Born to Be Brad (14 page)

“I was asleep by eleven. I went to Broadway shows. I went to bookstores and art galleries. I acted like my idea of a Manhattan grown-up.”

If every day there felt like a test—and it did—I was desperate to find a study partner. And suddenly there she was. I noticed her shorts first. They were Libertine—
the
downtown label of the moment—and I was endlessly impressed. Even though Libertine shorts were basically chinos purchased at the Goodwill, washed a million times, and then silk-screened with, like, a picture of an eyeball and sold for $900, they were very hip. The girl wearing them interned in the fashion closet, and we met one morning when she wheeled a rack of clothing into the accessories closet.

“I like your shorts,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said. “They’re my mom’s.”

Whose mom wears Libertine? I needed to know this girl.

Her name was Danielle Nachmani. Years later she would become a major fashion stylist in New York. But back then she was just the girl with long brown hair and caramel skin and shorts she stole from her mother’s closet. Her look was Parisian, in a way; Danielle did menswear but with a feminine touch. She’d wear a men’s sweater but with a bra strap showing. She’d wear trousers but with a super-high heel. She wore certain labels not just because they were cute, but because she knew the editors at
Vogue
would notice. That’s one way to get ahead. We made fun of the proportions of her oversize JNCO—Judge None, Choose One—pants. Well, I judged! Danielle was wearing super-wide-leg Tsubi jeans one day and I made fun of her because, to me anyway, they looked like jeans that ravers wore in Toronto. All that was missing was a neon plastic chain hanging from her waist and a pacifier around her neck. It turned out that Danielle proved herself to be way more fashion-forward than I was. Because we soon saw Meredith Melling Burke—a stylish editor at
Vogue
—wearing the same pair of Tsubi jeans. Oops! My bad. Not only did I regret making fun of Danielle, but in 2008, when Bottega Veneta started making jeans that were almost identical, I bought two pairs. And I wear them all the time.

Closet Case

NINE THINGS EVERY WOMAN NEEDS IN HER WARDROBE

1. A well-tailored blazer

The right blazer—in navy or black—is what we call a fix-all. If you’re cold and you need to throw something over your shoulders, this will do. If you can’t think about putting an outfit together, you can always grab your perfect blazer, skinny jeans, a pair of cute pumps, and a necklace and you’re good to go. A well-tailored blazer is easily woven into all elements of dressing, day or night. The key is that it needs to fit well. Put time into finding the right one. On the affordable end, J.Crew makes a good blazer. Or try Tibi. On the high end, Band of Outsiders and Boy both make great blazers.

2. A party pump

This is the shoe that takes the blazer and jeans from the office into an evening look. The right party pump is something people will talk about. Investing in shoes is important, not necessarily because some inexpensive shoes tend to fall apart, but because the right shoe makes the outfit. Spend $10 on a T-shirt and $30 on a skirt from H&M. Great. But if you have Louboutins on your feet, it elevates the whole outfit. If you’re going to collect something in fashion, make it shoes. Pieces come and go seasonally, but shoes are forever. Unless you’re buying a super-collection-specific shoe, you can’t go wrong. (Even then, you’ll save that striped Prada wedge as an archive piece once the season is over.)

3. The little black dress

It’s a cliché for a reason. As a topic, how to update the little black dress comes up every few years. But it’s not a cliché if you find the right one. Not everyone has the budget to invest in Alaïa or a Dolce & Gabbana, and that’s fine. The good shoe? The good jewelry? Use that to style up the LBD. How do you know when you’ve found the right one? You know when you look in the mirror. It’s all about the silhouette.

4. The right clutch

What I like about the clutch is that it’s a good way to remind yourself that you’re about to start a new adventure. If you’re going to a nice dinner, even if you’re wearing something you wore to the office, you’ll add a blazer or change your shoe. Do the same with your bag. No one wants to carry some hefty bag and their iPad to dinner. Put that fun clutch in your day purse and take it out at night. By the way, you need a clutch that actually
holds
things. It doesn’t need to be the size of a pill to be cute. You want something functional. And it doesn’t need to be Judith Leiber or Prada (though I love those, of course). Just find something small and leather that works for you. If you’re outrageous and want to buy something that can be your statement accessory, that works, too. It can be studded, beaded, have feathers on it. Just let it reflect your style.

