Ophelia & Indigo, Little Island Oyster Market, and Cocktails for Good

Your Weekend Buzz is here!

Happy weekend folks! I’m out in the North Fork enjoying some downtime and many good meals: lunch at Anker, oysters at Little Creek, lobster rolls at The Southold Fish Market, dinners at Southold Social, The Minnow, and Little Fish, wine and cheese at Lieb, and a cool Orient spot called the Sunshine Shack in Orient my friend Tom Miale told me about that the folks that run Little Creek opened it a few years ago. They have lobster rolls, beer, and live music right on the beach. All good. Friends have visited, my kids are here, the water is lovely, the summer sun is high, and books are being read —Sandwich by Catherine Newman, and J. Courtney Sullivan’s latest, The Cliffs, both great. Mom is doing well, Murray has a nice cat sitter so I am pretty much in heaven.

Signs of summer on the North Fork.

I’ve got two great food events happening this weekend to share, but first a little story about a beautiful little clothing brand founded by two women in my neighborhood that does more than just put pretty dresses on Brooklyn moms. They’ve got a cool social impact piece to their business too. Read on about Ophelia & Indigo and then check out the Weekend Buzz below after the jump. See you on Monday!

xx

Andrea

Ophelia & Indigo: Dreamy Dresses that Give Back

I am taking a little detour from food coverage here to share a little about a brand I love called Ophelia & Indigo. I met founders Claire and Lucy at their sample sale in Cobble Hill where we chatted while I tried on everything in the pop-up. I found two dresses (the Evie and the Sybil) that I adore and would wear every day if I could wash them often enough. People stop me on the street asking about these dresses, so it seems I’m not the only one who loves them. But these are not just pretty dresses. There’s more.

The brand was founded by two friends from London who both relocated to New York with their families from London due to work just before the pandemic. Claire is a former fashion buyer and Lucy is an ethical sourcing specialist with a background in PR and copywriting. The two initially met through their children’s school in Brooklyn, and worked together on a number of work projects.

When the world shut-down, they did what most of us did; they took long walks, drank decent amounts of cheap wine, encouraged their kids to stay off screens, and came up with a vision for what a fashion brand might look like that kept ethical sourcing and a meaningful purpose in its heart. They thought about the vintage pieces Claire had sourced on her many buying trips across the world, and imagined a more modern silhouette.

What emerged was one dress, a sort of a fancy schmatta or what they called a “throw on” dress, created for the New York summer, made from carefully selected, ethically-sourced Indian printed cotton at an affordable price-point. Ophelia & Indigo grew from there, an entire line of breezy, pretty, effortlessly easy dresses, tops, pajamas and more sewn from that same gorgeous block-printed fabric from India. 

But the purpose part of their business is their partnership with the Pajama Program, a national nonprofit that promotes and supports a comforting bedtime routine and healthy sleep for children to help them thrive. The organization got its start in 2001 and has helped millions of children facing adversity in the United States and Puerto Rico by providing new pajamas, storybooks and sleep health education resources for caregivers. Claire and Lucy use their surplus fabric to make pajamas for the New York City Chapter of the Pajama Program and specifically for children in a domestic violence shelter right here in Brooklyn.

They also donate books from our local bookstore, Emma Straub’s Books Are Magic, along with every pajama delivery, supporting Pajama Program’s mission to provide children with a comforting bedtime routine.

I love these women and their dresses so much, and they are putting their full-price frocks on sale now with code BESTOFSUMMER you’ll get 20% off. I love a good deal, and I hope you love their clothes as much as I do.