Madonna’s performance at last night’s Superbowl reminded me of off-the-hook evenings kickin’ it around Futura 2000′s painting studio on Broome street back in ’89. I had just moved to NYC upon graduation from B.U. and was working as a retail editor at ELLE magazine. My roomie that last year in Boston was beautiful and exotic Elayne Hearns, a close friend of Futura, his French wife CC, Madonna, Fab 5 Freddie and Keith Harring. She would come home after a weekend in the city loaded with Polaroids, detailing her extraordinary escapades through Shiseido matte garnet lips which never smeared or faded. Not in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that in less that one year, I would be passing all my evening hours at Futura’s studio stopping by on my way home from work just as the fun was heating up. Through a stroke of good fortune, his studio sat directly across the street from the apartment I scored at 366 Broome Street, a cool, low-rent ‘hood on the edge of the Bowery. His wife CC and I became fast friends and I pulled her into ELLE to style fashion shows with me. Soon we were inseparable and my life was forever changed, expanding and exploding through the graffiti art movement born in the 80′s.
Cherry red against bright white was fashion speed. Graphic and sporty summed up the mood for those who romanticized the trains.
Hip Hop Royalty, Keith Harring gave great parties in his huge downtown loft.
