ALLISON TAKES US ON A DIVA APARTMENT TOUR

ALLISON TAKES US ON A DIVA APARTMENT TOUR

Allison Shaftel, a shoe designer for Betsey Johnson, is a self-proclaimed diva and fag hag. She invited PSB in for a tour of her hot pink, vintage-filled apartment, showing us everything from her insane shoe collection (her favorite, a pair of vintage Dior by Galliano wedges) to the various memorabilia--Elvis posters, Betty Boop heads, and more!--that covers nearly every inch of her fabulous apartment. Allison and long-time friend and diva, Toby Teitel, got together in Allison’s Brooklyn apartment to gab about Allison’s eclectic influences, meeting Betsey Johnson, and the highs and lows of being an artist in a corporate environment. 

TOBY TEITEL:  I am here with my dear friend, Allison all cozied, up on the pink couch. Excited to dig into all things diva. Are you ready, honey? 

ALLISON SHAFTEL: I'm ready, diva. 

TT: Let's get it. So the first question: if you're attracted to someone and you don't like what they're wearing, does it kill the attraction?

AS: Not at all. [Laughs.] Because I like bimbos, and they never know how to dress. It's just like…giving body. I don't really care. Honestly, if the guy knows how to dress, it’s a no because that means he knows how to fuck. If he looks too good, he's definitely getting laid. I feel like you're the same with that. 

TT: Oh yeah. I mean, for me, I feel as though a man who knows how to dress or who's into dressing wants to be the star. There can only be one; and ultimately, I feel like the diva does not want to compete with a man for attention or affection.

AS: It's giving your interview. She answered that boots down. No, but I agree. I don't really want a man to know his own style too well. ‘Cause I also wanna manipulate him. [Laughs.] I wanna be able to dress him up. I wanna make him my little Ken Doll. He needs to know enough about fashion to look good. 'Cause if he looks like a fucking idiot, I'm just gonna be like, no. 

TT: What do you think that fashion and dressing up means to the person and how that relates to dating generally? Like how you portray yourself on a date? 

AS: When I go on dates, I just dress like a very normal girl. [Laughs.] I don't give them full diva glam because I save diva glam for the gays. Like that's for the girls and gays. They get a very toned down version of me unless they specifically say that they want me in my glam, you know? I'm like, okay, you wanna see diva? Usually, I'm just giving all black on dates. You know, make it kind of sexy. Men don't put any thought into what they're wearing. 

TT: I think there's a misconception about aesthetics for the diva, that it's supposed to be a hyper femininity to attract men, and maybe there's truth to it in some cases. But it reminds me of the women in prison who will spend money on makeup when they have a million things that they could spend money on. They do it for themselves. There's something about dressing up and feeling beautiful that has nothing to do with men. 

AS: 100%. I totally dress myself differently if I'm going out knowing that I'm dressing for the male gaze versus male gays. I go for sexy and for what I know men like. If I'm going out with the girls, I'm giving glam diva. I don't give a fuck what a man thinks, you know? But I definitely think  there's times when I have to portray myself in a certain way if I wanna get dick or not. Plus, sometimes the men that are into the super femme, glam diva are crazy. That's why I don't have men follow me on Instagram. 

TT: What kind of guy likes a super diva?

AS: I'm like, is it giving fetish? Do you know what I mean? Why are you into that? I'm like, you're a man. You shouldn't have any opinion about fashion.

TT: Where would you say your sense of style comes from? 

AS: It's a million different influences. It's Barbie. It's Peewee Herman. It’s my mom's antique dealer. It's a lot of vintage. I've always been inherently attracted to bright colors and crazy florals. I’ve always been really into kids' clothes. Kids are allowed to dress in such a fun way that we are not as adults. As I got older, obviously, the queer community, the girls and the gays, the drag queens, had a huge impact. I've been thinking about this lately. I had a really good friend in college who knew a lot about fashion. When I first met her, I was super intimidated by her because I didn't really know that much about fashion per se. I was into it, but I didn't know that much about it. She really taught me how to dress and be cool. She was honestly one of the biggest influences in creating the diva that I am today.

TT: Was she a diva? 

AS: She was such a diva. 

TT: What is your perfect outfit? 

AS: There's no such thing. The perfect outfit changes. One day I might be like, that is the perfect outfit, but another day I'll be like, that is the perfect outfit. You can't just define it as one thing because there's so many amazing outfits out there. The best outfit can always change. You can always do better. 

