The Who What Wear Podcast: Celebrity Stylist Erin Walsh on "The Devil Wears Prada 2" Press Tour, and Her New Book, "The Art of Intentional Dressing"

0:10Hillary Kerr:Welcome to the Who, What, Where podcast. I'm your host, Hillary Kerr, and today I'm speaking with celebrity stylist and author Erin Walsh. Erin styles some of the biggest names in Hollywood, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, Mindy Kaling, and Alison Brie, to name a few. So of course, we're talking about the fabulous The Devil Wears Prada 2 press tour, including all of the fashion homages to the first film that we've seen in Anne Hathaway's looks so far. And we're also discussing Erin's new book, The Art of Intentional Dressing, which comes out on May 5th. It's all coming up on Who, What, Where.

0:56Hillary Kerr:Erin, I am so excited to have you back on the show. Thank you so much for doing this with me, especially at this insanely busy moment in your life and your career. I was just looking back. Do you realize that we have not sat down to do this since 2022? No, that's crazy. Kind of crazy. Quite a lot has changed since then. That was very much like towards the beginning of some of your work with Anne Hathaway. Since we last sat down, you have been featured as one of the Hollywood Reporter's Most Powerful Stylist three times, and you have also written a book. Since we're coming off of awards season, I would love to start by talking about Anne Hathaway at the Oscars because of how it starts to tie in to The Devil Wears Prada, which we obviously need to discuss.

1:44Hillary Kerr:But talk to me about how you looked at this specific occasion. She's wearing Valentino with Bulgari. I assume that you knew that she was going to be presenting with Anna. I did. I did. Okay. Bearing that in mind, tell me about how that came together. What sort of thought process you had about this moment in the context of the Devil Wears Prada, but it still being the Oscars?

2:12Erin Walsh:That was an interesting one. Originally, they weren't going to walk the carpet because they were going to be a surprise, which brands always hate that actually, because it's like they want the carpet moment. I get it. But I think it was essential for the Oscars to just kind of set a new bar and for it to feel very movie star and iconic and very full circle with Valentino at the Oscars and he having had a longstanding relationship with them for many, many years. And since he just passed, I felt important to honor his legacy there. Definitely you get the play on florals for spring in the dress. Arriving to that one, though, it just felt very clean and clear and feminine and iconic and a good way to get things going.

3:02Hillary Kerr:It's been lovely to see, both from us and from the wider press, how much love that there has been around Anne's looks recently and how everyone's saying she's never looked better. She totally looks like herself in this new style era. In the foreword of your book, she wrote, with Erin's help, I have found a style that I feel has expanded to fit my life. As my stress about clothes has decreased, a certain boldness and joy has emerged. When you started working together in 2019, were there specific questions or conversations that helped shape this style evolution?

3:41Erin Walsh:Absolutely. I mean, back when I met Annie, she was pregnant. So I think that the really interesting thing with fashion and our understanding of it, it starts with accepting and having compassion for our bodies and where they are. And to meet at that time, trying to honor how she's feeling and what she needs to feel given like a hectic press schedule, both then and now, that's always the compass. We're always plugged into this compass of intentionality. And with her, she's coming to the table with a complete lexicon and understanding of 20 years in fashion before we met, being a person in the public eye in many different ways and many different occasions.

4:20So always for me, the work has been about collaboration and honoring who she is and using all the tools in my box to help expand and tell that story.

4:31Hillary Kerr:Talk to me about those tools in your kit. How have you developed them over the years? If we were sitting down 10 years ago, what was your toolkit like then versus what you know now?

4:42Erin Walsh:Oh, what a good question. And it's such an easy answer. I would say 10 years ago, I had my daughter about 10 years ago. She's sitting in the office listening right now. But back then, I don't think I was completely confident. And not to say that I'm completely confident now, but I don't think I was as compassionate for myself and for my work process. When you can approach yourself and every day through a lens of love and compassion, I think everything flows better and it's easier and it feels better and it feels more purposeful. And I think the second I started rooting each day and my work, even from a deeper spot, everything just started to feel more magnetic and easier and beautiful.

5:26Erin Walsh:And the work is better because I see the bigger picture much more clearly now. And I don't mean to sound so lofty, but I genuinely do believe that there is so much potential for substance and style and its transformative power to make ourselves feel better and live a life of integrity, like meaning, dressing and embodying the part of the woman that you want to be so that every part of you from what you wear to how you feel is in alignment with that person. And I have compassion for the woman I was then, who very much was in the daily exercise of not feeling enough, wondering if I would be enough, wondering if I was good enough to do the work or even walk the part of myself.

