Style You Can Trust

Bridgette Mcguire has always been a fan of collecting old things.

Since she can remember, she has purchased all of her clothes from second-hand boutiques or thrift stores and has scrounged flea markets for treasured household items.

Her husband would complain that she was “always picking up other people’s garbage,” she says.

So when she came across an upside-down wooden lamp at a flea market, her interest was piqued. The vendor saw her eyeing the item, and offered it to her for five dollars. She bargained him down and bought it for two. It earned a place, among other things, in her basement.

A little while later, a friend came to visit and saw the lamp. She begged Bridgette to buy it, and offered her $150. “I was always a collector, but I never knew that people were interested in these things,” she tells me. She sold the lamp right away.

Since then, Bridgette has had a stand in the 26th Street Flea Market, an antique shop on Union Street in Brooklyn, another antique shop in Westchester, and also Scarlet Ribbons, which she opened up on 976 Franklin Avenue in 2007. Her new location on 1068 Fulton Street opened in October of last year.

Scarlet Ribbons is a small shop packed full of household items. Most notable are the lamps, which range from modern brass desk lamps to 3 foot tall lamps with hanging crystals and ornate designs. “I’ve got a thing for lamps” Bridgette tells me. Maybe it has something to do with her first sale.

The shop caters to a diverse crowd. Bridgette says that the market is changing, and the younger generation is interested in the more modern, more cheaply made items, whereas older people tend to choose quality over quantity.

“I always tell [the younger generation] they’re looking for throwaway stuff,” she says, but admits that developing an eye for worthwhile things is difficult. “It’s not something you can rush,” she says. “The longer you spend, the more you’re going to find the treasures.”

While working at the 26th Street Flea Market, Bridgette became a part of a network of second-hand and antique dealers. In addition to constantly providing tips for places to buy more things (estate sales, auctions, etc.), Bridgette works hand-in-hand with other dealers to purchase and sell their specialty items.

She encouraged me to visit the Mercantile Gallery, just a block down Fulton Street, to see more ornate and often refurbished, classic antiques, and to visit Bedford Galleries for yet another style of antique furniture.

If someone comes in looking for a certain item she doesn’t have, she often refers them to someone she knows who sells that item.
So what is special about Scarlet Ribbons?

“They say, 'Bridgette, you’ve got the eye,'” she tells me. Everyone knows Scarlet Ribbons, because they trust Bridgette’s knowledge and aesthetic.

People who know Bridgette from her former location on Franklin Avenue visit her regularly, just to see what new things she has in store. Her whole inventory can change in a matter of weeks, since new items are always coming in, and old ones being purchased.

As a businesswoman, she doesn't allow herself to get wedded to anything, and that not only means a constantly changing supply, but affordable prices as well.

Bridgette is more concerned with saving these items from landfills, supporting reuse for environmental reasons, and giving customers a product they are happy with at a good price.