5. One great pair of jeans

Find the brand that works for you and stick to it. I have probably forty pairs of Levi’s in my closet, because they fit me and they’re at a great price point. Some of them cost just $49. If you’re someone who is into Japanese denim that’s never been washed or jeans that were found in the back room of the Levi’s archive from the 1970s and only thirty pairs have been made, go for it. Spend $500 on one pair. I support that. As long as it’s not boot cut. Cowboys are the only ones who should be wearing boot cut.

6. A really good jewelry set

Think earrings and a ring. Or earrings, a necklace, and a ring. It can even be costume jewelry. You just need a few pieces of statement jewelry you can pepper throughout your looks. It’s as simple as having a gold hoop, a gold necklace, and a gold bauble ring. Something easy and eye-catching that doesn’t have to break the bank. Check out Alexis Bittar or C. C. Skye. There’s great costume jewelry out there; there are even pieces at H&M for $9.99. Find something you love that can update the basics you’re wearing to the next level.

7. A great coat

If you live in a cooler climate, you need to invest in a really good winter coat. When you’re out in public, your outerwear is what people see half of the year. If you’re strapped for cash, wait for the sale and put the coat away for next season. It’s worth the investment to find something that reflects who you are. If you see a belted Céline coat on sale for $500, snatch it up. You’ll wear it forever.

8. The denim jacket

The right denim jacket is a great layering piece. They look really cute under a trench coat or under a blazer. Whether it’s crisp and raw or a worn-in vintage Levi’s, they work perfectly over a cocktail dress. Again, it comes down to the fit and the wash. If you like a little DIY, customize it to fit your style. And I should say, I don’t mind denim on denim. But I’m Canadian. I could be wrong.

9. The lust item

It’s important to have something in your wardrobe that satisfies that luxury desire and need—the one item that you’ve been lusting after all season. Even if you don’t wear it right away. Even if you don’t think you’ll
ever
wear it, but there’s something overpowering you—some voice that says you have to have it. Sometimes just having it in your closet is enough. But the opportunity to wear it will present itself eventually. This is the piece you’ll wear that will make everyone freak out. This is how you build fashion self-esteem.

Plus: The Basic Basics

FIVE STAPLES WOMEN CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

1. Great T-shirts

The neckline is up to you. Some people love a deep V. (I don’t.) But every girl should have black, gray, and white at the ready.

2. Functional bras and seamless underwear

A mix of functional and fashionable underwear, including seamless bras. When it comes to underwear, there’s nothing worse than a visible panty line. Sometimes it seems like nobody knows that seamless underwear exists. But Calvin Klein makes them. Commando makes them. Hanky Panky makes them. You don’t need a drawer full; a few pairs will suffice.

3. Flats

Whether they’re Lanvin or they’re $19.99 flats from Target, a good pair of flats is a must.

4. The classic white button-up shirt

Or two white shirts, really: one oversize, one tailored. The oversize one is for that eighties Brooke Shields look, which is really modern with denim. It’s also great over a bathing suit. You can belt it. You can really do anything with a white shirt. But then there’s definitely a place for a tailored white shirt with a navy blazer, white jeans, and a ballet flat. And that place is on the Upper East Side.

5. The right day bag

Whether it’s a canvas tote or Givenchy, a day bag you love is essential. It doesn’t have to be the fashion It bag of the season, either. Grace Coddington from
Vogue
carries an L.L.Bean tote with her name embroidered on it. No matter what your flavor is, no matter what your style is, you should have a bag that you’re happy to carry around every day.

Danielle and I talked of nothing but fashion. And we had similar reference points. We both revered this Steven Meisel shoot that
Vogue
’s legendary Grace Coddington styled, the one with Kristen McMenamy and Linda Evangelista wearing wispy chiffon Chanel gowns at a French château, based on
The Piano
—with Galliano’s collection of unfinished hoop skirts and the shipwrecked Victorian woman with a mass of curls, marooned on a beach surrounded by driftwood.

