Vogue Icon Candy Pratts Price On Why September Is The January of Fashion

0:28This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mao. Yes. Yes. Oh, my God. So fun. It was it was the best. It was the best. I can still hear her voice note in my head. I wish I'd have saved them all. Oh, my God. Her voice sending me voice notes. I would shudder. That's a delight. Yeah, it was it was quite something. Well, because tell us what she she was one of the first contributors for the nascent Vogue dot com. Right. And so you would sort of help her write those posts. Yeah. And she had this incredible ability to forecast trends, even if, you know, she'd be feeling a mood and a vibe. And any time getting a voice note from her about the urgency of like, this look is the moment is kind of what you would feel from her.

1:11And it was really exciting. She had so much personality and she had so much style. All right. Chama, what was your Vogue World experience from afar? Well, first of all, I want to just say what an amazing experience it was, because it is rare for me to be able to rope my boyfriend into anything that's fashion related. And he was just as wowed as I was. And we watched it on the big screen. We basically have a projector in the living room of our New York apartment. And we watched it from there. And it was so, so fun. fun. I mean, seeing Hunter Schaefer with that beautiful Orlando costume and the apple.

1:52The original Tilda Swinton Orlando costume. Oh, my God. It was so it was such a perfect casting. And then my friend was text was live texting me updates and being like, oh, my God, I'm crying over this Diane Keaton tribute. And it was so cool. Oh, I know that really was an Anna inspo. She really she figured out how to get the rights to that song. She masterminded that whole thing. And it really, I thought, was extremely touching. It was. Yeah, I have to say, I just, as it's been a couple of days, I keep thinking about certain moments like Princess Leia on the back of a golf cart zooming down the runway.

2:27And my favorite moment of the whole event was milling around before the show and seeing everyone backstage because the whole premise of the show was a film set off duty and sort of in between takes. And that's what it actually it was a meta version of that when everyone was waiting to do the show. And that was really fun to see Bonnie and Clyde having their like Starbucks and their jewel right before going on. It was incredible. It was really incredible. And it was so amazing to see Tiana Taylor on the runway because I think to me she's kind of like this year's MVP in a way. She just rules in every single way.

3:12And her energy, her performance with Danai on the runway, that dance was incredible. I heard those rings were insured for like 100 ,000. Oh, my God. I mean, I have to say their breakout was one of the best performing of the night. That's incredible. I love to hear that. Choma, how was the rest of your trip to New York? It was really fun. What else did I do? Did I squeeze in another movie? What was the first movie? I watched Hamnet, a screening of Hamnet, which was very beautiful, very moving, extremely sad. I hadn't read the books. I wasn't quite prepared for the waterworks. But that was amazing.

3:51It stars Jesse Buckley and Paul Mascow. Everyone says it's like their favorite movie of the year. I'm very excited. Yeah, yeah. I can't wait for everybody to see it. I think it's going to be really big for awards season. So I saw a screening of that at 10 in the morning on a Thursday. Wow. Yeah, the guy in front of me fell asleep. I was like, I don't know how, but he did. I was very much, my nervous system was very much activated during the entire thing. But it's a really beautiful film. I saw Roof Man, which I really recommend, which is with Channing Tatum. I mentioned it in the culture episode.

4:29and also one battle after another. So tell me, I know it's a big week in New York, and who are you looking forward to seeing at the CFDAs? Well, A$AP Rocky is getting the Style Icon Award presented by one Ms. Anna Wintour. Wow. We are very excited about that. Peter Moulier from Alaya is the International Designer Award, So that is always fun to see who he will dress. My beloved Sarah Moonves of W Magazine is getting the Eugenia Shepard Media Award, which is very exciting. And Donatella Versace is getting the Philanthropic Award, which is fantastic. So wait, you're going from Halloween into... Oh, yeah.

5:18Halloween is this weekend. I'm so excited. I love Halloween. Me and my children and Lloyd and Graham are being Scooby-Doo. Obviously, Lloyd is being Scooby. I'm being Velma. I'm currently looking for someone who has a orange turtleneck sweater and a red miniskirt because I don't like to buy costumes if I can make them or borrow them. So, yeah, very excited for trick-or-treating. And then I'm going to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday. and then the marathon is on Sunday, my favorite day of the year in New York City. Alice and I are going to go to Fort Greene and cheer with some friends there.

