We Are Partners, Not Clones

 By Karen and Erica

We had remarkably parallel lives in some ways--straight white women born in the Baby Boom years, NYU Law School grads, both with business careers in New York and brothers named Mark, politically active Democrats. We didn't realize most of this until we came together to found Lustre. 

But the parallels do not make us identical twins.

Karen likes bananas. Erica hates bananas. Karen has never seen such a strong antipathy toward bananas.

Erica concentrates on crunchy food (pretzels anyone?) and holds her own in the wine department. Karen is big on all good things to eat and wine and martinis too. They both like elegant restaurants, though Erica is also at home in a good dive bar. 

Karen has succumbed to pressure to take strength training. Erica has not, choosing instead an alliance with our Canadian neighbors and their much more elegant exercise routine. 

Erica's family is yuge.  Karen's is petite.

We both like clothes. Karen goes for garish neon whenever possible, especially in winter. Erica's clothes are far more classy, though she goes a little nuts with her shoes.

Erica knows the personal shoppers at Bergdorfs. Karen knows her way around Century 21. They are both quite familiar with consignment stores.

We both have recently moved, aggravating both of our husbands to some extent. Erica remains a classic Upper East Sider. Karen is a downtown girl, though she lives up high so she can almost see Erica's apartment. We both spent inordinate amounts of time on the design of our apartments, even though the design changes were small.

Karen will not have lamps in her apartment. Erica will.

We both have a lot of art, and while it is not the same both of us like lively and colorful pieces.

Erica is quite serious about design, as she is hooked into the design community. Karen mooches off of Erica's expertise.

We both dye our hair. Karen's is platinum. Erica's is a more lifelike warm brown color. Our hair goes well with our clothing preferences.

We both like to learn new things and go new places. We both love the Costume Institute at the Met. We both love talks at Rizzoli. Erica is trying to master canasta. Karen is trying to understand blockchain and cryptos.

We both like to go fast, Erica in sports cars, Karen in Cessnas. Our vehicles probably go at about the same speeds, just in different volumes.

We both like to travel, luxuriously if possible. We both like to meet new people. We are both very opinionated. We enjoy challenging each other's thinking. And everyone else's. And we laugh a lot, about almost everything other than the current administration.

Our similarities could have made our posts pretty boring. Instead, Lustre is fueled by our differences. We like that. We hope you do too.