Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Rachel Zoe and you're listening to I'ming
Speaker 1: in Heels. The show is all about celebrating the most
Speaker 1: extraordinary superwoman who will be sharing their incredible journeys to
Speaker 1: the top, all while staying glamorous. Today with me, I
Speaker 1: am very excited. We have the most I don't even
Speaker 1: know how to describe her. I have so many ways
Speaker 1: to describe her. But she is clever, she's smart, she's witty,
Speaker 1: she's funny. She is Laura Brown. She's an incredible Australian
Speaker 1: fashion journalist, former editor in chief of in Style magazine
Speaker 1: and former executive director of Harper's Bizarre Magazine. I have
Speaker 1: known her most of my career. She is as funny
Speaker 1: as she is kind, stunny and talented. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: for all of you to hear about Laura's journey today.
Speaker 1: So let's get started, Hi, Kittie. So let me first
Speaker 1: start by saying, we don't have to be formal because
Speaker 1: I can't be formal with you.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know how to do that for me neither.
Speaker 1: So so basically I started climbing in heels because because
Speaker 1: well I'm pretty sure we know that it's not true.
Speaker 1: But but if you ask my dad, he would tell you,
Speaker 1: up until I met boys, I actually was. But I
Speaker 1: loved boys everything. Yeah they do. It's like a make
Speaker 1: or break. But but what I did was I realized,
Speaker 1: very similar to you, how many extraordinary women that were
Speaker 1: surrounded by in every field, in our friend's circle, in
Speaker 1: our professional circles, and our fashion service, like every circle.
Speaker 1: There's just badass women doing amazing things. But what I
Speaker 1: have found over my career is that people have asked
Speaker 1: me of any age, how on earth did you get here?
Speaker 1: How'd you become? How did you start this? How did you?
Speaker 1: And what I realized is that's actually always the question
Speaker 1: with anyone because because like most of the world knows
Speaker 1: you as Laura Brown, right, they'll say, oh, I know
Speaker 1: Laura Brown. She's amazing, Like I love her. She made
Speaker 1: fashion like she made she made it relatable. She made
Speaker 1: fashion human and not scary for me. Or she's really funny.
Speaker 1: She tiacks humor and fact like, oh, but I bet nobody.
Speaker 1: I don't want to see nobody. But I would say,
Speaker 1: the most people don't know how on earth you actually
Speaker 1: became Laura Brown. I know how little I know a
Speaker 1: little because I met you so early. I remember the
Speaker 1: first time you interviewed me. I think it was at
Speaker 1: the Mercer Hotel.
Speaker 2: I got the Mercer.
Speaker 1: It's a time capsule and it was four hundred years ago.
Speaker 1: So you're you're a proud assy.
Speaker 2: I'm a proud assy. I have lived you bloody. I've
Speaker 2: lived in America twenty one years. I in a in
Speaker 2: a try of strategy, I moved here week before Stember eleventh.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I've been I've been here for I mean
Speaker 2: i've been yeah, Aussie, I've been here twenty one years.
Speaker 2: I lived in London for a couple of years in
Speaker 2: between to do that kind of like backpacking, but like
Speaker 2: I wanted to go see Paris fashion shows kind of.
Speaker 1: You wanted to get out of Australia.
Speaker 2: Why delusions of grandeur? You just But also you've got
Speaker 2: to remember, for us ladies who perhaps did not grow
Speaker 2: up with an ife phone in our house, we when
Speaker 2: we didn't have access in Australia to everything we have
Speaker 2: access there now, you know what I mean, we didn't.
Speaker 1: Have So I was like, you felt far away, oh.
Speaker 2: So far, and I would get like, you know, two
Speaker 2: months old vogues or whatever. I like fashion on like
Speaker 2: TV or whatever. So we didn't have the immediately. So
Speaker 2: I felt very removed, and I was so desperate to
Speaker 2: get well, you know, especially it's a very fashion like
Speaker 2: what did a journalism thing? Oh, I want to I
Speaker 2: want to get out of here. I want to go
Speaker 2: where it's where the action is, and and I just
Speaker 2: wanted to go. But it was more that I felt like,
Speaker 2: if the experiences are having a fashion or film or
Speaker 2: creativity or arts or whatever, we're all diffuse because they
Speaker 2: had all come to me kind of secondhand. So and
Speaker 2: so I was like, no, no, no, no, I want to
Speaker 2: say them that with my own eyes. I want to
Speaker 2: be at the fashion show or the freaking movie or
Speaker 2: whatever the hell was. And so I was so hungry
Speaker 2: for that. I wanted to. I think that's just number one,
Speaker 2: like a journalistic instinct, like.
Speaker 1: Were you a student, Like were you someone who like
Speaker 1: you were a writer?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: You were? I mean that's very important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I studied communications at university, so I studied journalism
Speaker 2: and I was a writer. Yeah, And I just but
Speaker 2: it was just I wanted to feel the culture happening
Speaker 2: like in my face in a way and get myself
Speaker 2: to where I thought it was, which it was at
Speaker 2: the time, you know what I mean. And it still
Speaker 2: is obviously, yes, breaking news New York Paris, like it
Speaker 2: doesn't hasn't changed that much, but it has. But and
Speaker 2: so I was just I couldn't think of anything else
Speaker 2: but getting to where it was, you know. So I
Speaker 2: kind of spent, you know, after my college years, so
Speaker 2: much time with my mind here, you know. And I
Speaker 2: would get all the I would work at magazines in
Speaker 2: Australia and we get a big bag of like magazines
Speaker 2: from New York like once a week. It was called
Speaker 2: poetically in Australia. Interesting, yeah, we'd call it the air bag.
