A Brief Interview With This Prada Nylon Beanie

Prada recently released a waterproof nylon beanie that retails for $304, yet is nearly indistinguishable from the one your drummer-”poet” ex-boyfriend wore to meet your mom (apart from its lack of knit and absence of weed fug, of course.) To celebrate this exciting moment in chapeau history, GARAGE was able to secure an interview with the hat itself.

GARAGE: You describe yourself on Instagram as a “vagabond artist” and “accidental teller of truths.” Can you say more about that?

BEANIE: People wonder why I make my concept art in a freezing studio in Chinatown when my parents would totally pay for a salon, but I tell them, you have to struggle to create. Like, the other day, I was riding my fixie across the Manhattan Bridge and I came across this homeless woman sleeping, right? So I wake her up and we have this really amazing conversation, and, anyway, long story short, the iPhone video I shot of her is going up at my friend’s gallery in Greenpoint next month. I should really try to find her again and invite her to the opening.

GARAGE: What inspires your art?

BEANIE: Oh, man, easier to ask what doesn’t inspire me. Late-night Q train rides across the water...the poignancy of a half-finished slice of pizza in the trash when so many people go hungry...pigeons. I’m really into pigeons lately. They’re just, like, scavengers, and I really relate to that, you know? After my parents’ divorce, I had to, like, hunt for food in the kitchen whenever the maid had the night off.

GARAGE: Do you ever inject your personal life into your work? Your Instagram is full of references to a certain “real one” that trail off around January.

BEANIE: Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to keep your life separate from your art. Around January I broke up with….shit, I guess I shouldn’t say her name, she’s a hostess at Dimes and I think she reads this website. But anyway, we broke up, and since then my work has gotten really primal, really animalistic. Especially after I heard she got back together with her ex, who was in my class at RISD, and he’s such a huge poseur, he thinks he’s 2019’s answer to Matthew Barney. But I’m transitioning into a newer, calmer sphere—these days, I’m all about tranquility.

GARAGE: Was this shift brought on by a new relationship?

BEANIE: Whoa, that’s kind of personal, don’t you think? There are some things I only tell my Moleskine. Or my Notes app, whichever’s closer. But yes, I am seeing someone new.

GARAGE: Where did you meet?

BEANIE: It’s actually a really funny story. We were on the dance floor at China Chalet and I complimented her purple velvet scrunchie, and she gave me a look like, Whatever. So I gave up. But then, later that night, I’m in line at Bossa Nova Civic Club, and in front of me? A purple velvet scrunchie! So I tap the girl and say hi, but it turns out, it’s a different girl with the same scrunchie. Anyway, we’ve been dating ever since.

GARAGE: That’s beautiful.

BEANIE: Yeah, she’s like, really supportive of my art, which is cool. She’s a cellist and sculptor herself, when she’s not nannying for Batsheva Hay’s kids. Oh, shit, I wasn’t supposed to say names—can you take that part out?

GARAGE: That’s not really our policy.

BEANIE: Hey, that’s cool. Radical transparency, right?