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Sew fine: Handiwork
by Art Bag. |
Best Repair Shops
Who to call when you really need a fix
Clocks
Antiquarian Horologist
1 Beekman Street, Room 507
212-587-3715
John Metcalfe will work on any non-battery-operated clock, be it "an early Woolworth or a late Faberge," or even a complicated grande sonnerie, which he describes as "a clock that simply won't shut up." Metcalfe recently overhauled a Renaissance table clock ("All the parts were there, but it hadn't run in centuries") that he got working for $1,000. Prices start at $200 for general repairs and $600 for long-case (grandfather) clocks and escalate based on complexity. He makes housecalls and guarantees his work for a year.
Jewelry
Murrey's Jewelers
1395 Third Avenue
Near 79th Street
212-879-3690
In business 60 years, Murrey's and its nimble-fingered wizards tackle everything from commonplace soldering (attaching charms, $4 and up; ring-sizing, $25 and up; replacing posts on earrings, $12.50 and up) to reconfiguring caches of estate jewelry. They’ll restring complicated, multi-strand, woven pearl/bead chokers (a single-strand pearl choker starts at $20) and overhaul or service just about any brand of watch, from a Hamilton or Gruen ($125 and up) to a Patek Philippe or Rolex ($200 and up). Murrey's team of seven jewelers and watchmakers will become nine when the glass-enclosed-repair-booth-of-a-shop expands this summer.
Shoes
Angelos Shoe Restorer
666 Fifth Avenue
At 53rd Street
212-757-6364
Top Service
845 Seventh Avenue
Near 55th Street
212-765-3190
Sure, most places can fix a heel or add taps to your soles, but when it comes to restoring an old pair of boots, fixing an intricate detail on a purse, or changing last year's heel to make those $400 stilettos street-worthy again, you have to go to an expert who can handle the tricky work. Angelo's will polish up a delicate vintage bag to new freshness, add inches to those pumps that didn't make you quite tall enough and brush up suede to just-purchased luster. Top Service is one of the only shoemakers with a special machine to re-solder buckles, chains, and other detached metal bits. And don’t worry that those killer snakeskin boots you bought are too loose around the calf — they’ll take them in, as if they were altering a dress.
Furniture
Oliver Westermeier
212-473-2408
The key to transforming a piece of so-called trash furniture into an astonishing gem is getting the right person to restore it. Oliver Westermeier restores wood furniture, specializing in French polishing. He's been tapped by top designers, including Peter Marino, and the occasional celebrity, like Michael Douglas, to work his magic on a range of period styles, from vintage modern to original Vienna Secession. And he makes house calls.
Carpets, Average
Majestic Rug Cleaning Co., Inc.
644 Whittier Street, the Bronx
718-542-7474
Patching a twelve-inch square starts at $50. Majestic will also sew tears, refringe ends ($12 a yard), overcast frayed edges, machine-bind edges ($1.25 a linear foot), and so on, but they do not reweave. Cleaning is based on carpet classification, from simple bound remnants to delicate handmades like Orientals (a nine-by-twelve-foot would range from $98 to $140).
Carpets, Expensive
Restoration by Costikyan
28-13 14th Street, Long Island City
800-247-7847
This is the place for carpets with a price tag and a pedigree; work is pricey but masterful and meticulous. Cleaning a nine-by-twelve-foot Oriental is $350 to $400; an Aubusson, about $500; a more delicate carpet with silk in it, $500 to $600. In addition to standard repairs (refringing two ends of a nine-by-twelve-foot Oriental runs $500 to $700; hand-binding the non-fringed sides, about $750), Costikyan does tedious and time-consuming reweaving (a twelve-inch square would cost about $2,500; merely patching it about $600).
Bag Repair
Art Bag
735 Madison Avenue
212-744-2720
Modern Leather
Goods
2 West 32nd Street
212-947-7770
Spilt Chianti, melted lipstick, vicious subway doors — when it's time to take that classic Kelly into the shop, go where Tod's, Stephane Kélian, Saks, and Denise Ridge go — to Art Bag or Modern Leather Goods. The two shops see 200 bags a week each — and employ a small army of leather workers and fabric houses. Services start at simple strap repairs and fabric dry cleaning (for about $65) and go right up through relining, rewelting, reglazing, replating, or giving up and re-creating.
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