Lucy and Vita are 2 owners of Emerging Designers Shop : Café Forgot.  They met each other in Portland while attending the same college, and started this project in New York in order to support like-minded emerging designers. Here is the interview with these 2 cool sheros!

What is the motive of your project and what made you inspire to do it?

We attended college in Portland together and had always talked about working on a collaborative fashion project. We were inspired by non-traditional stores such as the Deep End Club in New York and Stand up Comedy in Portland. We like stores that use their spaces to throw parties, host shows, have art performances etc. In New York, we are surrounded by a community of creative friends and artists. We saw the need to create a platform for young designers to show their work and connect with likeminded artists.

What is the community you are a voice of?

We provide a means of creative expression for young designers who are very talented but don’t have the time or money to start their own business quite yet.  Many of our designers are young woman based in NYC, such as Marland Backus, Sophie Andes-Gascon, Claire McKinney, and Autobody Clothing. Recently we have added a few from other locations around the globe, such as HELENAMANZANO from London, Bror August from Norway, and Poche and Annabell Lee who are both based in California. Instagram has been an instrumental platform because it enables us to connect with our designers outside of New York as well as create a customer base. We do not have an online store and favor the IRL shopping experience over commerce because it allows us to become friends with many of our followers.

What is your next step? What are some future dreams and hopes?

We have been working in the pop up format for some time which has given us the opportunity to hone and focus our project. We are in the process of planning our next Café forgot pop up, which will be open in July/August 2018. Our future dream is to open a permanent brick and mortar location in downtown NYC. Editorial content is a big part of Café forgot. We are always working with young photographers and models to create content for instagram. We are in the process of planning our next shoot and building a website to share our editorial content.

Thank you!

Photo by Allegra Sussman

Photo by Christian DeFonte

INSTAGRAM : @cafe_forgot

WEB : cafeforgot.com/

It seems to me any blank wall in New York is waiting to be vandalized by great art. Today I met beautiful graffitis over at Freeman Alley where Freemans Sporting Club ( worshipped by young dandys of NYC ) and where it’s restaurant is located. The color palette only compliments the spring that has finally caught up with New York. Very feminine, makes me wonder if they were all done by women? I picture groups of women, way past midnight, leaving their artwork on the walls carefully as if to not get caught, and it makes my heart bright.

I thank the street art and it’s artists. The nature of graffiti disregards profiting financially or protecting the pieces, but it is one of the most honest forms of free self-expression. Earth is not owned by anybody, so I can put my art anywhere. I celebrate beautiful graffitis (except the ones with malicious intent) for its self-love that transcends the beauty of any law.

Glossier is an original makeup brand by the creator of blog “Into The Gloss”.  The era of social media and their many Millennial fans have brought much success to the brand since it’s lift-off. Their New York showroom in Chinatown is reminiscent of a cyber girl’s dream store. First time I went there, there were many teenagers with their mothers, shopping together. I overheard one mother-daughter conversation when the daughter hesitantly said “mom, I want this” to which her mom replied “You are only 16, you don’t need a serum!” and while the cute girl who worked at Glossier and I watched, the daughter raised her voice, stomped her feet and declared, “But mom, I wanna glow!!” Its true. We all do.

Photo + writing by Urara Muramatsu

I can’t stop thinking about the sales talk I received at Barneys one day. I looked very casual- scruffy even. Many sales agents decided I didn’t have enough money to buy their things, which was half true because I had no plans to buy anything from Barneys. I was looking through the make-up floor thinking to leave soon, when a very tall lady yelled at me from across the room: “I want to show you something. What is your name?” Rita the saleswoman was heavily accented and Moroccan. She took me under she wings and got me to hang around for another hour, showing me perfume to sunscreen to lipstick and giving me a free massage and a quick facial. I learned that it was her first day being at Barneys, and that no one else on the floor was giving customers the attention and services like her. Before she showed me things she will say: “Urara you will like this.” She made me feel like we were friends, and that the product was our bond. I bought the sunscreen from her, in hopes of becoming her regular. At my goodbye to her, she said “come see me again.” and that, I did.

Drawing + writing by Urara Muramatsu

How could not owning something be so attractive?

I thought owning something – favorite t-shirt, house, piece of art – meant value in this world. There is an emerging movement of “no-ownership” businesses that’s increasing the quality of modern living and setting off a “sharing economy”, whether it’d be transportation, living accommodation, or clothing.

COUP Berlin happens to be a shared smartscooter business which allows users to hop on and off in the city of berlin whenever. You don’t need to buy your own scooter and store it somewhere, because you can use and park COUP anywhere in Berlin. Smartscooter was invented with an IQ that grows to understand your driving habits and updates new features wirelessly, also safe for the environment as it runs on battery instead of gas. After you activate the smartscooter with an app, a stylish COUP helmet (included) and hopefully fully charged batteries will keep your riding experience easy, safe, and cute.

What I want to say is that I see more and more people in the future, delightfully spending cash on not owning something, but sharing what’s simply good.

Web : https://joincoup.com/en