In short
Podcast Episode Summary: The Who What Wear Podcast with Jennifer Fisher
Episode Details
- Podcast Title: Second Life
- Episode Title: The Who What Wear Podcast: Jewelry Designer Jennifer Fisher on 20 Years of Her Brand, Current Best Sellers, and Expanding Her Empire
- Host: Bobby Schuessler
- Guest: Jennifer Fisher, Jewelry Designer
Overview In this episode, Bobby Schuessler interviews Jennifer Fisher, who reflects on her 20-year journey as a jewelry designer and shares insights into her career, brand evolution, and future endeavors. Fisher discusses her rise to fame, her unique approach to jewelry design, and her recent ventures into food and lifestyle branding.
---
Key Highlights
Introduction to Jennifer Fisher
- Background: Fisher grew up in Santa Barbara, California, with a passion for fashion from a young age.
- Career Start: Initially worked as a stylist in Hollywood, where she styled commercials and worked with notable celebrities.
- Career Transition: After overcoming health challenges, she pivoted from styling to jewelry design, motivated by personal experiences involving motherhood and a desire for unique jewelry.
The Birth of Her Brand
- First Piece: Created a customized dog tag for her son, which garnered attention and became a conversation starter.
- Celebrity Clientele: As a stylist, she had connections that enabled her to gain celebrity clients like J-Lo and Uma Thurman early on.
- Direct-to-Consumer Model: Launched a website to sell custom jewelry directly to consumers, a pioneering move in the fine jewelry industry.
The Evolution of Jewelry Designs
- The Queen of Hoops: Fisher became known for her hoop earrings after recognizing their versatility and appeal.
- Guerrilla Marketing Strategy: Leveraged relationships with stylists to ensure her pieces were featured on major fashion magazines and worn by celebrities.
- Bestsellers: Discussed her current best-selling items, including the corded semi-precious stone necklaces and how trends influence sales.
Expansion Beyond Jewelry
- Retail Locations: Opened new stores in key locations (LA and NY), focusing on high foot traffic areas to enhance visibility.
- Cookbook and Food Brand: Authored *Trust Your Gut*, integrating her experiences with food, wellness, and her journey with Hashimoto's disease.
- Salt Products: Launched a line of flavored salts that gained popularity, emphasizing the role of food in daily life.
Maiden Lifestyle Brand
- Brand Development: Created a lifestyle brand "Maiden" to encompass food, fashion, and wellness, featuring recipes and personal style content.
- Community Engagement: Built a platform where followers can access weekly recipes, fashion tips, and lifestyle content.
Future Endeavors
- New Collaborations: Announced upcoming collaborations, including a wellness-focused jewelry collection with Gabby Bernstein.
- Product Line Expansion: Plans to introduce new soft goods and jewelry storage solutions.
---
Key Takeaways
- Resilience: Fisher's story emphasizes the importance of resilience and adaptability in the face of personal and professional challenges.
- Connection: Building genuine relationships within the industry is crucial for success.
- Innovation: The importance of innovating within one's brand to meet consumer demands and personal passions.
- Holistic Approach: Fisher's journey illustrates how health and lifestyle can intersect with professional identity, leading to diversified brand opportunities.
Closing Remarks The episode concludes with Fisher expressing excitement for future projects and the evolution of her brand. The conversation highlights her dedication to maintaining authenticity while expanding her empire across various domains, including jewelry, food, and lifestyle.
---
Conclusion Jennifer Fisher's journey from stylist to a celebrated jewelry designer and lifestyle entrepreneur serves as an inspiration for anyone considering a career pivot or looking to expand their brand. Her insights on overcoming adversity, the significance of personal connections, and the ever-evolving nature of consumer needs provide valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOJennifer Fisher's Journey: From Stylist to Jewelry Designer
1:10 to 6:02
Explore Jennifer Fisher's early career in styling and the beginnings of her jewelry brand.
“I feel like everyone listening to this podcast knows the Jennifer Fisher brand.”
The Rise of Hoops: Innovation and Celebrity Influence
6:02 to 8:06
Jennifer discusses the evolution of her hoop earrings and the impact of celebrity endorsements on her brand.
“What was next after the dog tag and the celebrity mom situation?”
Strategic Retail and Location Choices
8:06 to 11:45
Insights into Jennifer's retail strategy and the importance of location for her stores.
“But before that, Barney's New York came to me and were like, we have to carry your jewelry.”
