A weathered loft building planted in the middle of an industrial zone in Bushwick, just off the Morgan stop on the L train, leaves little clue of the punky kaleidoscope on its fourth floor—the work space of JoAnn Berman, couturier for pop stars, the Metropolitan Opera, and under Britain’s Zandra Rhodes.
She has stories of styling a Michael Jackson video during the early 1990s—contemporaneous with her nights at Club 57 with the likes of Keith Haring and Dianne Brill. During the anti-fashion 1990s, she pushed forward her “jail suit,” which became the definitive name for the big hip-hop acts of the era, such as NWA, Sean Combs and A Tribe Called Qwest. More recently, her former boutique at 112th Street and 1st Avenue in East Harlem got a visit from Rihanna.
At the soul of her look—both in terms of the clothing strewn across her atelier and her own sartorial preferences—is her, rip it up, de and reconstruct, do-it-yourself early 1980s Lower East Side ethos. “In the 1980s, there were no cool stores,” Berman says, bedecked in a pair of black-and-white hound’s-tooth leggings and a coordinating argyle sweater vest. “Everyone was just trying to be rock stars and trying to outdo each other.”
While the days of $90/month rent for a place at the corner of Elizabeth and Prince are now as rare as an original pressing of Richard Hell and Television’s “Blank Generation,” Berman has a bit of advice for Williamsburg’s young music enthusiasts of today.
“I think Brooklyn needs to go crazy and take it beyond tattoos and nose rings and get back to dressing to promote a feeling.” And her Brooklyn Artillery show 6 pm tomorrow evening at developer and benefactor Mayer Schwartz’s Castle Braid development (at 114 Troutman, where once stood the building’s namesake clothing trim factory) is set to throw some ideas in that direction.
Set to a hodgepodge soundtrack of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Siouxsie Sioux, models are to parade out with geisha-inspired visages, feathers and styling becoming of ballerinas and nymphs. Among the models is her 13-year-old daughter, set to show off a set of lavender ballet flats finishing off an Art Nouveau-esque Tokyo ensemble.
Berman realizes her “stuff is a little out there for most people,” although she advises people just need as little as signature accessory to set off their own style. Perhaps a worthy candidate in that regard is her leopard-print lambskin gloves, due at Henri Bendel by Thanksgiving.
In the meantime, those who miss her Saturday show can get a glimpse of her version of DIY at www.joannberman.com.
Leave a Reply