Ziva Naumann

occupation: retired executive director of a nonprofit law firm that she co-founded

“I’ve moved from one country to another, leaving everything behind me. Taking just what fit into a suitcase. I took the pieces that are not replaceable.” Ziva Naumann

Ziva was born in Palestine and was in the Israeli underground, transferring illegal arms, food, and documents. Her great-grandfather and grandfather were from Poland and had a textile plant that supplied fabric to Saville Row and the Russian Army. I can see her heritage coming through in the “guerilla tactics” with which she monomaniacally pursues authentic clothing that does not have a stitch of machinery in it. She has the instincts of a bloodhound when it comes to the handmade details of anything from the Sinai or that is native in origin, whether it be Bedouin, Yemenite, Indian, or Mexican. She rarely frequents a conventional shop. Accumulating happens in the most unconventional of ways, and Ziva is her own designer. When she saw a village of people wrapped in a fabric she loved, she stayed an extra night to have it made into a dress, or she buys a bag made by a woman on the street that is being sewn from discarded leather strips. While in Jericho, she convinced the owner of a restaurant to sell her an embroidered jacket off of his wall. As deeply as she is into every thread, Ziva is equally dedicated to assisting the working poor of Los Angeles and family law, which she has been doing since 1981. Soulful and stylish, Ziva is our own modern day tribal warrior for the cause of being memorable and mattering.

If you like Ziva, you might also enjoy Ellen Fisher, Luxor Tavella, or Donna Harrison.

Donna Harrison

“You have to take into account that there are always people who will try to take your joy away. If you have a conviction, you really have to stand your ground and go for it. We are all here for a purpose.” Donna Harrison

Turbans are Donna’s signature and the symbol of her indomitable spirit. She began wearing them after she lost her hair from the grief of her mother’s death. Now they are the reason she is stopped everywhere for what she refers to as her “Chinese smorgasboard” wardrobe. Donna was a ballet dancer for most of her career. She fell in love with ballet at an early age but was faced with the fact that she was not the “typical” ballet dancer at the time. Donna says that the prejudice she faced propelled her and made her say to herself, “I love this form of art and I am going to move past this ignorance and do this.” On the day of her audition with the renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Company (where Donna danced in the reperatory company for 5 years), she found herself riding the elevator with the legendary dancer and choreographer, “who everyone in the dance world considers God,” Agnes de Mille. Ms. de Mille “looked at me and said, ‘Are you going to the Alvin Ailey audition?’ and I said, ‘Yes ma’am, I am.’ We stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, then she turned to me and she said, ‘I feel your determination in this elevator. Alvin’s a fool if he doesn’t pick you.’ I looked at her and couldn’t believe she had said those words. I later learned that she was one of the judges.” Working at Ailey was where her eyes were opened to the avant garde people of New York and she increasingly threw off her parochial plaids for what is now her “gypsy” style. At a recent event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Donna works, she recounts a story of Carolina Herrera stopping her about her dress that cost her $10. “I was standing near the entrance of the African art. Ms. Herrera comes right up to me and says, ‘My darling, you look very chic. Is that one of my designs?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s Jessica McClintock.’ She said, ‘Oh, it doesnt’ matter darling, you look excellent. Carry on.’ I felt like a million bucks.”

If you like Donna, you might also enjoy Tziporah Salamon, Carlyle Hanson, or Ellen Fisher.

Lisa Moffie

occupation: restauranteur and global connector

“It’s like being a painter. No one paints the same picture in the same way or sings a song the same way. We may be attracted to the same picture or we may use the same paints, but everyone interprets them in their own way.” Lisa Moffie

Lisa is literally the inspiration for this site. It is her complete independent thinking and pure imagination when it comes to dressing that I have been continuously uplifted by for the 20+ years that I have known her. It is what led me to want to bring her and people like her “out of the closet.” In all of my years as an editor and stylist, I have never come across anyone with her taste and style. I would give her my credit card and unconditionally allow her to buy me a house, sight unseen, and I know that it would be original and genius, down to the hangers. She is so obsessed with beauty and originality that she will literally travel all corners of the world (either in cyber space or in actuality) to find the exact, perfect version of whatever she is looking for, whether it’s a white cotton robe or an indigenous sandal. The only requirement is that it is like no one else’s, and quintessential in its authenticity. Lisa’s closet is a museum of her artifacts that she has uncovered from every genre and continent, and in many cases, put together herself – a little ’70s sleeve with a boyfriend’s old shirt or an elaborately beaded belt buckle from a far-off continent attached to a piece of leather that is no doubt meaningful and memorable. Other examples are the endless mumus that she wears out, like her Sonia Rykiel navy “sweater robe,” blazers and coats from Chanel to Mongolian, at least 100 white crisp button-down shirts, from Neru to men’s night shirts from the 1800’s, shoes and boots from every decade and tribe, and jewelry that is indigenous, Victorian, or contemporary (but always lots of it and all mixed up in feeling, like a cameo attached to a string of rawhide). It is how Lisa puts it all together that makes her an artist, and it often comes from being influenced by all parts of culture, mostly unrelated to fashion (like music, arts and crafts, and nature). The ultimate staples of her wardrobe are the basics like jodphurs, karate pants, the real jalapas from a particular clan in Senegal, and Mexican fisherman bags. She is completely unconscious of trends, except for maybe intentionally going against them. It’s much more about having all of the essential possibilites and then throwing them together as only she can do (usually extreme opposties juxtaposed, like a ’30s tap shoes with an outrageously amazing oversized pair of khaki pants that she is has no idea are Commes des Garcon until I ask her). I love the combination of the crisp white drop crotch pants with the navy military blazer and romantic lace lavender leggings peeking out. Lisa says that her timeless pieces, rich in history, are testimonials to the value of their quality by their eternal good feeling, like a glass of water. But for me, that describes her.

