Blazer / Forever 21 T-shirt / thrift Boots / Deena and Ozzy Pink Blouse /
Hip and Chic Socks / Topshop Bag and Necklace / thrift store in Paris
SAM S.
New York, New York
Studying fabric styling at FIT
"...bring realness, that’s something I want to be able to do, however I can do it."
W Vogue
Leslie Lessin
Bullet Magazine
Rachel Zoe
Sam and I had an awesome conversation talking anti (well sort of) high fashion, her experience at Vogue and bringing realness back into the fashion industry
EAS: How do you approach or think about fashion or your style?
Sam: I really don’t have any rules, I do whatever I want. It’s kind of
hard to put into words because I shop everywhere. I shop from topshop H&M Forever21 and then im at Goodwill every otherday. I guess overall it's a little bit rock and roll and a little
bit girly. I mix the two always, so if I’m not wearing a band shirt I’m wearing
weird boots or a leather jacket but I always mix it with lipstick and accessories. I
mix masculine/feminine and I have fun with it. I don’t think too much about
labels. At all.
That's my favorite thing about the thrift store.
Yeah, I think fashion shouldn't have anything to do with labels, and that's how a lot of people think about it. Then their wardrobe is based around labels and that's what makes a good wardrobe for them. It's about being you and getting pieces that are unique and funky and represent who you are.
When you go shopping do you have a sort of list in your head?
No. There’s a few times where I’m like okay I need a winter
jacket or winter boots, but most of the time I go with a completely open mind
and I have no idea what I want. That’s when I come up with the best things.
If I go and I think “I want some cool ass boots” then I won’t find boots and
I’m going to be really pissed (laughing).
Before I was working at Rachel Zoe, and I had to wear a lot of black, and that’s kind of hard I don’t
have a lot of black and of course I go out to shop for black and I can’t find
anything. Now when I go out there’s black everywhere, I think too much about
it.
What were you doing with Rachel Zoe?
I was doing sales, you know her new collection? It’s kind of
silly but her new collection has a showroom in Manhattan, it’s her main showroom
now so I worked her presentation and I worked market week, which was all the
sales people presenting the line to buyers. It was cool because I actually got
to style and dress all the models for all the buyers like Bergdorf's and
everything, it was pretty sick. So I got to meet everyone, like the high end buyers
to the little boutique buyers. It was cool, and I’ve never done sales before so
I liked it.
What's fabric styling?
No one ever knows. It's FIT's fault they named it this obscure thing, it should be called....fashion. The main part is textile design and a lot of fashion forecasting, so I make these really elaborate presentations about what future trends will be and I make my own textiles. I was studying marketing and merchandising, but I came to FIT to do creative things and fashion and I just wasn't doing that in marketing.
It helped me with Leslie Lessin, with styling, to develop a better sense of style because I've had to read every fashion forecasting site there is. It helped me at the magazine (Vogue) because I was making mood boards like it was my job.
Now when people ask me what my style inspiration is I don't really have one because I'm constantly surrounded by people at school and friends and people on the street in New York. People look up to celebrities sometimes and I hate that. I think when you're in an industry like fashion you're always around people with cool ideas and you just absorb it.
You mentioned you really didn't like working at Vogue.
I really didn’t like the personalities. I felt like I had
anxiety just waking up and going there in the mornings. People weren’t nice to
you, people wouldn’t talk to me. I had to get people coffee 3 times a day. I
got 18 coffees once. Seriously. Bags of coffee. There were a few people who were
respectful and nice, but for the most part no. Everyone thinks they’re better
than you, everyone is trying to be better than the next person. There’s no
sense of community. It’s just about working at Vogue. I couldn’t be myself
there, I hated it. I constantly felt uncomfortable.
But then again, I got to go to the Met Gala and that was
absolutely amazing. I got to see Grace Coddington pull looks, and I did start
respecting high fashion there. I’m still not a high fashion person, but when I
was around Rodarte and touching their entire collection and Balmain, who’s my
favorite designer if I had to pick. Touching these dresses, these 100 pound
dresses, they were insane. That made me respect fashion completely because the
work they put into those clothes are unreal. I’ve never been in an atmosphere
when I was around such amazing clothing. It had it’s perks and I learned from
it, but the attitudes were not worth it.
But right after Vogue you worked with Leslie Lessin and that was a totally different experience.
I want to be part of the people who are creative, different and are
bringing unique, interesting perspectives of fashion to the masses. There are
so many people who respect and love this unique underground fashion which I
guess you could call like hipster fashion, I guess.. Some
people love that sort of style but yet it’s still the high fashion, it’s still
the Vogue and the Elle that’s what you think of when you think of "fashion". But
now that the blog world is coming into play I think that’s going to change, I
hope. I think that’s awesome and I want to be a part of that. I want to help
bring that underdog to the main pages of everything. The high fashion is always
going to be there, it’s never going to go away, but I don’t want people to be
looking down on this sort of underground fashion.
You mentioned real people in fashion as opposed to
people just striving for this untouchable lifestyle.
Real people, real ideas, real emotions. I just want realness
to be back in the fashion industry, and I feel like it used to be. Maybe
because of media and TV, fashion became this weird untouchable place, and
it shouldn’t be. People who want to get into fashion should get into it being
themselves, not trying to be Lauren Conrad or that kind of shit. I don’t know
just bring realness, that’s something I want to be able to do, however I can do
it.
I’d love to be on TV that’s honestly what I want. Even if it wasn’t myself
I’d like to work for a cool network or a cool show that made people feel
comfortable being themselves and showing other people that kids are dressing
cool and aren’t afraid to show it. Even in high school I felt uncomfortable
wearing half of the shit I wore, I got made fun of all the time.
I would love a
TV show to replace one of these reality shows, showing kids from different
parts of the country or the world wearing cool shit, embracing it and showing
where they went shopping. So many people would dress more interestingly but
they don’t know where to start. I’d love to show people where to start. It’s so
easy for some people, but for some people it’s so hard.
It’s interesting that there’s such a disparity between what
fashion means to you, after having this conversation, and the immediate
connotation when someone says “I study fashion.” It’s cool thinking about
changing that connotation, that first thought.
Yeah like I said high fashion is always going to be there
and when some people think of fashion they’re always going to think of The
Devil Wears Prada and that bitchy world, but I want to change that. I want
people to think fashion is cool, it’s relatable, its fun and its not so scary
or untouchable.
