Refinery29 hosted a fabulous event in honor of their 10th anniversary.
Refinery turned an ordinaryΒ Greenpoint warehouse into a wonderland of art. The event titled β29 Roomsβ is an interactive artΒ exhibit with a surprise at every corner. You had no idea what you were walking into. Each room wasΒ one of a kind. This event allowed New Yorkers and visitors to choose their own adventureΒ as they explored the unique blend of high concept design, art and culture.
Some of the roomsΒ include works from artists such as Petra Collins, Audrey Gelman, Ashley Smith and Amirah Kassem andΒ many more. The event was hosted by Alexa Chung and Drew Barrymore. Some additional attendees includedΒ Solange Knowles, Baddie Winkle, Dascha Polanco and Diane Guerrero. ThisΒ event brought art and fashion together in a way that hasn’t been done before.
The KnockturnalΒ had the chance to talk to some of the celebs walking the carpet and hear their thoughts on fashion and art.
BaddieWinkle
Is this your first fashion week?
Yes it is. So far so good.
ΒHave you been to any shows yet?
No this is my first.
Are you going to attend any?
I might.
Olivia Culpo
What is your go to outfit or piece when you are in a rush?
Boy’s trousers always.
We had the chance to talk to Piera Gelardi, the creator of the event.
How did you come up with the concept of bringing art and fashion together in this way?
We wanted to do something big for our 10 year anniversary. We love doing events that areΒ inclusive especially during fashion week time because it can be really exclusive time period andΒ really when we were starting this site that’s what we were trying to do.We felt like fashion wasΒ this very insider world and it also had this top down voice that said β wear this, wear thatβ. Well,Β we love style and we don’t want to tell people what to wear we want to give people tools notΒ rules and help people feel good in their own style. We live to create events that people canΒ come to and interact and experience in their own way. This event you can be apart of it and takeΒ pictures and it’s very interactive.
How did you pick the artists you wanted in the 29 rooms?
Well it was a mix. Almost all of them we have worked with over time and they have been ourΒ collaborators on stories or other events. But some of them have been people that inspire us thatΒ we have written stories about. The way we thought about different rooms was thinking about A.Β the different content we cover in our stories and we knew we wanted to have rooms that wereΒ about style, beauty, body image and the election. We were thinking about the different contentΒ areas and some of them were just more about ideas like identity, self expression. We createdΒ about map about the themes we wanted to touch own and then we chose the artist that would fitΒ those things and collaborated with them to create the rooms.
29Rooms opening night featured DJ sets by Basement Jaxx, Brenmar, Venus X, and Harley Viera Newton. Guests enjoyed drinks courtesy of William Grant and Brooklyn Brewery, and had a bite at Shake Shack’s first-ever Brooklyn pop-up.
[slideshow]-Brianna Bicking