Speaker 2: And so the air bag had come and they would
Speaker 2: all like push each other out of the way to
Speaker 2: get like the vogues and the details and ws and
Speaker 2: like real top era of those too, remember like in
Speaker 2: two thousand whatever. And I would read them, and I
Speaker 2: remember I would sometimes I would be reading New York
Speaker 2: Magazine or something and I would like look up and
Speaker 2: I'd forget where I was. Like I was just completely
Speaker 2: it was very ezy to say, let's forget where I was.
Speaker 2: But I was just here wherever this is in my head.
Speaker 2: So I just knew I had to go, and I
Speaker 2: think there's a there's a there's a thing about being Australian,
Speaker 2: and I think it's are people.
Speaker 1: But that's what I was saying to me that when
Speaker 1: whenever I go to Australia or I meet friends from Australia,
Speaker 1: they the first thing they say. I found it so
Speaker 1: remarkable the first time I went there that everyone who
Speaker 1: I met said I'm so sorry, We're so far. They
Speaker 1: were so apologetic about being so far and they would
Speaker 1: say to me, how are you enjoying your trip? I
Speaker 1: was like, I love it here, it's beautiful that people
Speaker 1: are so kind, like blah blah blah, and and but
Speaker 1: they would apologize. They would say, oh, we're so far
Speaker 1: from everything, We're so far. And it was this bizarre
Speaker 1: concept for me because I had always been like a
Speaker 1: New Yorker like lived you know in it, Yeah, realizing yeah,
Speaker 1: first of all, it is far, right, it is far,
Speaker 1: but it's so special.
Speaker 2: It's and that's what makes us quescial. And I think
Speaker 2: we used to be more apologetic than we.
Speaker 1: Are now, because yeah, it's different now, more potar, but.
Speaker 2: No, it used to be like and it still is
Speaker 2: a bit like, oh, they're coming down. Oh they're international,
Speaker 2: and they use is kind of like, oh, we need
Speaker 2: to validate ourselves by international people, like Rachel's coming down,
Speaker 2: No Da And you know, I think there's a bit
Speaker 2: of that still because again we just we it is
Speaker 2: distance blessing and blessing and curse. It was completely you
Speaker 2: know that it has mellowed a bit now because there's
Speaker 2: so many things coming out of Australia and new and
Speaker 2: exciting and part of the world. And but now at
Speaker 2: that time, because this was like you know, when I
Speaker 2: moved here, it was two thousand and one, you know,
Speaker 2: we had like we had the Internet, but we still didn't.
Speaker 2: I still was like, but there's a thing of Australians
Speaker 2: and I And oftentimes it's sometimes used it as a criticism,
Speaker 2: but I love it. I actually love it that the
Speaker 2: word guileless, you know, to be and and I love
Speaker 2: being guileless because you kind of then you get on
Speaker 2: the plane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you're like me, I don't mind getting
Speaker 1: on the plane. That's what I know to travel because
Speaker 1: we don't.
Speaker 2: Have the option. We don't have we have to but
Speaker 2: like it's sort of like a logo, I'll give them
Speaker 2: plan I've saved some money, I'll go And also like
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, for for us, your worst case
Speaker 2: scenario if you if it doesn't work out and you
Speaker 2: can go back to beautiful Australia. Right, it's not the
Speaker 2: highest stakes coming from We'll lucky coming from Australia to right,
Speaker 2: because you can try and shore go back. So yeah,
Speaker 2: so you just kind of just go for it, really
Speaker 2: just for your curious cat. And I think, how do
Speaker 2: you when when you're younger?
Speaker 1: How'd you end up with Glenda?
Speaker 4: Though?
Speaker 1: How did you so? Glenda Bailey a former editor in
Speaker 1: chief of Harper's Bizarre And I met Laura probably two
Speaker 1: thousand and five, Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, donkeys, that's when I started there two thousand.
Speaker 1: And five, okay, okay, so probably around then.
Speaker 2: Glinda I met because I think I knew someone who'd
Speaker 2: worked at Harper's Bizarre UK with someone there. One of
Speaker 2: it is said do you no, Glenn? Did you want
Speaker 2: to come in for a meet and greet thing? And
Speaker 2: so I did right off. Sometimes it was just funny
Speaker 2: to remember.
Speaker 1: If she said, I can happily.
Speaker 2: Do what is the common wealth in common? Right? You know,
Speaker 2: we're like it's a NAUSI show, and but I remember
Speaker 2: she was saying it was right, like I wasn't that
Speaker 2: long after Sember elevens, but business time to get on with,
Speaker 2: you know. It was all so it was so surreal.
Speaker 2: The whole thing was like a dreamsake. And I remember
Speaker 2: going going, Laura, Laura, what are your fashion connections? And
Speaker 2: I'd be like, well they I knew all it's going
Speaker 2: in London like that, and there wasn't anything going then,
Speaker 2: so that was like an information and then and this
Speaker 2: was yeah, a long time ago. And then two thousand
Speaker 2: and five I ended up there because Sarah Bailey, who
Speaker 2: was a Deppytator at the time, she called me and
Speaker 2: she was like, hio, and she said, we'd love to
Speaker 2: talk to you, da da and and I was about
Speaker 2: to take a job at Details magazine and and I, uh,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh sorry, I'm about to go do
Speaker 2: this one and uh. And I was only there. I
Speaker 2: was there nine months and I didn't care for it,
Speaker 2: but they called me again and I said do you
Speaker 2: want to come? And I went yeah. So I started
Speaker 2: their Valentine's Day two thousand and five and worked with
Speaker 2: Glenda Bailey gb Glenda Bailey for eleven years and through
Speaker 2: it it felt like so many iterations of a job.
Speaker 2: And that's so funny. Just like about two weeks ago,
Speaker 2: I hosted a party for her collection with Peruvian connection.
Speaker 1: Oh see, it was just like.
Speaker 2: The old days. Like to me, Moore came and Alan
Speaker 2: coming and it was so funny and we were all
Speaker 2: like it was like we've been like cryogenetically frozen.
