Norma Kamali, a New Yorker who built a 50-plus-year-old company in the city, W ., was honoredEdnesday with the City of Design Award from the Museum of the City of New York at the Spring Symposium and Luncheon.
She is joined by previous recipients such as Cynthia Rowley, Peter Marino, Jack Grange, Ralph Pucci, Jonathan Adler, Simon Donnan and Elizabeth Graziolo.
When the women approached Kamali during the champagne reception to sign copies of her book I’m Invincible, many of the crowd, including Kamali herself, were wearing Diana’s designer dress. Worn by Carrie Bradshaw in “And Just Like That,” a one-shoulder dress with cropped sides and asymmetrical hem, it sold out hard.
Lucia Huong-Gordon, Jana Bullock, Nicole Salamasi, and Kathy Brunis.
Asia Gorovets for the Museum of the City of New York
During the party, which was attended by 150 people, Kamali had a conversation With Sarah Brown, Executive Director of Violet Lab at Violet Gray and Editor of Vogue, who collaborated with Kamali on her book. They discuss Kamali’s upbringing in New York and her thoughts on what the city needs to do to recover from the pandemic.
Kamali, who opened her company of the same name in 1969, is famous for materials such as The sleeping bag coat, her swimwear and sweatshirt collection, and, most recently, Diana’s aforementioned dress.
“A lot of you look great in my clothes,” Kamali said. “This is probably the best compliment a designer can get, and I’ve been praised quite a few times today, so I appreciate it.”
Kamali said writing her book, which details how to maintain a healthy lifestyle at any age, was very personal, and she was so happy to work closely with Brown during the pandemic and often on Zoom.
Elizabeth Graziolo, Norma Kamali, Whitney Donhauser and Sarah Brown.
Asia Gorovets for the Museum of the City of New York
New York has always been the backdrop to Kamali’s story.
“I am very proud to be a New Yorker, and I am very proud to have a New York accent. There are times when I purposefully delve into the accent of the street,” Kamali, who grew up in the 1950s in the Yorkville Irish section of Manhattan, said. A culture of making people take care of each other.” There would be costume parties in their area, and volunteers would come to the East Side House. People from Broadway would create shows for them and learn how to sing and dance. Her mother was making costumes for shows. She said her mother never had the opportunity to run a business But her “power was overwhelming.”
Kamali said: “She dominated these events because of the beauty of the clothes she created for everyone,” noting that her mother also did hairdressing and hair cutting and was taking pictures and drawing paintings from them. Her father died when she was a child.
“Between New York and my mom, I knew this was the kind of life I feel comfortable with,” Kamali said.
She said her mother, who is Lebanese, married the only Jewish man in the neighborhood who ran a candy store. “Now we are Jews and Italians and I obviously understood what it was like to be different. I understood what it meant to have a different religion and to have a different ethnicity and I understood that who – which It was what the city was, and that’s what our culture was about.”
Describing it as “the oracle of fashion”, Brown asked Kamali to be the “oracle of New York” and tell the audience where she sees New York heading and what changes it will bring.Do you think she’s excited about it?
“We all love this city, and now is the time we have to love it more than ever. I remember the seventies and everyone left, it was a very sad and difficult time. I also remember what creatively happened in the city. People who can’t stand it,” Kamali said. The costs of coming to New York, all of a sudden, if you’re brave enough, you can find an apartment for a really good price, and maybe you can find a building for a really good price.”
“There was a creative influx in the ’70s, which is why the ’70s was so special and things grew up here in a way that they haven’t been in for a very long time. A lot of my creative people and my creative friends became part of the city’s culture… Even Studio 54 was an event that just happened because of What New York was going through and moving through. “Quickly, New York just survived a pandemic…” Kamali said.
So what do we do now?
“We pray for our mayor. And I think it’s time we all look individually at what we are concerned about. And find ways to solve the problem, by volunteering, even if it’s just in your neighborhood or in your schools. I think schools need a lot of help And a lot of love. And we have to screen our kids. Our children in public schools need us. We need to use everything we can to make the city a strong place. I feel when there are times like this, we get more creative, we get smarter about how we live and what we do. I’m afraid for New York and I will never give up on New York, and we can’t. We have to stay and we have to fight to make it healthy and strong again.”
Kamali said that during the question-and-answer period, after graduating from Washington Irving High School, she was awarded a scholarship by the Fashion Institute of Technology, so giving back is what she’s always wanted to do. back to Washington Irving High School set up a design studio and trained kids on how to learn math by making a dress, or how to tell your story in how the dress was created. Now Washington Irving High School is divided into six schools, and it works with art and design students. Each season she donates leftovers, and each season she reviews her portfolio and talks to students.
“I can be really tough on them and tell them to stand out, which doesn’t really happen in this world, but they love the excellence that is required of them,” she said. “I am really looking forward to the next school year. If I can redesign the school system, I already have the plan.”
Kamali is asked what inspires her now. During COVID-19, she said she has been working every day on Zoom with her team, planning work and her own e-commerce site. But then everyone was staying home and not shopping, so I made pajamas. Before COVID-19, no one was able to ship and her friend in China opened her factory for her and got the clothes and the masks shipped too. We convinced most of our accounts to buy it. We had the only clothes available on e-commerce, and everything was sold out. Then we were on a roll. We are a better company today and a stronger company today.”
She sold a lot of swimwear during COVID-19. After several weddings were canceled and rescheduled, she soon began selling dresses. She referred to Diana’s dress from the ’70s and ’80s. Five years ago I put it to the test again and put in a body suit in it, and I started selling again. It was so sold out by COVID-19, there were thousands of people who wanted the dress and they wanted it in many colors. Only when they finally shipped everything did Sarah Jessica Parker decide to wear it in “And Just Like That.”
And I said, ‘No,’ and then we rushed in again. We sold a lot. It’s a dress more about comfort and you can wash it,” Kamali said.
“Dresses now. I feel like there’s going to be a switch, and I’m already doing a set that we’re going to shoot next week,” she says, incorporating what she feels is going to be next, but she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.
Finally, Kamali was asked how she feels about social media.
“I think social media is a gift from millennials. Millennials don’t like working hard, so they figured out a way to not do it, and they are very smart.” For the first time in 55 years, I see women all over the world wearing my clothes. They take pictures of themselves and put up hashtags, NKMyWay, and I see amazing photos of women of all sizes, shapes, and colors that look great, and they’re so cool. I was chasing people in the street [wearing my clothes]. Now they send pictures to me, and I see them on social media and that’s exciting.”
Personally, she said that she is having a hard time with social media as she likes to keep her personal life private. But because she feels the importance of sharing the information in her book, she knows that having her picture taken is more important than her personal feelings. “I’m going to exercise on Instagram. I’m going to do these things to say you can do that too. I’m 76 – if I can do a division, you can do that too.”
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