Jonathan Osofsky is the director and curator of Kasuri, a fashion boutique offering avant-garde designs from Japanese, American, and European labels. He lives and works in Hudson, NY and is a graduate of Bard College. 

Jonathan was born in Ancramdale, a hamlet on the border of Columbia and Dutchess County located about twenty miles from Hudson. His family ran a dairy farm, which is still active today, and he recalls working on the farm from a young age and having a deep appreciation for nature as a boy. He remembers visiting Hudson in his youth, and remarks on how the town has changed in the last few decades. After graduating from high school in 1991, he attended SUNY Purchase to study film but did not complete his degree, which he attributes in part to his late-diagnosed Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. 

In this interview, Jonathan recalls his experiences with addiction and the culture of drug use; after leaving SUNY Purchase, he moved to New York City and became involved in the punk and club scene, where drug usage was common. He spent some time involved with Emmaus House, a radical Catholic community that served addicts and the homeless. After a relapse that led to hospitalization in early 2000, he has been sober for 26 years. 

Jonathan speaks of his early years in Hudson, where he moved in his first year while attending Bard College, where he studied art. He recalls Hudson as a much more insular community and one where the LGBTQ+ community was much less open, and discusses the connection between the influx of young workers and artists in Hudson and the growth of the queer community in town. He remembers his friendship with Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, a fellow Bard student and artist who lived in Hudson, and highlights Kenji Fujita, Julie Pfaff, and Paul Ramirez-Jonas as some of the professors who supported him during his studies. 

After graduating from Bard in 2008, he worked with Layla Kalin to open Kasuri, where he serves as creative director. He discusses his goal to make Kasuri an open, comfortable space where no one is excluded, and remembers hosting a youth fashion workshop as one of his favorite programs he’s done at the boutique. In the future, he hopes to do more work with youth in Hudson, as well as hosting film screenings and showcasing archival fashion design. 

Jonathan discusses the tension between Hudson’s diverse communities and high political activity and the forces of gentrification and class stratification, and highlights the lack of affordable housing and rising rent as one of the greatest problems facing the area. He names Hudson as a town that is always in a state of transition, and hopes that the people will be able to reconcile with these tensions and make Hudson a more accessible town for everyone in the community. 

This interview may be of interest to those researching or wanting to learn more about LGBTQ life in Hudson during the 2000s and 2010s, perspectives on gentrification and class from a long-time resident, and the intersection between fashion, art, and activism.