Speaker 1: And right, that's a really that's a big lesson that
Speaker 1: I like to share with people. For a second, because
Speaker 1: I've had people that worked with me for many years,
Speaker 1: ten years, eleven years, eight or nine years, and they
Speaker 1: move on and sometimes they come back. Sometimes I hire
Speaker 1: them freelance, sometimes they consult with us four years later.
Speaker 1: You keep your family close, right, you stay close. And
Speaker 1: I always like to point out in business, it's not
Speaker 1: that you leave, it's how you leave. And I imagine
Speaker 1: you agree.
Speaker 2: With Fred just you can't just be gracious always. And
Speaker 2: it's actually got to the youth.
Speaker 3: Who really like to Actually it's easier, it's easier being
Speaker 3: gracious and nice is actually the lazy man's because.
Speaker 2: Of course I find it very stressful having a conflict.
Speaker 2: To me, of course we've had them, but I just
Speaker 2: like to me when I when I left, I mean
Speaker 2: I was because I had been in an approach for
Speaker 2: in Style, so that was very clear that I was
Speaker 2: going to go and do that. And and Glenda was
Speaker 2: the first one actually because I'd worked with her for
Speaker 2: eleven years and we've done incredible stuff together. She was
Speaker 2: the first one to go, no, you absolutely have to
Speaker 2: do it, to go do that, Like the publishers weren't
Speaker 2: so yeah, of course for her bosses, but she was
Speaker 2: like and she had the most to lose, and she
Speaker 2: was like, no, no, you've you've to off you go.
Speaker 2: So I think if you just do good work and
Speaker 2: you're nice, but you're also clear. Like and Glenda again,
Speaker 2: who really could have benefited by having me working with
Speaker 2: her for another ten years, you know, she was like, no,
Speaker 2: you've earned it, so just like to earn your stripes
Speaker 2: and then really stand on top of the opportunities that
Speaker 2: you are given and that you make for yourself on
Speaker 2: the equity that you make for.
Speaker 1: Yourself forever with your wife, way forever.
Speaker 2: It doesn't and it doesn't go away. I agree, you know,
Speaker 2: and you just been on it. It doesn't matter regardless
Speaker 2: of your professional situation. We all got fired from Inn
Speaker 2: Style in February, and that that everything I did and
Speaker 2: do does not disappear because I've got I've you know,
Speaker 2: I don't already run one of the three existing magazines.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I mean, I agree.
Speaker 2: And I stand on those related that work and those
Speaker 2: relationships and the little house you build.
Speaker 1: Well, I agree with that, and I think you know,
Speaker 1: I've known you, like really, I mean seventeen years, and
Speaker 1: it's crazy because I think we've we've kind to come
Speaker 1: up in parallel. Like you know, really we have a
Speaker 1: lot of the same friends. We gravitate towards a lot
Speaker 1: of the same people, nice ones, yes, nice ones. And
Speaker 1: I think that that was sort of always the thing
Speaker 1: that I found so captivating about you, because you have
Speaker 1: you're very different in this business. But I mean that
Speaker 1: in a way. I mean that in a way. Look,
Speaker 1: I've had people move on for me in a way
Speaker 1: that was so wrong and it wasn't that, you know,
Speaker 1: and I remember someone going, oh, so you kind of
Speaker 1: relieve you. It's like, no, leave me now. Everyone has
Speaker 1: to go and move on spread their wings at some point. Whatever.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not that you do it, it's how
Speaker 1: you do it. And so I think with you, you know,
Speaker 1: you always stood out to me. You never felt to
Speaker 1: me in any way like a fashion person, a traditional fashion.
Speaker 2: Person, the one from the manual.
Speaker 1: Correct, you actually felt very again against manual, and you
Speaker 1: felt very.
Speaker 2: I found this a huge compliment. Thank you against Manuel.
Speaker 1: Well against Manuel. And I think that Manuel is very
Speaker 1: old and I think that manual is not what people want.
Speaker 4: You know, fashion can be so old fashioned. It can
Speaker 4: it's talking, and that's so many businesses.
Speaker 2: And it was weird because I would never I know,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm established enough, and but I used to
Speaker 2: sort of strike me. I was always so confused that
Speaker 2: people would say I was so unusual, and I'd go like,
Speaker 2: why am I? Why am I? So? Like, wow, is
Speaker 2: that good about it? But it's just because it's such
Speaker 2: an insecure business, right It's so you know, if you're
Speaker 2: trying to get a currency based on the jacket you're wearing,
Speaker 2: then that's not really the way, is it?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And also I think when you realize and I realized
Speaker 2: this reasonably, really, I mean, that was what happens bizarre
Speaker 2: by that point, but like this the industry that I
Speaker 2: thought was going to be this incredible, ex super highway,
Speaker 2: where everybody was more connected and more glamorous and smarter
Speaker 2: a minute of the more accomplished than me, and I
Speaker 2: realized they weren't. And I was like, oh wait, so
Speaker 2: this is not like mensa, right, and so why would
Speaker 2: the people that are so far away from mensa be,
Speaker 2: you know, not the great intellects of our time. So
Speaker 2: I met so many of them be influencing how I
Speaker 2: feel on the day to day, you.
