So, what else was a boy to do whilst sitting in a metal shipping container at fashion week in between barking out orders and wolfing down greasy, disgusting food from the deli? Create a guerilla fashion show of course! By the way, you should know this guerilla fashion show has gathered quite the cult following and still goes off mid-week each season (Sept and Feb).
Guerilla Fashion Show at NY Fashion Week: Part 1
Guerilla Fashion Show at NY Fashion Week: Pt 2
Erich Fletschinger, my assistant at the time, and I passed the time by creating random outfits and accessories made from the remants of fashion week (tarps, zip ties, black astroturf from backstage etc). That was fun for a minute but what's a collection without a proper runway show but there was nothing proper about what we were up to! So, the time came to build ourselves a runway from the spare 8'x'30' rental tables used backstage for the hair and makeup stations. After covering our runway with the leftover roofing paper and skirting the sides with black duvatine also from backstage we were ready to go. Instead of using supermodels we convinced a few of the men working on the House Crew to model our unique collection made from recycled items from the shows.
Our manager, Paul Solstys asked us to name our show after him which we gladly did. So, our show from that day forward became known as the House of Paul. It was a non-commercial event meant to inspire and blow off steam for everyone at 7th on Sixth so we were happy to do so.
The show was a massive success but to be neither Erich nor myself had actually given any thought to producing another show until our #1 supporter and 7th on Sixth's volunteer coordinator, Patty Hughs said, "Congratulations. I loved it! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with next season. You're so crazy!"
Erich and I just looked at eachother with raised brows and instantly began scheming next year's runway show. Fern Mallis, the mastermind responsible for 7th on Sixth and the creation of the tents at Bryant Park, invited us to have a show inside the tents a couple seasons later. Of course, we had to turn her down as this show is free and for everyday New Yorkers. So, keeping our show on the streets and keeping it free of commercialism made more sense. I mean where else can you have a celebrity sit next to someone from the cleaning crew in the VIP section at New York Fashion Week?
After our last season at Bryant Park, I didn't see any reason to wait until Lincoln Center to design another collection for the House of Paul show. So, I gathered what remants from backstage were leftover and began working with various friends and artists to create an entirely new collection called COLE & GARRETT'S SUPERHEROES.
The New York Times covered this story twice, once online and again in the Home Section a couple weeks later. Instead of hosting a runway show per se, Cole Nahal and I dressed our friends and artists in the collection and brought in various photographers to shoot different scenes.
Our VILLIANS and supenatural figures are nightlife personalities and freak chic kids we befriended on facebook or met on the scene. Some villians and supernatural figures include Gazelle Paulo of freakchic.com, Malik So Chic of High Society, Cynthia Powell, Lee Childers, Kimyon Huggins, Purple Pam, Valerie Geffner, Demanda Dhaling, Nancy Nose Candy, Matthew Herra and Defacto Obsolete. There are several others but I'll blog about all of them soon enough. The New York Times did a pretty bang up job of covering this story already. Looking forward to more action and adventure!
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