What makes you so poetic & chic anyways?
Poetic and Chic is an online magazine featuring fashion, trends, art, culture, crafts, ideas...whatever is inspiring me at the moment. Whatever is keeping my hands and mind busy.
Actually, here's the real scoop: I have degrees in art & English, and studied fashion design after college. I've been working in fashion for five years, and I've been a keen observer of the human race for many more than that. Other strange employment? I've been a line cook, executive assistant, and a costume designer. I plan parties, fundraise, and I'm a good shopper; I know where to find stuff, and I know how to make stuff when I can't find it.
I have always wanted to have a magazine and now that there's this lovely little invention called "the internet," and an even lovelier, littler invention called a "blog," I can mix my own and be my own editor-in-chief. Poetic & Chic does plan to grow into a magazine with other contributors too - if you want to be one of them, send me a pitch!
Overall, I'm best at bringing people together and making things beautiful - if I can do both at the same time, even better! The thing is, you don't need to spend a cartload of money to be Poetic & Chic - you just need to be genuine, creative, and full of fun.
Where'd you get the name "poetic and chic"?
On the main page there is a photo of my bookshelf with my favorite Jenny Holzer Truism prominently featured: "In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy."
The title of "Poetic & Chic" popped into my mind just as I was drifting off to sleep one night. I couldn't get that song "One" from A Chorus Line out of my head: "She walks into a room and you know she's uncommonly rare, very unique, peripatetic, poetic, and chic..." Since no one really knows what peripatetic means, I decided to go with "Poetic & Chic".
(Peripatetic: Walking or travelling about. Of or pertaining to Aristotle, or the Aristotelian school of philosophy, who taught philosophy while walking in the Lyceum in ancient Athens.)
You're very mysterious about your real life...what is it you really do?
I work for a major luxury brand as a product and sales trainer (among other things, but that's basically it in a nutshell.) I don't like to say who the brand is simply because, well, I don't want that to be all people remember about me. I'm so much more than my big-brand job! However, you could probably figure it out if you read absolutely every single post on this site. Good luck!
How did you learn all of this stuff?
Well, as I said, I did go to some very good schools at great expense. However, the best learning comes from the University of Life - even the jobs that require the most drudgery usually result in the best learning. Also, it runs in the blood: my mother is quite possibly the most creative aesthete that ever lived, while my grandmothers were both crafty gals and excellent in the kitchen. I even had an aunt who was an Haute Couture buyer for a department store in the 1930s & 1940s!
Yes, I come from a long line of charming and stylish women and I'm simply holding up the family tradition.
So why aren't you in New York or somewhere more, I don't know, fashionable?
Hey now, that's getting a little personal. But if you must know, it's because I'm a fourth-generation San Franciscan, and there's nothing I love more than the sound of foghorns and cable cars. Also, I live in a neighborhood where I can hop on my bicycle, ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Marin County within about fifteen minutes. Can you do that in midtown Manhattan?
It's not like San Francisco is some fashion black hole, either. We have lots of independent design, boutiques, and publications that keep the city buzzing creatively. I am proud to contribute in any way I can.