Ever since I can remember, New Year’s Eve wasn’t just New Year’s Eve - it was Moo Moo’s birthday.

On December 31st, every year, around 6pm, my parents would pack us into the car and drive into downtown Chicago. We’d pull up next to Little Maggianos and be thrown out into an evening full of Shirley temples, running around with cousins, and feeling fancy AF while we tried to act like grownups.

Sitting at a table off to the side was my fabulous, fashionable, almost regal great grandmother, accepting hugs and kisses and cards (but no gifts!) for some insane milestone - 98, 101, 105.

I loved these nights. They felt warm and cozy and glittery. I’d always think hard about my outfit (even seven year old me was into making a statement). I’d traipse up to Moo Moo at some point during the night and squeeze her leathery hands while I read her a poem I’d written or showed her a card I’d made. Her ears would be dangling with some shiny thrift store baubles, her shoulders would be covered in a bold and colorful shawl, and she’d smile and tell me how much she loved me. If it was still light out, she'd even be wearing her larger than life signature sunglasses (now featured proudly in the MYC logo).

Growing up with my great grandmother wasn’t something I knew was extraordinary until she passed at 105 years young. I was left fending for myself on New Years. Dealing with all of the overrated, party planning, ticket purchasing bs that I’d been shielded from for so long. New Years had never really been New Years to me. It had been a celebration of family, and life, and eccentricity and love.

Fast forward to September 2021. Covid was very much alive, and my creative spirit was suffering the global loneliness rocking so many at the time. The glittery, colorful, funky world I was used to inhabiting was severely lacking. So I decided to create it myself.

And thus Moo York City was born. Named after Moo Moo, my favorite city, and York Ave (where I lived at the time), Moo York City was created to pay homage to what Moo Moo taught me: That no matter what age you were born in, what space you inhabited, how old you were...being yourself superseded it all. Back were the shiny baubles and statement pieces, except this time, I was making them myself.

When you shop Moo York City, you’re shopping more than just funky statement pieces - you’re continuing a generations-long legacy of being yourself, no matter the time or place. With every sale, new creation, and interaction with a customer, I think of my fashionista matriarch, who inspired in me a love of color and statements and boldness, and I hope that MYC can begin to encompass just a little of the glittery, glamour-y goodness that she added to my life; and maybe add just a little bit of it to yours, too.

–Aliza