Friday 26 September 2014

Advanced Style The Movie Comes Out Today

I can't believe that the Advanced Style documentary is finally hitting US theaters starting today! Lina Plioplyte, director of the film, and I met six years ago when I first moved to NYC. She was working at a coffee shop and we admired one another's crazy mix of paisley and tropical patterns and I asked if we could be friends. I told her that I wanted to start a blog where I photographed some of the most stylish, vital, and interesting older people in New York and she told me that she was just about to start a position at a fashion magazine making videos. Lina and I ran into each other about a month later at a gallery. She had been seeing my posts on Advanced Style and asked if she could make a few videos of the ladies for my blog. We started with Debra Rapoport and interviewed her about her style. From there we moved on to Tziporah and Ilona and quickly realized that these videos were about much more than just style. The ladies began to open up to us and share their lives and secrets to their incredible vitality. Lina and I became so captivated by their stories that we couldn't stop filming.

We are thrilled beyond belief to be able to finally share our film with everyone starting this weekend. Lina, The Ladies and I will be doing a series of Q&A's at the Quad Cinema all weekend and the film will be playing several times through the end of next week. For tickets to NYC screenings CLICK HERE or head to The Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, NY, NY 10011.

We couldn't have gotten here without all of your support. Thank you to everyone who has been following our journey over the last four years and a special thanks to all of our incredible Kickstarter Supporters. We hope to see everyone at the theater this weekend!

For more national screenings: Advancedstylethemovie.com
For international screenings: Advancedstylefilm.com

Thursday 25 September 2014

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Monday 22 September 2014

Friday 19 September 2014

Advancing Style: Tziporah Salamon

Tziporah as a Berkeley, 1979, when she moved back to NYC to pursue fashion
At 34, 1984, when she was approached by Wendy Goodman for a shoot for New York Magazine(photo: Cheryl Koralick)
Hamptons, 1986, (photo: Zachy Sherif)
In Egypt, 1992, 42-years-old (photo Youssef Nabil)
Egypt, 1993 (photo Zachy Sherif)
Tziporah at 53 in NYC (photo: Julie McCarthy)
At 59-years-old
I'm starting a new series entitled "Advancing Style" where I will be asking some of our favorite ladies to share some vintage photos documenting the development of their personal style. Our first feature is on the marvelous Tziporah Salamon who describes her personal style as, "artistic, bold, dramatic, and hopefully, elegant."

Tziporah, now 64, has seen a lifetime of style. Her parents were Holocaust survivors who moved their family to Israel and later New York. Her father worked as expert tailor in the garment district and her mother a dressmaker. As a little girl she would wake up to brand new outfits waiting at the edge of her bed each morning. She always felt like, "the best dressed girl in town" getting glamorous gifts from her uncle, who was the vice president of Neiman Marcus.

After graduating from Berkeley, Tziporah moved back to New York to pursue a career in fashion. She loved the work of Japanese designers like Commes des Garcons and Issey Miyake, but after realizing that a single piece of clothing cost upwards of $800, she decided to go underground for inspiration. Tziporah says," I had just moved back to New York and quickly realized that I needed to go underground for fashion. There was this great vintage store called Alice Underground where I bought my first 1940s jacket for $100. I remember seeing the quality of the garment and thinking that it was as good as what my father used to make. I still have the jacket today."

Tziporah struck vintage gold when she befriended collector Renee Lewis in New York City. Lewis had been collecting vintage clothing since she was four years old and according to Tziporah it is still the best collection she has ever seen. Renee could no longer wear the pieces from her archive so she decided to give her entire collection to Tziporah.This ignited a love of vintage collecting that has lasted for over thirty years.

The first time I saw a photograph of Tziporah I just knew I had to meet her. At the time she was 59 and too young for Advanced Style, so I waited a year until we finally got together. Tziporah was destined to become a style icon from day one. For more information on her wonderful one woman show CLICK HERE. 

Thursday 18 September 2014