What led you to become a fashion reporter/critic, and what keeps you passionate about the subject?
Fashion is a lens through which you can view the world. We live in an outrageously visual moment, when many of us have become comfortable with and fluent in looking at celebrity and politics through the lens of self-presentation. We used to dismiss those observations as shallow — looks aren’t everything! And I agree! But now we realize they can be really meaningful in making sense of our world.
What are you paying attention to right now in fashion and culture?
Why do the Knicks and many of the World Cup teams have rarer and more expensive handbags than any woman on the Upper East Side? What does it mean for this longtime female status symbol — the it-bag! — to become a trophy for men?
What does it mean to be an influential voice in fashion at a time when the industry is being pushed to focus on sustainability and waste reduction while also remaining trendy?
Most of us are not following every luxury label’s rebrands and new handbags. We are becoming more aware of what we buy and wear, and what’s being marketed to them. Most of us have noticed the decline in quality of brands we’ve bought for years, and often feel things we order online don’t live up to our expectations. So the world is primed to be skeptical, and searching out better information and reporting about how to find what really works and what’s worth it.
Lightning Round - Faux-pas or eaux-yas
1) White after Labor Day
Absolutely elegant. (Though female politicians should probably cool it with the “statement white suits"… That’s gotten stale.)
2) Mixing prints aka the power clash
Go for it, as long as the silhouettes of your various pieces meld seamlessly.
3) Wearing white to a wedding
Let the bride have her day!
4) The wrong shoe theory
If you’re going to think too hard about shoes, you’d do better to get two or three pairs of really exquisite, expensive ones, and wear them with the most blasé pieces from Uniqlo.
