-WEDNESDAY WINDOWS-

Last look at NYC's Holiday Windows @Bergdorfs

2021 brought a test of resilience --from welcoming a new president, to shocking supply chain shortages, to availability of COVID vaccinations (and boosters!) and a gradual re-opening of the world. We saw a FRIENDS reunion, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle speak with Oprah, #FREEBRITNEY and more... and we cringe as we revert back to: long lines for COVID testing, people dying and closed borders / stores / schools due to Omnicron. Given the positives, the negatives and the unexpected in-betweens, the last couple years whisper that the wise soak up the present and treat each day like a glorious sunset. The Present Moment windows @Bergdorfs echoes this sentiment, featuring vignettes of audaciously happy moments, frozen in time. A little late to posting, but what better way to ring in the new year, than with sequins, sparkle, style... and a little sass? Cheers to 2022! Keep reading for one last look at the holiday windows on 58th and 5th...

Janette Beckman - REBELS: FROM PUNK TO DIOR @ FOTOGRAFISKA NY

[L] Contact sheet from 1987 - Chuck D + Public Enemy // [R] Salt-n-peppa (NYC, 1987)

Despite a cultural burgeoning of NYC in the early 80s, an ethereal energy attracted Janette Beckman to New York's underground Hip hop scene. Armed with a camera and curiosity for photographing people, Beckman spent the better part of 4 decades documenting subcultures from rap and hip hop personalities to LA gangs and illegal girls' fight clubs. Familiar faces, immortalized by Beckman's lens, line the 6th floor  at Fotografiska, NY. Following a 40-year journey photographing musicians to high fashion, Janette Beckman REBELS: From Punk to Dior spotlights 11 key pieces that capture the essence of rebellious youth culture to recent collaborations for Levi's and Dior. Keep reading to see more...

SUSAN ALEXANDRA: BEADS + BAGS + BRIGHTNESS FOR THE LOWER EAST SIDE

Mosaic Wishing Well inside Susan Alexandra @ 33 Orchard St.

Grab onto the beaded banana and let yourself into Susan Alexandra's sunny bead-filled paradise! Doused in yellow and blue tile with peachy pink accent walls, the former tattoo parlor at 33 Orchard street has been transformed into the dream retail reality of brand founder Susan Korn. Designer Lula Galea and architect Levi Shaw-Faber consciously created a truly exceptional space, capitalizing on and perfecting every detail. Opened on October 29th, the store's candy colored presentation and product depict delight at every turn. The mosaic wishing well is a masterful centerpiece, inviting iconic insta-worth moments. Drop a penny in for extra good fortune! Keep reading to see inside...

WILLI SMITH: STREET COUTURE @COOPER HEWITT

Entry to Willi Smith: Street Couture at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Venture through the chain-link fence and step into a legacy that was lost two decades ago. Though a seemingly unusual aesthetic for the Cooper Hewitt, Willi Smith: Street Couture brings forward a retrospective of the most commercially successful Black American designer and cultural catalyst of the 20th century. With a modern twist, the exhibit "surveys Smith's pathbreaking imagination of an inclusive, collaborative and playful new society" [Cooper Hewitt]. Curator Alexandra Cunningham Cameron--Curator of Contemporary Design and Hintz Secretarial Scholar--successfully shines the spotlight on an under-appreciated designer whose success was largely eclipsed by the popular European designers of his time. Keep reading for a look inside...

DRAG QUEENS BY MARTIN SCHOELLER @ PROJEKT 105 GALLERY

Close up of William // Drag Queens photographed by Martin Schoeller @Projekt 105 Gallery

An often misunderstood--though uniquely transitory--celebration of self-expression, drag culture has emerged from the shadows and become a revolutionized public performance art. Rounding out the last stretch of Pride Month, Martin Schoeller's Drag Queens at Projekt 105 Gallery in Tribeca showcases a palette of piquant portraiture featuring better and lesser known personalities. Having opened June 23rd, the exhibit is a work-in-progress and will run until September. Keep reading for a look inside...

