Art&Sole
SERIOUS BUSINESS AND SERIOUS FUN
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| Robb Reichard (executive director of AIDS Fund), Jane Gershon Weitzman, Kevin O'Brien (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska) |
Jane Gershon Weitzman, the inimitable woman behind much of the
success of Stuart Weitzman Shoes, has
been a fan of Kevin O'Brien Studio, and a friend of Kevin's for many years. Building their company since the '80s she and
Stuart have sold their business and now Jane has even better things to do, she
raises money for any number of good causes through a book about shoes she has
created. Now that we at Kevin O'Brien
Studio are finally on our feet in our new headquarters (a totally rebuilt movie
theater from the thirties), we are able to invite people to our manufacturing
and design facility. So it became clear that Jane and Kevin
had to do something together, that something was an event to support the work of the AIDS Fund.
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| (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska) |
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| Some sample photos from Art&Sole |
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| For more information on the AIDS Fund, please visit their website (here) (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska) |
For many years, Kevin O'Brien Studio lived up to the
description "scrappy upstart" and did our business from a historic, but creaky and ancient loft in Philadelphia's Old City district, but all
things, even companies, must grow up. After
an unseemly long adolescence, we have burst upon the scene (in our own minds at
least) and opened our beautiful new space to our guests. On a recent May
evening, Jane gave her funny and heartwarming address about her new book, Art&Sole. The
book would seem to just be about shoes, but the stories that Jane told were
about a lifetime of using her company to create opportunities for all sorts of
New Yorkers who needed a bit of a helping hand, be it in the LGBT community, inner
city schools, or breast and ovarian cancer. There wasn't a dry eye in the
crowd as Jane recited stories about how she was able to help so many people
simply by thinking differently about how to use her position at a very
successful company.
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| (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska) |
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| Jane giving her presentation (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska) |
Afterwards, Jane answered lots of questions and signed books while the Aids Fund volunteers served up food and drinks. Meanwhile, Kevin
and Angela (the KOBS manager) gave tours of our facilities. Then the raffle winners were read out and
people went home with goodies from El Dorado Rum, Bernie Robbins, Bitars Restaurant, Starbucks, Trinity Framing, Merritt Gallery, Philadelphia Theatre Company, In Liquid, A Girl Named Katie, Shane's Candies, Candy Coated, Blush Salon, South Philly Accupunture, Farm & Fisherman Tavern & Market, Nickolette Phillips Design & Tailoring, Eat-a-Pita, More Then Just Ice Cream and artists such as Nikolay Milushev (YOMI t.g.m.b.) and Tim McFarlane.
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| (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska) |
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| Catherine, Lee, and Sarah modeling some of our raffle items |
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| We clearly take fun very seriously |
Serious money was raised and serious fun was had.
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