Ari Seth Cohen + Special Guests: Advanced Pets

Join us for an event with style writer and photographer Ari Seth Cohen for the launch of his new book Advanced Pets. Joining Ari in conversation are Lauren Ezersky, Arlinda McIntosh, Emily Lemer, and Alice Carey. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

Can’t make the event?

ACCESSIBILITY:

Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator.

Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at [email protected] by October 30 to request.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact .

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Advanced Pets, a follow up to the acclaimed bestsellers Advanced Style, Advanced Style: Older & Wiser, and Advanced Love, explores the tender bond between photographer, author, and social media extraordinaire Ari Seth Cohen’s colorful, catwalk-worthy subjects and their furry and feathered companions. It's a heartwarming book featuring stylish seniors and posed extravagantly with their dogs, pigs, birds, cows, etc!

Photo Credit: Eric Lee

Ari Seth Cohen is a freelance writer, photographer, and blogger based in Los Angeles. Cohen grew up in San Diego and moved to New York in 2008, where he immediately noticed a vibrant community of older women with grand personal styles. This eventually led to the creation of Advanced Style, a blog devoted “to capturing the sartorial savvy of the senior set.” Over the past ten years, Advanced Style has appeared in national media such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, Vice, New York, The Fader, Vogue Japan, Vogue Italia, Elle, Elle UK, The UK Telegraph, Forbes.com, and internationally broadcast news and fashion programs. He has since published Advanced Style The Coloring Book, Advanced Style: Older and Wiser and Advanced Love.

Photo Credit: Ari Seth Cohen - Advanced Pets

When the internationally-known style expert Lauren Ezersky was a little girl, she got into trouble by stealing grandma’s sheets and making dresses. Grandma was not thrilled. At school, she was sent down to the principal’s office because her skirts were too short and her heels were too high, but did she care? Not one bit! Through it all, Ezersky persevered, reading the latest fashion magazines, looking at the credits of all the designers, makeup artists, and hairdressers, and dreaming of being part of their world someday.  

Sometimes if you dream hard enough, fantasies can become realities: For over 30 years, Ezersky has covered the world of fashion and beauty, interviewing everyone from Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace to Betsy Johnson to Isaac Mizrahi to Manolo Blahnik.  

Ezersky got her first big break in 19xx, when Kim Hastreiter, the founder and editor of the legendary downtown bible Paper Magazine, asked her to interview Donna Karen—and, Kim said, if she liked it, she would print it! She did and she did. Opportunity knocked again when Ezersky appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show for being a shopaholic. The people who started the cable program “Behind the Velvet Ropes” asked her to be a guest on their show, and-- Cinderella-moment! —the day of her appearance she was offered a fashion segment. As luck would have it –-Ezersky has always been as lucky as she is plucky-- she was able to interview photographer Francesco Scavullo that night, which lead to an ongoing, long-term stint on the show. Ever since, she has delighted her audience with her kind-hearted yet hard-hitting interviewing technique.

With her New York accent and irreverent personal style –part designer diva, part wicked angel—Ezersky, a beloved figure on the Manhattan fashion scene, remains a force to be reckoned with—as incisive and brilliant as an interviewer as she is unpretentious and forthright.

Photo Credit: Ari Seth Cohen - Advanced Pets

The Creative: Fashion Designer and Stylist Arlinda McIntosh is best known as the creative force behind Sofistafunk, a boutique design house known mainly for their voluminous, picturesque and whimsical skirt collections. The youngest of three children, Arlinda's creativity was apparent at an early age. By her pre-teens, she was already creating skirts and accessories for herself. She began her professional career creating custom garments and re-designing shoes. In the early seventies, Arlinda was hired on the production line at the Norma Kamali factory, it was there performing piece work and hand finishing garments that she would hone her production skills. Later that year, while working part time at a convertible car top manufacturer, the young designer began creating custom hand bags from the colorful fabric remnants. In the early 80's she was hired by a private label garment manufacturer. It was there that Arlinda learned valuable lessons in the business of fashion and met future friend and Fashion Executive Barry S., he recognized Arlinda's unique talent and encouraged her to strike out on her own, so convinced that she would be successful he offered his professional expertise and business savvy to aid her start up, The young designer was on her way. By the early 90s Arlinda had developed a solid clientele and a reputation for classic yet original pieces. She was not just selling clothing but an entire lifestyle. Her flair for presentation was her trademark, she began hosting "Wine and Cheese Fashion Affairs" where current clients would introduce new ladies to her world of ready-to-wear zero-waste skirts, hats and custom couture. These soirees would eventually attract women of all ages from nearly every profession. In 1994, my designs became sought-after by various film and music executives which led to design commissions for many in the entertainment world including but not limited to Anna Maria Horsford, Yvette Nicole Brown, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah and many more. Today, with over 40 years of experience in design and styling, Arlinda has created a lifestyle skirt brand that has garnered the attention of a diverse range of loyal and dedicated followers. In addition to The Skirt Co., Arlinda remains true to a growing private clientele that call for her custom couture one of a kind creations. The Sofistafunk brand as well as Arlinda M, the private label couture collection, have been featured on television and stage as well as film, magazines and periodicals. Both labels have graced the racks at exclusive boutiques throughout NY, NJ, LA and Palm Beach. "The loves of my fashionable life: "Big skirts, DANCE, and the Fairytale."

Photo Credit: Ari Seth Cohen - Advanced Pets

A vibrant soul, Emily Lemer soared the skies as a flight attendant, weaving colors and stories wherever she went. With her beloved cats by her side, she embraced life’s beauty—fashion, music, opera and dance. Loved by many, she moves with grace and joy, leaving a trail of light and laughter in every step. Namaste❣️

Photo Credit: Ari Seth Cohen - Advanced Pets

Alice Carey's Irish emigrant parents wanted her born in Manhattan so she’d be a real New Yorker. The first in her family with a university degree, Alice taught in secondary school while acting in fringe and summer theatre. At age 10, she became a disciplined diary writer and chronicled summer trips home to Ireland by ship with her mother, who worked as a maid for Broadway producers. Details in those diaries proved invaluable in writing her well-received (“A tour de force”-Kirkus) memoir, I’ll Know It When I See It (Random House/Clarkson Potter 2002 hardcover, SEAL Press 2005, paperback). Her second memoir, Manhattan To West Cork – Alice’s Adventures in Ireland (Collins Press 2016) chronicles Alice’s fascinating childhood intercut with she and her husband restoring a 19th century ruined Georgian farmhouse (featured on RTE’s Home of the Year).

Alice has been a regular contributor to Huffington Post, read at the 2016 West Cork Literary Festival, then did a sold-out diary-writing seminar there in 2017, the same year she was chosen to be Cork City’s Culture Night Ambassador. Alice made her film acting debut in 2016 in the award-wining short, The Surf Report. Photographer Ari Seth Cohen “discovered” Alice on the streets of Manhattan for his well-known style blog, Advanced Style. Featured in his first two books, Advanced Style and Advanced Style: Older & Wiser, she became a ‘face’ for Lincoln Car, modeled for Vogue Japan, and is featured on magazine covers and in numerous articles on style.

She and her husband are in Cohen’s book, Advanced Love alongside other fabulous older couples and appeared on NBC’s TODAY show discussing aging with verve. Alice has been reviewed/interviewed on writing and style in US and Irish newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, Irish Times, Irish Examiner) and on radio (NPR, Ryan Tubridy RTE, Pat Kenny Newstalk). Much to her surprise, Alice is on the sunny side of 70.

Host or Publisher The Strand Book Store