Life With…

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Life With...

Life With Jason Wu!

In less than half-a-decade, Jason Wu has gone from being part of a group of promising young designers to being the most promising young designer around. Sure, it has something to do with Michelle Obama wearing his design to the inauguration ball, but it’s also about Wu’s ability to create upscale-yet-modern clothes for wealthy clients, and at the same time work on out-of-the-box, accessible collaborations with brands like nail polish purveyors CND.

At just 28-years-old, the boy wonder has already accomplished more than many designers do in a lifetime. We recently caught up with Wu at his studio, where he sketched a look from his 2012 Resort collection just for Fashionista, and also talked a little more about his daily rituals.

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Fashion Careers

Life With Celine Kaplan!

Celine Kaplan is one of those French women who seems incredibly perfect and intimidating from afar. (I mean, did you SEE her closet on the The Coveteur???) When you do meet her, she’s still incredibly perfect, but also incredibly kind and a joy to be around. Ahh, the French.

Anyway, when I finally got a chance to know Celine while interviewing one of her clients–Laure from The Webster–I soon realized that she’d be the topic of my next Life With column. Celine’s been doing PR for Bourjois and Eres (both owned by Chanel) for over a decade. That was, until the last year when Bourjois stopped distributing their makeup in the US. She still heads up the Eres US PR efforts, and has brought on some other clients you just might be interested in, including The Webster and…wait for it…Laduree! which is planning on opening up shop in America sooner than later.

Almost out of nowhere, Celine acquired her very own boutique firm, CKPR public relations. She and I recently sat down at Balthazaar–yes, even French people like it there–to chat about the industry, what it’s like to be a high power PR, and why the only secret to getting what you want is hard work.

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Life With...

Life With Natalie Joos!

Casting director Natalie Joos has been a fashion industry fixture for years, and a favorite subject of Tommy Ton and Scott Schuman.

But the March 2010 launch of her blog, Tales of Endearment, has made her star shine even brighter. A mix of vintage shopping expeditions with fashion friends and sneak peeks inside industry heavyweight’s closets, Tales of Endearment has been a Fashionista favorite from the start. And it’s made Natalie a “fashion household” name.

We wanted to know more about Natalie’s day job, why she started the blog, and where she gets all those amazing vintage pieces, so we popped by her home office one Monday in November while she was doing a casting.

Her Williamsburg apartment was clean and cool, but not pretentious, kind of like Natalie! And her cats, Mohammed and Tyson, made the whole visit even better. Here’s what she had to say:

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Fashion Careers

Life With Ryan Korban and Davinia Wang of Edon Manor!

If you live in New York and you happen to prefer Alaia and Proenza over Aldo and Payless–even if it’s just to look at–you’ve probably heard of Tribeca boutique Edon Manor. Launched in 2007, the beautifully furnished, beautifully stocked shop attracts those chasing after the perfect pair of Giambattista Valli pumps but aren’t willing to hike all the way uptown to Bergdorf to get them. (The boutique also happens to be right around the corner from Locanda Verde–one of our favorite restaurants in the city–and Smith & Mills, a favorite bar.)

Now the team behind Edon Manor wants to get to know shoppers outside of their New York City niche a little bit better. Owners Ryan Korban and Davinia Wang recently launched their gorgeous e-commerce boutique, Edonmanor.com. I recently sat down with the duo to discuss what it’s like to build a luxury boutique in the midst of a recession, and how to maintain unexpected success.

Fashionista: I’d like to hear how you guys got together. How did you two meet?

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Life With...

Life With Erica Domesek from P.S. I Made This

Since we’ve started a DIY series with Erica Domesek of the fabulous site-turned-book P.S. I Made This, we thought we should get to know her a bit better.

So a few weeks ago, I arrived at Erica’s East Village apartment mid-morning, expecting to have a brief chat with her to find out more about her site and how it came about. I walked into a cloud of smoke coming out of the oven and Erica muttering something about her lack of a vent. She likes to cook almost as much as she likes to craft, and had prepared baked eggs with spinach and baby tomatoes topped by sliced avocado for our informal “chat.” “I love cooking…using my hands to make things, that’s what makes me happy,” she told me. Lucky me.

Getting them out of the oven without a potholder? No problem. A vintage army jacket doubles as a potholder in Erica’s world. She took off her jacket and used it to grab the steaming hot eggs, and without missing a beat said, looked up from the oven and said with a wink “P.S. I made this…potholder.”

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Life With...

Life With I Love Factory!

There’s no denying the millinery world’s sudden hold on fashion, as well as broader pop culture. From Mad Men to Gaga, hats and headpieces are everywhere. I feel like we’re constantly finding new milliners we like, new headpiece concepts we’re intrigued by, and new ideas about how to incorporate them into our wardrobes.

That’s why I was so excited to spend some time with Brooklyn-based millinery I Love Factory. Duo Christopher Garbushian and Laurel St. Romain have designed hats for a ton of celebrities (including the aforementioned Lady) over the last two years. They’ve also received plenty of editorial attention, from Japanese Nylon to Teen Vogue to Tavi, who wore their cone hat in Pop. I Love Factory’s pieces have even appeared on Gossip Girl.

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Life With...

Life with Carol Han and Alexandra Weiss of CA Creative!

Sometimes life positions you in the right place at the right time, and there’s nothing else to do but go with it.

That’s kind of how Carol Han and Alexandra Weiss came to form CA Creative, a two-month old consultancy that, in the simplest terms, advises brands on how to use the Internet.

Carol, previously StyleCaster’s fashion director, and Alexandra, who worked in marketing at Ralph Lauren, realized that, as 20-something fashion people plugged into a specific scene, they could offer designers and retailers insight and advice on how to market to the current generation.

First up? A project with Club Monaco, in which Garance shot New York scenesters for the retailer’s fall look book.

Carol and Alexandra have a ton of other projects going on, so they invited me to their work station at The Smile last Friday to talk about what it’s like to launch a business.

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Life With...

Life With Derek Blasberg!

Two months ago, Derek Blasberg released his first book, Classy: Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady which means he’s a) embarked on a whirlwind book tour hosted by starlets across the country b) enjoyed even more attention than usual and c) gone from a successful freelance fashion writer to a New York Times bestselling [...]

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Life With...

Life With Emily Current & Meritt Elliot!

Emily Current and Meritt Elliot met over ten years ago at UCLA. They were both studying sociology, but spent more of their time scouring Goodwill and Southern California flea markets for vintage bell bottoms than worrying about a sociology career. After graduation they went their separate ways, but reunited and became unstoppable stylists first within [...]

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Life With...

Life With Decades’ Cameron Silver!

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Life With...

Life With Molly Stern!

In the midst of Fashion Month, a vacation, a birthday and what’s starting to feel like a blog explosion, I ran out of time to finish posting the series of Life With’s I worked on in LA this summer. Next up is Molly Stern. I’m tempted to call Molly “make-up artist to the stars,” but [...]

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Life With...

Life With Who What Wear!

We’ve interviewed stylists and editors and publicists and designers, but we’ve never entered the world of blogging, or even the internet for a Life With. So welcome to the world of Who What Wear. We know you love their site. We love their site. And I made it a priority to sit down with Hillary [...]

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