I have known Amanda Brooks for 12 years, and I have watched her morph from an incredibly talented young woman to a force to be reckoned with in the world of fashion. You can’t open a fashion magazine without seeing her picture! She has had a huge influence on me, personally, because it was Amanda who took me shopping when I went on my first book tour, helped me pick my first designer shoes and bags, and taught me how to put together my look for all my appearances. She is an outrageous genius with clothes, and I cannot believe how incredibly generous she was with her style secrets in her wonderful new book,I Love Your Style. I am so proud of her, and so glad to have the chance to share her brilliance and beauty with all of you.
Mama Gena: Tell us a little about your fashion journey. Did it start in childhood?
AB: No. I was a tomboy, but in my book, I do thank my three childhood best friends for making dress-up so much fun. I enjoyed dressing up when it was “appropriate,” but it wasn’t an everyday interest in my life. In high school, I was very impressionable. I would basically dress according to whom I was dating - and I had very different boyfriends. With the deadhead boyfriend, I dressed very hippie, and with the preppy boyfriend, preppy. I enjoyed changing personas. I’m still impressionable. I’ll never follow a trend literally, but I’m definitely influenced by what is going on in fashion and from there, I make it personal. I didn’t mean to work in fashion. The summer that I first started working in fashion, I was supposed to go to Vermont to be a waitress. I was eating at a restaurant with my parents, and Patrick Demarchelier, the fashion photographer, was there. I introduced myself, and then he offered me an internship. After that, I went to work at an art gallery. That was my major in college, but I just didn’t have as much fun. I missed the fashion world, so I went back to it.
MG: What women inspired you in terms of fashion?
AB: I would say my mom is the biggest inspiration. I have photos and memories of her in the 1970s in Palm Beach wearing a little tiny striped t-shirt, massive big oversized sunglasses, a chic little haircut, and big flared bell-bottom jeans. That is still my favorite outfit.
There are pictures of Jackie O where she had this very classic and casual, but slightly funky style, and that hugely informs my style identity: casual bohemian, but still chic. Also, in the 80s, my mom got really into fashion, with this ostrich Gucci purse, and a beautiful Bill Blass suit. She had iconic pieces, but she wore them in a very classic way. After she moved to New York, my sister and I would visit my dad, and my stepfather would fly her to Paris to cheer her up, basically taking her shopping for two weeks. She had these amazing Azzedine Alaia black leather outfits, very 80s high fashion, and clothes from another designer, Vicky Tiel. She was really into makeup and hair and crazy colored eye shadow. She went really high fashion. She went from being totally appropriate in Palm Beach and dressing however her friends dressed to being totally inappropriate in Bronxville, a preppy WASPy Westchester suburb. I would go to dancing school in my white gloves and Laura Ashley dress, and my mom would be in head-to-toe black leather Azzedine Alaia. She just went for it.
MG: Who do you think is rocking it right now in the world of fashion? Who do you look to for inspiration?
AB: In my book, you’ll see women whom I admire right now. Most are not famous, but in terms of famous women, I’m really impressed by Victoria Beckham. Her style isn’t my style, but the thing about personal style is that I can admire someone else’s personal style without necessarily relating to or even liking their taste. Paris Hilton has personal style. I can’t stand the way she dresses and I think she’s ridiculously tacky and gross, but she knows who she is and she goes for it. I admire that. Victoria Beckham was the tackiest, cheesiest soccer wife and then she moved to America and started paying attention to fashion. I think she just keeps getting chicer and chicer. She’s developed a sense of style that I don’t think comes from a stylist. She’s become friends with designers, gone to fashion shows, she really pays attention, tries new things, sometimes makes mistakes—there are a couple of pictures of her in the book. She’s gone from tacky to one of Marc Jacob’s muses. Also Sofia Coppola. She is amazing because she really knows who she is and what suits her. She is almost a minimalist in that she almost always wears a little black dress, very little hair and makeup, always the same haircut and very few accessories. She is very disciplined and I admire that. She knows what works for her and she’s very classic.
