Keynote Speech on Lester Gaba

Keynote speaker Ron Knoth is the creator of the fashion website www.thebespokenfor.net, a blog that, in his words, "focuses on the affirmative, the positive," and celebrates "fashion and what it means to be a gentleman." He has extensively researched the life of 1940s celebrity Lester Gaba.

He became fascinated by Gaba years ago while working in the retail, merchandising, and mannequin industries. "Gaba always had a strange reputation, insomuch as he supposedly fell in love with his ultimate creation, a mannequin named Cynthia, but there never was a central source for information¬-no biography or autobiography." Although little-known now, Gaba was an important figure in the New York fashion world; Ron will illuminate his life (and rescue him from decades of neglect) in his keynote speech.

Ron, a former actor, poet, arts administrator, designer, creative director, and advocate for people with AIDS, is currently a professor of Visual Merchandising at LIM College.