No More Sales Tax on Clothing in NYC (let's go shopping!)

I'm from Texas, and once a year, the state offers a weekend of tax-free purchases on clothing and school supplies. On such days, I have witnessed parking-related brawls and a near eye-gouging over a pair of BCBG white jeans. It's kind of like NYC on any culturally-significant parade day (I love you Puerto Ricans, but your parade makes me want to move to the suburbs). Years ago I vowed to never step foot into a retail establishment on sales tax-free days. 

Well once again, New York has trumped Texas and has therefore validated my trek across this fair country to the land of impossibly high rent and hot dogs with toppings like kimchi and organic placenta (OK, maybe not placenta). NY state has spent years going back and forth on the existence of sales tax on clothing items and finally, once again, they've removed sales tax on clothing and shoes costing less than $110 bucks. This is good news people. 

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[My Favorite Park Slope...]: Place To Buy Vintage Clothes

While Park Slope has a lot of vintage/consignment/thrift stores, they mostly offer casual-ware (at least for us guys).  But now and again I like to dapper up, al la Don Draper, which is why I pop into Allure from time to time.  

The owner, a 70-year old Ukrainian named Alexandra, has been on 5^th avenue since back in the days when there wasn’t much open on 5^th Ave.  What sets her apart is the quality of goods.  Rather than reselling as much merchandise as possible, she curates the offerings and so it’s generally high quality stuff.   For example, I just bought an Ermenegildo Zegna blazer for a fraction of what it would cost new, plus a couple of ties from Versace and Valentino.  Score.

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