For the timeless and the effortless
In the Cab With
Lauren Sherman
A Q&A on Being an Introverted Extrovert, Peak Toteme, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Leandra Medine, Who to Watch This Year, and Lauren Sherman's Seven Easy Pieces
by Bart Kooi
Lauren Sherman began her career at “this kind of weird company” before moving to a job at Forbes that initially didn't interest her. Twenty years into her fashion writing career and having held positions at Lucky, Fashionista, and eventually Business of Fashion — where she advanced to chief correspondent — she is now described as “the preeminent fashion journalist of her generation.”
In early 2023, Sherman made the move to the newsletter-centric media company Puck. Here, her subscription-based newsletter Line Sheet provides incisive reportage on all aspects of the fashion industry and its biggest players, covering everything that happens in between the press releases. It provides Sherman with the platform to deliver sharp insights, deep analyses, and industry gossip — all infused with her down-to-earth, no-nonsense personality.
In this week's article: "In the Cab With Lauren Sherman," a Q&A with a very Cabmate fashion reporter who “just kept at it and never lost interest”.
You’re one of the most important fashion journalists in the world. How did you get to where you are now?
Oh man.. [thinks] A lot of work, and time — that’s how I got here. I don’t know if I have said this in other interviews, but Mickey Boardman — who was the editorial director at Paper Magazine for many years and is just a big editor in New York — said to me once when I was younger: “You just don’t leave.” It is kind of George Harrison’s wife’s quote to what is the secret of a long marriage: “You don’t get divorced”. I just kept at it, and never lost interest in it. [And] I love clothes, I am a big consumer of fashion. Even after all those years, I still love it and embrace what brings me so much pleasure.
In terms of the actual trajectory, it was not the common trajectory either. When I moved to New York after I lived in London — where I had an assistant job at this kind of weird company [Quintessentially] — I thought: “I have all these connections from Quintessentially, I am definitely going to get a very cool job,” and I didn’t. So when I got an offer from Forbes.com to be their assistant lifestyle editor, I thought: “Well I don’t really have a choice, I will take this weird job at this business magazine and we’ll see what happens.” It turned out that I really liked writing about the business. I really like the idea of unearthing information, and also I don’t find it particularly easy to write about clothes themselves. I like writing about the shows and commenting on them, but I’m not a food critic type of fashion critic.
You set a deadline for yourself, aiming to secure a staff job before turning 27. You achieved it, but if things hadn't gone as planned: what path do you think you would have taken instead?
Honestly, I don’t know, because I really am allergic to making decks. I feel like my personality and energy matches a creative agency pretty well – I think I could have done something within that world. But, you really have to be able to present.
The one other thing that I was interested in is costume design. I am pretty organized, and you have to be anal organized to do that job. I just did an event with a bunch of big costume designers; they are all really thoughtful, they are extremely good in articulating what they are trying to do, they are storytellers. I don’t know if I’d be good at it, but I was interested in it. But now when I look back, I could have been an analyst at a bank or something.
That’s something completely different.
Yeah, I mean: I never considered it. At college I took only one science class, which was complete BS. But I feel like I have a pretty good grip on that stuff. I feel I could have probably been an analyst at a bank and gone that route. But then, you would have to make decks and be in Excel, that’s not for me.
So you’re happy with where you’re at now.
Yes, I’m really lucky.
You've mentioned that you're the only one among your friends who used to be fashion writers who is still in the field. What is it that you were able to stick to it?
I wanted to. But I think the other thing is not putting in a box what fashion journalism means. When I moved back [to the US], I didn’t want to work at Forbes Magazine — I didn’t care about Forbes. Once an editor came in at Forbes and said “We’re the magazine for the dentist who hides the money under his bed.” [laughs] I didn’t care about any business magazine, I had no interest.
But I took the job because I always do the thing that feels right to me, and then the path will follow. I got to Business of Fashion because I knew Imran [Amed] from when I worked at Forbes. I also never had this ‘If I don’t get this particular job, I am not going to be happy-feeling’. There have been goals that I wanted to reach five or ten years ago. I did think: “These are the only three places I would ever want to work at after [BoF]”. But the thing is, Puck didn’t exist five or ten years ago. I much rather work and do what I’m doing now then work at these other places.