PIERRE BERGIAN: PORTRAITS OF ROOMS @ EERDMANS GALLERY

Grand Salon of Karl Lagerfeld, 51 Rue de l'Université, Paris (2020) by Pierre Bergian // Portraits of Rooms @Eerdmans NYC

Prosecco and Perrier paired with paintings in the parlor make for a unique Saturday afternoon. In an intimate and purposefully private tour of Pierre Bergian's 20+ Portraits of Rooms at Eerdmans' newly expanded gallery, Emily Evans Eerdmans herself details the icons and inspiration behind the portraiture. Through combining artistic interpretation with actual visits and photographs, Bergian affords his viewers access to the personal dwellings of familiar fashion and design icons. Contrary to tradition, this latest collection of interiors by Bergian is filled with furniture! Keep reading for a look inside... 

VOGUE, THE ARAB ISSUE @FOTOGRAFISKA

Entry of the 3rd floor exhibit of Hassan Hajjaj's VOGUE, The Arab Issue @Fotografiska NYC

Drawing inspiration from Vogue (think "September Issue"), Hassan Hajjaj assembles "Vogue: The Arab Issue" playing on both the definition of "issue" given the political environment of the Middle East and the seasonal masterpieces published by the world's premier fashion magazine. With no shortage of polka dots, candy-colored coverings and standout pattern-on-pattern, Hajjaj's retrospective at Fotografiska complements his concurrent show at Yossi Milo Gallery. Keep reading for a look inside...

MY ROCKSTARS by HASSAN HAJJAJ @ YOSSI MILO GALLERY

Sarah Perles Gazin' (2015) by Hassan Hajjaj as part of My Rockstars @Yossi Milo Gallery

With Spring in the air and the availability of COVID vaccines, the "next normal" approaches as New York City and parts of the world emerge from a year overshadowed by the global pandemic. Feeling increasingly distant from all things fashion, I'm excited to stumble on a gallery gem between a birthday brunch and baby duty. Hassan Hajjaj delights with a solo exhibit featuring fashion portraiture entrenched in culturally conspicuous colors, piercing patterns and spot-on styling. My Rockstars at Yossi Milo Gallery reinvigorates the inner fashionsta and exudes positive energy. Keep reading for a look inside...

KAWS: WHAT PARTY @ Brooklyn Museum

WHAT PARTY; painted bronze statue at the entry of KAWS WHAT PARTY exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum #KAWSBKM

On March 11, 2020, I indulged my inner diva at the press preview of Studio 54 Night Magic at the Brooklyn Museum--a day before NYC shut down. As a first "re-emergence," I figured it would be fitting to re-energize the blog--exactly one year later--with a look at KAWS: WHAT PARTY (new exhibit in the same space). As a new mom, these last 12 months has been a whirlwind of emotion; walking through the KAWS press preview on February 24th, I saw the personification of many of those emotions via KAWs' signature Chum, BFF and Companion. Keep reading for a look inside... 

NEW DAILY PAPER FLAGSHIP ON DELANCEY ST

First Daily Paper Flagship in the Lower East Side of NYC on the corner of Christie and Delancey Streets

Survival of the fittest transforms the NYC retail landscape as a pandemic, civil unrest and a hotly contested election trigger store shutterings, job loss and an overall sales slowdown. Amid the chaos, a ray of hope has sprouted on the corner of Delancey and Christie Streets. Daily Paper, a brand founded by Dutch friends Hussein Suleiman (whose family is from Somalia), Abderrahmane Trabsini (whose family is from Morocco) and Jefferson Osei (whose family is from Ghana), opened its New York Flagship in the Lower East Side on October 24th. This is the first store outside Amsterdam for the Black-owned fashion brand. Keep reading for a look inside the captivating space...