For the timeless and the effortless
In the Cab With
Julie Ragolia
A Q&A on Imperfection, The Pinault Collection, Unkown Style Icons, Emotions at Zegna, New York City, and Julie Ragolia's Seven Easy Pieces
May 30 2024, by Bart Kooi
Despite being somewhat anti-fashion as a child and being told early in her career that she "would never make it in this industry," Julie Ragolia has risen to become an internationally renowned stylist and consultant. She entered the fashion world through an unconventional path involving film, photography, and philosophy, developing an approach described as "strikingly modern and rooted in observation."
Throughout the years, Ragolia has worked with brands including Berluti, Cartier, Helmut Lang, Hermès, and Theory, and has contributed to leading publications including WSJ, W, Fantastic Man, Replica, ReEdition, Autre and Another Magazine. Currently, she styles for Zegna, working closely with artistic director Alessandro Sartori, as well as for Cerruti 1881, where she contributes to the relaunch of the iconic brand alongside Daniel Kearns.
In this week's article: "In the Cab With Julie Ragolia," a Q&A with a very Cabmate fashion stylist who finds "as much beauty from the random person on the street as from the greatest model walking a catwalk".
You entered the fashion industry with a background in philosophy. Could you tell a bit more about that?
I never intended to be in fashion initially, honestly. I grew up in a very rough area of Brooklyn New York, so fashion was the last thing on the mind of kids like me. I was even a bit anti-fashion; politically I saw fashion as a division between those who have and those who don’t have.
I was granted a scholarship to study film at NYU, where I actually became obsessed with the still image, rather than the idea of moving image. So I changed schools to Brooklyn College, where I found a mentor in the head of the photo department. With him I would talk for hours about photography, philosophy, and science; about this interconnection between all things visual and all things psychological and philosophical. So I changed my major to philosophy, with a focus on aesthetics, because this interwoven space between the image and the outside world — the paused image and everything that moves around it— became really intriguing to me.
From studying philosophy, how did you move into working as a stylist?
During my studies I had this roommate who was a budding fashion photographer. We lived in a loft in Dumbo [New York], where I’d do these shoots with him to get some money that paid my rent as a student. There was this one day when he said: “You could never make it in this industry”. And I, being a tough kid from a rough area in Brooklyn, said “F U”, and I became a stylist. [laughs]
It wasn’t as simple as that, but it was sure a motivation. I took my little portfolio of test images to an agency called Streeters — which I chose solely because of the name, and me being streety. They told me that I wasn’t ready for representation, but that Alex White [then Fashion Director of W Magazine] was looking for a new assistant. So I became Alex [White]’s assistant, and it was at the W Offices, where I witnessed the element of research and the entire editorial process, that my obsession with fashion began. And then everything went from there.
How did you learn the actual skills that come with styling?
I think, instinctually, because I have always been obsessed with art. The idea of form and color was always a part of how I saw; I don’t think that could ever really be learned, it is quite instinctual in how one puts things together.
However, what I have learned the most on the job is how to be a part of the fashion industry from a business perspective. But also tailoring: learning how to craft that in a still image, or in a moving situation as would be a runway or a celebrity. The understanding of what fabrics are, the types of fabrics, how fabrics move on the body — that I have learned a lot about on the job. That’s the fascinating science for me, that I’m in constant awe and study of.
Would you say that the essence of your styling work remains the same as when you started: creating still images?
[Thinks] I think so, in the sense that even in an active scenario, the thing that makes us pause is a still image, even when in movement. So I’m always thinking about the two intermittently. How something moves on the body is just as important as how it lives in the capture, whether it being in our mind or in the photographic image.
I love to know that something in a still image works on a moving human. As a stylist I don’t want to have a world of clips and pins behind the image, because then that means it’s not working. If somebody cannot move naturally and look beautiful organically, you as a storyteller in image break a flow.
How would you describe your signature style?
I think that it is always a little bit imperfect. And maybe no one will see that imperfection, but I’m always trying to find that human hand. I don’t like when things are too perfect.
Also, I can have an idea for an editorial, of what I think I am going to do: this Gucci look, that Valentino look, etc. etc. But then someone can walk through the door and I can be like ‘Oh man, all I need is this very simple piece like this.’ So it stops being about the look, and I can change my entire direction — but no one will know. So it's the imperfection of not having a strict idea of what someone should look like for my vision. We’re all participants in the fashion storytelling process; I embrace the imperfection of the process.
Your approach is described as “strikingly modern, rooted in observation”. Can you elaborate on that?
I’ve always been really shy, and kind of quietly observing the world. Everything I do is rooted in observation in the sense that I find as much beauty from the random person on the street as I do from the greatest model walking a catwalk. For me the greatest inspiration is watching people, and watching how people interact.
I’m intrigued by fashion in the context of how people wear it and how people interact with it. For example, certain color combinations that I might put into a look for a runway show might come from two people having lunch at an outdoor café. They can give me this feeling of ‘Oh wow, that tone fits great with that tone — I might not have thought about that.’ The artist creates from what they see; fashion for me works in the same way.