Speaker 1: Know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And so when you realize that you had some a
Speaker 2: voice and some stature in the room quote unquote, or
Speaker 2: you made great relationships just with your personality, then you
Speaker 2: kind of stand on that. So I just say, it's
Speaker 2: kind of because people would say we're so unusual, and
Speaker 2: I would get good work done, and I'd build relationships
Speaker 2: or I would make great friendships. So with people it
Speaker 2: could be in fashion, or it could be like actresses
Speaker 2: and Jay or whatever. It be like, oh god, we've
Speaker 2: not you know, And I think that I always just
Speaker 2: also walked into a room with a good sense of
Speaker 2: myself too, not like this like like black. These people
Speaker 2: rather species for me, sure, or better than me, sure,
Speaker 2: or had things that I should envy, you know, because
Speaker 2: we you know, a whole lot of these people, and
Speaker 2: I love a lot of them. I'd envy none of them,
Speaker 2: and you know what I mean. I think to have
Speaker 2: that realization really helps. So I think if you just
Speaker 2: and also like different, because yeah, I came from Australia,
Speaker 2: had to come here on my own. I think that
Speaker 2: I remember being so struck as people would go, wow,
Speaker 2: your so, and I'd be like Jesus God, like can
Speaker 2: I can? I it's lovely to have a currency to
Speaker 2: be unusual, But you're always unusual coming up as a
Speaker 2: stylistic because I just wanted to be vin character and
Speaker 2: things to say and a real character, you know, and
Speaker 2: and not just this sort of templatized idea of what
Speaker 2: a fashion editor should be or what a stylist should
Speaker 2: be or whatever. So you're always very much yourself, you know.
Speaker 2: So I think that, like God, honestly, personality gets you
Speaker 2: so far, and enthusiasm gets you so far.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind, yes, actually humility. I think the
Speaker 1: other thing I want to say about you that has
Speaker 1: always stood out, and it's not just like to stroke you.
Speaker 1: I think it's I know so many women in this
Speaker 1: industry and I think, like people have always said I
Speaker 1: was different because I was kind, right, and they always said, like,
Speaker 1: you're you're such a nice, normal person and whatever normal is,
Speaker 1: because I don't. I'm clearly I don't think I'm normal,
Speaker 1: but I don't because I don't know what normal is.
Speaker 1: But I does know. But I think the idea is
Speaker 1: you've always stood out as incredibly witty and smart but
Speaker 1: really clever. And the reason I want to bring that
Speaker 1: up is I actually think that your success, yes as
Speaker 1: a person because you're so likable and you're funny and
Speaker 1: you're self deprecating and all those things, but I actually
Speaker 1: think that, like you actually have this gift for are
Speaker 1: ideating on things that are completely uh disruptive, controversial, game changing.
Speaker 1: I mean, even the thing that we did that still
Speaker 1: sits in frames on my wall and still the story
Speaker 1: that people. I did a lot of photoshoots in my life,
Speaker 1: and of all the ones, I die as the one
Speaker 1: people talk about, they reference, they try and copy it.
Speaker 1: There was it was controversial, It was there. Yes, I was.
Speaker 1: I was being murdered by design.
Speaker 2: You get away with that anymore?
Speaker 1: No, you couldn't. You could not not. On social media,
Speaker 1: someone said, how could you post a picture of Brian
Speaker 1: out would trying to kill you with a shoe. What
Speaker 1: poor taste. I'm like, oh god, is there no fashion?
Speaker 1: It just because it was so cab cool.
Speaker 2: But that was the thing. I mean, that's what how
Speaker 2: you got away with it because it was a bloody
Speaker 2: wink you know what I mean? But I know, but no,
Speaker 2: that's what. Honestly, anything that I miss about magazines and
Speaker 2: is not much. There's two things corporate health care and
Speaker 2: and photo shoots and like having like having an idea
Speaker 2: and and saying.
Speaker 1: And elaborating, go along with it, and then and then
Speaker 1: doing it.
Speaker 2: And that's like I mean, I think, especially during COVID,
Speaker 2: we did and stuff best best work then. But I
Speaker 2: really I do love that. I do love going, oh
Speaker 2: my god, you know what would be great? And then
Speaker 2: you call up someone and then I always just to
Speaker 2: get so mad, e set for a while, but like
Speaker 2: everyone shows up to a place because you've had an idea.
Speaker 2: But in the shower and and and and then you
Speaker 2: make it happen. The image comes to life in front
Speaker 2: of you. I find that the most thrilling thing to
Speaker 2: make things, you know, with the giraffe something to me
Speaker 2: with a Giraffe. I mean just so many. I mean
Speaker 2: Rihanna and the Shark and the Shark's Mouth and another
Speaker 2: of install like Doctor Fauci and.
Speaker 1: I like cried, I think on that and the one who.
Speaker 2: I did you know that that when we did the
Speaker 2: cover that was inspired by that Ormond Julie picture Girls
Speaker 2: in the window my favorite and that was like right
Speaker 2: peak COVID, and it was always people living in a
Speaker 2: house and then sorry having building in Brooklyn. I was
Speaker 2: trying to do something about community because we do it.
Speaker 2: We were at risk of losing community two months. It
Speaker 2: was only two months into COVID. But know those sort
Speaker 2: of like grand ideas that if you can pull them off,
Speaker 2: and I think that I certainly did those a lot
Speaker 2: with with Glenda Bizarre, but like I still have grand idea,
Speaker 2: is it install a little more rooted like on the ground.
Speaker 2: Glenna's a real fantasist and uh And I'm I like
Speaker 2: to take a reference and twist it, take something psychonographic
Speaker 2: and twist it.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about your girls, Laura.
Speaker 2: My girls. Do I have girls? I do have a cat.
Speaker 1: I have a girl cat back. You have an amazing
Speaker 1: you have an amazing girl. Group. You are a girl's girl,
Speaker 1: but you're tough.
Speaker 2: I do like them.
Speaker 1: You're tough, though, so I I think like you obviously
Speaker 1: are a career person, right, you fall in love, you
Speaker 1: get married whenever at forty seven, but like I feel
Speaker 1: like you've only just be gone. And I do think
Speaker 1: you lean on your girls a lot. But I don't.
Speaker 1: But I don't think you. I don't think you've ever
Speaker 1: been one to rely on the guy to me when
Speaker 1: I say rely, When I say rely, I mean you've
Speaker 1: never ever come off to me as the girl waiting
Speaker 1: for the guy.
Speaker 2: Oh shit, because if I was, I would have been
Speaker 2: waiting fain. I would when I finally met my husband Brandon.
