20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Rocking Pink and Ready to Party
The blink of an eye is rarely enough time to decide whether to pull out my camera when someone passes by on the street. After noticing Jelani de Leon on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on a Friday afternoon in May, we exchanged glances and brief hellos and then went our separate ways. I walked half a block before turning around, seeing her pink knit hat and pale coat in the distance and doubling back to ask her about what she was wearing.
Ms. de Leon, 64 and a property manager of buildings she owns, does not usually dress so vibrantly, she said. But the day we met, she was attending the hip-hop-themed Brooklyn Basement Party at Lincoln Center. 'I wanted to wear something funky,' said Ms. de Leon, who lives in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. 'I felt the urge to do something bright and different because of the season and the weather, and because I haven't put on any cute clothes in a long time.'
When asked if her ensemble involved anything special or sentimental, Ms. de Leon pointed to her bag. She said it was among the first styles carried at her daughter Kai Avent-deLeon's store, Sincerely Tommy in Bed-Stuy, when it opened in 2014. Ms. de Leon added that before we met, she had run into her daughter, who was surprised by her colorful attire.
'She was like, Wow, I never saw you in so much pink!' Ms. de Leon recalled. 'I thought, Oh my god, it's too much pink, I should go home and change. And I said, Screw it, I'm going out anyway.'
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