Stay ConnectedThe Fashion Your Seatbelt podcast gives its listeners the rare opportunity to hear from some of the leading voices working in the fashion industry today. Each podcast is an exclusive one-to-one conversation with a creative who is crafting the future of fashion. Hosted by the renowned and award-winning fashion journalist Jessica Michault, this podcast is designed to take its audience directly to the heart of fashion and discover what makes it tick.
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Romeo Hunte first registered on my radar in a way that I have never connected with a young designer before. He sent me a DM on Instagram during the global lockdown last year and suggested that the two of us jump on an Instagram Live to talk about the state of fashion in the throws of a global pandemic. And that is exactly what we ended up doing.I am telling you this story because I think it perfectly illustrates who Romeo is. He always takes the initiative, he has a clear vision of where he wants his brand and his career to go. And he is open to experimenting, trying new things, meeting new people, and just seeing how the creativity all comes together to build something new and engaging. Now just a bit of background about Romeo before we jump into our podcast interview. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and turned down a full athletic ride for his skills in track and field to instead attend the Fashion Institute of Technology to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. He launched his brand in 2014 and then he hustled. Using his contacts via his freelance styling gigs and his full-time job as a personal shopper at a luxury retail store he was able to build both momentum and a buzz for his signature label.And then it wasn’t long before Romeo found his statement-making outerwear on the likes of Beyonce, Dwayne Wade, or Tobias Harris. Zendaya was a very early adopter of his colorful ensembles, and Michelle Obama has been spotted wearing his tailored blazers and denim hybrid jackets. Step by step, Romeo has been building a reputation for making cool, reconstructed pieces that take the best elements of different items of clothing and creating CRISPR-like hybrid pieces designed to get noticed. One person that early on took a shine to Romeo’s designs was Tommy Hilfiger. The two designers have built a strong relationship over the years, and Tommy recently gave Romeo free reign to forage through his archives. Romeo took it upon himself to revisit and reinvent some of Tommy’s iconic designs and give them a new lease on life. This clever collaboration is just the beginning of the long road ahead for Romeo in fashion.
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Declan Chan is one of those front-row fashion fixtures that you always keep an eye out for at the shows. A fashion editor and stylist by trade, Declan has also become a favorite subject for anyone who loves to appreciate those who take the time to put together a look. Declan always looks put together, but with flare. And his outfits are just as eye-catching as the spreads he creates in the pages of publications like Vogue Hong Kong, The New York Times, the South China Morning Post, and Men’s Uno Hong Kong, or the campaigns he crafts for companies like Calvin Klein, Cartier, Estée Lauder, and Lane Crawford. Ostensibly, Declan is based in Hong Kong, but if you follow him on Instagram, his real home, up until the pandemic, seemed to be on an airplane...or a series of hotels... as he is continuously crisscrossing the world to oversee a fashion shoot, attend a fashion week, or just be a part of all of the “you had to be there” fashion happenings. What I like most about Declan, besides his style, is his honest, frank, and often funny reflections on fashion in general and fashion shows in particular. I always look forward to checking in with him at least once a season to get his thoughts on what he saw - the upcoming trends - and even which pieces he has already put a personal order in for. Declan’s point of view is important because he has become one of the central go-betweens linking the Chinese consumer to the fashion catwalks. Communicating via his editorials a sartorial message that will shape how the Middle Kingdom sees a collection, understands a designer, and ultimately, which brands they decide to invest in.I know that once you have listened to this podcast you will be as enchanted by Declan as I am.