5:59I do, low-key, I think it's the best place to cheer people on, don't you think? It's the best. Fort Greene is the best. DeKalb is where to go. What else? So Givenchy is celebrating 10 years of the Saraband Studios, which is where, I don't know if you've heard of the Saraband Studios, have you? No, what is that? Saraband was set up in the memory of the late Lee Alexander McQueen, basically supporting the next generation of designers. So a lot of people have come through that studio. So Sarah's hosting a dinner in celebration of that, which I think will be really beautiful. So I'm excited to see who attends.

6:39I think Sarah always brings together such a wonderful crew of people. And she's so faithful to her crew. Like it's always the same people And it really feels like she actually has relationships with the people who love her clothes, which I always love to see. Yeah, she really does. And it was interesting when she did the Lightroom conversation last year. We had this fabulous dinner and I got to meet some of the women who work behind the scenes and have been working behind the scenes with Sarah. She basically has an all-woman team and they're just so committed and it feels like a family. she has decades deep relationships with people in her studio and atelier and there are vocal contributors like Camilla Nickerson who have been part of that crew too so it felt like being at someone's Thanksgiving, it was really lovely I have to say Choma, when I was in LA I spent a lot of time just sort of angsting about our numbers but I also was a very rare moment that I read a book because I feel like I'm always passing out I know I haven't been doing that either.

7:43I read Lily King's new novel. I'm dying to read Lily King's new novel. It's like candy. You just, I read it so fast. I love her writing and I think she's so good. So that was a delight. I'm literally going to order it online today. I hope it's out here in the UK because I was going to buy it at McNally's before I left and I didn't get a chance to. Yeah. Oh, I forgot. There is one story that has gone viral on our site. Oh yeah, we should mention that. Is it embarrassing to have a boyfriend, Choma? Oh, my God. This story has gone viral on every single Vogue, British Vogue platform. People are crazy.

8:19I know. I mean, I do think it's actually a really smart piece. Shantae Joseph wrote it, and she's a frequent contributor and used to work on a magazine that's very beloved here, a digital magazine called Galdem. She wrote this very smart piece about basically the fact that there's been this whole trend online for hard launching your relationship. And that seems to have faded into obscurity. And now everybody is concealing their partners because maybe having a boyfriend is embarrassing. It was very it was really interesting to read and also quite refreshing, I think. And people are losing their mind about it.

8:57so I suggest you'll read it and um and weigh in please weigh in on the conversation I am very excited to read it yeah you know apparently being single gives you the and I'm quoting this from a creator who's quoting the piece being single gives you this freedom to say and do what you want it's absolutely not every woman but I do notice that we can become more beige and watered down online when in a relationship myself included so I guess it's all about centering yourself and not about centering your partner, which I'm away from.

9:32We are going to take a short break. We'll be back in a moment.

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10:24Candy, we're so happy to have you here. Welcome to The Run Through. This is a real treat for us. And I have to say, just preparing for this interview has been a delight to take a stroll through Candyland. But I do feel like the youth really hang on to your September is the January of fashion and it becomes something that is resurfaces each year. But I had forgotten the whole quote, which is from the September issue, which really made me laugh going back to it, which was September is the January in fashion. This is when I change. This is when I'm going to try and get back into high heels because that's the look.

10:58The look is sexy. The look is granny. What does that mean? Well, there was a shoe star called Granny Get Your Shoes, and it was during the time where Betsy Bunky and NeNe also existed in the 50s and where Norma Kamali started. And shoes were very granny-looking, meaning I've always loved a spectator. I kind of loved that 40s pump look. I'm not into a very pointy shoe, but it just, for me, I think it was fashion talk. And I want to know what you thought about this September. This felt like a real January in some ways. It was a real new day for fashion. You weren't in Paris, but what were you thinking from afar when you were looking at the collections?

