Second Life

Who What Wear Associate Director of Special Projects Kristen Nichols just got back from Paris Fashion Week, so we had to get her in for an episode to break down her time in the fashion capital of the world. Join Kristen and Shopping Director Bobby Schuessler as they discuss the biggest headlines from Paris, their favorite shows, and the trends they’ve noticed across fashion month—from a return to personal style to an anti–quiet luxury movement. Plus, they talk about their dream shopping lists, including which of the 11 newly debuted Hermès bags they’d love to own.

Imani Ellis is the founder and CEO of The Creative Collective and CultureCon. Imani studied communications in college and soon after began her career as an NBC Page at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. After just two months, she was plucked from the program for a job in communications at Bravo. She spent the next few years at NBCUniversal, rising through the ranks, but she craved a more authentic connection and collaboration. In 2016, she founded The Creative Collective from her living room. What started as a weekly gathering for Black and Brown creatives quickly outgrew her apartment, as Imani realized there was a real need for these spaces. In 2017, she created CultureCon, a conference that brought together Black and Brown voices to collaborate and celebrate each other. Over the next few years, she scaled CultureCon considerably by moving to larger venues; inviting guests such as Tracee Ellis Ross and Regina King; and working with brands like Target, Google, HBO, and Netflix. In 2022, she left NBCUniversal, where she’d risen to VP of communications, unscripted entertainment publicity, to pursue her projects full-time. This year’s CultureCon, presented in partnership with Max, wrapped up just this past weekend.

Jenny Walton is an illustrator, a writer, and Vogue's vintage shopping columnist. She studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design and subsequently worked in fashion and textile design at places such as Anthropologie and Calypso St. Barth. She eventually transitioned into illustration and began posting her work on Instagram, where she has since built a dedicated following. She also drew attention for her unique, vibrant, and eclectic sense of style. For the last few years, she's been living in Milan, pursuing further opportunities in illustration and running the popular Substack publication Jenny Sais Quoi. Walton joins us this week to talk about her sources of inspiration, the difference between American and Milanese fashion, and her best vintage shopping tips.

Chelsea Hirschhorn is the founder and CEO of the fertility, pregnancy, and infant product company Frida. Chelsea originally worked as a lawyer, first as a bankruptcy attorney during the 2008 financial crisis, and then as associate counsel and director of special events for the Miami Marlins. But after a few years, she realized that she’d built a self-sufficient business at the Marlins and started to think about other opportunities for growth. At the same time, she’d started a family, and when her son got his first cold, she pulled out a Swedish nasal aspirator called a NasFrida that her neighbor had gifted her a few months prior. She used it and thought, “Why isn’t this product available in every corner of America?” As it turned out, the neighbor, who had a business importing and selling NasFridas, was looking to sell theirs and close up shop. Chelsea took a risk, bought the stock, and the NoseFrida was born. She quickly got the product into pediatrician’s offices and began sourcing and creating new ones. Today, her company, Frida, has over 150 products; is available in major retailers like Target, CVS, and Walmart; and is carried at more than 430,000 distribution points in 45 countries. The brand offers postpartum solutions, fertility aids, and recovery kits for C-sections and incomplete pregnancies. Today, Frida is known as a massively helpful brand for new parents and hopeful ones.

Marylin Fitoussi is the costume designer of the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris. Since its first season, Marilyn's work on the show has been a crucial and beautiful piece of the show's storytelling, and in 2022, she won the Costume Designer’s Guild Award for Excellence in Contemporary Television. Over the last four seasons, she’s guided Emily and company through character development, masquerade balls, trips to Italy, and much more with her joyous costumes. Marylin joins us this week to talk about all the details of the looks in Emily in Paris season 4, the important dialogue between herself and the actors, and what kind of fashion she hopes to dive into in the recently announced season 5.