Welcome to Archer’s Queer Fashion Files! Each month, we interview trendsetters and tastemakers, showcasing the diversity and talent of the fashion world. You can check out all episodes of our Queer Fashion Files here.

This month, our Queer Fashion Files heads to New York City! In Episode 24, Hailey Moroney chats to Rachel Cohen-Lunning and Merrilee Lichtenstein Cohen, founders of eyewear brand Mercura NYC, about working as artists at the Hotel Chelsea, self-expressive fashion and visionary design.

Mercura NYC is an eyewear brand founded by sisters Rachel Cohen-Lunning and Merrilee Lichtenstein Cohen in 1975. Together they design metal body sculptures and art at the Hotel Chelsea. Their artwork includes fantasy jewellery, metal dresses, metal bustiers, gauntlet cuffs, headdresses, crowns, metal hoods, cigarette holders, head ornaments, boxes, paintings and table-mounted sculptures.

All images by: Hailey Moroney

Hailey Moroney: You’ve both been part of New York’s creative fabric for decades, especially through the Hotel Chelsea. What did that environment give you as artists, and how does it still show up in the work you make today?

Rachel Cohen-Lunning & Merrilee Lichtenstein Cohen: Every artist in the Hotel Chelsea is an independent artist, weaving their lifelong underpinnings into the work they create between the hotel and other places in their lives.

Mercura NYC has always lived between the Hotel Chelsea and other locations. Close friends like Shirley Clarke, Nick Bienes, Rhea Gallaher and Richard Bernstein brought spiritual energy from the hotel, which is rooted so strongly in our work. They are part of our spectrum – this is true. They resonate in creative elements of our lives.

Glam is always at the Hotel Chelsea. There are many reflections into this strange, fabulous, organic high-rise in New York. The beauty of Mercura NYC lies in the elements of being truly, uncontestably different.

HM: To me, Mercura pieces feel closer to wearable sculpture than accessories. When you’re creating, what are usually your first steps in the process?

RCL & MLC: We work from our gut, making as we feel inspired to make, bouncing concepts and forms back and forth until we’ve expressed our artistic intention with visionary design.

We’re influenced by our childhood in the West Coast farmlands, close to nature. So, we bring organic influences into all materials. All our Mercura pieces are experimental art: a continuation of our eclectic lifestyle, and rooted in all of our experiences, places of significance, and fashion inspirations.

HM: Your work has always attracted artists, performers and people who use fashion as a form of self-expression. How do you think about identity when you’re designing, especially for people who don’t want to blend in?

RCL & MLC: We grew up in an antique shop with artists and antique-dealing parents; our individuality is that of artists. Each person experiences and interprets our work differently, and we love being appreciated for that.

Wearers of Mercura NYC can reflect their lives, experiences, emotions and love of fashion with the most exhilarating self-expression – straight from the gut of our lives to get there. Many wearing Mercura may feel like celebrities! And we love celebrities wearing our work. At Mercura, our logo is “Mercura turns a person into a personality.”

HM: There’s a strong sense of play, glamour and experimentation across your archive and your current work. What is your fondest publication that your work has been featured in?

RCL & MLC: We have no favourites. In fact, we love odd photographs as much as magazines.

HM: Looking back at everything you’ve built, what feels most important to you?

RCL & MLC: Invention is the heart of our art. Our destination is beauty and creativity. Our main identity is achieving works that are unique and firstly our own, which others can reinterpret as part of their individuality.

In 1977, Women’s Wear Daily presented pages of our work – although it is unconventional – as part of their future fashion. Our mother, Bessy Lichtenstein Cohen, described our work as: “Surrounding the individual with beauty to make the wearer beautiful.”

If you want to pitch an idea for Archer’s Queer Fashion Files, email pitch@archermagazine.com.au with ‘QUEER FASHION FILES’ in the subject line. You can check out the rest of our Queer Fashion Files here.