Stylish Sarah
Sarah
Sulzberger
Perpich
It is your life. She will style it. Twenty-six years in fashion, and her greatest love remains the women on the sidewalk.
"Fashion for me is not an illustration but an idea around which to create a scene."
The woman who sees
the world through fashion
She cannot turn it off. Walking down a street, Sarah Sulzberger Perpich does not see cars, people, or street lights. She sees clothing. A purse strap resting in the arm of a park bench. A man's tie in a taxi's beaded seat cover. A designer logo hidden inside a block of graffiti on the back of a truck. The world is a mood board she never asked for and cannot stop reading. Twenty-six years in fashion will do that to you. Or perhaps it was always this way, and the twenty-six years simply confirmed something already true.
Her career began where the best careers often do: with the right mentor at the right moment. She interned with former fashion editor Amy Spindler and former Fashion Director Anne Christensen, and her time at the New York Times Fashion Magazine, Fashion of the Times, kick-started what she calls a love affair with the fashion world that has never really ended. She has written for WWD, V Magazine, Style.com, POP, Diane Pernet's A Shaded View on Fashion. She worked for Zac Posen. She worked alongside Bill Cunningham. She spent four years as a personal shopper at Bloomingdale's and Henri Bendel.
And then, in 2009, she left all of it to start StylishSarah: her own personal styling and fashion consultancy, built around a philosophy so direct it functions as a manifesto. Personal styling is for EveryBody. EveryBudget. EveryLifestyle. Not for the thin or the wealthy or the young. For everyone. She had seen what fashion could do for real women on real sidewalks, and she could not unsee it.
"After working for four years as a personal shopper, I realized that my true passion lies with real women on the sidewalks, not models on the pages of magazines."
Sarah Sulzberger PerpichWhat are your greatest inspirations or influences?
I constantly keep my eyes open. Some may think it's a curse and some may think it's a blessing, but I only see clothing: sneakers, hats, jewellery, belts, bags. I see the world through fashion-coloured glasses. A purse strap in the arm of a park bench, a man's tie in a taxi's beaded seat cover, a designer logo in a block of graffiti on the back of a truck.
My mentors have been essential: Bill Cunningham, Diane Pernet, and Valerie Steele. Three people who treated fashion as a serious subject, worthy of careful attention and genuine intellectual engagement.
What is your relationship with Chanel?
Chanel will eternally be my favourite brand and probably the only exception to my rule of no logos on anything. Nothing is more chic and sophisticated than a classic Chanel handbag, a classic tweed jacket, or ballet flats: high quality, supple leather, expensive and timeless. It is the one case where the logo is not branding but confirmation of something already true.
Who are your fashion icons?
My fashion icons are women who dominate, dictate, and demand attention, as well as those who are effortlessly chic and make fashion their own. Carmel Snow, Diana Vreeland, Iris Apfel, Anna Piaggi, Catherine Deneuve, Marlene Dietrich, Victoire de Castellane, Loulou de la Falaise, Kate Moss, and Natalie Massenet.
I love to see women on the street who have mastered the art of styling, mixing and matching old with new, flea market with department stores. These women are not in any magazine. They are the real thing.
How is fashion changing?
As Coco Chanel said: "Fashion is made to become unfashionable." The best part of fashion is that nothing stays the same. Fashion, at its essence, is about change. Within the context of our current times, the two main instigators of change in fashion are the internet and the economy. The internet changed the ways in which we learn about, interact with, and consume fashion. Net-a-porter, crowdfunding, fashion films, social media: a new, powerful consumer who can customise and curate content emerged almost overnight.
The recession abolished the era of conspicuous consumption and built a new industry of creative collaborations between high and low: designer collections for H&M, Topshop, Kmart. High-end designers were forced to redirect toward safer, simpler, more practical staples. The frugal, function-oriented fashion consumer became the dominant force in the market, and the market had to respond.
Three things you cannot live without?
I cannot live without my mother's original one-of-a-kind charm bracelet, flat shoes, a sunny day in Central Park, and the New York Times style section. Granted, this is four, and you asked for three. But narrowing down is not my strong suit, as you can clearly see.
"I have been blessed, many times over, to witness just how much fashion can transform people's lives. It's an investment that will last a lifetime. It's Your Life. Styled."
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