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It is hard to miss Pascal Morand when he arrives at a fashion show. Not only does he tower above most of the guests, but he is also always surrounded by the who’s who of the industry, designer hopefuls, and fashion journalists who all want to bend his ear about one aspect or another pertaining to the business of fashion. But that is what you sign up for when you are the executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.However, Pascal wears his title with the ease of someone who has spent years in the industry and knows it well. Having had paid his dues with tenures at both the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) and Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP), not to mention his time as the deputy director-general of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the Paris region before his current job – shaping the future of French fashion. His years teaching and his studies in Organisational Sciences at the University of Paris Dauphine have come in handy at the Fédération where he is both helping to nurture the next generation of designers who dream of showing their work during Paris Fashion Week, and wrangling those current calendar members who are always angling for a better spot. And Pascal’s love of innovation and technology has very much come in handy over the past year when, almost overnight, all of the collections - from menswear and womenswear to haute couture moved from real-world runway shows to fully digital experiences that only exist online, on a platform that the Fédération built up to frame the virtual shows as well as enrich them with added content. Including exclusive designer interviews, round table discussions about hot button fashion topics, and in-depth looks at the savoir-faire that is the beating heart of French fashion.I spoke with Pascal before the Fall/Winter 2021 menswear collections got underway in January about how he sees the fashion week evolving in the future and, as always when I speak with Pascal, I was blown away with his overarching vision when it comes to the fashion industry. It is one of the reasons why I am often part of the crowd that tries to catch his attention at the shows.
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Anna Dello Russo is a fashion force of nature. To the uneducated, she is the eternal star of the concrete catwalk. The colorful, upbeat and sometimes outrageous outfits she wears to the fashion weeks she attends are always the must get shots for the photographers that stalk the streets outside the show venues.But for those who know Anna, she is much more than a fabulous clothes horse. She is one of the industry’s leading stylists and art directors. After getting a master’s degree in fashion at the Domus Academy in Milan, Anna had the good fortune, right at the start of her career, to cut her teeth at Vogue Italia under the watchful eye of its longtime editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani. There she spent 18 years honing her skills and worked alongside all of the biggest photographers of the 80s and 90s. Then in the year 2000, she was tapped to become the creative director of L’Uomo Vogue before going out on her own as a creative consultant in 2006. She is also currently the fashion editor-at-large for Vogue Japan, creating one iconic cover image after another for the magazine.Throughout her career, Anna has been paying forward the generosity and mentorship she received from Sozzanni to up and coming stylists. Many of her former assistants have gone on to their own successful careers in the industry after being trained up by Anna. And three years ago she took the concept of giving back even further by becoming the international brand ambassador of the Istituto Marangoni, teaching its students from around the world about how to telegraph their sartorial ideas through visual storytelling that both grabs the viewers’ attention and makes them dream.Full disclosure, I have known Anna for years and she is hands down one of the most positive, heartful, and generous people working in fashion today. You can always count on Anna to find a way to make any situation fun and unforgettable.
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Steven Kolb and I have traveled in the same circles for years. But until this podcast, we never really had the chance to have a deep dive discussion about life in general and more specifically, life in fashion. As the CEO of the CFDA, Steven is basically the ringmaster of New York Fashion Week, so it is a bit difficult to pin him down. But what I have always appreciated about him is how level headed he is. Even in the eye of the fashion tornado, you can count on Steven to be matter-of-fact with his insights, feedback, and suggestions. Over the years, he has been a driving force behind some of the CFDA’s more important projects, from the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and the CFDA Fashion Incubator program to the CFDA Fashion Awards. Not to mention the many initiatives he, and by extension, the CFDA, have supported over the years that shine a light on issues such as better representation, equity, and inclusivity within the fashion industry. Just this year Steven launched RUNWAY360 in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic to create a digital platform for New York fashion designers to show content-rich online presentations of their collections when social distancing made in-person fashion weeks a non-starter. And at the same time, he flipped the script on this year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund turning it into a fundraiser called A Common Thread to aid those fashion businesses that have been most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.In this podcast, Steven and I talk about where he sees fashion weeks headed in the future, how his outsider’s perspective has helped him be even more effective as the CEO of the CFDA, and what his favorite part of his job is. Also do listen all the way to the end of this podcast because Steven’s answers to my 5 generic fashion questions are just fantastic.