11:49From afar, it felt global to me, watching Milan and watching Paris. I did feel that there was a deep concern for clothes, not so much an extravaganza of, you know, Broadway play acting it out. It was really – they were sort of considering. I think the hard job right now is a merchant's job on how to take those and make them like, I want to have it. I want to have it because some of it is so quiet. Oh, that's interesting. That you say, do I really want it or do I need it? Not to mention the state of this economy, which has nothing to do, not their problem. It's the way the situation is, which is terribly unfair and too political to discuss.

12:43That's interesting that you say that. I felt like a lot of us were saying in reaction to quite a few of the shows how exciting it was that shows felt dynamic and boundary pushing, but also very commercial and that they really had a lot of very wearable pieces. So I wondered if for merchants it did make it easier, like that Loewe collection. There were a lot of great bags that I think people would want to buy. The same with Dior, those denim miniskirts. Some ladies are definitely going to buy those. And I wonder if sort of what people are going to be pulling out of that and actually recreating or what trends will really sort of stand the test of time when things hit stores.

13:21I mean, we'll see how it all goes. I mean, they have a very hard job to applaud what they saw because these are new young fashion designers. And they need the encouragement. and the last thing you need is somebody coming in from the back, cutting from corporate or saying, didn't sell, didn't sell, didn't sell. You know, that is so, you know, depressing to a creative person. I mean, even if you say, I don't care, you do care. Of course you care, you know, and you want to see it worn and you just don't want to see it worn because it's going to an event and you borrowed it or whatever. You want to know that people are like, I think when we were here, when I was here with you and actually with you, because you came as Andre's assistant.

14:16And of course, I was sitting in that small office, which he had, which he thought considered was a shower. And my desk was outside of his. So whatever arrived for me was his. In other words, it didn't matter. And I said, but the flowers are mine. That, he thinks that they were his. Then he would leave his office and had a typewriter. I'd be looking at him. He had a big typewriter, and he would type away and do all his faxes. He never really sat in what he called, it's a shower. I don't fit in here. I said, well, if we take a little bit of the stuff out, you know what I mean? We could remove some stuff.

14:58I, of course, had an assistant underneath the desk, Christina. And exactly. And you, lovely you, when my father passed away, I didn't even really know you. You left a little book on my desk. Thank God he didn't think it was for him. And you said, I found when my father passed away that this was helpful. I went, this girl's going to be working, you know. I mean, who buys a little book and leaves it secret? I can't remember what book it was. It was a little notebook. Oh, yes, yes. An empty notebook. I do find that helpful. You know, with the ribbon and saying it helps. Yeah. You know, he, of course, made all the exclamations in the world.

15:39You must start filling it in, you know. Like, I have something to do now. I feel like that was a very 25 me thing to do because it's sort of presumptuous to give an empty journal to someone. Well, no, you were. You were. You know, you wrote that you felt that when your father had passed, it had helped. Well, it's true, but yes. But in any case, I knew you then. And then, of course, since we all had to do whatever Mr. Talley said, obviously. Yeah. So I was telling Chloe when we were talking, they were putting together our little prep for the thing. And they said, oh, something about a funny story.

16:18And I said, oh, I have quite a Candy story because it actually— But Candy looks quite nervous at the moment. No, this is before I came to Vogue. Candy really helped my career in a huge way, even before I came to Vogue. And I don't know if you remember this, Candy, but I was at Calvin Klein. I was relatively new there. I think actually very new there. What were you doing there? I was head of PR, and we had a new shoe line, a new, I guess, were the accessories director at Vogue at the time. Candy, was that your first role at Vogue? Yeah, a fashion director. Accessories. Yes. So you were coming up to see the new Calvin Klein shoe collection at Schwartz & Benjamin at the Fuller Building.

17:00Do you remember this? So I'm there with Calvin. I mean, here's a man who, you know, legend. I barely have known the man, you know, petrified. So you walk in and you're like very upset. and it turns out somewhere along the way, one of your like diamond earrings had fallen off. And so, you know, Kennedy's obviously upset. We're looking for the diamond earring. I'm sort of dispatched to go downstairs. I'm looking everywhere. I'm out on the street. And then I say to the guy, can I look in the, you know, like the service, like the bottom of the elevator, service elevator. They go, no, I can't get you in there now.

