The Vestoj Storytelling Salon in New York brought together six people who have shaped the New York fashion scene over the past five decades.
Throughout the day each told a story directly affiliated with their life, all connected through their common narrative based on material memories, and woven around or linked to a garment. Taking care to avoid barriers between storyteller and audience, the response of the listeners influenced and informed the ebb and flow of the stories themselves, effectively turning the listeners into co-creators of each story as it was experienced.
The Vestoj Storytelling Salon in New York provided an opportunity to reflect on how grander social and cultural narratives impact on the lives of individuals and how objects of desire can be read as a map to our past, here momentarily resurrected as textile memento moris.
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The Vestoj Storytelling Salon was produced by the Fondation Galeries Lafayette and MoMA PS1, and hosted at MoMA PS1 in New York, March 2015.
With Pat Cleveland, Patricia Field, Glenn O’Brien, Candy Pratts Price, Mary McFadden and Dapper Dan of Harlem
Set design by David Myron
Illustrations by Nina Twin