Iris Apfel – Karen's New York Love Affair

National Arts Club Karen Rempel Alexandra Kargin and The Man — *Alexandra Kargin, The Bomb, and Karen Rempel in spots*

I’ve been attending FashionSpeak Friday events at the National Arts Club, ever since stumbling upon the Iris Apfel book launch (for Accidental Icon: Musings of a Geriatric Starlet) and award ceremony there, in May 2018. Suddenly a glamorous world of high fashion and style opened up before my eyes, and I knew I wanted to be part of it. I happened to be wearing fantastic Herchkovitch; Alexandre + Melissa clear vinyl platform shoes with flower cut-outs, and it appeared I fit right into the event, for people assumed I was part of it. (Actually, I’d been attending our graduation dinner for the United Nations Worldview Institute Executive Leadership Training, downstairs, that evening.) In any case, I was smitten with the National Arts Club, FashionSpeak Fridays, and fashion in general.

National Arts Club FashionSpeak Fridays — *The Bomb’s shoes & socks. This man has style!*

A few weeks ago I attended a leopard-themed event at NAC, in honor of International Women’s Month. The speaker was Jo Weldon, author of Fierce: The History of Leopard Print. She gave a very informative and fascinating talk, and the evening began with an amazing burlesque performance. What was most delightful about the evening for me was the prevalence of leopard prints, as New Yorkers love the chance to play dress-up. There were so many spots in that room that I thought I might have an epileptic fit.

National Arts Club - two shoes — *Sole mates – zebras and leopards in harmony*

FashionSpeak Fridays at the National Art Club are free to the public, so I like to go whenever possible. I just love the atmosphere at the Club, and the fashion events are truly inspirational. The Club, at 15 Gramercy Park South, is located in the historic Samuel Tilden Mansion. Samuel Tilden, the 25th Governor of New York, combined two mansions and gave them a complete redesign in 1863. Tilden hired Calvert Vaux, a famed architect and one of the designers of Central Park, to modernize the façade with sandstone, bay windows, and ornamentation in the Aesthetic Movement style. John LaFarge created stained glass panels for the interior of the mansion and glass master Donald MacDonald fashioned a unique stained glass dome for Tilden’s library that crowns the room where the bar is now located. This is truly one of my favorite places in New York to have a drink.

National Arts Club, Karen Rempel, Bert Daniels, Jo Weldon, leopard print — *Bert Daniels, Karen Rempel, and part of Jo Weldon’s leopard print collection, with DJ in background – he mixed a lot of great jungle-themed tunes for the event!*

In 1966, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission declared 15 Gramercy Park South a New York City Landmark; and in 1976 the Federal government designated the building a National Historic Landmark. Of course the club has had many illustrious members, including three US presidents and many artists, writers, architects, and other creative geniuses.

Dusty Berke, Alexandra Kargin, Karen Rempel, Anila Cobo, Nikki Nelson, Bert Daniels, National Arts Club, Rose Bar, Gramercy Park Hotel — *Dusty, Alexandra, me, Anila, Nikki, and Bert at the Rose Bar, across Gramercy Park, after the event*

The club is a great place to hang out, and I hope to be a member soon so I can lounge and dine in the gorgeous library and restaurant. The sparks of creativity in the atmosphere have landed in my heart, and ignited in my new role as Fashion Editor of the WestView News, the Voice of the West Village. As many of you know, I’ve been writing articles for the paper for a few years now. When I wrote a piece on the closing of the Cornelia Street Cafe (also discussed at length in this blog), the owner of the paper, George Capsis, said he’d like me to write, write, write for the paper. He invited me to HQ on Charles Street, and asked what I would like to write about. What came out of my mouth, with no forethought or foreknowledge, was the single word, “Fashion.” Wow! A revelation… My first fashion column came out in March, and the April edition is due out tomorrow, with the second column. You’ll see me sporting leopard there too!

