The New Garde with Alyssa Vingan

Latest Episodes:

How I Got Here (Solo Episode) Oct 02, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

The New Garde has made it to 20 episodes! To celebrate, Alyssa turns her interview questions on herself, getting candid about the decade-plus she’s spent working in fashion. Tune in to find out how she channelled her dream of becoming an MTV VJ — a gig she learned about while watching Virginia Beach hometown heroes like Missy Elliott and Pharrell on TRL — into a climb up the masthead that started around the same time “The Hills” and The Devil Wears Prada put this career path in the pop cultural spotlight.

The Mallpisode (w/ Casey Lewis) Sep 24, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

Fashion is in the midst of mall madness! Alyssa is joined by Casey Lewis, founder of the After School newsletter and Gen Z consumer trends expert, to discuss the rebranding and reinvigoration of the stores they grew up shopping at their local suburban malls, including J.Crew, Abercrombie, Hollister, Gap, Old Navy, Limited Too, Claire’s, Victoria’s Secret, and more. Tune in for a lively, winding discussion and Casey’s insights on how TikTok haul culture is driving Gen Z to the mall; why a marketer’s job is so difficult right now (especially for mall brands) and how to successfully capitalize on a moment; the exciting new energy coming from J.Crew’s editorial and social media output; the frenzy surrounding the Gap x DÔEN, Gap x Madhappy, and J.Crew x Maryam Nassir Zadeh collaborations; a scene report from the Old Navy x The Cut Fashion Week party at Webster Hall; how mall brands are engaging with culture in a way they haven’t previously; the halcyon days of Target and H&M designer collaborations and whether we’ll ever get back there; why the Zac Posen era at Gap Inc. feels so promising; whether millennial icons like Alexa Chung (who just partnered with Madewell again after 14 years) and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show can truly excite a new generation; the Gap Fall 2024 dance commercial featuring Troye Sivan really resonating on TikTok; Tyla being the ticket to Gen Z for both Gap and Victoria’s Secret; the Hollister viral babydoll shirt; Abercrombie’s fascinating success among elder Gen Zs and younger millennials; the Limited Too comeback and why the brand’s catalogs are selling for $150 on Etsy; the renaissance of mall-favorite labels Tory Burch and Coach; and whether this mall mania is simply a result of the Y2K nostalgia wave that fashion can’t seem to escape.

Designing Your Dream Life (w/ Jenny Walton) Sep 17, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

What better way to celebrate the start of Milan Fashion Week than to sit down with everyone’s favorite expat, Jenny Walton! The illustrator, designer, painter, Vogue vintage columnist, and author of the popular JENNY SAIS QUOI Substack moved her entire life to Italy a couple of years ago — before she learned how to speak Italian — and is proof that being consistent, kind, and true to yourself can pay dividends, even though it comes with plenty of challenges. This week, Jenny shares how she went from making her own clothes in high school and watching Project Runway with her dad, to posting her illustrations on Instagram and turning her passions into a full-fledged career. Tune in to get inspired by Jenny’s journey and her insights on the lifelong process of honing your taste, getting disillusioned with the realities of working in a corporate fashion environment, escaping the millennial mindset that everything has to be “perfect,” collecting vintage Prada, learning that success in the industry isn’t linear, why having a distinct point of view is crucial, how she handles being an introvert with a front-facing, extroverted job, why she still freezes up when getting her photo taken, moving on when something no longer feels right, being unafraid to pivot, make mistakes, and try new things, building trust with your audience, setting boundaries, how to navigate people coming into your life and misguiding you, making new friends and finding community in your 30s, starting over after a toxic relationship, the importance of being present, and so much more.

The Future of Influencing (w/ Rebecca Jennings) Sep 11, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

Life with millions of followers might not be as aspirational as it appears. This week, Alyssa sits down with Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent at Vox who covers internet culture and the creator economy, to discuss the future of influencing as a career, as well as the cautionary tale of blowing up on social media and trying to monetize your existence in every possible way. As the fashion industry experiences a hard pivot from professional journalists and editors to influencers (with people circumventing former “dream jobs” to cut out the middlemen), it raises the question: Is it still possible to break out as a mega influencer on an existing platform like TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram? And, if you do, will you be at the mercy of the algorithm and entitled, parasocial weirdos forever? Tune in for Rebecca’s insights on why being an influencer is a less appealing job than it once was, what happens when a content format loses its novelty or when your followers turn on you, whether an influencer can ever really get cancelled in 2024, the niche-ification of fashion influencers, the evolution of the influencer snark subreddits, the danger that comes with being inauthentic or dishonest on your platform, why the relationship that audiences demand to have with the people they follow feels increasingly sinister, the pros and cons of starting a brand based on your following alone, why the age of the editor-turned-influencer is just getting started, what brands dependent on influencer partnerships will do now that the algorithm is shot, whether the tide is turning on blatant consumerism online, and what the fate of fashion influencing looks like for the next generation.

Year of the Shop Rat (w/ Emilia Petrarca) Sep 03, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

New York Fashion Week is upon us! To kick off the Spring 2025 season, Alyssa sits down with one of the city’s most prolific fashion writers, Emilia Petrarca, whose popular shopping newsletter, Shop Rat, turns a year old this month. Emilia gives a play-by-play of her climb up the masthead — which involves stints at W Magazine and New York Magazine’s The Cut — and shares the most important lessons she’s learned along the way, including the realizations that there’s no such thing as a “dream job” anymore, and the career path promised in The Devil Wears Prada is obsolete in today’s media landscape. Tune in to find out how she pioneered the nepo baby beat, why a story about Paris Hilton changed the trajectory of her career, how she learned to follow her instincts, hone her voice, and go with her gut, what it was like to attend runway shows alongside Cathy Horyn, why getting offline and going outside are crucial for creativity, the most important (and fun!) parts of reporting from Fashion Month, how she decided it was time to bet on herself and do her own thing, the ups and downs of navigating freelance life while starting a publication from scratch, how to know you have a hit story on your hands, the power of saying “no,” what’s in store for year two of Shop Rat, and so much more.