Culinary Ventures: Food, Recipes, and Lifestyle
11:45 to 14:02
Exploration of Jennifer's culinary journey and her approach to food and cooking.
“You notice the foot traffic, the uptick there is a little bit higher.”
The Importance of Food and Seasoning
14:02 to 15:18
Learn how food and seasoning play a crucial role in daily life and branding.
“And I was like, it's that salt that I made on the side of the stove.”
Jennifer Fisher's Culinary Journey
15:18 to 17:46
Discover how Jennifer Fisher's cooking evolved from personal interest to a successful brand.
“Then we found an organic coat packer and I have videotapes of me and like hoop earrings and a hairnet, like literally using my hands doing it.”
Launching Maiden: A Lifestyle Brand
17:46 to 19:35
Explore how Jennifer transitioned her cooking content into a lifestyle brand called Maiden.
“So you could do it with coconut sugar and paleo flour, or you could do it with AP flour and cane sugar.”
Fashion Insights and Trends
19:35 to 22:38
Get insights into current fashion trends and Jennifer's personal style choices.
“We have uploaded content every week that's new.”
Future Collaborations and Projects
22:38 to 23:35
Hear about Jennifer's exciting upcoming collaborations and product launches.
“Gabrielle Bernstein, who is very big in the wellness and self-help space.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:10Bobby Schuessler:Welcome to the Who It Wear podcast, your direct line to the designers, stylists, beauty experts, editors, and tastemakers who are shaping the ever-evolving world of fashion. I'm Who It Wear's shopping director, Bobby Schuessler, and today I'm chatting with jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher, a.k.a. the Queen of Hoops. Jennifer is best known for her iconic namesake brand. Her career took off in the 2000s when she started making custom necklaces for A-list clients while working as a stylist. Rihanna, J-Lo, and Hailey Bieber have all been known to wear her pieces. Jennifer joins us to look back on her career 20 years after starting her brand.
0:49Bobby Schuessler:She tells us about the first piece she ever made and all the it items she's loving right now. Plus, she gives us the scoop on her lifestyle brand, Maiden, and how she's shaking things up in the wellness space. It's all coming up on Who What Wear.
1:10Bobby Schuessler:Jennifer Fisher, my friend. I can call you my friend.
1:13Jennifer Fisher:We are friends. And that's why I was so excited.
1:15Bobby Schuessler:I'm so excited for this. I feel like everyone listening to this podcast knows the Jennifer Fisher brand. They follow you. They know the jewelry. Take me back for those that might not know where it all started when you first started your career in styling.
1:29Jennifer Fisher:So I was the girl when I was younger and I was in high school. I grew up in Santa Barbara, California in Montecito. I was starved for fashion. Like I would have my parents drive me down to like Melrose Avenue so I could buy the pointy witchy boots from like the punk stores. I was always taking clothing from Santa Barbara vintage stores and adding things to them. I wanted a Vogue magazine subscription when I was younger. so much so that when my parents sold our house to Jane Seymour, which is kind of random, she asked to keep the Vogue wallpaper in the bedroom. I've always been into fashion my whole life.
1:59Jennifer Fisher:I went to USC, went to Marshall School of Business, studied business marketing. I thought I wanted to be the publisher of Vogue magazine or something like that. And then I would get internships. I had an internship at LA Style Magazine and I'd watch the racks of clothing going by on the editorial side. And I was on the publishing side and I was like, this is not for me. This is not what I want to be doing. Crunching numbers on ad spend. Like, no, I want to be on the other side with the beautiful dresses and all the stuff. So I went into styling. One of my friends worked at Propaganda Films back in the day.
2:24Jennifer Fisher:It was like when Michael Bay was there and Anton Fakwa and all of these major movie directors now were doing commercials. And I started working for one of the directors there without any experience. It was like the easiest commercial was a Pace Bucanti commercial. And I was like, this is really fun. And then I went and worked for a celebrity stylist who will remain unnamed. He was horrible because I thought I wanted to go of that. And she was mean. And the ad side was so nice. You're dealing with ad agencies. It was so nice. The creative, it was fun. You make more money on ads. So I became a commercial wardrobe stylist.
