Always Pack a Party Dress: And Other Lessons Learned From a (Half) Life in Fashion Read online

  Also by Amanda Brooks

  I Love Your Style

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street

  New York, New York 10014

  Copyright © 2015 by Amanda Brooks

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  Blue Rider Press is a registered trademark and its colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Brooks, Amanda.

  Always pack a party dress : and other lessons learned from a (half) life in fashion / Amanda Brooks.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-698-16076-7

  1. Brooks, Amanda. 2. Brooks, Amanda—Philosophy. 3. Women fashion designers—United States—Biography. 4. Fashion designers—United States—Biography. 5. Fashion design—New York (State)—New York. 6. Conduct of life. I. Title.

  TT505.B77A3 2015 014049923

  746.9' 2092—dc23

  [B]

  Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.

  Version_1

  To Coco—

  for all the adventures, fashion and otherwise, that lie ahead of you.

  To Zach—

  for always knowing exactly what to say.

  To Christopher—

  for so faithfully standing next to me.

  CONTENTS

  Also by Amanda Brooks

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  INTRODUCTION

  Fashion Lesson No. 1: That’s So You!

  Fashion Lesson No. 2: Embrace Your History

  WHERE I’M COMING FROM

  Style Influence: My Mother

  Style Influence: My Teenage Years: Boarding School, The Adirondacks, The Grateful Dead, and J.Crew

  ALWAYS PACK A PARTY DRESS

  Style Influence: Palm Beach

  A LONG WALK IS THE BEST WAY TO CLEAR YOUR HEAD

  HOW COMMITMENT TO THE MAN OF MY DREAMS SET ME FREE TO BE A FASHION CHAMELEON

  Style Influence: Christian Louboutin

  Style Influence: Isabella Blow

  TAKE THE THING YOU MOST LOVE TO DO ON WEEKENDS AND TURN THAT INTO YOUR CAREER

  Fashion Lesson No. 3: Bells and Whistles

  Style Influence: Tracee Ellis Ross

  Sidebar: Informational Interviews

  WHEN A ROCK STAR ASKS FOR YOUR PHONE NUMBER, HE DOESN’T JUST WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND

  Style Influence: Lauren Hutton

  TRY ANYTHING THAT GRABS YOUR ATTENTION—YOU GOTTA START SOMEWHERE!

  Style Influence: Sofia Coppola

  Style Influence: Amy Astley

  MISTAKES ARE OKAY, AS LONG AS YOU LEARN FROM THEM

  Fashion Lesson No. 4: Packing Fashion

  Fashion Lesson No. 5: The Brilliance of White Shoes

  FAKE IT ’TIL YOU MAKE IT

  Fashion Lesson No. 6: Learn How to Smile for a Photo (It Took Me Fifteen Years!)

  Style Influence: David Hicks

  Sidebar: Thoughts on Taste

  THE MET BALL CAN INDUCE THE HIGHEST HIGHS (A “WOW” FROM ANNA WINTOUR) AND THE LOWEST LOWS (ARRIVING IN A BEAT-UP MINIVAN)

  Fashion Lesson No. 7: Matching My Lips to My Nails

  Style Influence: Duro Olowu

  Style Influence: Molly Milbank

  WHEN YOU ARE STUCK, ASK SOMEONE YOU ADMIRE WHAT THEY SEE FOR YOU

  Sidebar: Rules for Consulting

  I HAVE ALWAYS SPENT TOO MUCH MONEY ON CLOTHES . . . AND IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN WORTH IT (UNTIL IT WASN’T)

  Fashion Lesson No. 8: How to Recycle Trends and Make Iconic Pieces Last a Lifetime

  Style Influence: Camilla Nickerson

  “ALL WOMEN NEED A GOOD DOSE OF HUMILITY FROM TIME TO TIME.” —DVF

  Fashion Lesson No. 9: Hair and Makeup Know-How

  REJECTION IS A MANDATORY REST STOP ALONG THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

  Fashion Lesson No. 10: The “Coat Over Your Shoulders” Look

  Fashion Lesson No. 11: Mixing Denim

  Style Influence: Updated Classic

  OF ALL THE PLACES IN THE WORLD TO FALL APART, I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD HAPPEN IN PARIS

  Style Influence: Céline

  Fashion Lesson No. 12: What Was I Thinking?

  SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO START FROM SCRATCH

  Sidebar: Self-Nourishing

  Style Influence: My Artist Friends

  A YEAR ON THE FARM: MAKING JAM IS THE BEST REVENGE

  Sidebar: My Greatest Hits

  Acknowledgments

  Image Credits

  In the kitchen of our home on Fairgreen Farm, shortly after the move. I’m wearing an Isabel Marant jumpsuit and Céline espadrilles.

  INTRODUCTION

  SITTING HERE at the kitchen table in our farmhouse, dressed in jodhpurs and muddy boots, just in from a morning ride, I am trying to remind myself how and why I decided to write this book. It’s been three years since I took a break from my twenty-year career in fashion to spend a yearlong creative sabbatical at my husband’s family farm in the English countryside. Yes, we’re still here. And while I have many ideas about what my professional future might hold, many of which include fashion, it’s hard to imagine making anywhere else my home.

