Shopping
Online Store of the Week: Shop Occulter for Morrissey-shaped candles, human jaw relicas and all other witchy, uh, essentials
The shop: When did sorcery get so expensive? At Occulter, the two-year-old home of jewellers and object-makers Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons, dark arts become artisanship, and artisanship is code for $$$$$. Perhaps that’s why, at Occulter’s physical manifestation on the Lower East Side, you have to make a private appointment to shop for Styxian accoutrements. Its e-shop, though, is always open, and while it’s much less spell-binding, it’s also less likely to black-leech your bank account dry. I’m not arguing the price of handcraftsmanship, or of magic. It’s just that in the cold light of Google Chrome, a multi-thousand-dollar “Navajo Shamanic” breastplate made from “upcycled salvaged materials” seems exactly as “witch, please” as it is.
The goods: Necromantic influences have ridden the runways for some seasons now, but for Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons designer-founder Derrick Cruz, it’s not a trend—it’s a lifestyle, death-style. He sells a handful of designers who share his sixth-sensibility: Gabriel J. Shuldiner, Langoliers and Bevel, who make the best-selling “Camazotz” ring ($265).
Ashy landscapes by Brooklyn artist Jeremy Dyer run from $3,000 to $9,000; holding down the other end of the scale are Binchotan charcoal toothbrushes ($10) and teas with names like potions (also $10).A voodoo-y keychain with a hand-carved porcelain bighorn charm and hammered silver keys is $650, at which price you’d rather lose a kidney than your keys. This braided bangle, made-to-order from the blondest American horsehair, is $440, and corsetish lamb-leather wrist cuffs are $350 (then again, both could pass for Ann Demeulemeester and, by that standard, are almost a bargain).
As fortune has it, if you are reading this before July 1, you’re in time to spirit away a piece or two from Occulter’s seasonal sample sale. Bevel’s “Razor House” bracelet, like a silver vagina dentata, is $400 marked down from $1,040; a Mayan underworld-inspired rosary is $555 from $1,111; and a skull ring is $220 from $444. Don’t get a skull ring, though. Are you 12?
The shipping: You pay this much, you get packaging you almost want to frame (pictured). Most orders ship within five days, and costs are calculated by weight. Inquire before you buy: Occulter staff are quick to respond on all channels of social media. Just don’t let them hex you into buying that $2,500 24K-gold replica—I hope—of a human jaw.
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