2:53Jennifer Fisher:I did that for 10 years. I also worked for Aaron Spelling. I had a stint on Sunset Beach as an assistant costume designer, one of his daytime drama. And while I was a stylist, I had never had management. I was always getting the jobs on my own. I had teams of girls and boys around LA, like doing Bud Light, Amex. And I ran it like a company and we had multiple sets and I I would like go and make sure everything's good, move to the other set. And then I was dating Matt LeBlanc from France for like a year and a half. I met him when I worked on the Aaron Spelling set, and that was fun. But while I was dating him, I went to New York and met Kevin.
3:25Jennifer Fisher:So anyways, I got diagnosed with something called a desboid tumor, which is a soft tissue sarcoma. Everyone thought it was breast cancer until I found the right doctor. Thankfully, my husband's father at the time, who's now not with us any longer, was a well-connected doctor in Los Angeles, which is where Kevin grew up. And so I went through chemotherapy. I had an amazing commercial director at the time that was really helpful to me. His name is Eric Joyner. I owns a company called Tool. And he had me working both coasts, keeping myself very busy while I was going through chemo because I was not feeling well.
3:54Jennifer Fisher:Anyways, cut to end chemo. Kevin and I get married six months later. But then when Kevin and I wanted to have kids, my oncologist was like, it's not a good idea. As far as we know, your tumor grows from estrogen. So you need to get a surrogate. So went through years of surrogacy. It was unsuccessful. I went through IVF on my own, didn't work. And then I got pregnant naturally. That was my son, Shane. And when Shane was born, I was being given beautiful gifts and fine jewelry to represent him, but none of it really suited my personal style. I was the type of girl back in the day, I would wear like a white tank top with a black lace bra underneath it.
4:26Jennifer Fisher:And I was just a little bit, not goth or rock roll, but just like my style was, I mean, still similar to this day, but like a little bit different. And I wanted like a heavy gold chain and I wanted the dog tag to say Shane because I had gone through so much to try to have him. It wasn't really out there. So I was like, okay, I'm going to go make this myself. And so knocked on doors on 47th Street. You know, you're resourceful after being a stylist for 10 years. So I knocked on doors and I found someone to make me this dog tag that said Shane. I wore it on set. And literally like it was this instant conversation piece because it was larger than normal.
4:55Jennifer Fisher:It was a beautiful, heavy, like 4.0 gold chain and heavy gauge. And the dog tag is not small and it clearly says something. And so it was an instant conversation piece. And I would tell people it was my son and what I went through. And people would say, oh my gosh, my sister loves hearts. Can you make one for my sister? I was friends with, you know, being a stylist and being on set. Ryan Trigstad, who was Uma Thurman's hairstylist at the time, he was an amazing guy. And he's like, Uma wants one. So I made one for Uma. And the day she got it, she happened to be shooting a Glamour magazine cover.
5:25Jennifer Fisher:And she wore it on the cover of Glamour. So that was helpful. But I'd been getting some, you know, I made one for Ashley Simpson. I mean, this was 20 years ago. I made Nicole Kidman's bridesmaids gifts. Like there's just like things that were happening that people didn't really know about, but I was kind of cool. And, you know, I was getting at the time it was Us Magazine and People Magazine or Star and Ashley would be seen on the streets in her necklace. It really started to build me up as a celebrity mom jeweler. And then one day Kevin walked into the bedroom, there was like invoices all over the bed.
5:54Jennifer Fisher:And he's like, Jen, this is a business.
5:56Bobby Schuessler:Right.
5:57Jennifer Fisher:And so I started a website selling direct to consumer customized while fine jewelry before anyone did it. So that's kind of how it started.
6:02Bobby Schuessler:Amazing. Okay. So you're called the queen of hoops. What was next after the dog tag and the celebrity mom situation?
6:10Jennifer Fisher:So a lot went on after that. I wanted to be, you know, me loving fashion. I'm like, I want to be on the cover of Vogue and glamour and everything. And charm jewelry wasn't really cover jewelry. People wanted things that felt a little more sculptural or a little more statement.
6:25Bobby Schuessler:Editorial. Yeah.
6:26Jennifer Fisher:Right. So I had a little studio at 270 Lafayette where like when everyone started out there. All these designers are in that building and we would have private clients come up and people would come from the website. We started using that as like sort of our first atelier. The first story I got was an amazing story on like fine jewelry cuff bracelets, but it was costing me like tens of thousands of dollars to make these things. I made this beautiful one that had gold raised organic dots on it. And I got this amazing feature in town and country, which was incredible. And it started to raise my awareness of like fashion, fine jewelry.