If you like Lisa, you might also enjoy Tziporah Salamon, Ellen Fisher, Lexie Smith, or Elizabeth Burns.

Lauren Buxton

“I grew up learning about the relations Thomas Jefferson had with the Indians. The way he described them at one point, which I find to be very true to this day, is: ‘The Indian people of North America are a noble race who were the innocent victims of history.’ The purity of the way they lived life is one I wish to follow as much as possible in the time we live in.” Lauren Buxton

occupation: aspiring actress

It strikes me how completely opposite Lauren is from Sammy (our previous post) in style, but so similar in their ability to be completely natural and emphatic in their own expression (although they both love fairies, Sammy has a tattoo of one and she wears floral headbands). Lauren grew up in Virgina, where the richness Early American culture had a big affect on her. There were American Indian artifacts in abundance under her grandmother’s tomato garden and on top of mountains she would hike to. She has loads of authentic arrowheads and she is so taken with them that they are tattooed on her arm, symbolizing some of their prized tribal mythology. Having been surrounded by Jeffersonian history, Lauren has a “past life” affinity with the Colonial and Civil War time periods. I can picture her in a log cabin on an album cover, very ’70s, one of her other favorite time periods for its purity and soulfulness, in her oversized Native American cardigans, Victorian cotton dresses, khaki suspenders with jeans, loads of worn in men’s boots, and turquiose. Rumour has it that she is starting a folk music band, however, until her first “hit” single, her photo shoot is more likely to be an ad for her first feature film or mocumentary. Lauren lives in an an East Village walk-up and is forging her way towards establishing herself in the movie industry as an actor and writer. True to her down-to-earth wardrobe, she is determined to gain success from the pure love of the craft and not for the purpose of gaining fame.

If you like Lauren, you might also enjoy Maggie Godwin, Philippa Price, or Ruby and Summer.

This summer, Lauren worked on a short film. You can watch the trailer here.

Luxor Tavella

occupation: owner and manager of Paracelso in NYC

About the “decadent movement” poet, Rimbaud, Luxor said that he stopped writing at 18 years old and found refuge in the desert, and people would say, “they are looking for you in Paris, what are you doing, you are the darling of Paris, of the high society, and he said, what a bore, let me be here in the desert.” Luxor Tavella

For those who yearn for authenticity and the unpretentious creative universe of NYC of the late 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, you must take in every word of Luxor’s video. There is hardly anyone who hasn’t become someone, who hasn’t passed through the doors of her shop to get a taste of one who defines the word purist (she barely lets her picture be taken, because she believes with each photo of yourself you are giving away a piece of your soul). She recalls Andy Warhol dropping off the first Interview magazines for free and how amused she was by Basquiat when he came to visit. Laying naked in the sun of St. Tropez eighteen hours a day was too “boring” for her and she has literally traveled to the ends of the earth to satisfy her passion for primitive places. Luxor desciribes her Catholic education with nuns as severe, but feels that her religious background made her full of gratitude. Today, she is a devout believer in all things Zen, including no internet, tv, or cell phone and feels that disorganization is a a gift of the highly artistic and atuned (the key is to be centered within it). At eight-years-old, she was surrounded by the books of her brother, with authors like Dostoevsky and Kafka and poets like Verlaine and Rimbaud, and dreamt of Paris when reading Jean Paul Sartre. A tribal princess in the middle of West Broadway, in layers of to die for indigenous fabrics , Luxor’s style is probably most defined by her face paint that she has been wearing for thirty years everyday and says that she feels naked without. This particular design is inspired by her experiences of living with both the Berber women of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, whose eyebrows were crooked because they didn’t have mirrors, and the blue men of Tuareg, who wear blankets that rub off on their skins until it turns blue. There is something a little bitter sweet about Luxor and her shop, which is brimming over with images and things of one who has so fully embraced life and cultures, admidst the Times-Square, mallish, homogeneization of Soho, where rarity is a lost art.
Couldn’t help but see a ressemblance to Luxor’s aesthetic in Rodarte’s spring collection, though I think a painted face mask would have been a better touch.

If you like this post, you may also like Tziporah Salamon, Ellen Fisher , Koos Van Den Akker and Elizabeth Burns