Meet Anna

Do you ever feel...like a plastic bag...drifting through the wind?

No, me either tbh. 

That being said, we found an artist that has sought to preserve these flimsy vessels. Textile and print designer Anna Brettschneider, took on a curatorial project with immense socio-cultural significance: the documentation of the innumerable, colorful, wasteful, quirky, unnecessary, and iconic plastic bags of the big apple. 

Below, we chat to Anna about her collection, the elevation of the mundane, and get a top tip about where to find some real cool stuff in the city. 

A self-portrait by, Anna Brettschneider

Would you rather…

smell like mothballs, or sound like gilbert Godfried?

I think I could coat myself with enough Le Labo perfume everyday to mask the smell of moth balls but a voice is hard to disguise (and I like to talk).

Some questions with Anna Brettschneider

What do you think happened to all the dinosaurs?

I have always been interested in dino conspiracy theories actually (maybe they never existed?), but my high-school AP bio teacher swayed my thoughts otherwise. Hopefully they are somewhere having fun!

How does your own personal creative work as a textile designer shape this project?

Being a textile designer, and a designer in general, has trained my eye to always be on the lookout for inspiration and trends out in the wild, and NYC is great for that. Every day is like a scavenger hunt and I am constantly looking for things like: pedestrians walking with colorful balloons, my name (Anna) graffiti-ed all over the lower east side, and now-plastic bags. 

How does environmentalism play into your work, if at all?

I had been hoarding my plastic bag collection for quite some time, not knowing what to do with them, until I heard about the now-in-effect plastic bag ban in the city. This was a great opportunity to share my collection and continue to be on the hunt for more classic & (soon to be) nostalgic NYC bags and give them a platform to be memorialized. 

What led to your interest in New York’s plastic bags?

I love how there are so many repeating bag designs that are always slightly changing. There’s the smilie bag that alters in “Thank You” type or shade of yellow for the face, the purple flower thank you bag that might feature a rose or a daisy, and so on. It’s fun to find the differences in what seems like the same bag design.

What story are you trying to tell through this curatorial project?

Playing with something so simple and everyday like plastic bags and curating them in the approachable format of Instagram allows for a mundane object to be seen for it's design instead of as trash. One of my favorite accounts that inspired me to collect and curate in this way is @matchbookdiaries 

Is there any bag you are on the hunt for?

Any bag I don't have yet!

What movie has your favorite soundtrack?

Amelie is my favorite movie and happens to also have my favorite movie soundtrack. It always makes me feel transported to the Montmartre district in Paris.. Side note - the grand piano guy that rolls out his instrument every Saturday in Washington Square park plays Amelie original scores some mornings if you're lucky.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

A little bit more context  — Bag Lady is part of a larger project I work on called coolstuff.nyc. This is a newsletter and website dedicated to sharing cool stuff around the city. Together with my creative partner, we source places you should visit, smilies around the city and argue why you should work on the M train. You can follow along at @coolstuff.nyc and subscribe to our biweekly newsletter at www.coolstuff.nyc