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FEATURED ARTIST – PATRICK VALE • LONDON, UK
INTERVIEW BY: JULIAN BELVEDERE • (HYG) LONDON
If you’re starting out in life and you usually get a full night’s rest, you’re probably doing it wrong. When we speak of sacrificing something in our lives such as sleep, what we mean is that we have excluded one thing to leave time for another. Of course, we’re often told that time is money, too. But here’s a caveat elided in that equation: one way or the other, we spend all of our time. The person who works at his passion is an alchemist converting time into something he can keep. When we die, that time becomes legacy. Legacy is the meaning of our story, and that contributes to the start of another person’s journey. Patrick Vale has sacrificed a lot of sleep.
We met at his Shoreditch studio in East London. During our conversation, it was clear that he’d engaged with his work intellectually and emotionally, even intensely, but not with the scrutiny of deep reflection. I found him to be a markedly unpretentious person. He has been too busy working at his passion to pause for lofty ruminations. For Vale, his drawn line – dark and steady, neither messy nor neat – precedes everything. If destiny is something we move towards, then fate pulls us inward towards itself. Vale is fated to his line. View Featured Interview
Featured Brand – Blind Barber • New York, NY
INTERVIEW BY: SARAH MENDELSOHN • (HYG) NYC
It was just over two years ago that a friend and I eagerly walked down East 10th Street on our way to an exciting event that promised an abundance of appealing activities. Among these happenings were free haircuts, a kissing booth, a bachelor auction, and, evidently, an overall good time. This enticing occasion was poised to unfold at an unfamiliar lounge, The Blind Barber, which, prior to the event that night, neither of us had ever seen nor heard of. As we approached our destination, our arrival was accompanied by confusion. The aptly named space we saw opposite Tompkins Square Park, didn’t at all appear to be appropriate for the event we were promised. All that was clearly visible was a cute little barber shop, in it two handsome barbers and their dapper clients. The space was obviously not big enough to hold more than a small group of people. After minutes of pondering our confusion suddenly became fascination, as we entered into what we immediately came to believe was one of the coolest downtown bars we had yet to discover.
As you near the corner that becomes Avenue B, you’ll find a seemingly small, unassuming barber shop. The classic looking parlor houses two barber chairs and not much else; or that’s what first impressions would lead you to believe. At the time, few knew that had you ventured into the barber shop and opened the immense wooden door on it’s farthest wall, it would open into a charming, dimly lit lounge. This lounge is complete with a full bar, floral wall paper decorated in an array of vintage photographs, comfortable leather seating, and a dance floor of just the perfect size. Both it’s quirky characteristics and it’s alluring amenities invite patrons to relish, relax, and stay for a while. The compelling formula The Blind Barber provides is what attracted consumers and ostensibly, kept them coming until word ultimately got out and had the masses earnestly waiting in line outside the barber shop every weekend night. View Featured Interview