Kim Hastreiter

Kim Hastreiter is a creator and a connector of worlds, as well as an editor, curator, collector, and catalyst who has spent more than four decades at the center of cultural emergence.

As the co-founder and longtime editor of Paper Magazine, she built one of the most influential platforms documenting the intersection of art, fashion, music, and nightlife in downtown New York and beyond.

She's also worked with everyone from Keith Haring to President Barack Obama, and her new book, Stuff: A New York Life of Cultural Chaos, tells the story of her life through the objects and people she has encountered and gathered along the way.

Kim Hastreiter, welcome to Design Matters.

Thank you.

I'm so excited to be here.

Kim, I understand that you identify as both a loudmouth and a snob.

[chuckles]

Why, why is that? Why those two particular things?

I think it's, has a little to do with DNA, I hate to tell you, but-

[laughs]

... it's not, not a learned thing, but I am kind of stubborn, like my father was, and, uh, super opinionated.

And also, the older I get, the more I get that way because the time is running out.

I mean, now I'm kind of, like, in fast motion because I turned seventy.

When I turned seventy, you know, you kinda see the end, and then I become, like, completely a maniac about, like, not wasting time.

There's no transactional stuff.

It's all has to be, like, high bar.

I have a high bar.

Yeah.

As I'm getting older and older and just right behind you, a couple of years behind you, everything becomes more urgent.

Yeah.

You grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, and by your own mother's account, she described you as a square suburban girl.

[chuckles]

How is that possible?

I was just young.