6:54Jennifer Fisher:And I was like, there's gotta be a way to make it more accessible. So I started making pieces out of brass and plating it in gold. And being a stylist, I know what stylists need on set. So I made sure because I didn't have the marketing dollars, like, you know, most larger brands, I made sure that all the top stylists had kits of jewelry of what they needed. Smart. So it was sort of like guerrilla marketing and also relationships. You're friends with all these people and you know, what do you need? What can I get? You know, and you're able to get those placements without spending money on marketing.
7:23Jennifer Fisher:I was really strategic about making sure that we had PR, that kind of stuff handled quickly. And we were making sure that everyone had what they needed. And then we started getting magazine covers, which was like, oh, this is great. And then the celebrities started asking to keep the jewelry from the kits. So that was also great. And then you start getting the celebrities outside wearing jewelry, styling themselves, which is the most authentic way to acquire customers because you see that the celebrities are wearing the jewelry and they're choosing to wear it instead of being paid to wear it Or being styled.
7:55Jennifer Fisher:JLo going to the gym in her two-inch thread hoops. Or Haley Bieber in her Haley micro huggies, things like that. And people are seeing those images is very powerful for the brand. That was later. But before that, Barney's New York came to me and were like, we have to carry your jewelry. Because my intention with this jewelry brand was never to be heavy in debt. A lot of fine jewelry is on consignment in a lot of stores. And it's very expensive to have a large collection of jewelry diversified throughout multiple retailers. So I really never intended to wholesale the jewelry, but it started with Barneys and co-op gave me this huge space and it was fantastic.
8:27Jennifer Fisher:So that was great and took me into the fashion world. And that's how I then applied to go into the Vogue CFDA fashion fund and then to later become one of the top 10 finalists in 2012. The hoop thing started where I had on my mood board forever a cover of Italian Vogue that had Ado Aboa on the cover of it. And she had a bunch of tiny hoops upper ear because She has a million piercings every year. And then I had a picture of Sade and like the perfect tube hoops. And I just had a bunch of hoop things. And I remember at the time my team were on, I was like hoop earrings, let's do other stuff. And I was like, no, I really want to do these.
8:58Jennifer Fisher:I'm going to make hoops that are comfortable and not too heavy. And Samira Nassar came to me a long time ago. Samira, she's the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. And when she was fashion director and wanted this like very thin hoop earring with a male femur closure, it was very different than what I originally started with. but she supported me very early on, which is why I named my first hoop the Samira hoop. I think she's amazing. Yeah, she is. Once the Samira hit and I was like, wait a minute, this is an opportunity. Hoop earrings are something that people can wear morning, noon, and night to work out to parties year round.
9:29Jennifer Fisher:It's sort of like denim. You need multiple pairs of these. And so I was like, hold on, if I can do this, I'm going to corner the market on this and make sure that I have every shape, style, and color of these things and have like a hoop encyclopedia and
9:40Bobby Schuessler:make sure that there's something for everybody, which was expensive to do, but I did it.
9:46Jennifer Fisher:And that's how that name kind of came around. You know, being named the Queen of Hoops by the New York Times, it's like a blessing and a curse though. Everyone's like, oh, you're the hoop girl. But we do a lot of other things.
9:55Bobby Schuessler:Are hoops still your bestseller?
9:56Jennifer Fisher:Well, not this week. This week, it's the corded semi-precious stone. Oh my God, Bobby, they sold out.
10:02Bobby Schuessler:I'm sure they did. That's not surprising.
10:04Jennifer Fisher:You know, when I was in high school, I went through all different phases of style and I had this Malachite heart. My father was a big Antiquer and we would go to vintage things all the time and swap meets and like all kinds of things. It was so much fun. And I bought this for$5 and I would wear it on a leather cord. And I was like, I'm going to bring that back. And so we did it intentionally for Valentine's day because we did this puffy heart earring that I also thought no one would ever buy and everybody in the world bought them. And so to answer your question, hoops are still pretty much the best seller, but now we are highly focused on trend and seasonal because we're finding that like when I did the Chavez collection after Nicole Chavez, which was our first foray into two-tone jewelry, that blew up.
