Classy - by Derek Blasberg.

fashion
4/13/2010

Derek Blasberg: Classy. Fashion. Operator.


by Kiki Georgiou


Sitting down with Derek Blasberg for a quick chat proved to be much harder than checking out the pics from the previous night’s party and seeing him there, sandwiched between a couple of Manhattan’s finest, or opening a fashion title and finding his byline somewhere on its pages.


Blasberg was in London for Fashion Week but I got ill. I recovered to find that he had hopped over to the Turks & Caicos for a quick break before reappearing in Paris and was already unpacking his luggage back in New York before I could type Eurostar! But here we are, on the day his first book “Classy: Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady” is published, trying to figure out just quite how he does it, and, of course, the answer to a New Yorker’s eternal question: Ralph or Oscar? 

Kiki Georgiou: So, Mr. Blasberg, how does a good (we're guessing) boy from St Louis, Missouri, find himself sunning it up in Turks & Caicos in between covering the major fashion weeks and their parties for Style.com and V?

Derek Blasberg: Yes, I was a good boy, very studious and very involved; I was the salutatorian of my high school class and was even a jock. So, it was probably that hard-working mentality that prepared me for the long hours of the fashion world. 

KG: I know you studied journalism at NYU before landing your first job at Vogue. Was fashion the subject that you had wanted to write about from the start?

DB: To be honest, growing up in Missouri, I didn’t quite understand that fashion was an industry. Of course, I knew of models and fashion photography and things like that, but I didn’t know what a stylist was or how the whole industry worked. But when I moved to New York I learned very quickly. My first job, when I was a freshman in college, was writing biographies for Elite models and it all sort of took off from there. 

KG: You were here for London Fashion Week. What caught your eye with regards to shows, new designers, parties, people or plain good old British eccentricity?

DB: The highlight for me was The Love Ball, hands down! There was a fire alarm early in the evening that sent my whole table outside while the firemen came to check things out, including Kate Moss and Alice Dellal. 

KG: You were recently named Style.com's Editor-at-Large and you're a senior fashion news editor at V magazine. You also seem to be at any party worth being at and now have your first book out, "Classy". Sleep much? 

DB: It’s true: I’m an insomniac. The good news is that no week is typical. Sometimes, I have cocktail parties and dinners the whole week through, sometimes I have none. But that’s what sort of makes it fun. If my job ever gets typical I’ll probably find a new one.  

KG: What was the idea behind Classy and why the title?

DB: I liked that so many people used the word ‘classy’. People that knew what it meant, people that were taking the piss out of it, and then the people who wouldn’t know classy if it hit them in the face. The general thrust of the book is a collection of humorous yet helpful essays aimed at young women who might need a little reminder about what is – and what isn’t – appropriate behavior. 

KG: Isn't one person's 'classy' another's 'tramp'?

DB: Perhaps. But I think we can all agree when someone is a tramp.  

KG: You are a very dapper man - I say this having witnesed what you wore at your birthday party last year (the Viv Westwood pirate boots were an inspired touch) - and seem to favour three piece suits or, for a more casual ensemble,  American preppy styles. Would you rather live in a Ralph Lauren or an Oscar de la Renta universe?

DB: Can I wear Ralph Lauren to Oscar de la Renta’s universe? That would be my dream. I’ve experienced a few sartorial phases, when I lived in London it was very ‘east’; very tight black jeans and boots and tiny little jackets with concert T-shirts. But that only works when you’re young, I think. I like how I dress now: lots of three-piece suits, a mix of color and patterns. And there’s the thing: it’s become a uniform, so it’s easy to pack and easy to get dressed when you know it’s going to involve a suit, collared shirt and bow-tie. Voilà! 

KG: I'm so jealous you got to interview one of my all-time, must-interview-one-day people: James Goldstein! How was it, did it spark a previously unknown desire for exotic skins? Do you now have any idea what it is he actually does?

DB: Jim Goldstein wasn’t my favorite interview. We’ll leave it at that.

KG: If we borrowed Mr. Goldstein's business card format (only spelling out his three favourite interests: fashion, basketball, architecture), what would yours say?

DB: I like to think of myself as a fashion professional. Some people forget that while I’m at a lot of good parties, I do more with my life than spin skinny girls around a dance floor. 

KG: Finally, some have referred to you as a modern day Truman Capote; that's not a bad one, right?

DB: The Truman comparison if flattering, yes. But it makes me squirm; Capote had done so much with his life by the time he was my age (a very ripe 27). And at the end of his life, he betrayed many of his friends and succumbed to his addictions. So, Capote might not be the most appropriate comparison but yeah, I’ve been called worse! 


“Classy: Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady”, by Derek Blasberg, is out now.


www.amazon.co.uk/Classy-Exceptional-Advice-Extremely-Modern/dp/1595142797

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