Photograph by John Midgley.
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In Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood, there’s a boutique called the Brooklyn Circus, a purveyor of finely made fashions inspired by the days of bowties, vests, suspenders, tweed trousers, and tailored jackets, all with a modern street twist. Photographer John Midgley lives near the store and became friends with gregarious Circus ringmaster Ouigi (pronounced “Weegee”), and that friendship soon led to inspiration.
Midgley decided he wanted to do a portrait project based on the Brooklyn Circus, focusing on the staff and its wildly varied and highly fashionable clientele. He teamed up with stylist Scott Newkirk, with whom he has worked for nearly nine years. “Scott has an effortlessness to his styling that is hard to describe, but when you see images he has styled, you get it,” notes John. “It isn’t always about the clothes—for him, it’s often just as much about the casting and environment.” (Interesting side note: Scott has a cabin in Yulan, New York, that has no electricity or running water, no TV, and no computer—but miles of style. New York magazine wrote about it in 2007.)
Last month, he and Scott devoted three days to photographing at and around the Bergen Street shop. (John sent us the above photo from the shoot, a buoyant, collegial event ably chronicled by Ouigi at his blog.) I spoke to Midgley, Newkirk, and Ouigi about the project, which Midgley is hoping to place in a fashion glossy and may eventually turn into a book.
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JOHN MIDGLEY: “The project is part of an ongoing fascination of mine with the Brooklyn Circus, its clientele, and its workers. I have lived next door to them for over three years and watched them grow. Ouigi, its creative force, looks like, well, one of the Furry Freak Brothers crossed with Picasso, David Hockney, Le Corbusier, and Grover Washington Jr. You can sometimes see him wearing a waistcoat, a bandanna tied up as a scarf to one side, as if it’s a cravat, a black beret, heavy black-rimmed ’50s-style glasses, and baggy jeans. He has a very definite and very individual style that is hard to quantify but is immediately all his own. Add to that he is the warmest, happiest, and most unassuming person up close, and you can’t help but be drawn into his world. The people who work for him are equally warm and sincere. They are stylistically from the same cloth but very much individuals.”
SCOTT NEWKIRK: “Though I have lived in New York for almost 25 years, I am a recent resident of Brooklyn and have become fascinated and inspired by the unique world that has been created and preserved here. When John mentioned the Brooklyn Circus project, the timing could not have been more perfect. I had seen the store while biking through the neighborhood but hadn’t had the opportunity to go in, though I remembered a couple of guys standing outside on the corner with this crazy, cool style—something I couldn’t quite pinpoint. The references were such a unique mix, and at bike speed, it just made me smile.”
OUIGI: “John explained to me that he really liked what we were doing and how we brought a different element to style and fashion and he wanted to capture that. He mentioned that he really liked the range of individuals that shopped at the store. No matter what the gender, race, or background, there is an energy that binds the people that frequent our stores. John lives in the neighborhood amongst many talented and beautiful creators, and as a photographer his job is to find interesting people. We are building an environment inside and outside our physical stores. We don’t conform to our environment; our environment conforms to us, and we enjoy that.”
MIDGLEY: “In the store windows, there are old bicycles and chairs harking back to an era of antiques and gentility, but next to that are the latest Adidas from China, all shiny and plastic. Retro Japanese digital watches. Oh, and did I mention the big hot-rod motorbike in the store, and the paintings of Hussars on the wall? The store concept and its workers are redefining style in a way that is fresh and exciting. It reminds me of England in the early ’80s, where West Indian culture was mixing with disaffected working-class white youth to create a new style: ska/two-tone. But what is different with the Brooklyn Circus is that this feels more eclectic, with more cultural and historical references and a lack of racial insecurity. All of that together is refreshing, positive, and fun. Brooklyn black and dandy does not start to describe it.”
NEWKIRK: “What John wanted to do was really treat this as a visual documentary. When he took me to the store for the first time to show me what they were all about, I immediately noticed a spirit there that was much more than a cool retail environment. It was more of a social club with no rules other than live, love, express yourself, and dress well while you do it. I was hooked. And I knew that the most important thing I needed to do as a stylist was to keep the authenticity that Ouigi had cultivated.
I came equipped with a few interesting vintage pieces just for backup: an old bandanna print shirt, a bowler hat that had been used by a circus clown in the 1930s and was painted white with a red spiral around the crown, a short leather color-blocked windbreaker from the 1950s in black and red, and a few other things—all of which seemed completely unrelated individually, but when looking at them in a group, I felt I had tapped into the spirit of Ouigi’s vision. That said, I had already established in my mind that I wanted to do as little to the people we were shooting as possible, and probably wouldn’t even need to do anything. It wasn’t about me.”
OUIGI: “The Brooklyn Circus stands for style and character through our hundred-year plan. It serves everyone who appreciates an honest story, creative freedom, and the American dream. We respect the iconic brands that have shaped the face of America, and we are following in their footsteps. Our plan is to tell the “Brown Story” through our style, our character, and the fashion industry. Ralph Lauren had a plan, and so do we: to show that as people, we are not so different after all. We have more in common and are all working with the same elements towards the same thing: “self discovery.”
The Brooklyn Circus is inspired by the Civil Rights movement, the Harlem Renaissance, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince, the Black Panthers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. Musically: disco, reggae, and the Rude Boys of the ’70s struggling to master their music and bring better conditions to the ghettos. The Mexican Americans and Native American struggle and spirituality. The Brooklyn Circus stands for so much style and character that hasn’t been fully expressed; bits and pieces have been explored, but we hope to explore it thoroughly. That’s why we need at minimum 100 years to tell it. This is all a visual exploration waiting to unfold.”
NEWKIRK: It was the location—authentic to the story—and a spirit of joy that were key to pulling this together.
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Ouigi (far left), John Midgley (center), and Scott Newkirk (in white tee) at the Brooklyn Circus shoot.
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