Old-Lady Dresses in Brooklyn

There seems to be at least one on every block in the city?the older lady, the Spanish grandma, the Italian great-aunt, sweeping the sidewalk in her printed housecoat with her stockings rolled under her knees, the bedroom slippers with the heels smashed flat in the back. They are like a small army, a silent but powerful faction and they all dress exactly alike. Where do they get these uniforms, though, is what I want to know. Is there a special mail-order catalog? More likely, they just ferret out the few remaining stores that specialize in ladies of a certain age. Once they find one, I like to think that they pass along the information through an underground network, like spies.

One such treasured place, I am sure, is the Marietta Dress Shop in Carroll Gardens. I discovered it when I used to get my hair done at Nancy Ann's Beauty Salon. (Where, on any given Saturday afternoon, there were five blue-haired neighborhood gals discussing Anne Marie's diabetes, plus those old-fashioned cone-type hair dryers.) I was intrigued by its lovely cream-and-blue sign and striped awning?it stood out because you could tell the sign was definitely from another era. Any place that has not succumbed to those awful flat awnings, so prevalent everywhere, gets immediate respect from me, no matter what they sell inside.

The inside matches the outside, though, at this small store. It reminds me of an old dry goods store, with its wooden floors and the merchandise in boxes on the shelves. I ambled in there last weekend, to talk to the owners, two brothers, as it turned out. The first one was reluctant to talk?"I don't want my name in nothing. I don't want to get involved." I was a little taken aback, not realizing there was a code of omerta among dress shop owners. The other brother, Matt, was more friendly, and once he got going, he told me a lot about the place. He said they had been in business 60 years.

"My mother, Marietta, started the store. It's named after her. We took over from her after we got out of the service."

I mentioned that a lot of their items, such as the authentic 1940s-style stockings, are hard to find any place else.

"Sure," he said, "we've been ordering from the same companies for a long time. We get customers that have been coming in for years, three or four generations. We sell the basics, no novelties. Housecoats are our biggest seller."

Think cozy here?shortsleeve ladies' pajamas, fleece sweatshirts, long underwear, children's mittens with little ducks on them?and you can't go wrong. On the less snuggly side, they are a great source for retro stockings, the kind you need a garter belt for. The prices are extremely reasonable too. Just don't try to ask "Tony" any secrets of the trade.

Marietta Dress Shop, 392 Court St. (betw. Carroll St. & 1st Pl.), Brooklyn, 718-624-2583.