Union Max

About Union Max

Union Max is a specialist's shop disguised as a general one. From the street it reads as another Carroll Gardens vintage store; inside, the density and the specificity of the stock make clear that this is somewhere people come for particular things they cannot find elsewhere.

Beads and buttons are the foundation and the reason the shop has a following well beyond the neighbourhood. Vintage glass and metal beads, sorted and boxed, sit alongside a genuinely deep vintage button collection — the sort of resource that costume designers, jewellery makers, and people restoring old garments rely on. Around that core sits vintage jewellery spanning the 1930s through the 1980s, priced across a wide range from a few dollars to serious collector pieces.

The clothing side runs to designer womenswear and children's clothing, and the shop rounds out with records, books, art, and vintage housewares. The overall effect is closer to a well-kept curiosity cabinet than a clothing rack, and it rewards the kind of shopper who enjoys looking through boxes.

Pricing spans the full range — pocket-change beads and buttons up to genuinely valuable jewellery — so it suits both a browse and a serious hunt. The shop sits on Union Street toward the Columbia Waterfront end of Carroll Gardens, a walk west from the F and G at Carroll Street. It pairs naturally with Yesterday's News on Court Street: between them they cover most of what the neighbourhood's antiques-and-objects scene has to offer.

What to Expect