Who

With partner David Hershkovits, Hastreiter is the co-publisher and co-editor of the painfully hip magazine Paper.

Backstory

Raised in the bland, straight-laced suburbs of West Orange, New Jersey, Hastreiter discovered her artsy side in college and graduated from CalArts before moving to New York in 1976, driving cross country with drag performer Joey Arias. The two moved into an apartment in SoHo and Hastreiter fell in with the downtown art scene, taking a job as a cashier at Betsey Johnson's boutique Betsey Bunky Nini. Photographer Bill Cunningham helped her transition to publishing a few years later; he directed her to SoHo Weekly, the erstwhile arbiter of all things hip. When the paper folded a few years later, she teamed up with former SoHo co-worker David Hershkovits and in 1984 the two founded Paper, publishing the 'zine as a giant fold-out poster covered in articles and tiny ads to save a few bucks.

For the first few months, Hastreiter and Hershkovits surreptitiously worked out of the Times's offices since they didn't have the money to rent office space. When the publication picked up some steam, they moved it to Hastreiter's downtown loft. But although Paper made an impression on downtown scenesters from the start, it was on precarious financial footing for years. For the first decade in business, Hastreiter didn't draw a salary and made ends meet by freelancing for magazines like Vanity Fair and GQ.

Of note

Paper is no big moneymaker these days, but it ekes out a modest profit with its circulation of 100,000, and despite Hastreiter and Hershkovits's advancing ages, it continues to function as something of a trade mag for the underground hipster scene, giving incongruously slick photo and editorial treatment to ill-kempt indie rockers, avant-garde artists, trannies, and other downtown staples.

Indeed, it's their connection to this elusive demo that has helped turn the tide for Paper in recent years: Advertisers now look to Hastreiter for access to an audience of trend setters and pay a pretty price for doing so. In addition to being co-publisher of the magazine and the website, PaperMag.com, Hastreiter is fashion director and writes a long-running monthly style column. She and Hershkovits also co-authored 1999's From AbFab to Zen: Paper's Guide to Pop Culture and the 2004 book 20 Years of Style: The World According to Paper, which featured contributions from Moby, Fab 5 Freddy, and Todd Oldham.

In person

In her thick-framed, fire-engine-red glasses, Hastreiter remains a beloved figure downtown, mixing with the creative types from film (Pedro Almodovar, John Waters), fashion (Richie Rich, Traver Rains, Isabel and Ruben Toledo), design (Murray Moss, Todd Oldham), music (Jake Shears, Debbie Harry), and performance art (Lady Bunny, Sarah Sophie Flicker).

Personal

Hastreiter, who's single, lives in a one-bedroom apartment in the Village with her terrier, Romeo.