Etsy Logo

Sept. 14, 2017 – I worked a part-time job at Krystyna’s Place on Cornelia St. in New York this summer. I wanted to have the experience of doing a regular job, interacting with people, showing up for scheduled shifts. I walked into Krystyna’s Place one Friday night on my way to a wine bar with my friend Heather. I was dressed in an Iris Apfel t-shirt that my friend Dianne got me in Shanghai. This set off a conversation, and by the time I left the store, I’d bought a fantastic beaded belt and agreed to work at the store 2 days a week for 7 weeks while Krystyna was in Europe.

Karen Rempel in fantastic green beaded belt, with Bowie haircut and lightning bolt boots — *Fantastic green beaded belt, with Bowie haircut and lightning bolt boots*

I have to say this was the most fun job I’ve ever had. I opened and closed, served customers, dressed the windows (and myself!), and created an online store for Krystyna’s Place on Etsy. This entailed creating all the visual and design elements for the store, including a logo and header. I photographed 30 pieces that Krystyna had selected, measured them, wrote descriptions, and fell in love with the clothes!

Karen Rempel in mash-up of vintage necklace, studded cowboy belt from the Calgary stampede, Helmut Lang t-shirt, and black sparkly goth boots from Vaudeville and Trash — *Mash-up of vintage necklace, studded cowboy belt from the Calgary stampede, Helmut Lang t-shirt, and black sparkly goth boots from Vaudeville and Trash*

When the gig was over I spent half my final paycheck on clothes, shoes, and purses I’d fallen in love with in the store, and then came back again and bought half a dozen of the Etsy items!

Pink and green tea dress from Krystyna's Place Etsy store — *Pink and green tea dress from KP Etsy store – ignited street commentary the moment I walked out the door wearing it to a dinner party at Arthur’s a few days later!*

The store ambience is fantastic, with old black-and-white movies playing, along with contemporary jazz by a fantastic Polish jazz trio, and of course all the gorgeous vintage clothes. Krystyna is an amazing artist and designer. She paints ceramic animals, like the pig below, and she painted much of the wall art, furnishings, and rugs in the store. She is truly an inspired genius, with an irrepressible creative flow. Everyone who walked in was amazed and said they loved the store. If you live in New York, check it out at 12 Cornelia St.

*Green flying pig adorned with vintage jewellery*

During the time I worked there I met many interesting folks from the neighborhood, as well as visitors who wandered into the store on their way to restaurants on the block, including Pearl Oyster Bar, Palma, and Cornelia St. Cafe. One day the LA stylist Sophie Lopez came in and picked up two gorgeous crocheted sweaters (one pink, one yellow) and matching plaid pants. I didn’t know who she was, but found out afterwards. On my last day, one of the store’s neighbors, himself a designer, walked by and admired my window display. He told me he regularly sends pictures of the displays to his friend who is the aforementioned LA stylist!

Final window display at Krystyna's Place — My final window dressing. Model is wearing a print scarf under metallic belt for a cummerbund effect. Beret is adorned with vintage brooch. Both animals are adorned with vintage jewellery, and a green crinoline forms a froth ocean at model’s feet.

One day a rather sketchy woman came in, with bleached hair with 24″ roots, who sniffed constantly. She spent a lot of time looking around the store, trying things on, and chatting. I even asked for her advice about one of the Etsy photos. But when she left, her bag looked a little lumpy, and there was a blank space on the shelf where these white shoes used to be. Dang! A shoplifter. Another time I lost a sale because the payment processing vendor stopped the account in order to force us to call them. They wanted to sell us a payment processing machine. The nerve! So this is New York—unbelievable splendor, and the petty dark side as well. And a lesson for me about keeping an eagle eye on sketchy customers.

*These white shoes were stolen by a sketchy, sniffing store patron*

Tag: Iris Apfel

Leopards seeing spots at National Arts Club

Karen Rempel’s summer gig at Krystyna’s Place at 12 Cornelia St.