MG: What happens when you see someone who has absolutely no fashion sense? How do you respond inside?
AB: It depends who it is. If it is just people on the street, I just sit there and think about how some people do themselves absolutely no favors. I think some people have low self-esteem because they aren’t interested in how they present themselves to the world. I admire people who dress practically. People might get a uniform that works for them everyday and it’s not strictly stylish, but they are just not that interested in clothes and that’s cool, because you can see the light through their eyes.
MG: Do you ever have the urge to go up to somebody who is horrifying in their presentation and say something to them?
AB: No. I’d be more inclined to help someone who was really trying and not getting it right. I believe that anybody can have style, but it doesn’t come for free, and the way to get style is by studying style. There is a great Miuccia Prada quote, “Everybody asks me, ‘How can I dress beautifully? How can I develop my style?’ And I always say you have to study, you have to learn.” There are countless examples: Kate Moss is my favorite because she didn’t come from a particularly chic town, chic parents, or a huge clothing budget, but she’s was interested in style from a very young age, she’s paid attention, and she’s always trying new looks. You always say at [at the SWA] that whatever you put your attention on grows, and that is what style is. You can’t have it unless you really want it, unless you are passionate about it, but anybody can have it if the interest is there.
MG: You were a big influence on me on my personal style and continue to be. What would you say was the before and after of my fashion journey? Where was I and where did you take me?
AB: You have your own journey. Even when I was helping you shop, it was about what you wanted, what you felt you needed, it was a function of your life, how you live your life, the things you needed to live your life better. When I first met you, I think you suddenly wanted style but you hadn’t been paying attention to it for very long. You didn’t have a very trained eye because you had just started. Then you became the Tuleh girl, and that became your whole fashion persona, but that is just one side of your personality. I don’t think you can wear one designer and have that be your complete style because you are an individual. I enjoy your style most now when you have the education of having been exposed to style – you’ve taken everything you learned and you’ve found your own place in it. That is when it becomes personal: when you take everything you’ve learned and say, “I’m going to do what works for me.” You look more like you now.
MG: Would you say that that is the purpose of your book?
AB: Totally. The purpose of the book is to expose readers to many different ideas. You could read the whole book and remember either three or 20 photos - the ones that have an impact on you are going to stay with you and inspire and influence you. A million people can read that book and each take something different from it.
MG: You’ve cut your own trail in the fashion world. What gave you the courage to chart your course according to your desires and your design?
AB: The day after I left Tuleh, Diane Von Furstenberg invited me over for lunch and said, “Amanda, you’ve always worked for incredibly powerful men. It’s time for you to find out who you are.” That had a strong impact on me. The book was an exercise in evolving my own creativity. When the book took longer than I expected, I started taking in some consulting clients just to keep the money coming in, and I fell in love with doing that. Now I’m at the crossroads where my book is coming out and I’ve developed this company to a point where I’m not just going to just stop doing it because the book has come out, so I’m still I don’t know where I’m going. My husband inspires me tremendously because he’s always walked his own path in his career. He’s always lived life by his own terms and I’ve always admired how much of himself he is because he is not defined by someone else’s brand that he works for, someone else’s image.
Through the SWA, I’ve learned how important it is to have the courage to go for what you want and how attractive that is to people. My responsibility in life, which I learned from you, is to know what I want. And then when you know it you just go for it naturally. And when you don’t, it’s ok - you just gotta try something. I’ve always been a very positive person. I’ve always been the cheerleader in my family and in my marriage; I’m terrible at taking no for an answer. I think the work that I did with you set that even harder. There are so many other things that I’ve learned here, like where you put your attention grows, always making sure what I am doing is always fun, and using the power of attraction.
MG: Describe your closet for our readers.
