Meet "The Tocas"
We are the husband and wife team Justin and Monica Toca that is behind our newest "online" project Fire Lily Vintage located in Astoria, Queens NYC. Since launching our first vintage brick and mortar shop Toca Nyc Vintage in 2013 we have been hand selecting fine antique and vintage pieces with history and character to complete your space, wardrobe, accessory, and costume collection. Our collection spans many design eras ranging from Victorian, tribal, Mid Century Modern, militaria, Art Deco, industrial, Mod and farm house. Each item has been scouted, picked, dug out, or salvaged from from Long Island estates, turn of the century churches, NYC brownstones and lofts, and even old barns upstate New York.
Our collection reflects our own design aesthetic, which is a love for mixing time periods, cultures, and patterns, textures without following any rules. Our love for collecting has been inspired from working in the entertainment industry, interior design, and hospitality field in NYC for over 40 years combined. We have been told by many that walking into our first shop was like “stumbling across a secret treasure chest”. They were nominated many times as “Best Boutique” by We Heart Astoria and “Best of New York” by Time Out New York.
Although we were gaining momentum in Astoria quickly we made a hard decisiion to decide to close our shop after 5 years to start a family and to be able to reach more clients by concentrating on our online presence.
We have been working in the NYC Nightlife since the early 1990’s. decorating venues, producing events, styling performers, managing and bartending in NYC’s hottest nightclubs. Our passion for the underground music scene led us to create our own tech-house costume party called TOCA CIELO that ran at the legendary Cielo club in the Meat Packing District, NYC for 7 years.
Our love for costuming and styling, led us to purchasing a huge collection of authentic vintage costumes from the historical NYC Opera. They are available for purchaseing or even rented by emailing us. New costumes are added monthly here to our online inventory.
Follow us on Instagram
Follow our little family life living in NYC, get to know how we view #TocaNycStyle, and the behind the scenes of our vintage picks. Never miss a new item posted, or flash and holiday sales.
The Alé Alé Foundation
Justin found his calling many years ago when he pursued a dream teaching children and being a mentor. He has been an after school teacher in the NYC school system for over 15 years teaching drumming, art, movement, dance and Capoeira. In 2007 a passion and dream of Justin's was manifested by starting The Alé Alé Foundation. Justin always dreamed of going back to his homeland of NIcaragua after being away for over 35 years and recconnecting with his roots by giving back to the children. Justin and Monica create fundraisers through their events and online platforms to raise money for the foundation to take a group of teachers back to Central America to offer a hands on approach to share to arts education for students of all ages. Focusing on drum, song, dance, and capoeira in the underserved cities in Nicaragua, they have both traveled back 4 different summers to over 10 cities to volunteer and teach. You can stay connected to our foundation on the by clicking The Alé Alé Foundation tab at the bottom of the home screen which will lead you to our Facebook page to see all videos and pictures.
