A DC haberdasher arrives in NY

Establishing a retail location in the City That Never Sleeps is a sure sign that you've made it, especially if your previous spot's in DC, aka the City That Never Sleeps Because Its Mayor Smokes Crack. For a District outfit now open in the Big Apple, check out Jon Wye. A nation's-capital-based designer who got his start with a line of colorful graphic leather belts, J-dub's brought his now-expanded line of kick-assery to the Limelight's 3rd fl and surrounded it with custom wooden shirt racks, a wrist-cuff display made from an antique foosball table, a portrait of him and his dog, and a UK-sourced fireplace that creates the illusion of smoke via ultrasonically exciting water into mist and hitting it with light (though with ideas like that, clearly not all of the UK's smoke is fake). Sourcing most his materials from America, the centerpiece is a bench for custom-working belts on-site: pick a motif (from stripes & polka dots to zombies attacking the Old West), and Wye'll trim it, stain the loop edges, drill notch holes, and lock in the buckle with your choice of permanent rivets or snaps, useful for swapping out buckle styles/accessorizing tearaway warm-ups. Non-waist action includes cheeky graphic tees (some made ltd ed just for the NY store) with designs like a mounted deer head smoking a pipe; a slew of ultra-luxe wallets; and said wrist cuffs, most of which are made from leftover belt leather -- too bad you don't have any to spare.Mutt owners can have almost any design made into a dog collar, and the plan's to start rocking out custom guitar straps as well, a handsome look for aspiring NY musicians who want to be the next Chuck Berry, but will probably just end up the next Marion.