How to be Glamorous with Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni
Words: Tsari Paxton | Creative Direction and Photographer: Lewis Vorn | Makeup: Grace Ellington | Hair: Christos Bairabas | Styling: Kate Kidney-Bishop | Videographer: Sihaam Naik
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Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni started the @everyoutfitonsatc Instagram account as a joke eight years ago. Their passion project of digitally cataloguing and critiquing the fashion of Sex and the City has blossomed into an entire ecosystem that spans podcasting, publishing, merch and recently a live show.
Underpinning it all is the connection between two best friends. Listening to an episode of the Every Outfit podcast feels like catching up with your girls on a Friday night, cocktail in hand, ready to dish. Acerbic cultural critiques and impassioned views on fashion fly around as they share snippets from their casually fabulous LA lives. You can almost hear the gesticulation.
It is Chelsea and Lauren’s aspirational relatability that has gained them a loyal fandom across the world. Sure, Chelsea holidays with Katy Perry and Lauren’s wedding was covered in The New York Times, but their cultural tastes and world view remain open-hearted and pragmatic. They agree that they adore rewearing something you love in endless combinations, and aren’t too highfalutin to admit the parasocial relationships they have with the hosts of their favourite podcasts.
Just as infinite acquaintances have giddily asked one another – Are you a Carrie? Or a Samantha? – in recent years, Every Outfit fans (known as ‘fuckettes’) have discussed whether they are a Chelsea – more brazen and free spirited, or a Lauren – more particular and ambitious. Wherever their joint passions take the Every Outfit machine, there is a comforting feeling that Chelsea and Lauren will always keep one another grounded.
This might be an obvious question, but how fundamentally has Sex and the City shaped the vision or level of glamour that you aspire to in your lives?
Lauren: Not to split hairs, but in regards to Sex and the City, what season are we talking about? Because we often talk about the apex of a kind of realistic grittiness and the joy of a television budget comes together in seasons three and four, and then it’s like in season six. It's eye candy, of course, as always, but it just gets to a place where we're no longer in reality.
It's interesting, it's had this bizarre feedback loop relationship with fashion. I think the thing that I find aspirational about the show, more and more, is the outfit repeats, the bag repeats, which because the show got so popular - they have so much access to designer clothing, it gave them the opportunity to never have to repeat bags - the way that they did with the Fendi baguette or the Dior saddle bag and that influenced people. Now you see in influencers, no one can wear the same thing twice.
Chelsea: They are trying to bring that back on And Just Like That, Carrie does repeat bags and stuff now, which I think is cool. It's obviously more true to life.
Lauren: That level of glamour, of having a piece you love, wearing it again and again, interpreting it in different ways that I find very glamorous.
“ I think there's a performance in that way of how to make it sound conversational while conveying the information of a new news story, a pop culture news story. I should say we're not here with the hard-hitting news.”
Something I love about the pod is the insight into the high-end lives you both lead from high tea at Waldorf to Lauren’s stunning wedding at the same venue where Carrie herself got married. Do you ever feel some level of performance or that you are ever playing a character on the podcast?
Chelsea: I love that question. I think we've both always had personalities that were quite strong, that might be considered abrasive by some. I think we've always had a sense of humour. I think obviously, when we read reviews or comments and we hear about things that people like, we internalise it. But no, I don't think we've reached this sort of Paris Hilton level of becoming a caricature or a character, a heightened version of ourselves. I think we kind of are who we are.
Lauren: We're not characters on the podcast, but I will say that to your point of like, is it a performance? Certainly, something we were conscious of in doing the podcast. And one of the lovely comments about it is: It's like listening to my two funniest, smartest friends at brunch, and so there's a conscious effort as two people that grew up on E! News and fashion television to introduce a topic and then put our commentary into it.
Because if it truly was just Chelsea and I shooting the shit, it would not really make sense to anyone else. We do need to put context into the stories that we are talking about. So I think there's a performance in that way of how to make it sound conversational while conveying the information of a new news story, a pop culture news story. I should say we're not here with the hard-hitting news.
I imagine that both of you were always quite glam even before the notoriety that Every Outfit has brought you — but I wanted to ask, do you have any hacks for how to sprinkle a little extra glamour into the everyday?
Chelsea: I'm a big proponent of spending money on flowers. Personally, I think it does a lot. I go to the wholesale flower market in West Hollywood a couple of times a month and just kind of go ham because I think flowers add so much glamour, and that's something also, I'm an expensive candle freak. I also feel like a nice candle does so much for me, at least, it might not work for you. It might not work for everyone, but to me, those two things are the sort of easiest way to inject glamour into just a basic domestic setting.
Lauren: I've been pushing Chelsea for years to become a candle influencer. We want to get into video content, and one of the things I really want is for Chelsea to rate candles.
Chelsea: I think the most I've ever spent on a candle is like… It is probably like $200, which is dark. I've been given candles that were more expensive than that, but I have not purchased those myself. My wife got one of those, like, massive Trudon ones - a $600 candle - as a gift from her boss. And when people sit in the house, I'm like, oh, no, I don't want you to think that I spent $600 on this candle. Like, yes, it's here, but I have not gone that insane.
What are some of your absolute fashion no nos?
Chelsea: Everyone has their pet peeves. I would never wear a little hat. For example, I hate a little hat.
Lauren: But you think I look good in the little hat? Chelsea and a friend of the show, Mel Ottenberg, talk shit about berets so much that I got rid of all of my berets. Don't love a beret. It gave me a complex. Don't love a wedge.
And the trend of influencer girls who previously were committed fully to Y2K and then were only into quiet luxury.
Chelsea: Well, that's the worst. Don't dress quiet luxury unless you actually have a historical precedent of being that bitch, you know.
“The ultimate fuck yeah is having a full-blown uniform like Andy Warhol or Fran Lebovitz. “
And conversely could you give me some eternal fashion fuck yeahs, your stylistic ride-or-dies?
Chelsea: The ultimate fuck yeah is having a full-blown uniform like Andy Warhol or Fran Lebovitz. Everyone's goal in life is to find one outfit that you don't look like shit in and wear nothing but that outfit you know. Or you have, like, a casual version and a black tie version of the same look, you know, I think the most stylish people dress like that.
Lauren: I think someone who is a true original has a true sense of style.
Chelsea: Jay Leno, you know, it's like he's either in a suit when he's on TV, or he's in a full Canadian tuxedo just walking around. He's more consistent and has more of a point of view fashion-wise than 99% of people in the entertainment industry. So kudos to him.
Lauren: Yeah, I do want to do an episode about Chelsea's favourite beacons of male style. Also, you've said that no man has ever looked better in a contemporary sense than Jason Siegel in the film I Love You, Man.
