“Some of you might’ve known them as the figure 8s. But where I’m from, growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we called them the twisties. And every fly girl had a pair.

The girls in the nail salons. On train platforms. Leaning out the passenger side at the gas station. Dancing at the club. Walking through the block like the sidewalk belonged to them. They wore them with confidence, attitude, tenderness, heartbreak, ambition, softness, and strength all at once.

Growing up, those women shaped my idea of what it meant to be cool. They taught me that style wasn’t about perfection; it was about presence. About energy. About surviving the city while still finding ways to feel beautiful inside of it. To me, these women were the true architects of the culture.


Long before trends were packaged and sold back to the world, they were creating beauty in real time; through the way they dressed, spoke, loved, danced, carried themselves, and showed up for life in New York City.

The twisties became a symbol of that spirit for me.
A piece of East Coast culture that carried beauty, toughness, femininity, and resilience all at once. The women who wore them became the foundation and inspiration behind Gemisces; the reason I create the way I do today.

This installation with NuevaYorkinos is my love letter to those women; the ones who unknowingly inspired generations of girls like me to dream bigger, dress louder, and move through the world unapologetically. ✨” - Tess