Street style photographer and fashion illustrator Garance Doré is not your average fashion blogger. Since launching her website in 2006, Doré has become an international style icon and inspiration to real women with high fashion daydreams. This New York Fashion Week, she’s teamed up with American Express and Instagram to live-stream her fashion week snaps on the American Express Instagram Towers at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week lobby at Lincoln Center. We spoke with Doré about surviving fashion week, her style inspirations, and her favorite places in New York. After our conversation it was easy to see why Doré is so in demand: she is simply a delight.
Tell us about what you'll be Instagramming for the towers at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
GARANCE DORÉ: We are doing ‘Instagram, curated by Garance.’ It’s a behind-the-scenes look at Fashion Week. My Instagram photos will be displayed in large format projections in the tents on the Instagram towers, and you will actually be able to scroll through them, using your hands, so it’s interactive.
As a photographer, what do you think of Instagram?
GD: I’m a happy Instagrammer, because I like to share smaller moments of my adventures. It’s perfect for fashion week. It’s more about the moment than the photography.
What’s the secret to surviving Fashion Week?
GD: Exercise! You need to have energy and try to keep cool. Just keep in check with reality. Actually, New York is the best fashion week because it’s the first, so you are very fresh.
What was your career like before your started your blog?
GD: I was a fashion illustrator. I wanted to be a photographer and I tried to take photography classes, but it was so difficult. It was really technical and I just couldn’t get through it. I’m a product of the digital world, so I love working with digital photography, and that led to the blog.
I really enjoy your editorializing on the blog. Your post about the different emphasis that Americans place on getting engaged vs. the French was really funny, and very true. Do you live in New York?
GD: Thank you so much! I live in New York, yes! Down on University. I’ve lived here for two years.
What would you say is the biggest difference between Paris and New York?
GD: It’s incomparable. Everywhere is a village compared to New York. I mean, I love Paris but there’s nowhere like New York. The energy is incredible.
What are your New York favorites for eating, drinking, relaxing, and shopping?
GD: My favorite restaurant right now is La Esquina. I know it's a classic, but I got excited over it all over again because of the ceviche. I don't really have a favorite bar, though Sunny's in Red Hook is so perfectly unique and real—it's a secret I almost don't want to share.
My favorite Spa is the Caudalie Spa. The treatments are wonderful and it's the only spa I know where you can have a glass of wine in the lounge.
My favorite place to shop is Kirna Zabete. I also think the new shoe floor at Barneys is a real treat. And for vintage I go to Brooklyn just because I love to say, "I found it in Brooklyn." To dream, I go to the Wythe Hotel.
Who are your style icons?
GD: My style icon is Lauren Hutton in the ’70s and ’80s, and also Charlie's Angels. I had to watch the TV show for a project I've been working on, and seriously, the fashion was so good—even better than Sex and the City, and believe I love Sex and the City.
What would you say is your uniform, an outfit for when you want to feel confident and comfortable?
GD: To feel confident, I wear a tailored jacket over a short skirt or wide, low-waisted pants. A tailored jacket looks good on every angle—nothing better to make you feel extra confident. Stella McCartney does the best ones for me.
I saw your ad for Net-a-Porter. You looked absolutely beautiful.
GD: Oh by the way, I am wearing Stella on the Net-à-Porter ad. I love Stella McCartney, because I love her taste and she always surprises me, but she also does wonders for my body type. I couldn't have found a better designer to protect me from the stress of being photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, who was an angel by the way.
What other projects do you have planned for fall that you can tell us about?
GD: First, we are launching my blog redesign. Then, the second season of Pardon My French is in the starting blocks. After fashion week we are planning on making a big party for a secret project I have. It will be my first big party!