refashion

When Giana Pilar Gonzaléz, coming from a background in architecture, learned to program in the early 2000s, she was surprised to realize: techies share their codes to teach other programmers!

Under given circumstance (namely the pandemic) I got time to further edit my New York talks. It´s the best way for me right now reaching states of concentration, which I love. Now I would like to share my encounter with Elena Kanagy-Loux. I was first intrigued by her style, when I was waiting for the talk she was about to give and then captured by her expertise on lace. I could listen to Elena for hours - love her elastic mind and learned a lot from her historical and technical knowledge about lace but also from her perspectives on this valuable and complex handcraft. Moreover Elena has many anecdotes to share and therefore I remember the talk exceptionally well. We touched upon Disneyland and History Bounding, Lolita look in Japan, the best place for hippies in the US, working for Courtney Love, the „shiny moment" of landing on a worst dress list, and for sure a lot about lace. Elena is the founder of the "Brooklyn Lace Guild" in New York City.

Most mysterious indoors I´ve experienced in New York: THE ODDLY SATISFYING SPA.

"I like the more interesting, kinda crazy stuff". This is Cindy Hulej speaking about her special approach in building and embellishing guitars. She decorates them in many ways, from which one is to use a woodburner. Often she ends up having the bodies fully decked out with the most wonderful detailed drawings, showing portraits of e.g. the Beatles or cathedrals. She learned to built from Rick Kelly, owner of the legendary shop "Carmine Street Guitars" in New York´s famous Greenwhich Village. A place that feels like old New York as many do agree upon. Old means true creative vibes remained here, but yet fresh as I want to add, to not forget about the relentless dedication and constant transformation you can meet when entering the heart of the store, the workshop, where Cindy and Rick are to meet most likely.

I got to know Janelle Abbott first as one part of the collaborative duo "Femail". Here she, together with Camilla Carper, creates beautiful and complex fashion, using upcycling. Since Janelle lives in Seattle and Camilla in Los Angeles, they use snail mail, sending back and forth their pieces, until they are ready. I fell in love with their work through an article about upcycling on fashionista.com. Luckily they hosted a workshop in NYC while I was in town - a collective refashioning session - sure that I went there ! The interview is recorded via Skype, because Janelle was already back in Seattle. Janelle and me talk about Femail, but also about her very own work, which includes a beautiful project called "Wardrobe Therapy", about seeing and living live as a Gesamtkunstwerk and why Lady Gaga ended up buying a dress that have been sweatpants of her dad before.

Martina Cox took a break from art university and opened a second-hand-shop out of her apartment. That`s when she also began to alter garments. Half a year later, she took her new and beloved approach in fashion and went back with it to art school.

Mikaila Brown created her own businessmodel combining her PhD in anthroplogy and her love for fashion: Mikaila Brown is a fashion anthroplogist.

Otto von Busch is full time faculty at Integrated Design, School of Design Strategies and point person for the minor in Alternative Fashion Strategies at "Parsons The New School in New York City".