10:44Jennifer Fisher:We could not keep those in stock. And now we came back and redid them a little bit and made them a little lighter and just launched the new version of those again. So we have a little bit lighter on the ear because it's kind of core now. So you don't really know what's going to hit. I'm like, no one is going to buy these. And then that's like the bestseller. But these corded necklaces, I had a feeling people would resonate with because of the summary precious stones that we used and because of the meaning behind them. I always love a leather corded necklace of high quality. And there's so many metal ones out there already.
11:11Jennifer Fisher:I wanted to do something a little bit different. So we started with three colors. Now we'll go into metal. We'll go into other colorways for other seasons. We already have four more colors coming, which is exciting.
11:20Bobby Schuessler:Oh my gosh. Maybe I should get one.
11:22Jennifer Fisher:Yeah.
11:22Bobby Schuessler:Let's talk about your retail spaces because I know you just reopened your LA store, your New York store last year. Tell me about the process of that. And more importantly, location wise, how are you picking where to open food and grocery shopping and where people need
11:40Jennifer Fisher:to go all the time to answer your question, why we chose Madison Avenue and 85th a little bit more of a neighborhood. You notice the foot traffic, the uptick there is a little bit higher. People are walking their dogs, doing errands that actually live up there. It made sense to be across from Butterfield where people are going to plastic surgeons, going to the dentist. You know, I'm just going to run by Jennifer Fisher and pick up a gift. And then LA was air one.
12:03Bobby Schuessler:Right. I mean, oh my gosh, brilliant.
Read the full transcript
12:06Jennifer Fisher:North Beverly really makes sense for us. You know, we're around a lot of places that people need to go. There's an optometry store on the corner. You know, we've got Air One, Giri's. We're going to buy a lot of gifts. You know, it's us, it's Simkai, it's Les Jeans. And it's like people have to rock down to get to Air One.
12:23Bobby Schuessler:Yep. You hit it there.
12:24Jennifer Fisher:Hopefully.
12:24Bobby Schuessler:The foot traffic and the amount of people just standing outside that Air One is crazy.
12:29Jennifer Fisher:That Air One is crazy.
12:30Bobby Schuessler:It always gives me anxiety going in there, but I still do, obviously.
12:33Jennifer Fisher:You have to go in there, head down past the smoothie bar.
12:37Bobby Schuessler:100%.
12:37Jennifer Fisher:And then what I do too, I end up not waiting in the line for the prepared foods. I just sort of do the grab and go because they have a lot of good stuff in the grab and go.
12:44Bobby Schuessler:Okay. Maybe we should talk about food next. You have your cookbook that I have made several items from, the chicken wings.
12:52Jennifer Fisher:Mom's not lazy. Lazy chicken.
12:53Bobby Schuessler:I love that one. We did the sweet potato carrot situation for Thanksgiving. It's so good. I could go on. I feel like we need to get into your food strategy, your grocery shopping strategy. And then what made you pivot to giving all of us this treat of your delicious recipes?
13:11Jennifer Fisher:It's sort of like the jewelry and how my brand has evolved. And I've been trying to evolve my brand. And I hate saying authentically or organically, but it's really happened based off of things that I haven't been able to find in the market. So I live with Hashimoto's and my endocrinologist wanted me eating more protein like in 2016, 17. So I went to every specialty grocery store trying to find the perfect salt to season my eggs. Everything was like a barbecue rub. It was like potpourri, you know, rosemary, like not what you want to be putting on your eggs in the morning. And I was like, okay.
13:37Jennifer Fisher:So my father used to ship me lemons from his lemon trees in Santa Barbara, and I don't like to waste food. So I would grate the lemon rind, not the pith part, just the exterior lemon rind that people use for like more of an aromatic and recipes. So I put together this concoction of salts on the side of my stove. And it was all the things that I love. It was like crushed red chili, pepper flakes, like cilantro, just black pepper. And I would just keep it there. And I started seasoning all my food with it. And my husband, Kevin, was like, things are tasting really good. What are you seasoning with?
14:02Jennifer Fisher:And I was like, it's that salt that I made on the side of the stove. And then one day, you know, when everyone was being annoying, putting their like avocado toast on Instagram, I was like, fuck it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to put it on the jewelry account. So I put my poached egg avocado toast on Instagram. In the comments, people were like, wait, you can poach an egg? I'm like, why do you assume I couldn't poach an egg? That's so weird. And then also, what's the seasoning on top of there? Like, I think I had posted like Rihanna right before. It was more comments about the salt and the egg.
