Gentlemen Calling: Modern Anthology’s Respectable Masculine

PHOTO COURTESY OF MODERN ANTHOLOGY

When you think of a store dedicated to decorating the ultimate man cave, you might picture a garage workshop that builds keggerators engineered to flow directly to your beer helmet or your La-Z-Boy. This is not what Modern Anthology does. Founded by John Marsala and Becka Citron, the DUMBO lifestyle boutique is inspired by the fact that, according to Marsala and Citron, “there’s a genuine lack of lifestyle retail concepts out there geared towards men, and we really wanted to curate pieces that addressed the needs of guys across the board.” With backgrounds at Disney (dreaming up theme parks) and design credentials ranging from Pepsi Co. to JetBlue, Marsala and Citron are clearly well equipped for the task at hand.

“With the shop,” Citron explains, “we took these vintage pieces we had collected and asked ourselves ‘Okay, if this is for men, what else do we add on to complete that story?'” In addition to the smattering of vintage objects that populates the shop (a rustically elegant deer skull sits next to an oversized pack of burlesque-themed playing cards on the coffee table), the shop carries workwear-inspired clothing, bags, and shaving paraphernalia. The duo also likes to keep things local; the presence of New York City-manufactured brands such as Ernest Alexander and Kai Dee demonstrates their desire to make NYC an integral part of their story, just as the reclaimed studded leather Chesterfield (worthy of Freud himself) shows their commitment to finding vintage items. “We’re in the business of storytelling,” their mission statement reads, and Marsala is eager to elaborate. “When it comes to the vintage pieces, there’s no shortage of good places to search. The trick, of course, is finding the right assortment of unique pieces to tell a story!”

Complex as it may be, the narrative at Modern Anthology goes beyond the outer shell of their Jay Street storefront.  In addition to the retail operation, John and Becka operate Modern Anthology’s creative agency, which is capable of sourcing the interior of a restaurant, creating a fully branded ad campaign, or even producing a short film (by the way, Marsala is a graduate of the London International Film School).  So long as it’s creative, it seems there’s nothing these two can’t do.

VISIT MODERN ANTHOLOGY AT 68 JAY STREET IN BROOKLYN, OR ONLINE.