Now We Wonder If Kim Hastreiter’s Red Glasses Are Sponsored By Target

We came across this story about Paper goddess Kim Hastreiter in the New Yorker a few weeks ago but held back, hoping it would maybe be presented online shortly. But on this day of 96-degree malaise we’ve lost patience and will finally report on This One Thing Which We Did Not Know:

In 2002, Hastreiter attracted the attention of the creative team at Target when, in her annual design issue, she devoted two pieces to the store. In one, she took [Murray] Moss to a Target in Queens and interviewed him about the Pop effects of product “striping” (placing color-coordinated multiples on the shelves). For the other, she invited some designer friends to invent new products for the store. Pierre Cardin designed simple, modern coffeepots and thermoses; Vladimir Kagan drew sketches for cocktail shakers, attractive toilet brushes and ergonomic frying pans.

(That part we knew, just wanted to give you some background.)

Three Target executives flew out to New York to meet Hastreiter, and later hired her as a consultant. “I’m this person who’s whispering–or screaming–in their ear, an enthusiast,” Hastreiter says. “If they’re going to Europe, I tell them they should go to these stores, see these designers. When they come to New York I’m the one schlepping them to some place they wouldn’t have gone otherwise. It’s very broad. I’m just a resource for advice. They run things by me.”

In the article it’s revealed that Hastreiter advises Heath Ceramics on their product lines, as well. Like we said, the article is not online, but you can download the PDF from Paper’s site, or listen to some audio from the writer Dana Goodyear, who, coincidentally, is blogging quite poetically about life in Los Angeles, even about events we should be at, like the Ray Kappe-Shigeru Ban talk last week.

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