A little over a week ago, I got to experience one of the best interactive art installations I've ever experienced: #29Rooms. It was the only NY Fashion Week event I attended this time around, but I'm okay with that because it fulfilled all of my wildest dreams, haha..
For their 10th anniversary, Refinery29 put together an epic 29-room funhouse inside a Greenpoint (Brooklyn) warehouse. Each room was created by a different artist and offered a different experience than the one next to it. It was an extremely overwhelming visual experience to say the least, lol... I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see it Thursday night before it went live to the public on Friday / Saturday. Despite this exclusive viewing opportunity though, I still felt like I could have easily spent more time in each of the rooms. There were even some rooms I didn't go into at all or failed to photograph because I was so overwhelmed trying to just take it all in. 29 is A LOT! I think I would have been overwhelmed had there been only 10 rooms... so imagine 3 times that. I unfortunately wasn't able to catch the name / artist of each room because I felt so scatterbrained through out the night, but will try to share that info with you for the ones I was able to catch or recognized on my own.
I know that the waiting line for Friday / Saturday was crazypants. I heard people waited for 3-5 hours... which is insane but it also doesn't surprise me. I totally would have waited to see it all too if I hadn't been able to go on Thursday night. I also heard that some people were turned away, and denied the opportunity to get inside... which is just a shame. (If you were one of those people, hopefully you can live vicariously through this blog post.. lol) It makes me sad to think about all the hard work that was put into making this happen... and that it was only seen by a small group of people because it was only up for 2 days. It easily could have been up for a week or even a month.
The entrance was a giant glitter-lips doorway, which then led into a mirrored room dedicated to red lipstick. People were encouraged to put on the free lipstick samples and kiss the mirror walls. It was pretty hard to photograph, but was a great way to set the stage for the remaining 28 rooms.
I don't remember the exact order / numbering of all the rooms... but I do remember that the pristine all-white virtual reality room was earlier in the journey. I drifted off to the land of Tulum, Mexico for a few minutes here. (I've never been outside of the country, so this pathetically was very exciting to me LOL) ;) Berlin, Germany was another option... and I forget what the third was.
Hattie Stewart's silent disco room was one of my favorites of the night.. I easily could have spent hours in this room! The entire floor was covered in neon feathers that glowed under the black light, and I was pretty obsessed with how my neon peach shirt looked here too. ;)
After the first few rooms, the corner turned to reveal the dreamiest glowing rainbow hallway ever.......................
This magical hallway set the stage for the remaining rooms:
There was a room covered in succulents - complete with a succulent bust... which I didn't even realize was a bust until I looked back on the photos later on haha.. #soscatterbrained. It would have been a great photo op and fun to stand behind.. but oh well.
The room dedicated to "Minnie Style" was covered in all things red, white, black, and polka-dotted. There were tons of fun props to play with including Minnie bow headbands, Minnie purses, and Mickey / Minnie heads. In this room, you apparently could have gotten a flip book printed after recording a short video in front of the photo backdrop... but again, this was something I didn't realize until after the fact LOL..
Another one of my favorites from the night was the Print All Over Me floral / striped room(s). This was probably one of the biggest rooms .. and it was like an epic maze of sorts. There were matching floral pieces of fabric that you could drape over yourself for the ultimate camouflage art selfie. In the striped section of the room, there was a giant mountain of the comfiest PAOM bean bag chairs - which was so fun diving into (and also ridiculously hard to get up from afterwards).
"The Girl's Room" by Petra Collins felt like stepping into a bathroom inside of Barbie's dream house. It was a v. steamy all-pink bathroom complete with sink, toilet, and bathtub (which had PURPLE running water). I wish I had taken more time to look at all the details of this room... but I felt like I was melting and was anxious to see the other rooms (afraid of running out of time)..
(left) FlourShop created a room filled with rainbow cakes... a literal feast for the eyes.. pretty sure when I walked into this room I yelled "OMG RAINBOW CAKES" like a 5 year old.. :D
(right) Shantell Martin created a room covered from head to toe with her signature stream of consciousness drawings. People were encouraged to place post-it notes on the wall (using sharpies to draw / write whatever they wanted on them), which of course transformed the wall over the next few days. It reminded me of Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Room. By the end of Saturday, I saw (on Instagram) that the room was completely covered in post-its. I'm glad I got to see the room before it was totally "obliterated" - but a part of me also wishes I could have seen it again to read through some of the post-it notes when more were up on the wall.
The second to last room was a denim workshop where you could get a DIY tote bag. I couldn't tell if I was more amazed with her freehand bleach pen "A" or her AMAZING braided hair... seriously, can someone please braid my hair to look like that?! All of the workers were dressed in white and more or less had this same kind of look.. #SOFASHION #HAIRENVY
The final room was the cloud room... I guess they don't say they "save the best for last" for nothing??! By this point I was SO mentally exhausted and I sadly only took 2 photos of this beautiful room (so pathetic, I know). There was also a small group of people with a tripod who were hogging it.. so I sadly didn't wait to take any photos of myself with the clouds either.. :/
The very end of the hallway had this giant wall, which really was the cherry on top of it all. #29Rooms truly was a "dream world" - dreamed up by the creative geniuses of so many, and I love that their ultimate goal in all of this was to inspire others to follow their own dreams... mission accomplished, I'd say. :)
Lastly - I'd like to say a huge thank you to my good friend and Instagram partner in crime Emily for being the reason why I was able to see #29Rooms on Thursday night. Despite the shitty monsoon weather, it was so fun to share this wild experience together and take photos of one another in such a wonderful interactive space. I don't think I would have had the same experience had I been alone.
PS: I am by no means a fashion blogger so... it took me 5,000 years to figure out what to wear to a "NYFW" event LOL, but for those who are interested:
WHAT I WORE:
Bag - ShopHarveys
Black Chelsea Boots - Asos
Peach Top + Shorts - H&M (purchases from last year / the clearance rack..)
Blue Top - Unknown, and also a purchase from last year or the year before..
(clearly downhill after the bag and the boots but... keepin' it real LOL)
Were you able to get in to #29Rooms? What was your favorite room? If you weren't able to go, which room would you have liked to experience? Let's chat in the comments below! :)