In a previous interview with Interview Magazine you mentioned that you’re pretty introverted. How does that match with your current position as a fashion reporter that knows everything and everyone?
Well, I think I’m an introverted extrovert. I don’t like to bother people – which is what I do now all day long: bother people. I obviously picked this job because I need a reason to bother people; this job gives me that reason. There is no other job in which I would be comfortable being in the mix of things. I don’t want to be somewhere because I think it’s fun; I want to be at a fashion show because I am working, it grounds me.
Before having a kid, when I would have a day with meetings and I would get home, I was completely dead — I would need to not see people for three days. Post my kid, I have gotten much more extroverted. I don’t think my personality changed post-baby, but I do think I became a little less afraid, a little less restricted. If you’ve been through [having a baby], you feel like other stuff is not that big of a deal. And COVID did that for a lot of people too. You think “Why am I getting upset about this? Why am I getting stressed about that?” There’s no point. Having a baby did give me more confidence in some way.
In your Line Sheet at Puck you recently wondered if “we have reached Peak Toteme: the height of Carolyn Bessette-referencing, Cabmate Instagram account-liking, ’90s minimalist throwback style.” Did we?
In terms of the ‘90s minimalist thing and how it has pervaded in modern fashion, it’s interesting. Toteme can go two ways. One is that it becomes a classic brand — that [Toteme] look, the minimalist look: there is always a customer for that, people will always need a navy V-neck sweater. If you are good in making that, you will always have business.
But the ‘quiet luxury’ concept is just copying what you see on Instagram. We are so inundated with imagery that people are less creative than they used to be and are just taking from what they see. Also, in America it is not really encouraged to develop a sense of style; being interested in fashion, and thinking about fashion a lot, is often discouraged. So I think that people who are not instinctively minimalist or instinctively Cabmate, they’ll find something else instead [of the Toteme look].
But I think Cabmate is an essence, and that’s what you’re capturing. What you do, will never go out of style. Because you’re capturing an essence of people, like Nathalie Portman and Paul Mescal. That post is like “Yes! It’s so Cabmate”.
This was meant to be the final question, but let's tackle it now: what does 'very Cabmate' mean to you then?
The look you are capturing is a vibe. You’re capturing an essence of a kind of person, and there are substyles within the style that you capture. You’ll post something sometimes and I’ll be like “Oh, actually that is right, that is very Cabmate”, even though it’s not the obvious ‘Cabmate thing’. The reason why I love it so much is that the style and the essence that you capture is what I was interested in when I was developing my sense of fashion, being a teenager in the late nineties. But it is interesting: you post a Julia Roberts photo from that era — and when I was younger I didn’t think of her as fashionable — and now I see it, especially her airport style.
I think it’s that relaxed feeling. It’s the idea of caring but not caring. Someone showing up and you can see that the person is just themselves through their clothes. The picture of Nathalie Portman and Paul Mescal, it just looked like they are having a good time. I think that to me is what Cabmate is capturing: this essence of having a good time and enjoying your life, and expressing that through your clothing. It has that cool, louche about it.
Moving to the next question, why do you think Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (CBK) has become such a style icon in recent years?
I think she would have become such an icon anyways. She is like Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Jean Seberg, Brigit Bardot, Jacky Kennedy. She had a very distinctive style, and she was only photographed over a short period of time, so it’s very consistent. Her style is understandable and she had a very patrician look. Carolyn Bessette wasn’t super sexualized, it wasn’t about being sexy – even though she looks sexy in a lot of photos. It’s really about her as a person and her strength as a person. So no matter what, she would have become one of endlessly referenced style icons. The word ‘icon’ is so reused, but it is probably ten people that you can reference with that word.
[adds] How internet culture works today, is that we’re consistently fed these images through the algorithm. If you have this sort of classic look, it comes up again and again. Also, you’re able to copy her. Carolyn Bessette looks really modern; since the ‘90s the way people dress hasn’t really changed very much. Everyone sort of still dresses the same, and so you can reference it.
