on the authority of Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne.
“Nothing is more of a buzz wrecker when you’re talking about cool than talking about cool.
It is not, after all, a quality one can anatomize or acquire. People possess it inherently or not at all, and those who have it are typically too smart to claim it. Those who lack it are well advised to find other virtues to cultivate.”
There was (as there has traditionally been in New York) a kind of accelerated cultural metabolic rate that kept people in search of the next new movement, talent, artist or scene. “It’s different now that everyone has access to the same information and the same things,” Mr. Chow said.
Whether at Public School or DKNY, Mr. Osborne and Mr. Chow are less symbols or ambassadors of inclusion than a link to a less fragmented city and a time, one not all that long ago, when chromatic dispersion and diversity were civic givens, when the disparate tribes of New York came together to make music and art and fashion.
“I miss the old New York,” Mr. Osborne said.
Guy Trebay for the NYTIMES