Katya Moorman: Capturing the Soul of New York’s Underground
Katya
Moorman
Former dancer. Nightlife photographer. Founder of Style Defined NYC. Co-founder of No Kill Magazine. UN Fashion & Lifestyle Collective. Adjunct Professor at Pratt. The underground and the future, in the same body of work.
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
Katya Moorman didn't just document New York's nightlife: she helped define it. A former ballet and modern dancer turned lens-wielding anthropologist of downtown cool, her work through Style Defined NYC offered a rare, intimate view into the city's most electric subcultures. From glitter-drenched club kids to ballroom legends, her photography celebrated the radicals, provocateurs and style anarchists who kept New York's creative heart beating. Italian Vogue called it cult. She called it simply showing up.
She started Style Defined because she felt mainstream street style blogs were missing the real creativity happening in Brooklyn basements and after-hours clubs. Her platform became a manifesto for unfiltered self-expression, spotlighting those who treat fashion as performance art. It ran from 2008 to 2014, achieved cult status, and was acquired. Then she went somewhere more interesting.
Tom Ford because he goes seamlessly between design, photography and film. Martha Graham because she was a super headstrong female artist back in the day. Coco Chanel and Madonna for being wildly creative, fearless and unapologetically themselves.
I am really fond of people who came up from the clubs: Kenny Kenny, Ladyfag and Patrick McDonald to name a few. I'm less impressed with people who have a lot of money and pay stylists or work in the fashion industry so have access to all the clothes. Ultimately my belief is that you need to be your own icon.
There is so much exposure to different cultures and ways of thinking here. Also it's very competitive so everyone is striving to be their best and stand out. No one who wants to be in fashion can be a modest wallflower here and make it.
The Paper Magazine 25th anniversary party was pretty amazing. It was held in the main New York Public Library and all of the best New York fashion and nightlife people were there. At the end Liza Minnelli sang New York, New York and everyone sang it with her. It was amazing and utterly surreal.
On the opposite side of the spectrum are the gay House Balls, made famous in Paris Is Burning. There is so much vitality in them. It's very hard to find counterculture. It doesn't exist the way it used to and when it's discovered it's so quickly commodified. I am always looking for the unexpected and the off-guard moments wherever I am.
"Real style isn't bought. It's lived."
Katya MoormanMagazine
From documenting the underground to dismantling the system that commodifies it: Katya Moorman's second act is about as coherent a trajectory as a career can have. No Kill Magazine challenges the fashion industry's overproduction and overconsumption, pushing for a future where fashion and sustainability not only coexist but thrive together.
A member of the UN Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network, No Kill is rooted in the belief that style is a form of self-expression and activism. Sharp, irreverent, globally engaged. From critiquing high-end polyester "luxury" to spotlighting upcycled couture, the platform empowers readers to question, imagine, and act.
She also teaches Fashion and Communications, and Sustainability and Design, as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Graduate Communication Design programme at Pratt Institute. The underground, it turns out, was always leading here.
Style Defined NYC launches. An insider view into New York's underground nightlife, street style and party circuit.
This interview. Italian Vogue has already described Style Defined NYC as "cult." She is shooting Kenny Kenny, Patricia Field, Amanda LaPore.
Style Defined NYC sold. Moorman joins Manufacture New York as Director of Communications, integrating tech with design and sustainability.
Co-founds No Kill Magazine and No Kill: Project Planet, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. UN Fashion and Lifestyle Collective membership follows.
Editor at No Kill. Professor at Pratt. Permanent collection at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Still burning.
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