buyer's guide

Miss Lonelyhearts Delivers Sweet Accessories With a Coy Edge

Handbag designer Jenny Yuen’s first stand-alone store has a come-hither, feminine feel, from the built-in wood-and-leather bench with “boy toy” carved into the side for dutiful boyfriends-in-waiting to the stacks of vintage romance novels lining the shelves. After designing for Jill Stuart, Twinkle by Wenlan, Gap, and J.Crew, the Parsons grad launched her own line of bags in fall 2007, a small collection with nostalgic names like Dear Diary and Past Curfew. She called her label Miss Lonelyhearts, after a Dear Abby–style advice columnist in a thirties book. After six months of renovations, Yuen turned this former Lower East Side video store — “It looked like it had been bombed,” she says, wincing — into a homey boutique, with golden floral-print wallpaper, leafy potted plants, and her pair of Shiba Inu puppies, Pablo and Georgie, greeting shoppers at the door. The colorful lambskin and calfskin bags are produced in limited quantities of 25 to 100 per style, with a few new designs added each season. Yuen has also expanded into womenswear, offering gauzy lingerie-inspired dresses, leather vests, and high-waisted denim. Jewelry from Brooklyn-based designers Digby & Iona and I Like You as a Friend are scattered throughout the store, from bejeweled ax pendants to engraved guitar picks. Click ahead to check out the stock.

Miss Lonelyhearts, 250 Broome St., nr. Orchard St. (212-253-0560); T–Su (noon–7)

Miss Lonelyhearts Delivers Sweet Accessories With a Coy Edge