'It is turnt up!': Scenes from a Bed-Stuy sidewalk fashion show

Enthusiastic models, recruited via social media, serve looks and show off outfits from Gizmo's Lulu Vintage Clothing shop

By Scott Lynch

Marcus Garvey Boulevard played host to an exuberant fashion show Sunday in front of Gizmo Vintage Honey’s much-loved Bed-Stuy shop, Lulu Vintage Clothing. The occasion, ostensibly, was Gizmo’s recent birthday, but anyone who has met this woman knows she needs little excuse to throw a party.

Gizmo, left, on the mic (Photo by Scott Lynch)

“My birthday just passed,” Gizmo tells Brooklyn Magazine, “and I had a lot of things going on this month but you know what? It is turnt up! It is Leo season—it is Leo month—so I decided to give a fashion show and I usually call it a bash-in show so that is what is going on today.”

DJ EricLBeats provided the soundtrack as about a half dozen amateur models, mostly friends of Gizmo or social media recruits, picked out several changes of clothes from the shop’s extensive inventory to strut down the sidewalk. Acrobatic twins Tic and Tac vacated their Washington Square perch in Manhattan to pop, lock and crack jokes. Bed-Stuy was a stage and the small crowd was treated to a free show.

Photo by Scott Lynch

Photo by Scott Lynch

“I take it as it comes, one day at a time,” says Gizmo. “Me? I like to just live for the day and I try to make the best of the day, so once I wake up and I know that I’m alive, I have fun.”

The past 18 months haven’t all been fun, through, and Gizmo is the first to acknowledge the collective hard times. “It has been an eventful two years but you know what? It’s an eventful life anywhere I go, all right?” she says. “It’s a show going on, it’s a party going on, and I’m always down to do it.”