Speaker 2: I was full BEAUTI pie, and I used to make
Speaker 2: jokes that I would be I would be dying alone,
Speaker 2: eaten by cats. And I wouldn't even in this scenario.
Speaker 2: I now do have a cat, but I wouldn't even
Speaker 2: have cats. They would come, they would smell my running corpse,
Speaker 2: and they would come and eat me next door. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was my scenario. I mean it was meant to
Speaker 2: be humorous.
Speaker 1: I wasn't actual.
Speaker 2: Facal these facialistic cat cat ideas. But no, I never
Speaker 2: I was such a self propelled engine. I think there's
Speaker 2: something New York City kind of self possessed lady. I'm
Speaker 2: not super interested in you know, oh, I've got to
Speaker 2: meet the man with the Hampton's house and and mac Yeah,
Speaker 2: exactly as long as you know one person and and
Speaker 2: but I never was looking for yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: And I think I I says everything that when I
Speaker 2: felt it's not I wonder like a gong goes off
Speaker 2: and h like I'm sort of But I think I
Speaker 2: felt that tacitly at like forty forty one, that I
Speaker 2: had my own worth, I made my own money, I
Speaker 2: was professionally established. And Brandon, you know, was my breakfast
Speaker 2: waiter at the Sunset Tower or a hotel story. Ever,
Speaker 2: by the way, I wasn't going for him for his
Speaker 2: vast fortune, you know. And but that when you and
Speaker 2: there's a lot of New York ladies that wouldn't take
Speaker 2: go out with a waiter because they're trying to get
Speaker 2: some idea of something which just leaves them very, very unhappy.
Speaker 2: So I feel like I had to sort of be
Speaker 2: built in myself to be able to find the one
Speaker 2: that gives me happiness and all these other other spheres
Speaker 2: of my life because at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: I take care of myself. Yep, I just do I've
Speaker 2: got my savings, I do this, I've got my whatever
Speaker 2: it is that you need in life to feel that
Speaker 2: you're you're okay. I have that to a degree, and
Speaker 2: so it gives you a sense of calm, you know,
Speaker 2: and openness to everything else, to a broader life. Then
Speaker 2: you would feel if you don't have that. So I think, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Mett Brandon at forty one got married. We were supposed
Speaker 2: to get married in twenty twenty, but like breaking news,
Speaker 2: you wuldn't believe what happened in twenty twenty covid covid, and
Speaker 2: so yeah, finally got married April this year. So No,
Speaker 2: forty seven years old, wore a pink dress.
Speaker 1: And we're also shocking, also shocking by the way, Laura,
Speaker 1: I have to say, you wearing pink I mean. And
Speaker 1: then it made sense because it's by Pierre Paulo, who
Speaker 1: I mean, another love of your life and a love of.
Speaker 2: But I had pockets. So I had a pink dress,
Speaker 2: but they had to.
Speaker 1: Have pockets, I know.
Speaker 2: So I just said I had to be like pink
Speaker 2: but functional, And I was like, I had to be
Speaker 2: really dissuaded for like taking my phone and putting it
Speaker 2: in my dress, because like I would have taken my
Speaker 2: phone up the aisle.
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you that it's a minute, Lara.
Speaker 1: So one thing that I really like to talk about
Speaker 1: in this is because I've had these moments in my career.
Speaker 1: You've had. I mean there's challenges, right, there's rises, there's falls.
Speaker 2: No, I had a challenge. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I mean, tell me what like obviously most recently we know,
Speaker 1: well maybe not everybody else they closed in style? Which style?
Speaker 1: Can I say that you crushed in style?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: And I say that in a positive. When I say killed,
Speaker 1: I mean like I know.
Speaker 2: I actually it did indeed die, But I did not.
Speaker 1: You made everyone talk about in the style.
Speaker 2: And so we really did, I think especially through Look
Speaker 2: long story, sure, I've been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 2: I have been doing this twenties. I it was not
Speaker 2: my master plan to stick with magazines because I'm not
Speaker 2: a total idiot, So I've been thinking sort of beyond it.
Speaker 2: And anyway, which does sound a bit like I was
Speaker 2: going to leave him, but I really was and so
Speaker 2: I was probably God, I flare.
Speaker 1: No, I was sometimes life makes decisions for you. Laura
Speaker 1: really stand by that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was looking to sort of start making my
Speaker 2: way on to do my own stuff by the end
Speaker 2: of the year. And I remember the InStyle was last year.
Speaker 2: It looks so looking around it was really great and
Speaker 2: everything and it was a really really good one. And
Speaker 2: I remember I remember thinking that it was my last.
Speaker 2: I was like, ask all right, and yeah, but we
Speaker 2: all got they shut it down and we always had
Speaker 2: jobs in February, and it was so earlier. I tipped
Speaker 2: out of the nest, earlier than I planned, if I
Speaker 2: I had had planned. But that said, look number one
Speaker 2: to my earlier talk about the equity you earned, So
Speaker 2: I was, I'm fully confident the fact that in Style
Speaker 2: kind of existed for as long as it did do
Speaker 2: to my hands help rather than the other way around.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't get and I urged this of
Speaker 2: any woman anyway, man, anyone, and whoever.
Speaker 1: Don't proud of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and don't attach your value to the place where
Speaker 2: you work. Remember the value that you give to it,
Speaker 2: and you keep wherever you work. So so when that happened,
Speaker 2: it was. Yeah, it was a shock, and I had
Speaker 2: to get my team placed in and saw all that out.
Speaker 2: But I knew that I had other fish to fry,
Speaker 2: and I was already you.