AB: My closet is about 20% in-season high fashion designer clothes that you could label as “trendy.” The rest is really a greatest hits collection of everything I’ve tried, been given, borrowed, or otherwise acquired from the world. I have a huge closet for everyday wear, then I have a smaller closet for things that are out of season. There is also a rack for items I’m not yet ready to give away, but I know I’m not going to wear for a while. At any given moment, my closet contains what I’m into right then because I don’t want to distract my eye. I like to keep my closet pared down so it’s easy to find the newest items and the things that I like the most.
MG: What are the top trends for the fall that we should be checking out?
AB: The 80s, mainly. Tougher, chunkier black shoes, really high shoes. An emphasis on the shoulder, but that doesn’t mean Linda Evans Dynasty shoulder pads. I just got this blazer by Phillip Lim: silver jacquard tapestry with a black collar. The shoulder is just a little bit bigger than normal. That ‘s my way of addressing the big shoulder thing, because I’m not going to go out of the house like I’m on Dynasty. If you are 17 and living on the Lower East Side and cool, you can pull off short shorts, studded boots, and a big shoulder, but, as a 35-year-old, everything I like has an air of classic to it. I’m not going to go for a trend 100%. I’m not going to cut my hair in feathers for the 80s. People are wearing bucket bags again, bags on a long strap. If you have huge breasts, I wouldn’t recommend exaggerating the shoulder. I’m not saying that those trends work for everybody, but that is what I’m interested in
How do you balance it all: being a mom of two gorgeous little kids, a hot husband, a hot career, and a hot book?
Rotating priorities and taking things on one at a time. I would never have thought I could handle the book and running the company, but once I was almost finished with the book, I realized I had time on my hands. You just keep switching gears, switching priorities, and rotating them on an as-needed basis. For example, in June, I worked on my book until 2 or 3 am every night. Once I finished that, it was full family mode all summer, time off, taking a break from work. Now, it’s husband time.
MG: What are some things a woman reading this article could do today to raise her fashion IQ and start understanding who she is and what her look is?
AB: Go into your closet and put your attention on your own closet for an hour. Just look at the things that you love to wear the most and move them to the front. If there are things you can’t stand, get rid of them, so you can just notice the things that you like more. Just put your attention on your closet and figure out what your look is for fall. Then you can start to think about what you might choose if you were to have a couple of new things.
Go to a department store and try on everything. Even if you don’t buy a single thing, you‘ll educate yourself. Do you like a thinner pant, a wide legged pant, a pleated pant, a cuff at the bottom? Figure out yourself first; then you can start looking externally for influences. Flip through fashion magazines, tear out the pictures you like, and put them in a folder. Do that for six months and you’ll start to recognize things you’re attracted to. Usually, we are attracted to things that suit us.
MG: What I love about your work is you provide this link between every woman and the world of fashion. Your education for women is to go inside, locate their truth, and then live it loudly and show the world on our bodies. I love that because it is not about price point or a certain designer. It’s about turning up the volume on each woman’s truth in some beautiful, accessible way.
AB: Discovering your personal style is really about discovering yourself. When you figure that out, it affects you in all the areas of your life. It’s not just style and the way that we dress, but also how you deal with your children, how you deal with work, what you choose to spend your time on, how you exercise -- all of those things better inform who we are. The more you know yourself, the more confident you can be.
Amanda Brooks is a New York-based fashion writer and owner of the fashion design, marketing and branding firm, Amanda Brooks Inc. She began her career working for fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier and hairdresser Frederic Fekkai. She went on to become Creative Director of Hogan and then Creative Director of Tuleh. As a consultant she has worked for Diane Von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Tod’s, Roger Viver Amanda has also been a Contributing Editor and writer for Men's Vogue, and has also written style-related articles for Vogue
and The New York Times. She has appeared as a fashion expert on programs such as The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, Inside Edition, and NPR Radio. Amanda has appeared on Vogue's annual Best Dressed numerous times.