6:10Erin Walsh:and what I've done, you know, in the writing and creating of a book and creating a method to use in my work, it's a means to every day choose that I am worthy and worth the effort of offering little ceremonies to myself and a means to reboot and get back to that vision and that ideal. You know, it's, you ask about 10 years ago, but I'm thinking even 20 years ago when, you know, The Devil Wears Prada came out and I was an assistant at Vogue, panicked and definitely never feeling like I was good enough for the job or anything. Anything? It's all very full circle. I think life offers those journeys to clarity when you can better understand and that comes through courage and clarity.

6:55Hillary Kerr:Going full circle on this, The Devil Wears Prada 2 comes out in the beginning of May, May 1st. And obviously there has been so much anticipation around the film and around the press looks. You say that you like to start with how someone wants to feel. What was the process like and what were some of those key shapings for this press tour?

7:17Erin Walsh:I think in the sauce of creating a press tour like this, it's a constant dialogue. You can make decisions about what you think will work, but then you need to pivot. And as things are happening in real time and, you know, there's a cast that you're working alongside, you want to just keep evolving and making the work better and refining and retuning. And one of the things I love about the original film is its exploration of the depth of fashion and the joy that it can offer and its transformative power. So really finding ways through the choices on this tour to explore those themes in every single fashion tool at our disposal, from color to texture to shape to silhouette to designer range, bringing attention to newer designers, honoring the ones that we've known and loved.

8:01Erin Walsh:And at its heart, to me, fashion should be a means to bring us to our joy.

8:06Hillary Kerr:As a viewer from the outside, it has been such a joy watching how Anne and Meryl Streep's looks have been so complimentary and they feel so beautifully in sync. Like Anne in all red Balenciaga with black pumps at an event in Seoul and then Meryl in head to toe black Celine and then Anne in black Schiaparelli in Mexico City and Meryl in custom red Dolce & Gabbana suit. so I assume that you and Meryl Stylist, Michaela, we talk a lot and I think there's something so lovely because so often you see press tours and it's clear that folks are not communicating and folks are on very different pages so to see this like you can tell that there's clear like mutual respect and relationship and conversation totally how so walk me through how that works are you calling Michaela and say okay I have this red I want like I'll take red here you take red there We're going to do this here.

9:04Hillary Kerr:How does it work? Something like that.

9:07Erin Walsh:I think what is essential for us as women working in the world of fashion is supporting each other and not being competitive with each other and collaborating together and helping each other be better. F yes. I don't have the patience for competitive shit. And I will say that the women, especially on this tour, have just been like team players. And it's been really fun and validating and inspiring to feel held and supported as a team. And I think the work reflects that. Absolutely.

9:43Hillary Kerr:You have so many press days. There are so many moments. There's so much going on. How are you looking at the arc of that storytelling? How do you plan, but then still build in enough optionality that you can shift if the weather changes or if someone isn't feeling like a certain look on a certain day.

10:03Erin Walsh:You just have to always see three steps ahead of you because whether it's a press tour or how you pack for a trip, ultimately you need to be able to move as like a certain amount of flexibility makes you more powerful and able to like be in the flow and feel more powerful and empowered.

10:23Hillary Kerr:The Virgo in me wants to know, how long does it take to pull all of this together?

10:27Erin Walsh:So long, Hilary.

10:29Hillary Kerr:So long. Can I have details on that? Like how long, where do you go from like ideation to like, oh, things are still moving for the premiere and that's, you know, the... I think we're like a bit like a traveling circus.

10:40Erin Walsh:We're just always, you know, adding to our recipe and editing and refining and like it's... It's a yes, encompassing.

10:50Hillary Kerr:Did you start prepping six months ago, a year ago? Like how far in advance? I mean, in terms of ideating, absolutely.

10:56Erin Walsh:This is something, but it's funny because I worked with Sarah Jessica Parker previously too. Like the legacy of Pat Field as a costume designer was in my pores for many years. So it's just like kind of re-tapping into those elements of what makes fashion magic.

11:15Hillary Kerr:Okay. I want to talk about Tokyo. So Anne was in this beautiful ruffled Valentino couture dress and an updated version of the Rockstud heel, which also is a little Easter egg to what we have seen from the trailer. Can you talk to me a little bit about the significance of that look and that shoe and why it came together in the way it did for Tokyo?