In your current work, what references do you use?
Definitely art, first and foremost. If I’m not working you can probably find me in a gallery or a museum. I love the process of looking: there are moments that I am spending as much time looking at the people looking at art, as I am to looking at the art itself.
That’s why the Pinault Collection in Paris [Bourse de Commerce] is one of my favorite spaces in the world. There’s this emotional, instinctual understanding of not only the works within the space, but also the curation of the space itself. When you walk through, you cannot help but notice that the people almost feel like they are placed. Everything seems to be perfectly coordinated to make the people as much as an artwork as the central works themselves.
You are working with many timeless brands like Hermès, Zegna and Cerruti. What is it that attracts you in this timeless fashion?
I just love the idea that people can wear their clothes from year to year and still feel as special inside of them. I am very drawn to things that can wear with us. We humans, we wear: we wear ourselves, our thoughts, our hearts on our sleeves. Just as we want our loved ones to be with us for a long time, I want the clothes I love to stay with me for a long time. My stories are in those garments; the experiences that I’ve had. That is my draw to brands like Zegna, Hermès, and The Row: brands that just last years and years.
What fashion show from the past stook with you the most?
[Thinks and laughs] Like ten shows just went through my brain. [Thinks] Well, I can say one show: Raf [Simons]’s first show in New York, which was actually already back in 2004, in this club called “Marquee” in Chelsea.
This 2004 show was what for me was my first wow-moment as a fashion show, and one of the first shows that I had ever gone to. The show made sense in what a fashion show and New York as a fashion show city were, once upon a time. There was an energy and a naivety: Raf, doing a show in Marquee. And it wasn’t filled with every editor or this or that — it was just a bunch of kids like me, starting to go to shows and go out in New York City.
It resonates with how Raf always held his shows and collections, it has never been about the industry as much as it has been about the wider community of people who are going to long for those clothes, who are going to buy those clothes, who are going to wear those clothes with enthusiasm.
What recent fashion show made the biggest impact on you?
The last Zegna show, or actually, all the Zegna shows. At Zegna, there’s something very emotional that happens. I’m not one to break down and cry, but I’ve actually cried at our last three fashion shows because there is something beautiful and meaningful that has happened in each one.
I think it’s Alessandro Sartori’s greatest strength: these emotional moments. He [Sartori] is so connected to the humans that wear Zegna garments; he is thinking about them; he is thinking about their emotions. There’s this real sense of connection to Zegna, and I think the models feel it, the teams feel it, the audience feels it, and the consumer feels it. That for me is the most special thing that I could have ever hoped to be a part of as a stylist: this great sense of an emotional connection to clothes and to fashion.
[adds] And without even realizing it, the shows that I just mentioned from then and now, they connect to me for the same reason: this emotional space where it stops being about anything else but feeling and connection.
How is your fashion styling related to your personality?
I have such a meld of things that come together in my personal style. I do not know if people notice it, but there is so much hip-hop that is mixed through my work, both my professional work and personal style.
In terms of my styling work, I watch people in the world everywhere I go. As much as I have an apartment in Paris and spend so much time there, I will always be a New Yorker because it is the best place to watch people. New York is absolutely epic in terms of our people; we are the most diverse city. And people-watching is so incredible here. Also because we live on top of each other, everything is fused and intermixed.
Do you have a style icon?
I don’t know — I have so many, and of some I don’t even know who they are, you know what I mean? There could be somebody on the street and suddenly you’re like ‘Oh, that’s cool, or she’s cool, or he’s cool’. Those people are my style icons, the people I see every single day — just as much as I’d say Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Patti Smith, or Fran Lebowitz.
What aspect of someone's style or outfit do you admire the most?
When they wear it with real confidence and comfort.
Donna Karan had her “Seven Easy Pieces.” What essential items do you believe every wardrobe should include? (a.k.a, what would be Julie Ragolia’s Seven Easy Pieces?)
- A button down shirt from The Row, for sure;
- Anything Old Céline: it is never going to go out of style;
- A Zegna jacket: I personally love when it’s in an unexpected color. I have this mint green one from Spring/Summer, I’m wearing it with new Phoebe Philo, or old jeans, or Margiela cut-off jeans. Somehow it goes with everything;
- A pair of Nike Dunks;
- Vintage Levi’s;
- A worn-in, white T-shirt: I’ve gone to so many dinners in a dirty white T-shirt. I could be wearing a zillion dollar outfit, but I’ll still likely wear a grubby white T-shirt underneath it. I’ll wear a white T-shirt that has holes in it — but with my Phoebe Philo pants;
- A grey sweatshirt: it goes with everything, and grey is the softest color.
What is your style motto?
[thinks] Wear it if you like it.
Finally, what makes something very Cabmate to you?
The effortlessness. It is not fussy, but is confident. Aside from the minimalist approach to aesthetic — which may evolve over time — it will always be rooted in effortlessness and confidence •
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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