To you, who is the modern-day equivalent of CBK?
She’s a friend of mine, but in America I really think that Leandra Medine [Cohen] is someone who sets trends. She has such an incredible sense of what is coming next. Her style is not accessible to people in the same way as Carolyn Bessette’s: you can’t copy one of Leandra’s outfits, anyone would look crazy. But with the capri pants for example, she had them way before anyone else and was unafraid of them. Eventually everyone will wear them again.
If you think about who will be referenced on [mood] boards twenty years from now, she’s the one that will be influential, even in Europe. Especially because she’s American and still embodies that Upper East Side, certain echelon of class. She has this sort of combination of the pedigree; she’s modern, she’s Jewish, there are all these things about her that make it feel more of this time. For me she’s the one of this generation whose photographs and style will live on as something that people will look back to, talk about and reference to. She will be a reference for a designer’s collection in twenty years from now.
You know so many brands and designers. Who are you looking out for the most this year?
Oh man.. [thinks] I want to see what Michael Rider does, the Polo Ralph Lauren creative director who is rumored to be going to Celine. I’m a big fan of his but he hasn’t had an outward facing role. I have done a lot of reporting on him and everything people have said about him is just that he is amazing. I love what he has done at Polo [Ralph Lauren], it is really incredible to have done so much there and I’m excited for him to have a job that is showing what he can do.
I’m also watching Phoebe Philo and all of that develop very closely. I think that she has once again quietly started to transform how we dress — and it isn’t going to be as ‘boom’ of an impact as what it was with Céline, but I’m watching it closely.
Then, moving to your personal style: how would you describe your personal style?
[thinks] If I am going to use the three-word method of Allison [Bornstein] — which I have done as an exercise — I would say: masculine, elegant, and sporty. The biggest thing is that I wear a lot of clothes that are menswear inspired. In LA, all I wear is a vintage sweatshirt, vintage jeans, and sneakers. Or if I’m going out: vintage jeans, a t-shirt, a blazer and a small heel. I never wear loafers because I wear pretty masculine clothing, and for me the balance is off if I have a masculine shoe. I do think a lot about mixing and matching the masculine and feminine.
There are no rules — I guess I just said that I never wear loafers [laughs] — but it’s really instinct driven though.
Donna Karan had her “Seven Easy Pieces.” What essential items do you believe every wardrobe should include? (a.k.a, what would be Lauren Sherman’s Seven Easy Pieces?)
- A grey Dries van Noten t-shirt;
- A grey vintage sweatshirt;
- Vintage Levi’s 501 or 517;
- A pair of heels from The Row. The one that I wear the most is their Almond toe;
- A blazer from Lemaire or The Row, I have tons of vintage Armani blazers too;
- A cashmere sweater in either in navy or grey; my favorite being my old Céline one;
- A jewelry set from the designer Danielle Sherman; I have gold hoops and a gold chain.
What do your “Seven Easy Pieces” say about your personality?
I always want the best thing; I want the best of whatever it is. I’ve been dressing like this, I mean on and off – obviously I have been through some crazy phases – but since I was thirteen. I want to be comfortable, and I don’t want to look like I am trying to hard. I don’t judge anyone for that, but I just want to feel comfortable anywhere I go.
I get asked for directions a lot, no matter where I am in the world. That always makes me feel good, because it feels like they must think I’m a local.
[adds] What do you think they say about me?
I think it shows that you like being comfortable, but also that you’re sophisticated in some way.
I guess my style is fairly sophisticated — or boring! But I think just want to feel like me, and not be stressed about it.
Probably it shows that you’re confident too, I’d say. You don't need anything flashy to stand out; your character can do that on its own.
Exactly. I’d say that I am not trying to distract. I just wear what I think is right. It just has to feel right, and if it doesn’t feel right I just don’t end up wearing it. I want to feel good: it is more about how I feel in my clothes, and less about how I look in them •
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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