Past Event: Worn in New York

Join three distinctively fashionable New Yorkers – hip hop pioneer and artist Fab 5 Freddy; Executive Fashion Director of Cosmopolitan and Seventeen Aya Kanai; and artist/fabric designer Elizabeth Sweetheart (a.k.a. the Green Lady of Brooklyn) – for a candid and wide-ranging conversation about the significance of what we choose to wear. From a long-lost straw hat, to green overalls, to a pair of (literally) life-changing boots, they’ll trade intimate sartorial stories and consider how clothing provides an endlessly fertile field for personal expression and communication, especially in a city as style-conscious as New York. Moderated by Emily Spivack, author of Worn in New York: 68 Sartorial Memoirs of the City.

Reception and book signing to follow.

About the Speakers:
Fab 5 Freddy was born in Brooklyn. He exploded on the scene in the late ‘70s as one of the first graffiti artists to exhibit his paintings internationally.  In the late ‘80s, he hosted the MTV program YO! MTV Raps, which became the highest rated show on the channel and spread hip hop culture internationally. 

Aya Kanai has been chief fashion director at Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and Woman’s Day, and is a judge on Project Runway Junior. She has worked in print editorial, celebrity dressing, online retail, and advertising at a variety of fashion-related companies and publications including Teen Vogue and Nylon magazine. 

Elizabeth Sweetheart is an artist and textile designer. She has designed hand-painted prints for clothing designers including Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.  Known as the "Green Lady of Brooklyn" she has dressed completely in green and decorated her home in the color for more than 20 years, and has become a well-known phenomena both in New York City and internationally. 

Emily Spivack (moderator) is an artist, writer, and editor whose work draws from contemporary culture, fashion, history, and our relationship to everyday objects. She is the author of Worn in New York (2017) and the New York Times best selling Worn Stories, has a recurring column for the New York Times called “The Story of a Thing,” and recently had a project at MoMA entitled “An archive of everything worn to MoMA from November 1, 2017, to January 28, 2018.”

This talk is part of our Core Conversations series, which features the city's most original thinkers as they engage with topics related to our New York at Its Core exhibition. To view all the programs in the series, click here.