🎙️ Carine Bizet
This intro is going to be a very short one. Basically, I want to jump right in and let you all listen for yourself as the French fashion critic Carine Bizet, who is not one to live her life as an open book on Instagram, finally gives us a glimpse into her life in fashion. Carine is one of only a handful of true “take no prisoners”, speak truth to power fashion writers working in the industry.
This intro is going to be a very short one. Basically, I want to jump right in and let you all listen for yourself as the French fashion critic Carine Bizet, who is not one to live her life as an open book on Instagram, finally gives us a glimpse into her life in fashion. Carine is one of only a handful of true “take no prisoners”, speak truth to power fashion writers working in the industry.
Carine Bizet
Well, actually she is no longer working in the industry. Earlier this year, after building a name for herself at Madame Figaro and leaving an indelible black ink mark on Le Monde with her must-read fashion reviews as the renowned French newspaper’s lead fashion journalist, she quietly, with no fan fair or big send-off, decided to leave it all behind. After decades of working at the epicenter of the fashion universe, sitting in the front row at ALL of the shows and interviewing every designer under the sun...that she found worth profiling….Carine decided to start her second act, working in a totally different field. Yes, a creative one, but still a 180-degree change from her career as a writer.
So I felt this was the perfect time to speak with her. To have a no holds barred discussion about what got her interested in fashion in the first place, the current state of the industry, and where she thinks it will go. And why, when she was at the top of her game she decided to walk away from it all to chase a new dream.
Full disclosure. I have known Carine for years and I feel that I can say without a doubt that, in a world where superficial friendships are part of the game, she is ride or die. Carine is one you can count on. She will give it to you straight, whether you are one of her closest friends, a designer, or a billion-dollar fashion house.
Just on a technical side note, I did want to let all you listeners know that Carine and I did our interview over Zoom Video. So don’t be surprised by a couple of very minor audio issues.
And now I am going to turn it over to Carine, because if there is one thing I love to do is listen to her tell it like it is.
🎙️ Dana Thomas
Dana Thomas is a dyed in the wool, true blue journalist. She lives it, breaths it and consumes it every day. She is the Woodward and Bernstein or the Ronan Farrow, if you will, of the fashion industry. Her deep dive, investigative books into the inner workings of the fashion world have earned her the respect of her peers and I am sure, when she comes knocking, a few shivers of fear down the spine of at least a couple of CEOs during her career.
Dana Thomas is a dyed in the wool, true blue journalist. She lives it, breaths it and consumes it every day. She is the Woodward and Bernstein or the Ronan Farrow, if you will, of the fashion industry. Her deep dive, investigative books into the inner workings of the fashion world have earned her the respect of her peers and I am sure, when she comes knocking, a few shivers of fear down the spine of at least a couple of CEOs during her career.
Dana Thomas
In 2007 she published the New York Times bestseller, "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster" which explored the dark side of the multi-billion-dollar business and exposed the hidden secrets that luxury brands didn’t want to have see the light of day. Then in 2015 she published “Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano”. In that book, Thomas explored how two of the most creative and influential designers of the past 30 years cracked under the pressure of the 24/7 incessant demands of a business built on always coming up with the next big thing, must-have accessory and the designer as superstar approach to creating a global fashion powerhouse.
And now Thomas is back with another timely and on-point book called “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes”. This time she examines the damage wrought by the global clothing industry and the role that sustainably, accountability, fair trade and transparency must take if the world of fashion wants to stay viable in the coming decades as the needs of the consumers and the climate both change.
After a year in Paris working as a model, Thomas moved back to the United States to start her award-winning career by cutting her teeth in journalism writing for the Style section of The Washington Post. She then returned to Paris and was, for fifteen years, a cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek in the city of light. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and Architectural Digest, just to name a few. And in 2016, the French Minister of Culture named her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
I met up with Thomas in her home in the 7th arrondissement in Paris. There, surrounded by her collection of rare and out of print fashion books, with her dog Daisy at her feet and her daughter Lucie studying in the next room, we talked about her new book, her life long love of fashion and her ability to spot a seminal story before anyone else.
Image of Dana Thomas credit goes to Nick Gregan.