14:30Jennifer Fisher:Because think about it, Bobby, like what do we do three times a day? We eat. And so food is incredibly important to all of us. Our food taste is incredibly important. If you're cooking with whole foods, it needs salt. You know, so salts came out. We figured out how to package them. They looked very different at the beginning. And then people started writing about them. We did this crazy holiday gifting. And it was like this feat for my PR team of like how to make sure Anna went to her didn't get a rotten avocado from the man who like caught in it. We got amazing. We had to make sure all the editors were in town.
14:59Jennifer Fisher:It was around the holidays and it was an avocado mash that consisted of an avocado, a lemon, healthy tortilla chips, my salt, and some spicy olive oil.
15:08Bobby Schuessler:Okay.
15:09Jennifer Fisher:My friends at Condé, they were like, thank you for not sending me a chocolate bar with your face on it. People could actually use it, which was incredible. So that really catapulted people into writing about it. Getting into CPG is not easy. And first I was doing it in my kitchen. Then we found an organic coat packer and I have videotapes of me and like hoop earrings and a hairnet, like literally using my hands doing it.
15:28Bobby Schuessler:Oh my gosh.
15:29Jennifer Fisher:So there's universal spicy and curry were the first three. Okay. The spicy is not a hot spicy. It's more of an umami spice. It tastes a little bit like Korean goji garo chili flakes. That's our most popular one. But the universal, it has no garlic or onion in it. That was the first one because I wanted to use it in the morning and I didn't want to have garlic breath for the rest of the day. Spicy is the most popular one because you can literally get your kids to eat anything with it.
15:51Bobby Schuessler:Right. It's amazing.
15:52Jennifer Fisher:You roast your vegetables in it. And curry, it's sort of our sleeper hit. People are obsessed with it. Fresh summer tomatoes, avocado eggs, fish, delicious. And then our third one, because now we have a quad, is everything spicy. And we just redid all of our packaging. It's so gorgeous. It's culty right now. We're sold out of Universal in spicy bags and people are pissed. I'm like, guys, we're changing our bags. We're improving things. Please be patient while we improve things. It's hard. And so I'm like, just buy the jars. And they're like, ah, I need my bag.
16:19Bobby Schuessler:Oh my gosh. I love it. Okay. Tell me about how the cookbook happened.
16:23Jennifer Fisher:Okay. So I did a CB2 collaboration and it launched, it was February 27th, right before COVID. But then everyone's stuck at home wanting to redo their houses and that sold out very quickly. Big success. We did three follow-ups to that. I'm sad that it's coming to an end because they were amazing to work with. So I started cooking on Instagram and Harper's Bazaar asked me to do like a thing. And I started doing videos on food in the kitchen because everyone was freaking stuck at home. But I cooked and I created this Jennifer Fisher kitchen account during COVID because everyone was like bored and needed recipes.
16:52Jennifer Fisher:And now it's called Maiden, M-A-E-D-Y-N after my new media and lifestyle website. But I was talking to my people and I built this community of everybody who wanted more recipes and wanted easy recipes. Like everything that I do is really simple. Nothing is hard. I was about to open my Beverly Hills store and one of my followers suggested reading this book called Ketotarian by Will Cole. I had bought one of Will's books before that, the inflammation spectrum. It was a little too intense for me, but still valid and like amazing. but I was like, I don't know if I can do this. But this one, ketotarian felt more flexible for me.
17:23Jennifer Fisher:So that's sort of my point in the book, like trust your gut, sort of like an 80-20 rule. You shouldn't be expected to do something 100 % of the time and feel restricted. I try to be really mindful because I had a lot of people that were my followers when I started eating this way, got really pissed off because they're like, we miss the banana bread. We miss the cheesy bakes. So in the book, I give everyone an option. You can do it the old way or you can do it the new way.
17:46Bobby Schuessler:You choose.
17:46Jennifer Fisher:So you could do it with coconut sugar and paleo flour, or you could do it with AP flour and cane sugar. So that's what this whole book is about. It's a hundred recipes and sort of my how-tos, how to clean out your freezer, how to clean out your fridge.
17:58Bobby Schuessler:I love it. It's so good. Even I, I'm like, I am not a cook. I never have been, but I even felt very proud of myself making a chicken dish from your cookbook.
18:07Jennifer Fisher:I'm proud that you did it too.
18:08Bobby Schuessler:I sent it to like all my family. I'm like, look what I did.
18:11Jennifer Fisher:That's amazing.
