High-Design Rocking Chairs, ModCloth’s Vintage-Inspired Store, and Japanese Home Goods

In May, the Ace Hotel will open Sister City in the former Bowery Salvation Army building with trellised gardens, a 180-seat restaurant, and a traveler-centric shop (225 Bowery).

Illustration: Jason Lee/Courtesy of the vendors

1. Food: A restaurant called Floret, headed by chefs Joe Ogrodnek and Andrew Whitcomb, with cherry-cork tables, terrazzo floors, and offerings like a peekytoe-crab bowl with brown rice and cucumber kimchee.

2. Shop: A retail area with items geared to travelers, like Mophie power stations (from $13), Baggu Dopp kits ($30), toiletries by Public Goods (from $2), and headphones and speakers by B&O (from $149).

3. Reception: A series of kiosks where guests can check themselves in to the hotel, a bookshelf with titles curated by the New Museum, plus a stained-glass skylight.

4. Coffee bar: A collaboration with Pulley Collective, where visitors can order lattes, cappuccinos, and cold brew on draft and by the can.

5. Garden: Trellised, with outdoor seating and perennial plants like hanging vines, witch hazel, wisteria, and akebia quinata.

Comforting but contemporary.

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

Pricier
Colorful: Muller Van Severen First rocking chair, $3,460 at mattermatters.com.
Subdued: GT rocker, $1,150 at beambk.com.

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

Cheaper
Colorful: Click rocking chair, $448 at houe.com.
Subdued: Mikko Laakkonen Kola rocking chair, $396 at finnishdesignshop.com.

In May, Kyle Depew, owner of Bushwick’s Brooklyn Film Camera store, will open a fully functioning film lab next door (203 Harrison Pl.).

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

“We’ve had the shop open for a couple of years now. We sell glorious cameras, like the Polaroid SX-70 (from $295), and obscure films like Fuji FP-100C (from $40). Now we’re opening a lab next door. It’s going to process 35-mm. and 120-mm. and will have two scanners, two commercial processors for color film, and experienced technicians. The store get lots of foot traffic from the artist-slash-gentrifier types in Williamsburg, plus true-blue film geeks who make the pilgrimage from all over the world.”

Lizz Wasserman, VP of fashion at ModCloth, talks about the site’s new vintage-inspired store (42 Crosby St.).

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

“In the store, we have this accent wall covered in flowers and horses — which is a sneak peek of a print we’ll have on dresses soon. Speaking of dresses: Ours come in sizes 00 to 28, so we wanted lots of plus-size mannequins on the floor. It turns out it’s near impossible find them, so now we’re going to make our own.”

This summer, Bravissimo, a 24-year-old British lingerie company for busty women, will open in Soho. Founding director Elly Corney on the brand’s non-dowdy lingerie.

Photo: Courtesy of the vendors

How does one design a store for big boobs?
At our stores in London, we have tons of dressing rooms, so lots of women can get fitted at once. It’ll be the same at the New York shop, which’ll be our first in the States. Most everything will be the same, actually: just a celebration of big boobs. Our bras — like our lilac, low-plunging, stretch lace one ($64) — are sexy and go up to 38H. And, like in London, we decided our saleswomen are going to say “boobs,” not “breasts.” Because that’s what women say to other women.