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Creative director and stylist Sascha Lilic is a fashion month’s fixture. His distinctive look, of a beret and monocle, always makes him easy to spot at a show. You can also always count on Sascha to give you a great sound bite about what he thinks of a presentation, and it’s often something that will make you laugh out loud or blush. Maybe it was all those years working alongside his mentor, the iconic photographer Helmut Newton, who was also known not to mince words, that formed Sascha’s talent for finding the perfect bon mots.But to be fair, Sascha, who was born in Yugoslavia and grew up in Germany, was always fascinated by the world of fashion and its fundamental transformational properties. By the tender age of 16, he was already working as a hairdresser and make-up artist, before he finally got his first break as a stylist. And once he did, he never looked back. Sascha became the fashion & creative director of influential 90s era SPOON magazine before moving on to become the editor-in-chief of ABOVE magazine, which Sascha launched in 2004 and sold for a pretty penny right at the height of excess before the global recession of 2008. And since then, he has been using his talents on all sorts of different fashion fronts, as a stylist, fashion consultant, creative director...you name it...if it has to do with fashion and creativity, Sascha is your man. A claim that is backed up by the laundry list of publications, photographers, and celebrities he has worked with. Which include, but not limited to Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Interview, V Man, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Glamour, LʼOfficiel, and Grazia. And besides his longtime collaboration with Newton, Sascha has also teamed up with other leading photographers like Ellen von Unwerth, Norman Jean Roy, and William Klein...and I could go on. His visual eye has transformed everyone from Lana del Rey, Jessica Chastain, Sienna Miller, Rihanna, Lily James, Diane Kruger, Keira Knightley, Lea Seydoux and I could go on and on. So let’s just say that Sascha has quite a lot of great fashion stories to tell. Which is why I wanted to jump on a zoom call with him for this podcast. To tell us all about his extraordinary life, lived to the fullest, in fashion.
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As Japan Fashion Week is almost upon us, it is fitting that I finally post my Fashion Your Seatbelt interview with Nick Wooster. Nick and I met up at Japan Fashion Week back in October of last year; long before anybody had ever heard the words COVID or Coronavirus. Originally, I had planned on posting this podcast in March, when the last Japan Fashion Week was scheduled to start. But then the world shut down and the fashion week didn’t take place in the real world. But what do Japan Fashion Week and Nick Wooster have in common? Well, Nick, who is consistently one of the best-dressed men I have ever seen, is a world-class fashion consultant and he has been coming to Japan for years on buying trips. And basically, he has fallen in love with the country. Today he even sits on the jury of the prestigious Tokyo Fashion Award. In the past, Nick has worked as a buyer at Bergdof Goodman, he was the director of retail merchandising at Calvin Klein, the design director of the Polo Ralph Lauren brand, and later he held the role of the men's fashion director at Neiman Marcus. Over the years there have been a few bumps in the road of his career path, which he will talk about, but today Nick is living his best life as a fashion consultant working with and advising a number of different fashion brands around the world. Nick feels that it is his love of being a fashion consumer that is part of the reason he has been able to continue to be successful in the fashion sphere. His ability to maintain a user’s point of view makes it possible for him to give his clients clear-eyed opinions and criticisms with the confidence of a true blue luxury consumer.So sit back and enjoy Nick talking about what he loves most - fashion.
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I am going to be very honest here and say that every time I end up being placed next to Milan Vukmiorvic at the front row of a fashion show, a smile spontaneously forms on my face. And at the exact same moment, I say a little prayer that the show will run a bit later than normal. This is because Milan is just a great front row buddy. He and I end up always getting into these extensive philosophical conversations about the current state of fashion. We discuss the nuances of shifting tides of trends we have picked up over the season and what we both think that might mean for the future of fashion. So you can imagine that with the current upheaval of the industry, I wanted to find a way to have another front row deep dive debrief with Milan, so the two of us jumped onto a Zoom call to hash things out. And what makes talking with Milan so engrossing is that his career in fashion is so varied and vast. He was a multifaceted creative before that was even a thing. Just to give you a bit of background. Milan was born in France to a Serbian family and grew up in Paris, he studied at ESMOD and then, after an internship at the Jardins des Modes, in 1996 he co-founded the concept store, Colette. He went on to become a design director for the Gucci Group during the reign of Tom Ford, then came a stint as the creative director of Jil Sander, and after that, he re-launched the magazine L’Officiel Hommes Paris as its editor-in-chief and creative director, where over 7 years he expanded the brand to more than a dozen international versions of the title. In 2007 he returned to designing for a fashion house, this time as the creative director of Trussardi. And as a side hustle, he co-founded The Webster Miami, another ultra-cool concept store. Then in 2011, he launched his own menswear bi-annual book magazine hybrid he named Fashion for Men, of which he remains the editor-in-chief. And if that wasn’t enough, he also took on the duty of menswear creative director of Ports in 2015. So Milan clearly likes to keep busy. And his work as a buyer, a designer, a stylist, an editor, and a photographer, just to name a few of the titles he has carried over the years, gives him a very unique perspective on the world of fashion. This is why, when we finally were able to connect, I simply pointed Milan in the direction of a topic I wanted to get his thoughts on and let him rip. I am sure that once you have listened to what he has to say you too will be trying to find a way to sit next to him in the front row of a show.
