Alexis and Ken
Ken Downing: Alexis, I am such a big fan of you and your work. I don’t think many people know that your career in fashion started very early. You were a teenage retailer!
Alexis Bittar: You’re too funny, but it is true. It was 1982, I was 13 years old, pre-MTV. There was no such thing as the vintage clothing craze there is today. I would sit on the corner of Astor Place and 8th Street, outside the Cooper Union, and sell vintage clothes and jewelry. I would buy old clothes by the pound, can you imagine?
KD: Who bought from you in those early years?
AB: Punk kids, for the most part. They were attracted to my look. I had “outfits” and orange hair… it was all about the Thompson Twins and that whole era. I would create looks from my vintage finds. My favorite was a rockabilly look with a police jacket that I bought from Patricia Fields. Pat and I are still friends. I think she is an amazing woman.
KD: Pat is a stylist supreme, her work on Sex and the City still influences today. So when did you give up your retail quilt and start designing?
AB: I started designing jewelry when I was 20, recreating jewelry from vintage pieces. It was very New Wave. Debbie Harry of Blondie was a huge influence in my work; she actually bought jewelry from me on the street. So did Lauren Hutton.
More is more and less is a bore.
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