There is a tightly constrained formula for stocking most Brooklyn homeware stores: Stacks of squiggly towels tend to abound, as do block-print bath mats and sculptural candles. Not so at Thank You Have a Good Day (392 Van Brunt St.). Stylist Alicia Yates and her partner, Gary Smith, moved the year-and-a-half-old shop from Fort Greene to this substantially larger space in Red Hook in September and have filled it primarily with items that can only be found at Thank You Have a Good Day — from a 1940s glass-and-chrome cocktail set to a porcelain spatula with a rosebud painted on it. “Besides our own collection, it’s things our friends make, things our friends’ friends make, and things we’ve stumbled upon,” says Yates. Up front, ceramics are nestled in an adobe-style wall; opposite is a mix of pantry, home goods, and apothecary items on shelving made from timber. Hung on tree branches found at Red Hook Farms are vintage chore jackets and sweaters (plus some pieces from Bode — the shop is one of just a handful of retailers in the city that stock the brand). In the back, there’s clothing (and other pieces, like the cushion seen here) from Yates and Smith’s own collection. Because their studio is one block away, there’s a “constant influx of newness,” Yates says. “Like, recently, we made some carryalls with patchwork leather animals inspired by Gary’s pets. Midge the cat sold out in minutes.”
10 Highlights From a Recent Visit
“The first iterations of these were made from textiles that my mother had given me years ago, and they sold out almost immediately. We continue
to source vintage textiles and wool blankets — everything is handpicked for quality, weight, colors, and patterns,” says Yates.
“These are made out of vintage Levi’s, mostly from the 1940s and ’50s. Everyone is really charmed by them.”
“The more patina the better, in our eyes, and these ’40s coveralls have been worn to perfection.”
“Christina Crawford is in Red Hook, a few blocks from the store, and she’ll ride by on her bike with a case of her vinegar for me whenever she has extra, then it’s gone — it sells out within 24 hours without fail. We keep a permanent wait list. They’re cooking vinegars, finishing vinegars. I’ll put them in sauces, dressing. Anything.”
“Loren Boggs and Noah Phillips of Foreign National started working on this table lamp over two years ago, and finally here she is. The color palette, the silhouette, the playfulness — I’m very taken with it.”
“We worked with this Bushwick-based brand Happy Place to create a hand sanitizer for the shop using food scraps from local restaurants. It’s mixed with lime-peel-infused alcohol with amber and vetiver. It’s very sort of soft and warm and a little bit citrusy and woodsy.”
“Manhattan-based ceramic artist Carla Koslowsky makes breathtakingly beautiful ceramics. I generally look for artists who make work where the beauty lies in the imperfections. The Round Belly vase is just that. Very wabi-sabi.”
“Marisha is a ceramic artist based in Red Hook who came into the shop right after we opened and invited me to her studio before she left.
She loved that I stocked ‘weird ceramics’ — her words. I was immediately drawn to her collection of blue-and-white porcelain serveware. She uses a very iconic and classic tableware color palette and turns it on its end.”
“I pick up a pair of Japanese bonsai shears whenever I find them and encourage clients to use them to trim flowers or for pruning small branches.”
“These came from my personal collection of mid-century glassware. I found them in a flea market years ago. They have a nice weight to them. We are slowly starting to fold in some carefully curated vintage home objects; these are in the first wave.”
Thank You Have a Good Day by the Numbers
• Of the 35 makers featured in the store, there are five clothing brands, six ceramicists, two fine jewelers, five home brands, ten pantry-goods companies, and seven across wellness.
• The 800-square-foot space was previously home to stationery store Foxy & Winston.
• Yates and Smith have sold 75 pairs of vintage Levi’s since opening.
• They stock 24 Bode pieces, including a mashroo overcoat and a pair of shearling mittens.
• The owners have been a couple for three years. Their apartment-slash-studio is one block from the store and has an industrial sewing machine and a woodworking space.
*This article appears in the February 15, 2021, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!
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