Anna Sheffield

WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?
In all honesty, I could answer that question with New York City, since I feel like I very much became who I am here, but I started life and graduated high school in New Mexico (with a few other cities/countries spread across those years).

WHERE DO YOU CURRENTLY LIVE IN NYC? 
My favorite neighborhood- I’m on 4th St and 2nd Ave. I used to live on Great Jones and now my store is on Bleecker and Bowery. So I feel like I always gravitate to this special, middle section of downtown.

WHAT WOULD THE TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY BE?
Love Saves the Day is taken… I could go, Punk in Pearls: A Tattooed Lady in Fashion… or something like, ‘Anything is Possible‘ by a girl from New Mexico that didn’t know anything but a little hustle she learned working in a Haight Ashbury tattoo shop but had a lot of heart and maybe a touch too much determination.

WHAT CAN’T YOU TRAVEL WITHOUT AND WHY?
Lotions and potions. And, of course, a refillable water bottle.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE TRAVEL DESTINATION AND WHY?
I’ve been so fortunate to see a lot of this beautiful world, but nothing fills my heart to the brim like going home to New Mexico. The North of the state is a rare and exquisite combination of desert and mountains. It’s incredibly different with every season, and the grandeur of the environs is really just beyond words.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON?
I love a good meander. The streets of NYC are like arteries of the magical happy accident of humanity. You can’t take any wrong turns.

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE ONE PERSON TO SHOW YOU “THEIR NEW YORK CITY,” WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
If I could see anyone’s New York it would be the Lenape’s version. Where I grew up, Native Americans are still very much present in the land that birthed their cultures. I can only imagine having spent time upstate, what the island of Manhattan would have been like before anyone edited it.

WHO OR WHAT HAS INSPIRED YOU RECENTLY?
Always reading a minimum of three books. Right now: How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan; Ladies of the Canyons, Lesley Poling-Kempes; just finished Colette’s The Vagabond.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE NYC RESTAURANTS? WHAT DO YOU ORDER THERE?
Lately, I’m obsessed with this new kind of high-end vegan dining, so I go to that row of Matthew Kenney restaurants on 2nd Avenue a lot. The nachos at Bar Verde are all kinds of delicious, and not so fancy if you’re in the mood.

WHAT’S YOUR GO-TO SPOT IN NYC FOR DRINKS?
The bar Hotel Delmano is a fave as it takes me back to my Brooklyn days. It’s so beautiful in there, like being in some kind of highly visual, super festive alternate reality. And the drinks are soooo yummy.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE BRUNCH SPOTS?
Brunch at Mogador! Get the one with eggs and halloumi, a side of avocado and two servings of harissa.

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR ART FIX IN NYC? DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ARTIST? 
There are a number of great galleries on the LES. But, I love when the art fairs come to town—I mean that’s the best fix, right? To just eat allllllllll the cookies in the box.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR LATE-NIGHT HANGOUTS IN NYC?
Not up late much running two companies! I tend to stay late at dinner parties when I’m having so much fun I lose track of time.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR UNDER-THE-RADAR MUST-DO RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NYC VISITORS?
Is there anything left under the radar in NYC? I might be too old to find them. I’m never mad at a walk over one of the bridges, or taking a coffee and a book to one of the neighborhood parks, like over in Alphabet City.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE NYC STORES?
Coming Soon, Brooklyn Baby Cakes, Oroboro, The Future Perfect, Hesperios, Narnia Vintage….

WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO THESE DAYS? WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE MUSICIANS?
So much. I still listen to Pink Floyd on vinyl, a tradition started with my dad. But I also get into some Sade, Danzig, RapCaviar, and some Wes Anderson soundtracks in there too. NBD.

WHAT ALBUM OR SONG WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR PERSONAL SOUNDTRACK TO NYC?
So hard to pick one, but I could safely say Crush Songs by Karen O.

WHEN YOU THINK OF NYC, ARE THERE ANY PARTICULAR EMOTIONS OR MEMORIES THAT IMMEDIATELY COME TO MIND?
My first apartment! So So So So Small. It’s revealing in that NYC way that you can arrive here with a ‘nowhere but up’ attitude and bring that to fruition.

PHOTOGRAPHY Dana Boulos