  But back to where this book began. The very first idea came to me as do many of my ideas: at the end of a long walk. It was early 2010, and I was in Manhattan, walking from my Lower East Side apartment to pick up my kids from school in Greenwich Village. I was reflecting on the positive feedback I had received after writing on my blog about cutting off all my hair at age twenty-two. The anecdote included typical coming-of-age optimism, a large dose of humility, some fabulous fashion-world people, my parents, and some pretty heavy questioning of who I was and why people liked me.

  I liked writing the story and the similar ones that followed. I liked putting a human face on the glamour and exclusivity of the fashion world. I liked writing in order to revisit the moments, the people, the experiences that had shaped me throughout my time in the fashion industry. I liked recognizing that in many ways, the fashion world has escorted me from an intern in my teenage years, to accessories designer as a young adult, to creative director as I became a wife, to fashion director as I discovered my role as a mother, and eventually to who I am today.

  At the time, these thoughts weren’t a book. They were a direction for my blog, which fell to the side pretty soon after, when I accepted a job as Barneys’ fashion director and agreed to set aside my personal work and social media pursuits. But as my time in that role came to an end, I started thinking about writing a follow-up book to I Love Your Style and wondered what that might be. When I first wrote that book, it had felt like the first in a series—I Love Your [Kids’, Wedding, Home, Men’s] Style could easily follow. But now that the idea of collaging well-researched photos f
rom every decade has been adapted by Pinterest and Tumblr, I realized the intrigue of that format, for me at least, had come and gone. Friends in the publishing industry agreed, and there I was, left to start from scratch.

  A couple of months before I left Barneys, I revisited the idea of writing down these stories about coming of age in the fashion industry. It was important to me that I had something to work on next. I couldn’t wait to get back to writing. As damn hard as it is at times, I thrive on the singular creative perspective, the flexible hours, and the processing of ideas, thoughts, and emotions that writing provides. So I called a friend who was an editor at a publishing house I admired and ran some ideas by her. None of them particularly resonated with her. As I was listening to her feedback, I remembered the personal fashion stories I had so enjoyed writing for my blog, and suggested that perhaps they could be compiled into a book. Without hesitation, she told me this was my next project.

  My compulsively tidy office at the farm. Christopher gave me the rosewood desk as a present when we moved here, and the antlers came from stags shot by Christopher’s aunt Anne Brooks, as did the metal box behind my desk. Lucky for me we share the same initials. On the wall are invitations to Hugo Guinness’s shows at John Derian. I collect them.

  My office is in an old garden shed, so the wood burner is key to making it cozy. I bought the leopard stool at a local antiques shop for $150.

  It wouldn’t be until nine months later that I sat down to start writing. After moving my family across the Atlantic, settling the kids into our home and a new school, and setting up life (Wi-Fi!) on a remote farm, I couldn’t have felt further from fashion. My days were spent taking photographs, doing the school run, cooking family meals, riding horses, making jam, and updating what had been our summer house for year-round living. I was in full decompression-from-New-York mode and was giving myself permission to follow my bliss. It was hard to want to think about fashion and all that I had purposely taken a break from, and I started to doubt my new book idea, which had once seemed so promising. But there is something exhilarating and empowering about going in the direction of my fear, in the direction of the thing that seems hard, and so I slowly began to write more about my experience in fashion. It was over the winter, as the stories continued and evolved, that I began to realize how important and integral this reflection on my time in the industry was to seeing clearly and understanding how I had gone—for the time being—from an NYC girl devoted to her career to a stay-at-home mom on a farm in the middle of nowhere. It has shown me how everything I have done so far in my life has led to new challenges, to deep happiness, to the chance to take everything I have learned and accomplished and apply that to whatever it is I decide to do next.

  In order for me to write anything, whether it be an article or a blog post or a book, I have to be able to picture who I am talking to and understand why I am telling them this story. Although the process of writing, especially in the case of this book, is always beneficial to me in some way, it is not written for me, at least not me in the present tense. So who is this book for? I think of my little sister Phoebe, who recently graduated from college with a degree in integrative media. She spent her last unemployed summer waitressing while sending her résumé to anyone who was hiring in a creative field even remotely related to her interests and wondering what her future might hold. She had so many questions: “Do I have to decide right now what I want to do for my career? Or will my fate be decided by the job I happen to get?” “Do I even want to get a real job? Or can I go freelance right away?” I am proud to say that as I was writing this book, she got hired as a graphic designer with a high-profile New York marketing, advertising, and trend-forecasting firm. It’s right on target with her talent and her education. Hopefully she will like it, but it’s entirely possible that the company will be too big or too corporate for her taste, despite the comfy paycheck. She may decide she wants to become a film animator or work at a magazine in eighteen months’ time. But the only way she will know is by trying something and seeing if she likes it. If she doesn’t, she can cross that off the list and try something else. It seems simple, but I’ve seen countless people—myself included—become paralyzed by the notion that they should know exactly what and who they want to be right out of college. Although this book is about my experience in the fashion industry, I hope it will transcend fashion and also be inspiring to any young man or woman, like Phoebe, who is launching into their career and wondering how to get from A to B, how to figure out what they want to be “when they grow up,” how to cope with more success than they imagined or more disappointment than they think they can handle.