18:12Bobby Schuessler:You inspired me when you gave me that cookbook.
18:13Jennifer Fisher:Oh, good. I'm so glad. So Bobby and I hang out whenever I come to Wisconsin, because my son goes to school there. And so we went to Sardine for drinks. It was like a little, just like quick boozy catch up. But then I was like, hey, I'm going to a tailgate. You want to come? And Bobby was like, sure. So I had brought Bobby his book. It was the funniest thing. Bobby is like in the tailgate, like drinking a White Claw, holding the kale and holding Chester Gut. And he's got the 90s bag on it. It's like priceless. And everyone loved Bobby. I loved it. It was so fun.
18:42Bobby Schuessler:Okay. Let's pivot quickly then to Maiden, your lifestyle brand website. How did that come about? Obviously your social media following, you're posting videos, and now you're making this another part of your business, which is like crazy. It just keeps going.
18:56Jennifer Fisher:Let's add something else. Yeah.
18:58Bobby Schuessler:Why not?
18:58Jennifer Fisher:It's so intentional though, because really, if you think about it, what I was doing at the old Jennifer Fisher kitchen, which is now Maiden, Maiden is the place where you can go, where it has all of my food content, where I actually walk you through recipes, a lot that are in the cookbook. And I'm trying to add ones also that are not in the cookbook weekly. And then it's also my fashion, sort of like how to put on my fake eyelashes. We're going to do a hair tutorial soon. Sort of all those things that people are asking on at Jennifer Fisher, which is my personal account.
19:25Bobby Schuessler:Right.
19:25Jennifer Fisher:And also like fashion, my sunglasses, my handbags, how I travel, what I did in a week, all of that stuff. Just sort of have a space for it to live. And it's free.
19:34Bobby Schuessler:Amazing.
19:35Jennifer Fisher:So I have a free newsletter every week. We have uploaded content every week that's new. We're now going to start uploading those to YouTube. So they'll be on YouTube as well. So people can teach people how to do some of this stuff. Also on Maiden is Jen with Friends, where I interview my friends.
19:49Bobby Schuessler:Yes.
19:49Jennifer Fisher:I've interviewed like Tinks and Taryn Toomey and like all of my friends. I have to have you on Jen with Friends.
19:54Bobby Schuessler:Okay, yes. I'm coming to New York in a few weeks for Fashion Week. I'll text you, obviously.
19:58Jennifer Fisher:Okay, perfect.
19:59Bobby Schuessler:I love it. Before we wrap up, I do want to talk fashion, obviously, because everyone wants to know what you're wearing, what you're buying, What do you care about right this second? Like, what are you wearing?
20:10Jennifer Fisher:I'm obsessed with these dustry, these little jacket tops because you look structured and it cinches your waist in. It's so good. But it doesn't feel constructed. Like I can wear this all day at work and I don't feel like I'm wearing a jacket. So it's like a constructed shirt. The black silk one is my favorite one. This one's like a crude denim.
20:27Bobby Schuessler:It's pretty.
20:28Jennifer Fisher:But I have a dark denim. I just got the light silk one. I'm always, you and I, we're always, our row bags are always, I just got Peggy. I know.
20:36Bobby Schuessler:I saw it. I just made someone do a story on it because I feel like that's the only bag now that I am thinking about.
20:42Jennifer Fisher:Peggy.
20:42Bobby Schuessler:You can wear it on your shoulder. You can do it as a clutch. Like, she's good.
20:45Jennifer Fisher:I also loved her because I'm obsessed with Peggy Goo, the DJ, who's like my style icon. She has the best handbag collection in the world. For those of you who don't follow Peggy Goo or know who she is, P-E-G-G-Y-G-O-U. She's so cool.
20:57Bobby Schuessler:I love it.
20:58Jennifer Fisher:I'm always buying Saint Laurent boots. That's sort of my footwear of choice. if it's not like a Rick Owens, as you know, those boots that I wear flats up, but I wear big shoes a lot. I wear boots more than I wear heels. Even out at night, like in events and things, I'm kind of more of a boot girl than a sandal heel girl. So there's a pair of the burgundy pointed toe. The heel is a little low for me, but I'm going to go to Saint Laurent to go try them on just to kind of see.
21:24Bobby Schuessler:What's your perfect heel height for yourself?
21:26Jennifer Fisher:You know, my giant platforms that I wear. Like a four inch.
