Give Brooklyn

Give the gift of Brooklyn this holiday with these borough-centric items from some of the borough’s newest designers. 

AphroChic throw pillows

Earlier this fall, AphroChic, a lifestyle brand focusing on high-end product design, launches its “Brooklyn Renaissance” line, comprised of table top décor, wall coverings and other decorative items that pay tribute to our borough. But the most eye-catching items belong to the throw pillows ($105-$225) inspired by some neighborhoods and the women that inhabit them. Prints include the Fort Greene, which features a stencil drawing of a fashionably dressed young woman sipping a latte and reading a book, and the Park Slope — an image of an equally chic young woman standing next to a taxi.

Sheepshead Designs prints

Sure, there are hundreds of paintings and prints of the Brooklyn Bridge, but Sheepshead Designs’ bold offerings are hard to beat. The original prints by designer Philip Sachs, which range in size from  5X7 to 16X20 ($20-$50), feature a skyline view of the Brooklyn Bridge as seen from the Brooklyn side, of course. The views are all the same, but color palettes vary from vibrant reds to navy to orange. So you can find one for any color scheme, regardless of what color the Brooklyn Bridge actually is.

Find Sheepshead Design at the Brooklyn Flea [1 Hanson Pl. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 230-0400], Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am-5 pm.

Pop Chart Lab posters

The Gowanus-based design collective Pop Chart Lab started making its pop culture obsessed posters and T-shirts this past September, which chart varieties of beer, video game controllers and names of rappers. But its more clever conceits is the “No Sleep ’til Breuckelen” poster ($18), a black, grey and white print that gives a shoutout to 17th-century Dutch Brooklyn with a map of the original Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Bosjick, Rood Hoek and Midwout. There’s even a colonial dude with a massive boombox rocking out. Finally, the hip-hop loving historian in your life can kick it olde school.