Perry Gargano's Store is Like a Pirate's Treasure Trove

Getting tipsy is nice, and for a variety of reasons which I’m not gonna go into just now, getting drunk is much nicer. On another tip, late night shopping when you’re drunk is really wonderful. You try stuff on and EVERYTHING looks amazing. Those leather, drop crotch pants you mocked on Justin Bieber suddenly look sick. Crop tops you steered clear of now whisper seductively from across the racks: “Slip inside me, expose that swatch of flesh below your boobs, your burrito belly is beauuutiful.” Then the next morning you look at your credit card receipts. Then you look on your bedroom floor, spy those leather pants and realize you could fit your short friend Jonny in that sagging crotch. This is not a good or necessary functionality of pants.

So alcohol makes you excitable and loose… with money, which was just the state I was in when I walked past Perry Gargano’s shop on 242 Grand Street, in Brooklyn, one recent evening. It glittered like a treasure trove stuffed full of booty. I walked in and felt like Sean Astin in The Goonies when he finds the trapdoor in One-Eyed Willie’s ship that leads to all the loot. I bought a skull cuff and an octopus tentacle bracelet immediately, and when I woke up in the morning, I didn’t regret it!

Perry knows a little bit about drunk shopping as it happens in his store from time to time. I thought perhaps staying open late was a savvy tactic, but the hours he keeps is really because his studio is located at the rear, behind parted velvet curtains, so Perry's often working on his designs in the evenings. Born in New York City and raised, in part in Venezuela, Perry initially graduated from NY's School of Visual Arts and started off his career as a toy designer, before going on to study sculpture in Pietrasanta in Italy. Eventually he headed back to New York where he got involved in production for TV and film, and when the Bronx Zoo constructed the Congo Gorilla Forest, he was there casting skulls, creating rocks, and fabricating vines for the permanent exhibition.

Perry also had a hand in the renovation of the Hall of Ocean Life at the Natural History Museum and you can see the imprints of his former projects all over his jewelry: the natural world is represented in the octopus rings and elephant cuffs, his background in toys reflected in the car rings, bobble-headed animal brooches, and ornate custom chessboards. There’s a hint of religious baroque in there too: recurrent imagery including sacred hearts, crosses, cupids, and Madonna motifs. (Well, he was raised a Catholic and that stuff sticks.) It’s the kind of jewelry you can imagine The Kills wearing, or Bat for Lashes, or Lykki Li.

So the moral of this story is:

- Perry’s stuff is really cool. His metalwork feels like artifacts Indy discovered in the Temple of Doom. His pieces are tough but beautiful, which is the best combination.

- Shopping when you’re drunk sometimes works out. Sometimes. P.S. If you happen to like Perry's work you should swing by the restaurant Do or Dine in Bed-Stuy. The interior is all down to him and the food is, by many accounts, extremely delicious!

Kim loves shiny things. She's on Twitter - @theKTB.

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