21:30Bobby Schuessler:You like at least a four inch. Yeah.
21:31Jennifer Fisher:I don't go below three and I wear them all day long, which is insane. I've had four foot surgeries on my left foot. It's like literally like crazy that I do this, but I'm always wearing like a Kate Danielle with a longer leg or I'm wearing like a Chloe with a flare and it just works with those shoes. I've collected denim my entire life.
21:49Bobby Schuessler:California girl.
21:50Jennifer Fisher:California girl. Denim is very important. Also I wear.
21:53Bobby Schuessler:What's your favorite pair of sunglasses right now?
21:54Jennifer Fisher:The new Saint Laurent ones that I have, that look a little more Audrey Hepburn. They're like a little more rounded, but they're amazing. They're very cool. I also love an aviator. I'm a big aviator girl. So I wear the Saint Laurent aviators that are wireframed, that are oversized. I like to wear sunglasses indoors. So those are my favorite like work sunglasses.
22:14Bobby Schuessler:I'm into it. All right, before we wrap up, because I feel like we could talk for hours, what is next for Jennifer Fisher, 2026? It's only January. What can you share? Well, men's. I mean, I wear women's too, but men's fantastic.
22:28Jennifer Fisher:TBD on launch day, we just had to push it because of something else. The struggles of getting larger. I have a cool collaboration coming out with my girlfriend, Gabby Bernstein, which will probably be out before this comes out. Gabrielle Bernstein, who is very big in the wellness and self-help space. I wanted to create something with her that felt very meaningful because we're very good friends and she's sort of my mentor. We created a collection of three pieces that have her words. It's a mini Kevin Hoop that has manifest resilience, love, but you can't read them, but you keep those with you all day long.
22:57Bobby Schuessler:You know, yeah. Yeah.
22:59Jennifer Fisher:And then a long, like obeliskite long, it's a little bit smaller than my dagger pendant that we did in the semi precious. So it's a little bit shorter, but it's gold and it has all of the words in it on a leather cord. That's adjustable too. You can't really see it, which is very cool. So it just looks like a chic pendant. Gabby's husband already stole hers. And then a Natasha cuff that has the words on the inside of it.
23:16Bobby Schuessler:So that's coming out soon.
23:18Jennifer Fisher:There's lots of, oh, I have Very fun collaboration coming out in February.
23:22Bobby Schuessler:Oh my gosh, I can't wait.
23:23Jennifer Fisher:That's coming. We are working on some things in the soft goods space, given the success of the iconic beanie. We are now working on some other soft goods, which is very exciting, as well as some jewelry storage things. Okay. As we opened our two new stores with our coffee bars and our snacks and things like that, it makes sense to also offer things that make sense. I have a chic gold salt spoon coming. I have a salt cellar. Things that were very successful when I did the CB2 collab, it made sense for me to redesign those. It's like, okay, we did that once. How can we approve that and make them ourselves?
23:53Jennifer Fisher:So lots of things.
23:54Bobby Schuessler:So exciting. There's always lots of things with you. Yes. Well, this has been amazing. I loved this. Love you. Love you too. And we're looking forward to everything you have coming up this year.
24:04Jennifer Fisher:Thanks for having me. And I can't wait to see you when you're in town.
24:12Bobby Schuessler:A huge thank you to jewelry designer, Jennifer Fisher. Make sure to subscribe to our show wherever you listen to podcasts. so you don't miss an episode. And while you're there, I'd be so grateful if you'd rate and review us. If you have guest suggestions or any other feedback, drop us a line at podcast at whoatwear.com or you can find us on social at Whoatwear. See you next Wednesday on the Whoatwear podcast.
24:41Bobby Schuessler:This episode was produced by Hilary Kerr, Summer Hammers, and Natalie Thurman. Our production assistant is Raven Yamamoto. Our editor is Ko Takasugi Chernavin Our audio engineers are Glen Canyon Audio And our music is by Jonathan Leahy
From the publisher
In this episode, Who What Wear Shopping Director Bobby Schuessler sits down with jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher to look back on her career 20 years after she started her namesake brand. Over the last two decades, Fisher was named a finalist for the 2012 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, was crowned the "queen of hoops" by The New York Times, and has counted celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Hailey Bieber among her clientele. She's also sharing the ways she's expanding her empire—from new retail locations to her cookbook, Trust Your Gut, to her lifestyle brand, Maedyn.
