Interview with Zoe

Rachel Zoe answered a few questions for timesonline.co.uk and here they are...

How she got started-It was actually a fluke, I was a sociology and psychology major at Washington University and then I became a fashion assistant at a teen magazine called YM. I was there for three years and I left as senior fashion editor to go freelance. I was 25 years old. I wanted more, to be challenged. I was completely obsessed with my job and everything that relates to fashion.I have spent the rest of my career trying to work out all the different channels that I can do my job. Writing a book, doing a TV show, consulting and styling, doing the ad campaigns and fashion shows. It’s exhausting but I’m not one of those people who is going to stop and think ‘look what I’ve done’. I’m always thinking, 'what’s the next?'. I get restless.

Rachel Zoe is amazing. Ask her how she got such big name celebs as clients n her relationships with designers.-Sometimes it’s a fluke and you meet on a shoot, or you have mutual friends. I think it’s something that works organically. There isn’t a certain ‘way’. Are you a match? Do you get each other? That sort of thing. I didn’t set out saying that I wanted to be a celebrity stylist, it just happened, I’m very fortunate that the women I work with inspire me to do what I do.I couldn’t really say who my favourites are. I love them all for completely different reasons and they’re all such totally different women and so they’re all just amazing. Some are more fashion forward, some don’t really care about fashion. Some, we work very closely with and we do personal styling for everyday life, for some it’s just for special events, it’s just very different.

What are her Fall Must Haves? (I asked her about Spring/Summer as well as Autumn/Winter)- In general, going into spring summer for me is about really great wide leg jeans, white or a very pale blue. I like great little trouser jeans with a light-weight jacket. In the summer I also tend to wear a kaftan and peasant dresses. For everybody else I think this summer is about great little minidresses, denim shorts, lots of platforms, wood-stacked heels and wedges.I am always onto the next thing, but that’s because we see the collections so early. For Autumn/Winter I'd like anything and everything Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton! I think if you can, add a pop of colour with brights and neons. It's also all about leggings. Every type of legging, even leg warmers, if you can pull it off. Chunky-knit sweaters are also key, I love layers right now and boots that come over the knee, thigh-high boots were on almost every runway show.

Who are your fashion influences - the ones who influence your personal style?-There are so many, it depends what mood I’m in. I would say it’s primarily the icons of the Sixties and the Seventies; Penelope Tree, Edie Sedgwick, Twiggy and Peggy Moffett, the Sixties icons. Then you get into the whole Bianca Jagger, Diane von Furstenberg, Veruschka, Marianne Faithful, all these amazing women from the Seventies. And I love Brigit Bardot of course.Then there is of course those rare moments when it’s Catherine Deneuve and I’m feeling like doing Parisian chic, with a red lip and hair up and a black suit. It happens once in a while. For the most part I’m into that Sixties and Seventies thing, I can’t seem to get out of it. It’s what I’m most comfortable in. I think I will always wear that style. Right now, the Eighties are a huge trend but it doesn’t really work so well on me, so I kind of just stay in what I’m most comfortable in.