  My former research intern Chelsea Fairless, who now edits VFILES.

  I also think about the young girls I met in the Beverly Hills office of William Morris Endeavor, an L.A.–based talent agency, when I worked as the company’s fashion director. Those girls were so in awe of fashion, so enamored of it. But at the same time, they were intimidated by—or, more likely, scared as hell of—the prospect of even approaching it. I didn’t see these girls as being much different than I was at their age; if anything they were more sophisticated in their early twenties than I had been. But fashion was this ultraexclusive, behind-the-velvet-rope world to them. And so I hope this book will make fashion seem a little more forgiving and user-friendly to young women and men who want to take part in it, now or in the future. You might think to yourself, “Oh, but not every girl gets to meet Diane von Furstenberg at age eighteen and have her as a mentor.” And you would be right—not every girl does. But anyone who is talented and works hard and makes their way in the fashion industry has a story about someone like DVF who is a hero to them, and takes an interest in them, and guides them along.

  Chelsea and Laura, twentysomethings who worked for me throughout the different phases in my career, also came to mind while I was writing this book. Both girls were new to New York City when they started with me, and I watched them each reconcile who they were and where they had come from with where they wanted to go and who they wanted to be. They each had different personalities with different goals, but they were both trying to make their way toward having a career in fashion. The story of how Chelsea came to work for me is impressive. I was looking for an intern to help me with photo research for I Love Your Style, so I placed an ad on the Parsons The New School for Design website. A nice girl named Megan sent me a good résumé, and I met her and thought she would do the job well. But the day before I planned to hire her, I got a letter and résumé from a girl called Chelsea Fairless. Good name, right? Something about her note made me want to meet her. She told me she had read, cover to cover, every single issue of Vogue since she was twelve years old. So she came over that evening to chat. She had so much desire and enthusiasm to work for me. The first thing she said to me was that she knew every picture of me that had ever been published in a magazine or a newspaper. At this point I was torn between thinking she was a creepy stalker or a thoroughly devoted fan of fashion. But she impressed me with her in-depth and historical knowledge of both fashion and photography—after all, I was looking for a researcher—and so I decided to give her a go. I’d like to think Chelsea learned a lot from working for me, but in truth, it’s possible that I learned more from her. She is now senior editor at VFILES, a hip, downtown fashion media company where she is thriving.

  My former assistant Laura Stoloff, who is the senior market editor at WSJ Magazine.

  From Laura, I learned how much people have the capacity to grow and learn and blossom. While I was impressed during my interview with Laura, once I hired her, she was so nervous she could barely answer the phone! I started to have doubts. She was so nice and smart and stylish, and her résumé was so perfectly suited to the job I had offered her, but my expectations were high. As much as I liked her personally, the first year was a little bumpy, especially because I switched jobs in the middle of it. But eventually, with hard work and dedication on her part, a
nd patience and guidance on mine, Laura hit her stride. And then some. She became a cracking good assistant to me and contributed creatively to many of my most ambitious projects following both my own career goals and those as a consultant to other companies. When I eventually landed at Barneys, I fought tooth and nail to bring Laura with me, and she eventually became the assistant fashion director there. She is now the senior market editor at WSJ Magazine, and I am so proud of her.

  So what could I share with all these girls and young women in my thoughts? What could I impart to the twentysomething version of myself still lurking somewhere inside of me? And what could I write down now that might be relevant to my daughter in not so many years? I certainly don’t want to give anyone advice. This book is not a career guide or any kind of comprehensive memoir. It’s just my experience. These stories are the memorable moments, the straight lines and the crossroads of setting goals and sometimes meeting them and sometimes moving away from them. They’re the lessons I learned and how I learned them. I don’t pretend to have had any kind of wisdom when making many of the big decisions in this book, but when I look back now over my first twenty years in fashion, I feel that it all kind of worked out pretty well in the end.

  And how can I reflect on my life so far in fashion without sharing the most important sartorial lessons I have learned? How I figured out that I usually look best when I do my own hair and makeup? How I packed for three weeks of nonstop fashion shows? How I learned to mix multiple denim pieces in one look? And how much fun I’ve had exploring fashion and coming up with all kinds of new looks—some of which hit the bull’s-eye, others of which were complete belly flops? As a general rule, I tend to share how I figured things out and let you do the same for yourself. I’m not so into strict fashion rules—who am I to tell you what works for you? But I do love to share my inspiration, and in this book, as in I Love Your Style and on my blog, there is plenty of it, including the people, the places, and the designers who have most inspired me.