TT: I totally feel that. As we're aging into the next bracket of life, what was the perfect outfit at 21 would be something I would not wanna represent myself as today. 

AS: Oh, a hundred percent. 

TT: It's exciting to come up with new, perfect outfits as we mature and become evermore graceful and diva-esque. As this is the diva issue, would you consider yourself a diva and tell me all about that identity for you? 

AS: I am the most diva that ever diva’ed in the diva world. And that's on period. The diva is everything. She's a bitch. She's powerful. She slays. She's glamorous, she's fashionable, she's high femme. I personally identify with her having an attitude. Her knowing what she wants, her not letting people push her around. It doesn’t always have a positive connotation, but it's like, damn girl, you know what you want and you know how to slay. Period. 

TT: Definitely. I think there's something so interesting about being an assertive femme, an assertive high femme at that, because we are kind of taught to think of everything as a binary between male and female and high femme and high masc, submissive and dominant, and I think that the diva definitely embodies a breaking of that binary and It shows that the scale goes more than just two ways, and it goes in and out. It's The Matrix. 

AS: So true. She's such a matrix. The Matrix of the Diva. That's the next movie in the Matrix series.

TT: I mean, The Matrix was about the trans experience, and both of the directors have come out as trans women. There's definitely something about being assertive and feminine that is scary to people for sure, and it breaks their ideas of what women can be, and it's maybe even scarier that oftentimes these divas identify as women because it proved to them that this is something that has always been around.

AS: It's like Marie Antoinette. There's been so many divas throughout history. Cleopatra, a diva. The people we remember in history as divas are the people that had something to say or something unique about them. You don't remember fucking basic ass bitches, you know? The diva is memorable, she's gonna make a legacy for herself. I love that. I love identifying with that part of the diva. I want to have a legacy of living my life as a diva.

TT: I absolutely look at you as someone with a living legacy, and I think that you are well on your way to making that happen in both the community of Brooklyn and the pages of Vogue, and it shouldn't be understated how influential you are and will become in the fashion world as an employed corporate doll. Maybe we should talk about that a little bit: how you have become a producer of creativity using the professional avenues of a mega brand that you work at. I am curious how you feel about being a diva with a point of view and lending your talents to a company that you care a lot about and how you envision your career unfolding.

AS: It's complicated being a corporate girl when you feel like an artist. I think a lot of people can identify with that. There's so many benefits to being a corporate girl. I can't deny it. I love having health insurance. I love having a stable salary. Like there's so many great things. I've met so many amazing people through my job. I've also met some awful people through my job. But at the end of the day, I don't feel like I'm a person who fits into a corporate bubble. I'm an artist. I feel extremely grateful that I have found a job that has allowed me to be an artist through the benefits of having a corporate job. At the same time, I question whether this is the final career path for me. It's something I think about a lot. Do I want the safety of a corporate art job but not always feel free to be who I am and explore my art or do I wanna have a little more freedom?

TT: I can totally imagine how complicated it is, and I think that your fans want you to do what's right for you as an artist. As a friend, I feel like you have an access that maybe other artists would dream of and that the path that you're on will set you to become the head of design at the company you're at, or a similar company. With that weight behind you, I think that you'll be able to make your own brand and create the pink, beautiful world that you have close to you and spread it to more adoring fans. As an artist in New York City in 2025, we've seen that it's harder and harder to be an artist in the city, and that the culture is dominated by mega corporations. How do you see yourself succeeding and using that framework that we find ourselves in, or do you see something completely different for the future of New York and for the future of yourself? 

AS: I feel extremely lucky. I need to remind myself that I found my dream job. I got to a place that’s exactly where I would want to be. If I told my younger self where I am today, I would be freaking out. That's something I really want to keep in my line of sight because I'm blessed in that way. It's just hard working in a corporate environment with all of its rules and hierarchies and office politics. I think there will always be corporate art in New York City. People have to find a way to capitalize off artists. I really admire people that chase their art as a passion project. It's really fucking hard. Sometimes I think people have a little bit of delusions of grandeur with it.  You can’t expect yourself to become famous overnight or to be making millions of dollars overnight, nor do people owe that to you. You're gonna have to work really fucking hard. We all have worked really hard to get to where we are. I worked for years as a nanny. I was frustrated as hell because I didn't think I would get to be an artist, but you just don't know where life is gonna take you. You don't know who you're gonna meet. I know people say that shit all the time, but it's true. 

