ABOUT US
The idea of Houndstooth arose while Maria was working at Poppet, turning away guy after guy looking for the same high-quality vintage clothes that the women's only store was known for. That was March 2006. By April, she and Michael had found the perfect spot to set up shop, and in August, Houndstooth opened on Driggs Ave in the heart of Williamsburg, a neighborhood which boasts more artists per square foot than anywhere else in the world. Sandwiched between two well known galleries, the store and its owners remain involved in the art world they came out of.
From warehouses and estate sales all across the country, from the Southwest to New England, Michael and Maria gather the best of the past — incredible design pieces, shirts, pants, and suits made from all natural fibers, regional oddities and seasonal treasures. Houndstooth accessories have included such amazing finds as an antique South American cocaine spoon, a vintage gun holster, and even an early 20th century peruvian rug. Every week something new and exciting is on display in our familiar streetside trunk.
Houndstooth closed its doors at 485 Driggs on July 29, 2009.
OUR STORIES
• Michael Kimmins
Michael earned his B.A. in English & Classics from Rice University. Afterwards, he was an integral part of Brazos Bookstore, a nationally acclaimed institution, and it's sister space, Brazos Projects, which hosted museum-quality exhibitions of modern and traditional art and design from all over the world. While working at Brazos, Michael also worked as a grant-writer for the non-profit Pauline Oliveros Foundation Houston, the city's main current of avant-garde music.
• Maria ChavezBorn in Peru, avant-turntablist Maria Chavez currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. With a collection of new and broken needles that she calls “pencils of sound” and a selection of records, she creates electro-acoustic sound pieces. Chavez made her New York City debut in a duet with Thurston Moore, collaborated with Otomo Yoshihide as part of the 2007 Wien Modern Festival, and recently shared a stage with Pauline Oliveros and Lydia Lunch during Vienna’s Phonofemme Festival 2009. Having also performed at such internationally acclaimed venues as STEIM (Amsterdam) and Sonoteca (Lima, Peru), she was awarded a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Grant by New York’s Roulette Intermedium in 2008. In June and July, 2008, she was selected to be part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as an artist in residence for a series of performances in and around Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses sculptures at DIA: Beacon. Chavez recently completed the score for a short film by video artist David Gacs and performing artist Matthew Day entitled "Through my Geography," which can be viewed on her MySpace page. This September, she will perform at San Francisco’s Electronic Music Festival, a turntable festival in October in Berlin entitled T.I.T.O, in Gdansk and Krakow, Poland, Prague and more performamces to be announced. Fellow sound artist and writer Tara Rodgers will include an interview with Chavez in Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound, to be published by Duke University Press in 2009/10. Beyond the realm of sound, in 2006 Chavez co-founded Houndstooth:Fine Vintage for Men, a boutique in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that specializes in men’s vintage clothing and accessories. The store’s visionary, she spearheaded buying, merchandising, private styling, and services geared to the fashion, movie, and music industries. As Houndstooth recently closed to physical structural problems with it's location, Chavez has decided to focus on her sound career in lieu of opening a larger store.