I feel immensely lucky to live in New York. Creatives from all walks of life — with the most fascinating energetic make-up — converge and collaborate.
Avte Bardo focuses on craft, and I've always seen craft live in a liminal space between those polarities.
There's a harmony and wholeness when what feels primordial exists in the contemporary, when the sacred feminine meets the material drive of the masculine. But I am particularly drawn to narratives that are aware of the primordial nature of craft, yet bold enough to reimagine it in the context of today.
New York has always been a city of subversion and reimagination — unafraid to hold what feels contradictory in the same hand. Working with creatives who feel so radically different from one another allows me to see craft in a new light: its primordial nature is malleable, not rigid. Not to shame or push against the collective, but to evolve with it, and let magically strange new potentials emerge.
That's the beauty of craft when we understand its connection to what feels ancient — it defies surface-level logic or transient circumstances. It is experienced on a visceral level. It became a medium for me to understand who I really am, and to reclaim my power from within. The more engrossed I am in this world, the more power I'm able to access in myself.
I believe all women carry a deep desire to reclaim this power, but the world of fashion often disconnects us from it. What's drawn from the primordial lies deeper, with stronger undercurrents — the kind that remain even when trends fade. Craft and a woman's power move the same way: ancient, quiet, impossible to fully bury.
My hope is that women from all over the world come into contact with a piece and remember this truth — that even as the world continues to evolve and change, our connection to our sacred nature remains. Or even better, that sacred connection is powerful enough not only to remain, but to rise — phoenix-like — into something newer and more powerful each time. I'm grateful to the creatives of New York for helping me see it.
