FASHION AND NEW YORK WITH ALEX GURMAN

Why does the City of NY not consider the fashion not an equal art media?

There is a quest going on now to change the law and perception of fashion by NY city officials and public perception about what considers being an art and what is a business promotion. If an artist decides to dance or sing in the park or on the street the police and city of NY looks at it as art performance and does not bother the artist for permits and allows the artist to collect donations and perform on the boardwalk and ask for donations. But if a vendor decides to sell a product on the street the vendor would be ticketed for unlicensed sales activities and will be banned from demonstrating their work or the work of others and not allowed to sell, that is the current general status quo. In my opinion fashion fits right in between. The Mr. Great Fashion show starts to do Art Fashion Protests in Central Park by the Bethesda Terrace to bring attention to justice in our opinion and allow the fashion artist to perform for the public (free of charge, no donations were solicited at the park). A group of designers brought their artistic creations and demonstrated them as part of protest. Currently the official permits for the park are not issued by the city but if folks gather as protesters for example BLM then no police bothers them, that is freedom of speech. So with noble cause as protest against harassments, various harassments that take place such as harassment against models by photographers, and harassment against street photographers by the public, animal rights activists and various charities join their forces together to bring attention to an issue and alter the public opinion and so far those efforts are successful. In the prior shows in March artists such as Dovile Riebschlager with her collection of DoviArt Fashion all the way from Chicago graced the public. The American Canine Water Rescue organization with the founder Maria Gray drove from New Hampshire, the street wear collection was presented fashion on stairs of Bethesda Terrace by member of Flying Solo designer Denaro Puro. Even designers all the way from Russia shipped their collections like Ludmila shipped to promoter/model/ magazine producer Anastasia who by the way also presented her new collection as part of Russian Fashion Week in Manhattan. Among many other designers and shows presented we witness the gorgeous colors of African inspired fashion collections by Judith and pretty much each designer has chosen to partner with Teresa Costa and her vegan shoe collection. We saw a lot of collaboration efforts in the park by members of the media. The show was covered by BRIC Art Media TV Free speech show with the help of artist Akinelly and New Jersey was represented with Revenge Boss magazine coverage. The art show was probably covered with more than 20 photographers and filmmakers such as Johnny Sylman, and Dmitry Ryabin and his crew, as well as celebrity photographer designer Paul Walker, Ted Karpovich, and so many others. Among famous models we saw again lead model Colleen with her signature walk. The show was a discovery of rookie model Lia who totally put the audience by surprise how gracefully she modeled. Many models took trips to the show from far upstate for hours such as Beth and Reggie. And of course designers from Lithuania Valda bring a diversity of various ages to the runway. Between the kids fashion show and dog fashion show and even designer from Miami Mariia the show was quite a success considering the Covid conditions and weather which by the way was a very rainy day. But fashion never sleeps as some would say. So despite the harsh weather conditions, (prior show was done with the Medjina collection in the snow blizzard) many artists /designers show up to change the world for the better and bring beauty and inspiration to New York. Now more than ever NYC needs public performances, with Broadway closed for more than a year we hope that the money the city plans to spend on public performances will also be shared as grants for fashion productions since we consider fashion a part of arts as any other performances such as dance and singing. As a matter of fact the April 25^th show will contain new paparazzi fashion show and prank fashion show and comedy fashion show and various art fashion performances when fashion and dance and singing and painting (body painting as well) will be combined to create various arts. To join the production team please reaches out @alexanderegurman for location, details and financial support available for models and designers and sponsorship opportunities. The prior shows would not be possible without generous support by pet supplement company #VetVittles and of course we will have this show with VetVittles support. As a matter of fact this show will be also supported with food from delicious restaurant Cats on the Bay, thank you Oleg and Karina. It’s impossible to mention by name each volunteer like Andrey and Steve and so many others who come and help us to create art for the public. We hope that our pictures, videos and feeling that the events produce can speak for the way we perceive the arts. Thank you all our friends and our enemies, we forgive you, past is past, let’s make arts together.