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This intro is going to be a very short one. Basically, I want to jump right in and let you all listen for yourself as the French fashion critic Carine Bizet, who is not one to live her life as an open book on Instagram, finally gives us a glimpse into her life in fashion. Carine is one of only a handful of true “take no prisoners”, speak truth to power fashion writers working in the industry.Well, actually she is no longer working in the industry. Earlier this year, after building a name for herself at Madame Figaro and leaving an indelible black ink mark on Le Monde with her must-read fashion reviews as the renowned French newspaper’s lead fashion journalist, she quietly, with no fan fair or big send-off, decided to leave it all behind. After decades of working at the epicenter of the fashion universe, sitting in the front row at ALL of the shows and interviewing every designer under the sun...that she found worth profiling….Carine decided to start her second act, working in a totally different field. Yes, a creative one, but still a 180-degree change from her career as a writer.So I felt this was the perfect time to speak with her. To have a no holds barred discussion about what got her interested in fashion in the first place, the current state of the industry, and where she thinks it will go. And why, when she was at the top of her game she decided to walk away from it all to chase a new dream.Full disclosure. I have known Carine for years and I feel that I can say without a doubt that, in a world where superficial friendships are part of the game, she is ride or die. Carine is one you can count on. She will give it to you straight, whether you are one of her closest friends, a designer, or a billion-dollar fashion house. Just on a technical side note, I did want to let all you listeners know that Carine and I did our interview over Zoom Video. So don’t be surprised by a couple of very minor audio issues. And now I am going to turn it over to Carine, because if there is one thing I love to do is listen to her tell it like it is.
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For decades in the world of fashion, there has really only been one man who has given the industry its sonographic soundtrack. And that man is Michel Gaubert. Michel eats, sleeps, and breaths music. It has been the framework of what he does in his career, as a sound director for most of the leading fashion houses on the planet, and it has been the guiding force in his life as well. His fascination with music is what pushed him to learn English, move to California in his youth and it is through music that he has made some of his deepest and lifelong friendships.Michel’s passion for music has always been intertwined with fashion. As early as 5 years old, he dreamed about being a musician; as much for the amazing clothing, they wore as the music they made. Later, at the end of the 1970s, his years-long devotion to music turned into a two-pronged career. During the week he was a buyer of international music for the renowned record store Champs Disques, and on the weekend he was a DJ at the famed Le Palace nightclub. Karl Lagerfeld was an avid collector of music and it was at Champs Disques that the designer first crossed paths with Michel. Later it would be Lagerfeld that would give Michel his first big break designing the soundtrack for one of his signature shows. And eventually, he would call on Michel to do the music for Chanel as well, the first time with less than 24 hours notice. Their artistic collaborations would continue for close to four decades and span the Chanel, Fendi, and Lagerfeld brands. Over the years Michel has gone on to create musical memories for brands and designers big and small. From Dior, Valentino, Gucci, and Loewe to Raf Simons, J.W. Anderson, and Jeremy Scott. Not to mention the music he has created for the fashion store Colette, numerous exhibitions, store openings, and global events. His collaborations with designers tend to endure for decades as Michel’s encyclopedic knowledge of music, his collaborative nature, and, without question, his endless positivity and good humor make him someone you just want to spend time with. If you want to get an even better sense of Michel after listening to this podcast, besides listening to some of the amazing mixes he has created for shows over the years, I suggest following him on Instagram at @MichelGaubert. His feed is a riot and is always an instant pick me up.Just on a technical side note, I did want to let all you listeners know that Michel and I did our interview over Zoom Video. So don’t be surprised by a couple of very minor audio issues. Now, it’s time to enjoy the dulcet sound of Michel’s own voice as he talks about the love of his life - music.
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