Sandy wreaked total havoc on a lot of our favorite downtown boutiques. We got in touch with many of them to see how they’re faring in the huricane’s aftermath. Here’s what they’ve done to help themselves and others in the community get back on their feet–find out how you can help bring downtown NYC back!
We popped by End of Century–a truly lovely space with a great inventory of independent clothing and jewelry designers–last week to chat with co-owners Claudia Martinez-Reardon, 25 Chantal Chadwick, 24 and Lara Hodulick, 26, who are definitely real people who told us about how they’re making it, what filming the show was like, how it’s impacted their business, whether there will be a second season and much more.
For a split second I almost thought I was at New York Fashion Week. Backstage, top models like Georgie Badiel, Alek Wek and Oluchi Onweagba were getting beautified, while at front of house an army of street style photographers stalked the front row for candids of celebs and it-girls. Outside, copies of an all-African daily (suspiciously similar to The Daily Front Row) were being handed out to thousands of paying guests while the oversized tents, similar to those at Lincoln Center, were prepped for the influx.
Yet as time went on, it became increasingly clear that this was definitely not New York. This was Arise Magazine Fashion Week in Lagos, Nigeria–and for all the similarities–it’s a whole different ball game.
