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…

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…

Lisa Moffie

occupation: stylist and designer

“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…

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…

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…