Speaker 1: Were a kind of half there.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, because I think what you when you
Speaker 2: work at how much I think, Look, it's a corporate
Speaker 2: life is a great life for so many people, and
Speaker 2: that's fine. I'm a good corporate girl and I have been,
Speaker 2: but I was starting to just tire of bringing so
Speaker 2: much value in and I'm sort of having my fate
Speaker 2: fortune's day bonus mood decided by other people. I had
Speaker 2: a lot of autonomy. They're creative, like they didn't come
Speaker 2: with me like that. I was very lucky and Meredith
Speaker 2: actually were great to work for. So I was always
Speaker 2: really I never had any with what the work I did.
Speaker 2: No one ever bothered me at all. But I just
Speaker 2: was starting to be like, yeah, we're doing this for
Speaker 2: a long time. I'm worth I'm worth something. I did
Speaker 2: well with it of me. But I was just like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to start to, you know, when I want
Speaker 2: to run my own thing one day. And so I
Speaker 2: actually registered my own media company a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: and I stuck it in a folder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2: And then I was like, because I starting get her
Speaker 2: to pick out things and you know, very slow boil plans.
Speaker 2: So then when this all happened, I was like, where
Speaker 2: is that binder?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And the best thing that happened was if I got
Speaker 2: this crazy like outpouring of DM's messages from people.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, I as my mind.
Speaker 2: Then if I as like industry people, yes, I mean
Speaker 2: obviously lovely but like readers from I call on from
Speaker 2: this lady and if I just left, I would never
Speaker 2: have gotten these, right So if I just gone on
Speaker 2: my right away, I wouldn't have. So so this all happened.
Speaker 2: I got this message from this lady called Boo and
Speaker 2: she she was in Mississippi and she was sixty plus
Speaker 2: something and and she said, Laura, only ever read magazines
Speaker 2: that you worked for at and like, thank thank you
Speaker 2: for making me feel included. And that's that's the ship, ladies,
Speaker 2: Like that's it, Like I get ill. I'm sure I
Speaker 2: enjoyed your freehand, that's fine, but like that stuff, And
Speaker 2: so that was so unbelievable. What was light reading like?
Speaker 1: But did that help you? Laura kind of start to
Speaker 1: think about Okay, this is my purpose because I had
Speaker 1: many things throughout different touch points in my career that
Speaker 1: that someone I didn't know would say something to me
Speaker 1: about an impact that I had in what way that
Speaker 1: was like something I had no idea could happen, And
Speaker 1: I go, huh, that's my purpose. Hold on, I have
Speaker 1: to I have to pivot what I thought I was
Speaker 1: doing to now do this, because this is actually my purpose.
Speaker 1: Now this, I need to touch this right.
Speaker 2: But you have a community, and you have to bring
Speaker 2: a sense of community with you, and so do I.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? So I think that that's
Speaker 2: a lovely thing to have and to recognize and to
Speaker 2: be reminded of in those in those situations, did.
Speaker 1: You ever were you scared? Like I guess my question
Speaker 1: is like, have you hard that moment where you woke
Speaker 1: up and go, what the actual just happened? And I'm terrified?
Speaker 1: Or you like, I'm good it was in general at
Speaker 1: any or at any point in life in your career.
Speaker 2: I think the guilelessness comes back, Honestly, it comes back
Speaker 2: of like, Okay, there's things like that, and I am
Speaker 2: breaking news and accomplished quote unquote successful lady, you know,
Speaker 2: and so for me to feel vulnerable about healthcare, god forbid.
Speaker 2: And I was like, I'm I can afford it. You
Speaker 2: know that there's those kind of skewy things with life
Speaker 2: that you know you're taken care of when you work
Speaker 2: for a large company. So and you feel vulnerable, you
Speaker 2: know in those in those moments, just those life moments.
Speaker 2: And now for the first little bit, I really honestly haven't.
Speaker 2: I basically took six months off, went and got married
Speaker 2: and and so I kind of only pressed go recently.
Speaker 2: But it's there's a big some of the grinding of
Speaker 2: the gears to kind of work on this buffet of
Speaker 2: stuff I'm doing, and but what I love about it,
Speaker 2: And even at those moments of honestly, and I'm not
Speaker 2: being bullshit, not so many. And I kept wondering if
Speaker 2: I would. I kept wondering if i'd like have a
Speaker 2: chuck of wobbley as we stay at home, but like
Speaker 2: if I'd go to the Paris fashion shows, and I
Speaker 2: wouldn't be going to all the ones that I used
Speaker 2: to do wobbly, would I? I haven't because I do
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in doing all those things and being
Speaker 2: with those people that I wouldn't want to hang within
Speaker 2: their soundbox anyway. So now what I think triumphs over
Speaker 2: all of if even if you have the little twitches,
Speaker 2: is the ownership you've owned over what you do and
Speaker 2: that so now it's like, I feel me to work
Speaker 2: with you if I'm going to do a podcast or
Speaker 2: make a movie with you, or design stuff or consult
Speaker 2: or do whatever. What am I going to do? But
Speaker 2: you pay me?
Speaker 4: And I yeah, And that is that, ladies, is the
Speaker 4: ship I need to bring you, Laura.
Speaker 1: That's the thing.
Speaker 2: It's for you, and you have to own that. And
Speaker 2: that's when you can be That's when you have to
Speaker 2: always like, that's when you've got to own you shit.
Speaker 2: And I learned this a little because Australians are self
Speaker 2: deprecating and yeah we're not like I'm not a big dossa,
Speaker 2: but I have sort of in the lasts have been
Speaker 2: in the States just gone no, I did do that work,
Speaker 2: and that was good work, and I deserve that thing.
Speaker 2: And I think that's still sadly hard for you know,
Speaker 2: I can't I'm not going around swinging saying, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: pay me this, but I do have I can articulate
Speaker 2: the ownership of what I've done and the pride and
Speaker 2: the work that I've done. And I really urge all
Speaker 2: women it doesn't mean you're like an ego. But it
Speaker 2: doesn't mean you're like an ego monsters. I'm proud of it.
