Why open a vintage shop in the 5 Pointz graffiti complex?
C.P.: Local Project, a nonprofit I founded for emerging artists, has used this warehouse for five years. But now the space is going condo, so we opened the store to fund-raise for our move.
You must get tired of all the tourists.
C.P.: It can be tedious. “No, we’re not associated with 5 Pointz. No, we don’t give tours. No, there’s no roof deck.”
How do you entice them to stay and shop?
K.C.: They get sucked in by the conversation pieces: a rubber-chicken purse or a Seven Year Itch lunch box. And the graffiti teens go crazy for the nineties fashion like Run-D.M.C. wind suits. They see anything obnoxiously colored and go, “That’s so hot.” It makes me feel old.
Interview by Jessica Silvester