Interview with Liz Best, Fashion Blogger and Stylist<\/p>\n
Me: Hey Liz! Thanks for making time to talk with me. I really appreciate your help.<\/p>\n
Liz: No worries! I remember how hard it is to nail down interviews; I\u2019m glad to help.<\/p>\n
Me: So what have you been up to since you left Grady?<\/p>\n
Liz: Well, you remember I left when I started getting styling jobs for Atlanta Magazine and whatnot. I had felt like I needed a master\u2019s to sort of prove myself, but when I started getting jobs it seemed smarter to walk away. Sometimes you have to just jump at an opportunity. But since then I\u2019m still styling. I try to update my blog at least every other week or so, and I\u2019ve had images of my styling (sometimes on me, sometimes not) on the New York Times site, The Huffington Post, and Refinery29.<\/p>\n
Me: It seems like it’s\u00a0really working out for you!<\/p>\n
Liz: So far so good, yeah.<\/p>\n
Me: Well, I always enjoy seeing your posts on Facebook and whatnot. I have what you might call kind of a casual interest in fashion. I know what I like and what I think looks good on myself or friends, and I always click through the fashion albums posted during the Oscars\u00a0and stuff. I know the September issue of Vogue is always a big one. I know some things, but I\u2019m by no means an expert. So when I was assigned this beat on fashion and lifestyle, I immediately thought of contacting you as a first step.<\/p>\n
Liz (laughs): Totally! So what did you want to know, specifically?<\/p>\n
Me: I guess I\u2019d like to know where to start. What do you, as a fashion blogger and stylist, see as big trends or topics in the fashion world right now? What should I be reading? Are there stories that you think should be covered but aren\u2019t really getting covered? Do you have any ideas on how to localize stories on what\u2019s happening in bigger cities? Any words of wisdom appreciated.<\/p>\n
Liz: Ok, that\u2019s a lot\u2014<\/p>\n
Me: I know, sorry\u2014<\/p>\n
Liz: No, it\u2019s cool. I\u2019ll do my best. First I\u2019d recommend you look more at Vogue, because that\u2019s going to be different than a magazine like Cosmo or something. You know, more actual writing, less clickbait on paper. You\u2019ll see stories about what\u2019s coming for fall, new designers and all that, and maybe some of those could be localized somehow. Like, do you see trends for fall reflected in what girls are wearing in Athens. Still on the whole what to read thing, I\u2019d also recommend Atlanta Magazine, because that\u2019s more local and has a good fashion section. You might get ideas about upcoming events you could write about or something, and then that could maybe be a place you could pitch or publish a story. I\u2019ve worked with them a few times now, I\u2019ll have to send you some contact information later.<\/p>\n
Me: That would be great!<\/p>\n
Liz: No problem! As far as story ideas go, I think the whole \u201csorority girls in workout clothes and what is appropriate on campus\u201d has probably been done too much, but I could be wrong. But I do like stories about fashion that really show how much what we wear matters in our lives, in how people perceive us or how we perceive ourselves. I think maybe you could do something interesting relating to the whole burkini ban thing, have you heard about that?<\/p>\n
Me: In France? Yes.<\/p>\n
Liz: Yeah, exactly. There\u2019s definitely a Muslim population at UGA, I wonder if you could do a piece relating to religiously-inspired fashion choices. Like, that would be timely with the burkini ban being in the news right now.<\/p>\n
Me: That\u2019s a really great idea.<\/p>\n
Liz: Glad you like it! And then the last thing I can really think of at the moment would be that it could be cool to do a photo series of fashion in Athens. I feel like when you\u2019re sitting outside a caf\u00e9 or something you see a lot of people in workout clothes or whatever, but also some people who have made these really interesting and creative styles work for them. I think a cool photo series could be made just of people you see downtown in an afternoon, get a statement about what they\u2019re wearing means to them. I don\u2019t know if that would work for your assignment. I just want someone to do it.<\/p>\n
Me (laughs): Downtown really is its own little fashion parade. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d be able to do that as an assignment, but even if that didn\u2019t work out for class purposes maybe that\u2019s something I could do just for my own portfolio.<\/p>\n
Liz: Yeah, I saw you\u2019ve kept working on your site!<\/p>\n
Me: I\u2019m trying! I think this class is really going to help with that, actually. I\u2019ve done more in the last week or so with it than I have in a while, which is good. Anyway. I don\u2019t want to take up too much of your time, but I do want to thank you for all of your insight, and one last \u00a0thing I always ask people is \u201cIs there anything else you\u2019d like to say that I didn\u2019t give you space to say? Anything I should have asked you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Liz: Hm. I guess I would say, and it\u2019s just something I think about sometimes, is that it\u2019s really hard to make fashion both art and like\u2026relatable? You know? Like, you have all these ritzy articles by Vogue and stuff talking about how so-and-so\u2019s Fall collection is reminiscent of so-and-so other designer back in whatever time, and there\u2019s an audience for that, just like there\u2019s an audience for the NYT book review. It\u2019s art critique. But there\u2019s also an audience who still cares about clothing and how they look, and they have their own look, but they\u2019re not interested in the jargon. They like what they like just because they like it. And that\u2019s cool too. But I wish you could write for people who aren\u2019t looking to hear the jargon without it turning into \u201cpeople of this body size should wear this silhouette\u201d or \u201cthis style skirt makes your butt look good.\u201d I would like to see more depth in fashion coverage without it alienating people.<\/p>\n
Me: Wow. That\u2019s pretty deep right there.<\/p>\n
(both laugh)<\/p>\n
Liz: I\u2019m not trying to be, I guess. It\u2019s just something I\u2019ve thought about personally.<\/p>\n
Me: No, I like it! That definitely gives me something to think about, and it touches on something I was thinking about myself. I know I don\u2019t have the resources to do \u201chigh fashion\u201d coverage, you know, but I didn\u2019t want to do just another piece on whether leggings are pants, either. I didn\u2019t describe that as eloquently as you did, but I think I\u2019m maybe describing that quest for middle ground that you were referencing.<\/p>\n
Liz: Yeah, I think we\u2019re kinda touching on the same idea. I\u2019d love to see what you\u2019re able to do with it.<\/p>\n
Me: Well, I really appreciate your confidence in me! And your time. I really appreciate your time.<\/p>\n
Liz: No problem! It was great to chat with you again. Hit me up if you think of anything else you\u2019d like to ask. I\u2019ll do my best to answer.<\/p>\n
Me: I may just take you up on that! I\u2019ll let you go for today, though. Thank you again!<\/p>\n
~Awkward \u201cok, bye! Yeah thanks! Ok bye!\u201d at end of\u00a0 recording~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interview with Liz Best, Fashion Blogger and Stylist Me: Hey Liz! Thanks for making time to talk with me. I really appreciate your help. Liz: No worries! I remember how hard it is to nail down interviews; I\u2019m glad to help. Me: So what have you been up to since you left Grady? Liz: Well, … Continue reading First Interview<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1995,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fashion-and-lifestyle","category-module-2","tag-first-interview"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Ndkv-ax","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}