Speaker 1: No, it's okay to have confidence. Yes, it's okay to
Speaker 1: have confidence. And I actually, weirdly think, funny enough, I
Speaker 1: actually think that's the thing as women that we struggle
Speaker 1: with the most. I like meaning, I know maybe I
Speaker 1: can count on one hand the amount of truly confident women.
Speaker 1: I know, really like actually because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of what drives us very often is our insecurity. So
Speaker 1: we constantly go do better, do more. I'll do that person,
Speaker 1: you can do better. Like That's why they always say
Speaker 1: like women are overachievers and men are typically underachievers because
Speaker 1: the expectation of them is not as high. Right, It's
Speaker 1: just different. And I think, but I have always found
Speaker 1: you know, the thing I always get asked, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure you do too, is I love fashion. I want
Speaker 1: to get into the fashion business. You, to me, have
Speaker 1: never seemed like that person. I actually think what motivated you.
Speaker 1: It's almost like the fashion Weirdly from where I sit
Speaker 1: for you with secondary I never felt like you were
Speaker 1: that Like fashion editor in the front Road was like
Speaker 1: look number blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: Like you were sort of sketchy.
Speaker 1: You wanted to like write a story about you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying that.
Speaker 2: The broadest story he wrote it cultural story. But not
Speaker 2: to be pretentious about it. No, not just like, no,
Speaker 2: a bigger thing about the designer, in the world they
Speaker 2: live in and the women they dress, rather than like
Speaker 2: it's all about the wide pants.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we love a white pant.
Speaker 2: I do a white pant. It is all about a
Speaker 2: white pant the whole my whole life and most of yours. Like,
Speaker 2: but like I that is just that's not that challenging,
Speaker 2: is it.
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No, the new I mean the new coat. Okay, it's
Speaker 2: a bunch of coats.
Speaker 1: I live in la I barely get to wear damp.
Speaker 2: All this, all this prescriptive fashion stuff, it's just so
Speaker 2: dum it's so dull.
Speaker 1: So Laura, So what happens in what happens? Like, I
Speaker 1: want to know what happens with Laura Brown next, because
Speaker 1: I have a feeling you have many irons in the fire.
Speaker 2: I actually do.
Speaker 1: I'm aware that you probably.
Speaker 2: Iron's in the fire and a little like I got
Speaker 2: to say, what I'm really enjoying right now is it's
Speaker 2: just things coalescing. But I'm not overdoing. I'll go out
Speaker 2: sort of bank in my days. I'll bank like some
Speaker 2: Zoom Command performances all together in the one day, and
Speaker 2: then I'll go for a walk and then if I
Speaker 2: don't have to do something on a Friday, I won't
Speaker 2: like so that kind of I've been in Australia more
Speaker 2: like all those things, just a bit live more holistically.
Speaker 2: But what I would say LB media is and what
Speaker 2: I I have characterized it as an umbrella over a buffe.
Speaker 1: But it's just but it makes you're touching a lot
Speaker 1: of things and.
Speaker 2: It is, but it is I think, but even I
Speaker 2: guess another way to describe I've just been thinking on
Speaker 2: it is almost like everything I'm doing it would almost
Speaker 2: be like the sections of a magazine, which is there's words,
Speaker 2: there's pictures, there's podcasts, there's film, there's producing, there's design,
Speaker 2: there's aesthetics, there's pr there's hosting, and there's all of
Speaker 2: these things. And I think what it's going to come
Speaker 2: back to and again I've really only been at it
Speaker 2: two months, you know, is a kind of community, you know,
Speaker 2: And and I'll see which way, Like I'm producing a
Speaker 2: film that sort of that I ended up makes that
Speaker 2: involved in and and so it's all of these things
Speaker 2: that people would sort of call me and go, hey,
Speaker 2: how about it? And I just really love it. I'm
Speaker 2: working on maybe a big beauty idea. Hopefully it's very slow,
Speaker 2: but who knows. But just like I love this sort.
Speaker 1: Of touching a lot of things I do.
Speaker 2: I like, like here's some shrimpanis and chicken, and here's
Speaker 2: some carrot sticks, and here's like some cheese. I really
Speaker 2: I don't want to have to decide, and I don't
Speaker 2: want to have to be linear. I don't want to
Speaker 2: have to describe it in a linear way, which is
Speaker 2: again still quite American. And I and people go, so
Speaker 2: what are you doing? And I sort of go and
Speaker 2: it's and sert even my Asians, and so what are
Speaker 2: you doing? I'm like, dude, it's all the things. But
Speaker 2: like I never did we even I was in magazines.
Speaker 2: I never just distant words just in pictures. I did
Speaker 2: the whole world to create the whole world. So it's
Speaker 2: like we're having to talk about myself the third person.
Speaker 2: It's kind of this LB universe and I'm very good
Speaker 2: at and I really love also as introducing people and
Speaker 2: connecting people so they can take beautiful things together and
Speaker 2: I can. So I'm just going to I'm going to
Speaker 2: be a you know, a producer, but also sort of
Speaker 2: talent as well a little bit. I've got manager now
Speaker 2: and all that sort of stuff, you know. So I'm
Speaker 2: just seeing where it goes. And I'm not pushing anything,
Speaker 2: and I'm not I don't have anything to prove to anybody.
Speaker 2: I don't you know, I don't get as many handbags.
Speaker 2: It's fine, I've got plenty, like you know that sort
Speaker 2: of stuff. Like I also would like to make you know,
Speaker 2: a real success is when you buy your own handbags.
Speaker 2: Is this you know so, and you're not depending on
Speaker 2: other people's largess and a lot of stuff with journalism
Speaker 2: and media. It's it's lovely and luxurious, but is that
Speaker 2: not actually your life?
Speaker 1: No, Like it's not.
Speaker 2: You get to go stay at the nice hotel for
Speaker 2: the chanel and then you go home to your apartment.