We were obsessed with models. We were consumed by old Dolce & Gabbana campaigns shot by Steven Meisel. A lot of the interns didn’t have the same reference points at their disposal. And some of them didn’t even care. Some of those girls just wanted to say they worked at
Vogue.
There was this sense of entitlement that ran through some of them. But Danielle and I didn’t have that. We had a strong work ethic and a deep reverence for the magazine as an institution. It was a privilege to be in the hallways of
Vogue.
As an intern, I didn’t have any expectations that I’d be hanging out at Anna Wintour’s house going over the book every night. I understood that this would be a tough nut to crack and that I should be happy with the position I had—which was the lowest position. (I did see Anna in the elevator once. I almost hit her with my umbrella. I thought, At least the umbrella was Chanel.)

I looked down the line at the other interns one by one and strategically thought,
She’s the weak link. She’s not into it
. It’s not that these girls were rude. Plenty of them were nice girls who lived at the NYU dorm for the summer and liked clothes. But they didn’t necessarily
want
it. They didn’t want the career. It wasn’t so much what they said, but you could tell by what time they left the office. They worked a full day, of course. We all did. But at seven P.M. they might ask their editor if they could go home. They had dinners and appointments with trainers and colonics to get to. But Danielle and I? We didn’t have anywhere else to be. And even if we did, we wouldn’t have left. At night, people had to tell us to go home. When I worked at the Gap in Toronto I had zero work ethic. But
Vogue
? This was where it was all happening. I worked hard and stayed late because if you left you might miss a miracle. If you left early, you might miss Grace Coddington doing a run-through. You might miss Meredith Melling Burke doing an edit. We were there to learn. And those were the moments that mattered.

I didn’t make a dime that summer. I’m not exaggerating. The internship was unpaid, a swap for college credit. It didn’t matter. That’s one of the things I got wrong about New York: that everyone was rich. I thought you needed to have money to have fun. But for dinner, Danielle and I went to Schiller’s Liquor Bar—at the time, Keith McNally’s newest gastropub. We split a hamburger and it was the most fun I’d had in ages. It was a Manhattan summer and the start of a great friendship. We were a perfect fashion couple. I wore pink ribbon belts. She wore boy shorts. We went to Fleet Week parties to gawk at Navy seamen let loose on New York, the mess of them dressed like the cast of
On the Town.
At night, I’d call Gary and tell him about the office and what had gone on there. I would tell him about the friends I was making and the stress of being an intern. I ate a lot of Chinese food from Baby Buddha, and I still crave it. As exciting as that time was, I think I was also a little lonely. But the work distracted me.

The
Vogue
office was as much our playground as it was our slave master. Long after the editors would go home at night, Danielle and I would stand in the fashion closet steaming dresses. In between chores, we’d play dress-up like deranged wannabe Cinderellas, taking Polaroids of ourselves wearing a Dior fur stole. I put on a Dior Russian fur hat and a Prada ombré shirt, and grasped a clutch. I like holding a purse in photos. A purse is the sign of a lady.

I was earning the trust of my superiors in the accessories closet, and soon I was taking black Lincoln Town Cars to Harry Winston to pick up jewelry valued in excess of $15 million. Me! Maybe it was my Canadian need to please others or the fact that I was older than the rest of the interns, but the editors seemed to trust me. And this kind of errand was not uncommon. I was regularly sent off to Lorraine Schwartz in the Diamond District to fetch jewels. Lorraine is famous for keeping Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez in diamonds. Like any good Jewish mother, she is also famous for force-feeding those who enter her office with a good meal. This is how I ended up eating rotisserie chicken with Lorraine while looking at diamond rings. I was an intern carrying millions in jewels in my pockets without a security guard. And I was astonished that no security guard escorted me out. When I left, I simply kissed Lorraine good-bye and hopped back into the Town Car praying I wouldn’t get mugged.