17:37Or the elevator bank. So I can't get you in there. The super's not here, da-da-da-da. So I go back upstairs. By this time, the appointment is just – the appointment's over before it began. And I tell you and Calvin, they're going to look in the service bank, the elevator bank. And Calvin's looking and be like, what's an elevator bank? And so anyway, everyone leaves. And we go back. No diamond. Candy's still upset. It was not – it was certainly not the dream appointment. I was hoping to have a Calvin Klein, except for the fact that about an hour later, I get a call from the super of the Fuller building, and they went down in the elevator bank and found the diamond earring.

18:20So I called Candy. Like inside the elevator? You know, I think it fell – I think I'm probably calling it the wrong thing, but you know how it really fell on that little crack. The ledge. Where the door closed. Yeah. So it went down beneath the elevator. Oh, my God. And somehow they figured out how to find it. But anyway, so I tell Candy this great news. I get a bouquet of flowers from Candy, right, with a note, you're a star, which I think I kept for 100 years. But most importantly and most graciously, Candy actually called Calvin and said, you know, Virginia did such a nice thing. From then on, I was good.

18:57I was good. If Candy liked me, Calvin liked me. It was all fine. And then I could call Virginia any time. Oh, yeah, that I always owed, Candy. I was like, okay. I said, oh, I need a date for MTV. I wanted Calvin, and she got him for me. You did. Candy, I want to talk about when you first came to Vogue, set the scene. What year was it? What were you doing? Where were you coming from? What was your interview with Anna like? Who were you working alongside? I came six months after Anna. So I was at Harper's Bazaar. And again, attributed to Polly was all the great. I mean, Polly was still there. Polly Mullen.

19:38I believe Jade was already stepping away. Will you use last names for the uninitiated? I'm sorry. I know they— Jade Hobson. I'm sorry. I know people live like Madonna here, but I just like all of our listeners to have full context. Okay. And I mean, everybody was— Carleen Serf to dozo. Carleen Surf, as we knew her, we dropped the do, you know? I mean, she may do initials, but we dropped it. We just said it's Carleen Surf. And, you know, I met with Anna. I know exactly what I was wearing. I was wearing a Saint Laurent red suit with big brass buttons on it. Do you still have it? No. But I have the buttons.

20:23Pantsuit or skirt suit? Skirt. Oh, okay. Short. Ooh, wow. And we met, we talked. What jewelry? Oh, I think a Saint Laurent necklace, you know, heart necklace. I was completely passionate about being Saint Laurent. You know, thought I should be working for Saint Laurent or I should live with Saint Laurent. You know, it's like a commitment, you know. I felt the same about, you know, Lacroix. I wanted to move to Arles with him once. But I interviewed with both Polly, Carlene. Who else must have seen me? Andre had already introduced me, so he didn't go through the question. And it was four times square or was it before when it was at, what's it called, Madison?

21:06It was four times square. No, 350. 350. 350. We were all in there. 350 Madison was the... Yeah, 350. Madison Avenue in New York City. Don't want to know the zip code. Thank you, Candy. Don't need a zip code. Cross street? 40th, right next to Brooks Brothers. Had two entrances. Newsstand was in the bottom. Oh, I know. No one has newsstands anymore. But newsstand was heaven. Was heaven. I mean, we ran some petty cash bills in that newsstand. Because it was easy to carry them all up. But those wonderfully thick French vogues and Italian vogues. Yeah, and you just took them upstairs, you know. It was fantastic.

21:46And you could be sent downstairs to get anything. And so that's how it started. And at 350, Kay Hayes was still there, and she was the shoe editor. So I was put in a room. Elizabeth Saltzman was there, and Gabby Daupley was there. We all had offices at that time, you know. Anna was with the big office and then everybody else's office. And ours was near the loading and the shipping department. And we were in fax machines at the time. And we had a fabulous woman called Phyllis Rifle. Oh, my God. Phyllis was here forever. I love Phyllis. She was the fact checker. Oh, I know. And she would constantly go and pick up my faxes and come over.