Speaker 2: So I kind of I like to live my own.
Speaker 1: But it's been quite.
Speaker 2: I went to Paris for some shows just recently access
Speaker 2: during this video a series with my Terresa that was
Speaker 2: kind of I would scam rise from like samiro Christino,
Speaker 2: but then I would use my gay on the j
Speaker 2: set like taxi service and walk around. And I'm also
Speaker 2: really enjoying, like feeling like I'm part of a city
Speaker 2: and I'm functioning and I'm not just looking at some
Speaker 2: car window, you know, because in between appointments with advertisers
Speaker 2: that like, I just I feel very solid, yeah, and
Speaker 2: not eroded or dependent on things that I had or
Speaker 2: thought I needed.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting and I want to just talk about
Speaker 1: that really quick. The thing is, it's definitely something I
Speaker 1: want to talk about because that's an incredible example with
Speaker 1: lots of takeaways about being working in corporate America versus
Speaker 1: being an entrepreneur. I haven't had a bar since I
Speaker 1: was twenty five. I had no support in terms of
Speaker 1: like if I don't show up, there's no one to
Speaker 1: show up for me, you know what I mean, Or
Speaker 1: like healthcare any of the things, or like when I
Speaker 1: go to Europe, I'm paying for that, do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Or like I'm booking drivers I'm pooking,
Speaker 1: and so I want to bring that up because there
Speaker 1: is this real like pros and cons thing to being both,
Speaker 1: and some people really can only function in that corporate
Speaker 1: because whether it's insurance, whether it's people like that.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, my sister, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: No, Rag, I mean like, it's not.
Speaker 2: But I was like, I was a good coup of
Speaker 2: girl like and I would be always the one who funny,
Speaker 2: like can you ho'st the funny sweater party at Christmas?
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, okay, you know, but I would be
Speaker 2: got to say the masking exactly. I'm very on brand,
Speaker 2: but I I can yeah, god yeah, just Ratramma boobs anyway,
Speaker 2: and I I just and look at it. It's a
Speaker 2: great especially like an editorial, like it can be like
Speaker 2: a really and you get your perks and your bonuses
Speaker 2: and you can.
Speaker 1: I just was like, no, but I don't. It's not
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: It's not for me. I'm more me. I'm my value
Speaker 2: comes from me. I want to decide what that is,
Speaker 2: and it is it is. It's certainly riskier in the
Speaker 2: early term, yeah you know, but but it's awesome. Excuse
Speaker 2: you a whole lot more to stand on and it's
Speaker 2: like the it's the house that you built. And I
Speaker 2: am really, like, you know, raised by single mom, only
Speaker 2: child in Sydney, Australia. So I'm like, I got on
Speaker 2: the damn plane and I'm here, So I really I
Speaker 2: feel solid. I feel solid and good and optimistic and
Speaker 2: also not trafficking any of all of those old, silly
Speaker 2: behaviors and tropes of fashion that we just don't need
Speaker 2: to bother with anymore.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you one thing that there has been
Speaker 1: such a common thread, many common threads throughout the amazing
Speaker 1: women that I've interviewed, and I have to say that
Speaker 1: the most common thread is that every woman except every
Speaker 1: single one except for two, were raised by a single mother. Wow,
Speaker 1: a working blood swine tears single mother. And I have
Speaker 1: to tell you that I'm here on the other side
Speaker 1: of it, watching the most extraordinary women as products of
Speaker 1: single mothers. And as hard as it is to be
Speaker 1: a single mother, it's nice to know that your children,
Speaker 1: particularly the daughters, really, even though it may suck in
Speaker 1: the moment, like how hard it is, you know, it
Speaker 1: really does have an impact in a good way.
Speaker 2: I know, like you know, yeah, I'm and that's another
Speaker 2: thing for when like if you know that you grew
Speaker 2: up with yeah, with not much and ye who just
Speaker 2: worked I worked for when I was fourteen years old,
Speaker 2: and so I feel very I think that does give
Speaker 2: you equity as well. I got the five grand to
Speaker 2: get me the plane backet to come here. You've earned us, Laura,
Speaker 2: you know kind of yees, you know, it's you know,
Speaker 2: And so I feel like that every everyone does. And
Speaker 2: it's so important to remind yourself of that. Whether you've
Speaker 2: got three kids and a mom and pop with the matter,
Speaker 2: but big offense or moms or dads or whatever it is,
Speaker 2: or whichever way you came out into the world, just
Speaker 2: do the work, do the work, and believe in yourself
Speaker 2: and then and then create something you can stand on,
Speaker 2: and you create something else and something else, and you
Speaker 2: can just stand a little bit higher.
Speaker 1: Can you give a kiss to your gorgeous husband and
Speaker 1: your camp?
Speaker 2: I will? I will?
Speaker 1: I mean, really, how could you not fall in love
Speaker 1: with Laura? I mean the fact that she left Australia
Speaker 1: and moved to New York proves her work ethic, how
Speaker 1: dedicated she is, and how ambitious she is. Because Australia
Speaker 1: as we all know, is so incredibly far. It's just
Speaker 1: so admirable because she didn't do this sort of traditional
Speaker 1: paths into fashion, which I don't know what is traditional,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people I think go to school,
Speaker 1: they major in fashion merchandising, they go to fashion school,
Speaker 1: then they become designers or then they become fashion editors.
Speaker 1: And I think with Laura, as I said in our discussion,
Speaker 1: she has always stood out to me because she had
Speaker 1: so much humor about her approach to the industry, which
Speaker 1: very often is lacking in humor. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening to Climbing in Heels and don't forget
Speaker 1: to write a review wherever you get your podcasts, I'd
Speaker 1: love to read them. And while you're at it, follow
Speaker 1: me at Rachel Zo and at Climbing in Heels pod
Speaker 1: on Instagram for more updates on upcoming guests. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you next week. Law