Off the Chain

I am a bit of a self-admitted minimalist when it comes to clothing.  I tend more towards solids, not a lot of embellishments... simple, if you will.  But I always seem to find myself marveling at the selection of chain-by-the-yard whenever I go to a trim store.  They just amaze me: tiny chains, chunky chains, multi-colored chains... I seem to just love the idea of them more than I actually love the idea of wearing them.  But I just know that one of these days I will go crazy and buy tons of yards of chain and make something amazing with it.  In the meantime, I will just continue to dream about it.

The most to-the-point advice I can give is to take the train to Bryant Park and walk along 6th Avenue between 40th Street and 36th Street.  There are probably six or seven bead stores in this four block area.  Now, bead stores in New York aren't anything like bead stores anywhere else.  They actually contain much more than just beads.  There are all sorts of awesome goodies that can be found at these stores, including yardage of chain.  I snapped the picture on the right at a store called Toho Shoji (6th Avenue between 37th and 36th).  This is maybe a sixth of the selection that the store actually has.  I took this one because I'm a fan of the gunmetal colored chains on the bottom.  They also have silver, gold, black, and all sorts of delightful bright colors.  If you are looking for something a little fancier than the normal chain link type chain, check out the website.  It has some really pretty things like chains that look like vines or hearts, ball chains, box chains, rope chains.  The chain racks are very easy to find, which I am a big fan of, as I don't like to search for things in a store.  Just walk on in, turn to the left, and there you are.  The price range is pretty big, about $1-$18 per foot depending on the width of the chain itself.

Another place you could go for a pretty good selection of chain is the ever popular Pacific Trimmings (38th street between 7th and 8th Avenues), a place I tend to mention quite a lot.  A perk of this store as opposed to Toho Shoji, is the fact that they have a selection of acrylic chain as well as metal chain.  However, the overall selection of chains in general is smaller.  The organization of the spools is also a little bit messy, and you sometimes have to search for what you want.  The chain spools are kept in the back of the store to the left of the cash wrap counter, and some are kept right in front of it.  A great perk of this store is that they have chain metal by the yard as well.  I couldn't find a picture of chain metal, but it's basically flat metal pieces attached together by metal rings.  It is very flexible, and it is used a lot in jewelry.  It can make a great embellishment to garments, and I have seen it used for shoulder patches or on patch pocket flaps.  The prices are cheaper as well, as they price by the yard instead of by the foot.  A yard of chain goes for anywhere from $4-$9 per yard.

Maybe I'm a secret junkie for shiny things and my simple nature tends to lead me away from the chains that I seem to gravitate towards.  Either way, whenever I pluck up the courage to make something sassy with chain, I'll know exactly where to go.