red floor tiles, crimson curtains and paintings by Eric Kephart -- as it is selective in its wares. "We want to stock things that pop," says Mt. Airy native Bobby Spears, 28, co-owner (with wife Adrienne, 29) of The Skinny's gallery/showroom/stylist's den. Together, they hunt through showrooms big and small seeking out unique wares. "We want things that you can't find anywhere else. Stuff that, once it's gone, is gone. Or stuff crafted singularly for you."

Ironically, The Skinny is set behind The Gap, the bastion of production-line design that Adrienne worked for when she arrived here from Atlanta in 1998. She also worked Saks Fifth Avenue and Echo Chic before winding up styling magazine shoots here and in Manhattan, music videos for Musiq (Soulchild), Jay-Z and Ja Rule, and last winter's NBA All-Star commercial onslaughts starring Pink. Adrienne continues to work through Brooklyn's B. Lynn Group as wardrobe consultant and stylist. "I've always had an eclectic wardrobe," she says. "I love Gucci. Tom Ford is awesome. I love the idea of vintage touches. People saw what I'd wear and just wanted that look."

With its emphasis on stylizing (both are working with Philly's AAries) you can often find the Spears' store blazing with white lights as one or another of Philly's hip-hop finest preps for a video. "People walking by still don't know what this store is -- they think it's a film studio," says Bobby. With that proactive studio vibe, The Skinny is a destination point, rather than just a site for a shopping spree.

The Skinny features a tiny selection of unique home furnishings, independent, even exclusive, designers, and vintage pieces that seem to mix genres and generations effortlessly: funky-but-chic sheer tops; frayed, fabulously patchworked jeans; asymmetrical skirts; and thick, colorful sweaters from everyone from Jo's Jeans to Amanda Uprichard to Patricia Field. The furniture part of The Skinny (a vintage collection from Schoolly D) leapfrogs from mod-Eames-ian black leather recliners to dimpled-fabric couches to '60s silver lamps, side by side with sassy, stitched-and-zippered men's dress shirts made by the Scott/Hennessy design team and double-knit jersey tops and culottes cropped by Adrienne herself.

"We can't keep my stuff in the store, it sells out so fast," says Adrienne with a modest laugh. She's also willing to customize clothing to a customer's liking -- a rip here, a bow there.

This idea of revamping is, like Taji Modern's furnishings, specialty vintage for smart shoppers and risktakers alike: something borrowed and blue, old and new, vice versa and all at once. "The people who know -- that are educated -- know the craft and history behind the furniture we choose to sell and the clothing we choose to make," Adrienne says. "The ones who aren't, we want to help."

The Skinny, 608 S. Fifth St., 215-922-1640; Taji Modern Gallery, 62 N. Third St., 215-922-2757.