Anne Szustek

Hip to Be Square: Halloween De-Stijl-It-Yourself

October 23, 2009 By Anne Szustek Leave a Comment

Anne S goes Mondrian at a Williamsburg Halloween DIY.

Ever since I took AP Art History junior year at my high school in Minneapolis’ western suburbs, I have been enamored with the black right angles and the crisp use of primary colors in the works of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, member of the early 20th century art movement neoplasticism, also known by the Dutch term De Stijl, or “the style.”

Mondrian’s planar color fields have inspired many designers in the ensuing decades, notably Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian day dress from 1965, today part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute. More recently, Nike released its Dunk SB Low Piet Mondrian sneaker, and dozens of sellers on Etsy have shown design through a square lens.

Think Global / Act Local: Anavaa Kisasa

October 20, 2009 By Anne Szustek Leave a Comment

Anavaa Kisasa goes beyond affordable fashion fare. In addition to owner Zulema George’s own line of smart, high quality, leather handbags, she helps promote young up-and-coming designers, locally- and internationally-based, including many emerging Caribbean designers, by introducing their work in her boutique on Metropolitan Ave, (just off of the Lorimer stop on the L train). A handful of those burgeoning designers’ works were recently profiled during fashion week held last month by independent label support organization Nolcha.

In fact, Nolcha tapped Anavaa Kisasa to be a “retail incubator” to help young designers gain footing in the fashion market, a cornerstone of George’s philosophy behind Anavaa Kisasa.

Among the better-selling labels at the store include UNDFND, Ally Marie Couture Jewelry and leather-goods line Jypsea, alongside George’s own handbag line. George’s 2010 collection got some good exposure Oct. 7 at the Bagtrends Arm Candy party, which served double-duty as a US launch party for her season of bags which were first unveiled in Toronto, a week earlier.

The fashion of JoAnn Berman—24 years of bourgeois-shocking

October 16, 2009 By Anne Szustek Leave a Comment

Joann Berman / Boiy Krai 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.”