TT: Definitely. I mean, I think of you as definitely a person with a come up. You know, you are someone who always held a high level of taste and execution in your personal fashion and in everything you would make. We all knew that you are a star and were a star at that time. There is something so New York about working to keep that dream alive. I hope that you feel that the dream is evolving and that you can always keep dreaming. 

AS: I think about that a lot too. Where I am now is amazing, but I'm always going to be the type of person that's pushing towards that next goal or thinking about what the next move is gonna be. I'm not like, okay, this is it, period. Because I don't feel like it's it at all.

TT: If you feel at liberty to speak about some of your career trajectory, I'm sure the listeners would be fascinated to know. 

AS: I'm a shoe designer for Betsey Johnson. It's always been a dream of mine. I loved Betsey Johnson growing up. You’d see Betsy Johnson everywhere, and it was always so fun and colorful. It was pink and flowers and gold, and it was what? And it was diva. [Laughs]. Betsey's such a diva. I read her autobiography. She slays so hard. She is the epitome of a strong woman who is a diva. She is 83 now, I think, and she's still making art. She's still making her own world. What I really love about Betsey is she's never really needed a man to make any part of her life. That is a huge part of being a diva. I really look up to her and her style, her career, how hard she worked. Finally getting to meet Betsey was an incredible experience for me. It really cemented that I was exactly where I'm supposed to be. She walked into a room full of people, looked right at me and was like, what is that? Talking about my outfit. I was like, this bitch gets me. She immediately came over to me and started asking me about my outfit. I’d obviously put a lot of thought into what I was gonna wear. I wanted to make sure that I was portraying Betsey and she clocked that. Real recognizes real. She was like, you're a designer, right? I said, I am. I'm a designer for your brand. She goes, good, because just seeing the way you’re dressed means you’re in the right place. She loved my outfit that much. She wanted the dress I was wearing for herself. It was such a vindicating moment for me. The fact that she told me I'm exactly where I'm meant to be? Who doesn't wanna hear that from their fashion idol? That's something I'll literally never forget.

TT: What brought you to New York? 

AS: Fashion. Gay people. The gays were whispering in my ear.

TT: When do you feel most yourself? What are you wearing? 

AS: Pink faux fur. A sixties dress. Fake lashes and a crazy overstated earring.

TT: Should we tell the girls how we met sitting on the floor rhinestone gowns together? 

AS: Yes. Well, you literally sat there while everyone else was like hand sewing and you were just being a girl's girl. 

TT: Sometimes women lead with heart and not with skills. 

AS: That’s exactly what I was gonna say. I just remember you sitting there talking. You are a girl who loves to talk and ask the girls questions. Remember, when I thought you were straight? 

TT: Straight up diva. 

AS: Straight up diva. I thought you were a straight boy. Then I was like, no. I don’t how I didn't clock your gag immediately there. [Laughs.] We met interning for Christian Cowan when I first moved to New York. I met almost all of my closest friends doing that. You were in college and I was 22. Crazy. Almost 10 years ago. 

TT: You were a large part of creating the diva in me. I definitely came to you for hand-me-downs and styling tips. You were very much a part of the expansion of my lexicon of fashion. It was definitely a meaningful part of my story to get a little bit of the Allison Diva touch. 

AS: I still feel like even to this day I shop for you.

TT: Yeah, definitely. You are a person who knows the power of vintage and honoring the divas who are no longer with us or who are ready to part with their fashion pieces. You and I both have been wearing a lot of dead diva fits for a while, right?

AS: That's so true. All of the vintage clothes I wear once belonged to a diva. I wish I knew them. I really do love when a piece of clothing comes with the story behind it. I would love to know every single diva that wore every single vintage piece that I own. I'm sure she slayed just as hard as we do.

TT: Absolutely. Well, it's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you, my love. 

AS: Thank you, diva. 

TT: Of course. And I, from one diva to another, tip my hat at you. 

AS: I take a curtsy. To my diva sister. Slay mama. 

TT: Well diva out. XOXO. 

AS: Diva down. 

TT: Diva down, but never out. 

AS: Diva in, diva out, diva up and diva down.

TT:  Diva, goodbye. 

AS: Period.

TT: Did we or did we not like insanely slay that?

AS: I think we slayed, right?

Lensed by Camille Duvall (@camilleduvall)

Styled by Allison Shaftel (@ashafty)

Production Asst: Lunetta Green (@lunetta.pdf)