Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Model and Musician (above right), and Sarabeth DeLeury, Philosopher and Actress
You two seem, um, very close.
CHARLOTTE: We’re not lesbians, we’re business partners. We’re about to make a music video with my boyfriend, Sean Lennon. It’s going to be us hunting Sarabeth; she’ll be Diana.
How did you meet?
SARABETH: We met first at a friend’s house. Charlotte walked in with one of her breasts hanging out and someone said, “Hey, your breast is hanging out,” and she said, “That’s okay, I have another.” CHARLOTTE: She’s the coolest person in the world, and I have really good taste. SARABETH: We became best friends and traveled the world together. We went to Europe and to L.A., where our car was seized. We both had mental breakdowns.
Breakdowns?
CHARLOTTE: Breakdowns and breakthroughs. SARABETH: We have this very interesting cyclic cycle of energy when we’re together that sucks in the most interesting people. CHARLOTTE: We’re friends with Sean Parker, who invented Napster, who just sold his business for like a billion dollars and always carries around a syringe filled with antidote.
What do you do together, other than attract interesting people?
CHARLOTTE: We used to play a lot of chess together in Washington Square Park with all the homeless men. But then Yoko Ono got me into Go, a Japanese chess game that’s more sophisticated.
Do you have summer plans?
CHARLOTTE: We go upstate to this amazing nature preserve and share clothes and money in this utopian way. It’s a beautiful farm that Yoko has landscaped, and we eat watermelon and make art. SARABETH: We’re trying to create a new way of moving forward as a collective so we can make money and help people.
Tell me about a crazy thing you’ve done recently.
CHARLOTTE: We saved a deer that got hit by a car. We found it on the side of the road. It was foaming and bloody, and we laid on it and hugged and stroked it. It got up twenty minutes later; it had regained its energy.
Masako Kitagawa, Tourist, and Tomoe Hirano, Student
You both look very pretty.
TOMOE: Really? I hope so. I am not so great. She’s cute, my friend. She is visiting me for a week from Japan. She doesn’t speak English.
[Masako giggles.]
What have you guys been doing?
We just go shopping. We went to a jazz bar in Park Slope, got drunk.
Did you coordinate your hair when you left this morning?
No, Masako’s staying in a hotel in Soho. We didn’t see each other, we didn’t know anything. I just showed up with that hair and she showed up with exactly the same hair.
Mengly Hernandez, Stylist, and Naila Ruechel, Photographer
How long have you been friends?
MENGLY: We met five years ago at the Hotel on Rivington at a magazine-launch party. NAILA: She had this big hair and was so beautiful, and I said, “Can I photograph you?”
Did she think you were hitting on her?
NAILA: It’s funny, she might have. She kind of has a standoffish thing, but then I called her up and she realized I was sane. Not that if you’re hitting on someone you’re insane, but you know what I mean. But my motives were as I said they were. MENGLY: I don’t open myself up to people very often. You can’t, because most people are looking for an opportunity.
That sounds somewhat cynical.
MENGLY: You can kind of judge a personality within two hours, you know? What’s the point of dragging it out unless you want something from it? That’s the problem that I have with a lot of people that I encounter. Not everyone, but a lot of people. People want something. If it’s a man, they have their own agenda. NAILA: When I met Mengly, she did have major trust issues. I was just like, “Girl, relax. It’s gonna be all right.” She’s gotten much better, though.
Have you two ever fought?
MENGLY: We have our days. NAILA: We went to Italy together, and the only annoying thing was that she spent what seems like forever in the shower. She spent like 25 minutes in the shower, and I was just like, “Let’s go, there’s all of Rome to see. Come on, enough already!”