From the Founder

Friends From New York started the way all the best things do—organically.

I’m a city kid through and through. I did public school, private school, uptown, downtown. No money, all the money. That’s New York—you don’t just see one version, you see it all. It teaches you how to move through the world with a kind of grit and grace only being raised in this city can give you.

Growing up in ‘90s New York, the city still felt raw. I watched my generation take that layered, diverse upbringing and build big culture out of it. This city raised us. It shaped who we became.

While I was living abroad in Berlin—a city I fell deeply in love with—my German friends were fascinated by us being New Yorkers. It made me realize how much New York and its people translate all over the world.

During those years, while working as a photographer, I spent my days walking through Berlin’s neighborhoods, dreaming up ways to bring my talented, artistic "Friends From New York" over there. That’s when the name came to me.

It’s always been about celebrating and promoting my people—the ones I believe the world should know about. That’s how this all came to be. I’ve always just wanted to put up my friends, to let the world see the creative community that came out of ‘90s gritty NYC. It’s a community worth knowing—and getting creative with.

So this brand is for you:
The proud lifers who belong to this city no matter where life takes them.
And for anyone who wants to live with that same New York heart and hustle, wherever they go.

Because the truth is: everyone longs to have a friend from New York.
Life’s just that much sweeter when you’ve got a loyal G to roll through it with.

Welcome to Friends From New York.
We’re just getting started.

—Heidi