Yokkoyama Hat Market Opens on Eldridge Street
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How’s this for retail diversity on the Lower East Side. A new indie millinery just debuted at the long-dormant 116 Eldridge Street. Yokkoyama Hat Market, as the establishment is called, joined the retail landscape earlier this week with its bilingual signage.
Founded by local husband-wife team Shoko and Hirohisa Yokoyama (on the LES for ten years), the eponymous hat market is both store and studio. Hirohisa is the hat-maker, and he crafts the headgear in the rear workspace.
The relatively rough-around-the-edges block was attractive to the Yokoyamas, who cited rags-to-riches businesses like Vanessa’s Dumpling House as a model.
“In this space we can show our high-end hats to the people [who may not have] cared about hats,” Yokoyama tells us.
Yokkoyama was voted Hat Designer of the Year in 2008 by Hat Magazine in the UK.
Will you be shopping here?