11:40Erin Walsh:I mean, And that look, it just felt like such a specific, perfect way to start in Asia and in Tokyo. Even the origami effect of the dress, it felt so Japanese. The color story was obviously perfect. I loved the white rock stud shoe. The new shape is excellent. It's so flattering. The ankle strap placement and the toe cleavage, it's just gorgeous. And it's a really great update on a style that I think many thought was over. But if I have to place any bets, I would say it's for sure back. And it looks better than ever, in my opinion. Obviously, Meryl was wearing Chanel and the color story. Like we were simpatico and completely different texture and silhouette stories.

12:23Erin Walsh:And it just felt like really fashion and fun and joyful and great. I loved that start to Asia. It felt really awesome.

12:31Hillary Kerr:I also want to ask about the homage to the Cerulean sweater. as you're planning things out you have the primary color palette of black and white and red but then obviously there are these other nods there's florals for spring there's cerulean sweater there are all of these other moments how do you think about placing those throughout the

12:50Erin Walsh:course of a press tour i mean like with the sakai cerulean sweater like that felt like of course it would be nice to have that in japan um and seeing that on the runway it was like how do we figure out a way because it's a very over-the-top sweater so like how like where does this make sense. And what's interesting too, in a press tour, there are so many look opportunities and not necessarily all of them are digested in like the large scale way that say a premier one would be. But that doesn't mean that you don't want to be intentional about all of them. It's just so much fun to just try to put in all the layers as possible and see like what resonates.

13:24Erin Walsh:Not everything will resonate. Some of it will. It depends on who's looking at it and what they take from it.

13:29Hillary Kerr:I'm so overwhelmed by you have the book, which we're going to get into. You have Devil Wears Prada, but then you also have Mother Mary and the press tour for that. How do you work in coming up with two completely separate tours for different projects?

13:44Erin Walsh:That's an interesting challenge. And we were always conscious of having to lean into that separation because Mother Mary premiere and press was literally in the middle of the Devil Wears Prada run. So it had to be differentiated, which, you know, Orlando Pita, our hairstylist, even did with her hair, like much more pop star energy, really giant shoes. really like sexy pop star texture energy, bold shapes. But it was just something we had to be conscious of like injecting that so that it felt clear because otherwise it could feel chaotic, you know, and we don't ever want that.

14:16Hillary Kerr:Let's talk a little bit about Selena Gomez. She's another client that I feel like you unlock a new style era together. She has a very rabid fan base that has a lot of thoughts about how she should look. Talk to me about how you focused on the most important thing, which is Selena and her essence and what she wanted to build with you.

14:40Erin Walsh:I love working with Selena because she's somebody, first of all, she's a wonderful, beautiful person, but she's somebody who uses her platform to make the world a better place and to connect with people in a real way. It always has felt to me like it has to be genuine and clear and really just a means to help her and her message shine. So I found like with her, less can be more. And just letting her beautiful essence shine has really been the point.

15:06Hillary Kerr:So I want to talk about an early look that you worked on together, which is for the VMAs. And she wore a custom red beaded Oscar de la Renta gown that went viral immediately. From the outside, it feels like she's been leaning into specific, beautiful bolder colors often red there have been a number of old hollywood or like very glamorous looks what are some of your favorite references or brands and designers for selena i feel like

15:38Erin Walsh:reference wise we got into such a great space with the old hollywood and kind of sophia loren and and decolletage shapes and just beautiful deep colors and impactful but streamlined silhouettes trying not to do anything too fussy or too overwhelming. It really works for her. It really works. And the glam team is amazing. And the team she works with is amazing and supportive. And I think everybody was zoned in together on like, how are we trying to tell this story? And we were all on the same page, which just makes it stronger. In general, when you work with somebody in their glam team as well, you just want to use each other and be on the same page.

16:18Erin Walsh:You're more powerful when you're cohesive, certainly.

16:21Hillary Kerr:So I also want to talk about your book. It's called The Art of Intentional Dressing, and it's a guide to getting dressed. But it's also about living an intentional life and using style as a tool. We've obviously talked about some of the incredible work that you've done with two of the most important, talented, thoughtful, incredible women in Hollywood. But I'm curious about how you reverse engineered your styling method and work with them for a regular person who does not have a stylist to use.

16:55Erin Walsh:What was that process like? I think that people look up to the people on the red carpet. They look up to celebrities. They look up to the stars because there's something they see in that person that they feel within themselves to be true or they feel within themselves to be possible or that they hope for that essence to acknowledge within themselves. And the reason why I made a book in the first place was because it was these celebrities I was working with who were feeling this way, but it was also all these women all over the world and the country I was meeting, not just in the major cities, who had this relationship with getting dressed that it just made them feel bad about themselves.