Kim Hastreiter has always been interested in collecting things that tell a great story. “I’m a really good thrift shopper, or give me a thousand photographs and I’ll find the best one in five minutes. I guess it’s being an editor, but not even. I’m a good truffle hunter,” she tells CR.

As she chats away animatedly from her apartment in New York, nestled above Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan, the gloomy winter’s day is immediately brightened by her trademark look of fluorescent glasses, Mao jacket and pleated skirt (her wardrobe is full of these custom-made uniforms in an array of materials for different occasions).

In creative terms, Hastreiter has worn many hats over the course of her five-decade career, whether as an artist, writer, editor, curator, or perhaps most notably as the co-founder of culture magazine Paper, which she launched with her friend David Hershkovits in 1984. She puts her multi-hyphenate approach down to the fact she’s “a fanatical collector and curator of stuff”. So much so, that she’s just released an entire tome dedicated to the subject.