The Look Book

Agathe Snow, Artist

Spotted on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Prince Street.

By Amy Larocca
Published May 21, 2005

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(Photo: Jake Chessum)

What kind of artist are you?
I make, like, environments with food. I make food, I deliver it. I move from people’s houses to galleries and museums with food.

But you’re not a chef or a caterer?
It’s like this: I live on the Lower East Side, and I just came back from Amsterdam, where I did this thing at De Appel Museum—an ode to Kurt Cobain. It was a collaboration with some Japanese artists. They were doing music and projections, so I made food. Oh, I was also wearing a wedding dress. I had white lilies and candles everywhere, so it was an environment. It’s called “Feed the Troops.”

How did you come up with that name?
I have a lot of really amazing people around me, an army of the creative and beautiful, the super-talented and strong. I also design clothes.

Are you wearing anything you designed today?
No. I’m wearing an old Mexican embroidered dress. It was my great-grandmother’s. The coat is some designer, I don’t know who—it was given to me by my mom. The hood—that’s from SSUR Plus, on Spring Street. The boots are my friend Anna’s. I think she got them in Sweden.

What kind of clothes do you design?
It’s very casual stuff, men and women. We dye and treat T-shirts, and I make all the artwork. There are ponchos and capes. There are dresses.

How would you describe your overall aesthetic?
I’m like a modern-day gypsy. It’s just a moving and all-inclusive thing. And it’s very political.

Political how?
Well, right now, I’m kind of freaked out about the whole Bush story. I realized while I was in Amsterdam that he had been elected, so I did a lot of political stuff. I made Saddam Hussein and Osama shirts that are punk-inspired. It’s all a collage, basically. I think his reelection will just create an underground movement that will be more fun, and I will get inspired.

Is there anything mainstream that you like?
I just broke up with a boy who was really into mainstream stuff. I learned about bands like Pearl Jam from him. I’ve been with such extremists my whole life, it was nice. I forgot that people could be normal.