Screen Tests: an interview with Lauren Sams
Meet the woman with the best job in fashion media.
I’m interviewing people I find interesting for Screen Tests. They’re people I know who I think are fascinating and that I think you should know more about. This will be in addition in the Screenshot This that you know where I share my recommendations on what I’m reading/watching/listening/experiencing.
This is Lauren Sams.
It’s assumed that you would know everyone in media but I didn’t really know her until starting this newsletter (the power of the internet as a source of connection etc etc). I had seen Lauren Sams’ byline around the traps when I was in that world, and always thought she was a killer writer, especially when she wrote really about the zeitgeist, something culturally relevant. (She has had some REALLY good articles in the new iteration of InStyle magazine.)
Good writers are those who can put together a nice sentence and have a point of view at the same time. Lots of people have opinions. Everyone can ‘write’ (more or less, debateable, sometimes, when I see some officially published writing). I’m a tough judge when it comes to writing and Sams’ is probably one of the few that stands out to me in Australia AND with a fascinating point of view. Sams’ knows the value of a pithy line, as our text messages can attest. Far pithier than me.
She has always been one of Screenshot This’ earliest supporters, namely because I think we consume the same kind of content and she has a worthwhile point of view on fashion, particularly the business of fashion, where fashion is going, trends — not just fashion as STUFF but fashion as a cultural and economic force. She is the Australian Financial Review’s first full-time, on-staff, Australian-based fashion editor and as she puts it “a short-order cook for two small people”.
This interview is also HILARIOUS and made me laugh out loud. She is also wickedly intelligent and reads way more books than me and listens to podcasts and everything else so her recommendations list is a dream.
And, as promised to my paid subscribers (numbering in the hundreds, thank you!) this one is paywalled because it’s that good.
Some favourites from the interview include Sams’ prediction that there will be a backlash to online consignment and the changing media landscape.
You can also read the first instalment of Screen Tests below for the next day or so. (Any newsletters over a fortnight gets moved to the archives to be enjoyed by paid subscribers.)
And because I’ve had an influx of new subscribers, here are some past newsletter editions for a taster.
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