22:36And she would say, Missy, you have another party you're being invited to. And I'm thinking, she is so nosy. So anything that was coming in for Studio 54, she would like know my life. For reference, Phyllis Reifeld was still at Vogue when I started in 2011 and was in her 70s at the time, but would sort of pace the halls after hours to like the sort of the ghost of Rebecca. And to correct you, like it is not a ballerina, you know, it is. This is not a ballerina. It's a Mary Jane. And you go, okay, okay, we got it. Oh, I thought you were saying a dancer. I was like, what is it? I see. Everybody's copy.

23:20She was fantastic. Yeah, she was fantastic. Fantastic person to have because we had the library, too, to fact check everything. So that was my tenure there. What were people wearing to work? What was the sort of typical uniform? Was this a high stiletto? Definitely I was in a heel all the time. That's for sure. I mean, there was no comfort ever, even the picture. And I was comfortable, quite comfortable, and could run to Seventh Avenue with them back and forth. I mean, it did not matter. I think everybody did except for Polly. I mean, I never saw Polly in a stiletto. She had a very simple slingback and, you know, her— A kitten heel.

24:05I feel like I always think of her as like a black slingback kitten heel or something. poly or a flat yeah a belgian yes she had a belgian which i loved also but she would because she would be stayed in that closet everything happened in this big closet which was so beautiful because scarves were done in like from baby blue to aqua to navy blue every glove in every length you know opera length you know car everything was it was much more the It's a vogue closet of films than it is today. Exactly. Not the closet we later got and everything. You had umbrellas, parasols in case anybody needed one.

24:48More the funny face type of vibe. Yes, exactly. And I had a safe in my office because, remember, when shoots went late, you either had to drop it in the general safe when the assistants came back or there was a little safe in my office. I think that Anna is saying that my office looked like a nightclub. Who did you have lunch with? I think in the first couple of years there wasn't much of a lunch thing. Then later, you know, as she was starting the magazine, we were really cranking. Those six months was all focus of making the new Vogue. And, you know, it took hours to be. We never left. I mean, I had four assistants and at 9 p.m.

25:33they were still talking to Carlene about hoop earrings or, you know, do you have a cashmere scarf in this color? And the same thing with Polly. I mean, we were completely committed to that incredible new voyage. A lot of time was devoted to shoots at that time. You know, it's a different—it wasn't—you had that luxury, I feel. You know, same with me. When I got here, you know, I had Grace and Phyllis and Tani, and, you know, there was a lot of discussion. I mean, Phyllis would do those one-off pictures with, like, Stephen Kleiner and Irving Penn. And, you know, we would have, you know, run-throughs for, like, the chickens for Chicken Neck.

26:18And, you know, it was like—and there was a chihuahua— Wait, I want to hear more about chicken run-throughs. Yes, we had to have castings for whatever animal, fruit, plant was appearing in Mr. Penn's photographs. So would the chickens come to Four Times Square? There was definitely some chickens, and I remember a chihuahua. Wow. I also remember Shirley Lord was, and so was Katie Mauer and Julia Reed. And I think one of my biggest – the biggest thrill I've ever had about being at Vogue was being invited to the features meeting because Anna had a monthly features meeting of which the food editor, Jeffrey Seingarten, Julia Reed, Dodie would go.

27:05And just sit in that – Dodie Kazantian, our fearless art critic, writer. You would be listening to the world. Everybody, you knew the movie. You knew that coffee was going to be big because Jeffrey just came back and munching cocoa beans and he went on. Dodie said great new artist. A man could have been Curran or it could have been Rachel. You were being filled with so much information, which made me immediately run back to the accessory department and think brown pearls. I think this is what we need. We need chocolate colored pearls. I mean, I can sense it's coming. You know, portraits. That's it.

27:50Rachel finding portraits. We need jewelry that works in a portrait, you know. And that is a big thrill of being in a journalistic situation. And I think because Anna came from a newsroom kind of upbringing where people actually talk to each other and people don't send a JPEG of a shoe. You know, we had the shoes come in. They laid them all on a table. We would then call Anna. She could look at it. I would say I want to do the fuchsia, satin. I think satin for day is my favorite thing. She listened to it for a while. You know, not a lot of reaction. But, you know, I did get some okays. And, you know, between Virginia's rack coming down the hallway and my charm bracelets.