The Reemergence of ED Culture (w/ Ruthie Friedlander) Aug 27, 2024

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CW: This episode contains discussion of disordered eating, body image, and weight loss.

If you’ve spent any amount of time scrolling TikTok or X (formerly known as Twitter) over the last several months, you’ve likely come across some version of “thinspo” — whether in the form of low-calorie “What I Eat in a Day” videos or before-and-after weight loss photos — even if you’re not seeking it out. Because we’re at the mercy of the algorithm, this imagery is almost impossible to avoid, which is dangerous for people of all ages. Ruthie Friedlander, the founder of At Large Agency and co-founder of The Chain — a non-profit organization that provides peer support for folks working in the fashion and entertainment industries who are struggling with or recovering from an eating disorder — drops by this week to discuss the reemergence of ED culture on the internet, on the runway, and in media. Tune in for Ruthie’s insights on what it’s like to work in fashion while in active eating disorder recovery, how seeing this imagery consistently can negatively affect your psyche and how you feel about yourself, why marketing buzzwords like “detox” and “clean” are harmful, how to tell when you’re seeing ED behavior hidden under the guise of “wellness,” whether brands and marketers have a responsibility for the images that are projected out to their customers via social media, why Ozempic has become normalized so quickly in the entertainment community and beyond, and where you can turn for help if you or a loved one is struggling with the onslaught of pro-ED content online.

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How to Pod Like a French Girl (w/ Marisa Meltzer) Aug 13, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

On the eve of the season four premiere of “Emily in Paris” — and on the heels of the just wrapped Paris Olympics — Alyssa is joined by writer Marisa Meltzer, whose forthcoming book Non Moi Plus explores the life and times of Jane Birkin, to unpack the enduring mystique (and myth) of French girl style. An unabashed Francophile, Marisa goes long on the international cult of personality of the “French girl,” her firsthand fashion observations from a months-long reporting trip to Paris, why so many icons of Parisian style (including Jane Birkin) are expats, the lore of the Birkin bag, the French connection to indie sleaze, the unmatched magic of the French pharmacy, the deluge of fashion and beauty brands started by French influencers, the idea of the “European Summer” that’s sold to us on social media and its effect on trends, shopping in Paris vs. shopping in New York, French “It” girls through the generations, what she’s looking forward to from the Paris runways during fashion month, and her mission to bring Birkin’s legacy to life beyond Instagram moodboards.

The Trend Story Industrial Complex (w/ Amanda Mull) Jul 30, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

Have you ever wondered why there are 8,000 trends at any given time? It’s because trends are extremely profitable! This week, Alyssa is joined by Amanda Mull, senior reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek and consumer culture expert, to unpack the Trend Story Industrial Complex that drives fashion and beauty media. Tune in for Amanda’s fascinating insights on the role of the press in inducing demand for trendy items, how the explosion of both paparazzi photos and fast fashion in the mid-2000s marked a turning point for the traditional trend cycle, why a lack of innovation has led to a rapid ramp-up of trend media, whether we’re approaching critical mass for crowdsourcing trend ideas from TikTok, how influencers have become assignment editors for modern trend stories, why digital media has an incentive to produce recommendation and shopping content in general (thanks in large part to affiliate links), whether the tide is turning and people feel like they’re being pressed to buy too many products, Gen Z’s fraught relationship with consumption (specifically, the contradiction between their beliefs and their behavior when it comes to shopping), the dangers of young people thinking about culture as a marketing exercise, how the luxury game has become more like the fast fashion game over the past two decades, and what could happen if we no longer have new, creative ideas to feed the increasingly sped up consumer machine.

Don't Dupe It, Girl (w/ Alexandra Hildreth) Jul 23, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

If you’ve felt awash in a sea of Bottega Veneta Andiamo bags and Alaïa mesh ballerina flats, you are not alone. This week, Alyssa is joined by fashion writer Alexandra Hildreth to go deep into the world of dupe culture — on the For You Page and beyond. Alex helps break down the bleak vibes of Dupe TikTok, how we’re increasingly approaching our lives as content (and therefore must constantly feed the beast), the proliferation of contextless, algorithmic aesthetics, dupes vs. counterfeits, the collective mania to participate in a microtrend before the next one comes along, the general lack of concern for individuality and longevity among consumers, the sustainability problem, the natural evolution of the “look for less” recommendation structure, and whether we’ll ever be able to escape the need for instant gratification while shopping.

Embrace the Cringe (w/ Brenda Weischer) Jul 16, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thenewgarde.substack.com

Buckle up, because the girls are yapmaxxing this week! Alyssa sits down with 032c fashion editor, vintage clothing collector, content creator, podcast host, and influencer Brenda Weischer (more commonly known as @brendahashtag) for a wide-ranging conversation covering all corners of the industry. Tune in to get Brenda’s savvy takes on building a following and a community, mastering your platforms, why figuring out exactly what you’re good at is crucial, how haters are just confused fans, why going either really big or super niche are the only options, the distinction between influencers vs. creatives vs. talent, why branding is her Roman Empire, how secondhand fashion helped her conquer imposter syndrome, adopting a “f**k you” attitude, why a strong point of view is your most valuable asset, the importance of uplifting others and reading the room, never being afraid to reach out and make a connection, regretting her past era of being a hater, knowing your worth, trusting that change in the industry is possible, and the slow, steady climb up cringe mountain.

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