Here are Valentina Di Pinto‘s essentials who is a Fashion Editor for Glamour Italy and whose style I just love, and whose humor (yes, it’s my favorite personality trait a person can have) and haircut I secretly dream of stealing.

My Top: my essential is a leather t-shirt from COS. When it’s really cold it is better to wear something under or over it and if it’s hot …it’s better to stay in the shade!

My Bottom: Very, very thin leather pants from H&M, a leather ’50′s skirt by Salvatore Ferragamo and oversized leather pants by Au Jour Le Jour. I’m not kidding– I’m in a leather mood!

My Jeans: Black or grey are the essentials! I usually don’t spend too much money on them because I love to change it up a lot, so jeans from H&M.

My Evening: Transparent, transparent and even more transparent…from Acne to Valentino, whatever the fabric, it has to be soft and chic. Transparency + transparency = covered!

My Intimates: In contrast with the clothes: really colorful with dark clothes and skin tones with prints from American Apparel.

My Coat: My last buys are both bicolor: black and beige. One really grungy style from Hache and one vintage from Kamanta, in double face materials. Really aristocratic.

My Bag: Like almost every season….. a new clutch bag from Marni! But a clutch is usually not enough for everyday life, so a really cool bucket bag is the right answer. From Marni too.

My Shoes: Flat or really high, nothing in the middle! The essential this season is a chain on them. Like the shinning ones from Stella McCartney or the black & white one from Etro.

My Accessories: I’m becoming addict for necklaces; I’ve never worn them before! Lizzie Fortunato and Leda Otto are essentials for me.

My Watch: It’s one of my favorite pieces, always. My essential is a vintage one from Vacheron Constantin that my grandfather gave to my father and my father gave to me.

My Glasses: RetroSUPERfuture, they are my must! I love to wear the men’s version, they’re bigger on my face!

My Scent: Like a lot of things in my style: sunglasses, jacket, and watch; my perfume also comes from a male world. For ten years, Intense by Costume National is my second skin.

My Brunette: My hair chooses for me. They have a different life, really far away from me. They wake up when they want and they don’t care about what I like.

My Lip: Coral color it’s my must, especially one from YSL.

My Skin: Good cream, like Kiehl’s oil-free lotion, and not too much make up. Sometimes it’s not enough, but a nice smile balances everything.

My Inspiration: Any woman with a story can be an inspiration. Peggy Moffitt, Monica Vitti, Lauren Bacall, Mia Farrow, Julianne Moore and more.

I love Preetma’s style. Why, you ask?

Pffff, you ask so many questions. I think it’s because she is surprising. Like take here, for example… This is the first time I saw her. It was at fashion week last September.

Which brings me to the following conclusion, and fasten your seat belts everyone to this theory of fashion and style from Professor Gaga:

I think you can’t create your own style by trying to conceptualize or reproduce someone else’s or some celebrity’s or some movement whatever it might be (Minimalist? Retro? Rock? )(Believe me, I’ve tried them all)(You want me to do a post about all the styles I’ve tried?)(Oh man, yeah, I gotta do that. I’m laughing just thinking about it.) but just combine the things that you love and let your ideas have room to roam (even if it means having days where your look ends up being totally catastrophic. Yep, I’ve had those too.)

And even if it’s a floral skirt and a pair of Creepers, well, why not?

By not being like everyone else and listening only to your taste, you make your own style. And one day people will copy it !!! Yep. That’d be way too cool.

Don’t you go thanking me now. But I know. I’m a genius.

No but seriously, you know what I mean? (Not that I’m a genius, but this whole thing with individual style?)

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On that, if you want to hear more of my fancy theories on style and fashion, I’m giving a talk on Monday at F.I.T. and it’s open to the public. If you’re in New York, put it on your calendar!!! I’ll get you more info ASAP.

Translation : Tim Sullivan

Caroline’s career is really interesting and I’ve wanted to talk to you about her for a long time now. Not only because she’s as funny as she is brilliant, but also because her career path was anything but linear.

By the end of the interview, she’ll tell us how she went from finance to the front rows of the runway shows, what it means to be streetstyle blog darling and what an adventure it was to take on Tank, an independent art and fashion magazine based in London.

All that, plus this look that I just adore (a hoodie plus those dangly earings, so cooooool!), it’s getting a little out of hand today on this here blog. Ooookay! Come take a walk with Caroline!!! Big hugs!

I moved to Texas and helped with the acquisition of Snapple for Dr. Pepper. Then they moved me to Singapore, where my mom was from. There I worked on a financial services client and…that’s when I decided I hated financial services! I didn’t want to be reading books about mortgages on the weekends!!

…I wanted to read fashion magazines. So I asked my old firm to move me to their London office, and I got back into retail with Boots. (Editor’s Note : Woh, I guess you shouldn’t be afraid to move when starting your career!)

I met Masoud Golsorkhi, the founder of Tank, through some mutual friends. He was looking for someone to help him run the business at the time. I was quite young and naïve and so I thought, “Hell, why not? I’m going to give up a really well paying job and become an entrepreneur in fashion publishing.”

How would you describe what you do at Tank?

On top of all of that, we have a dozen of clients through our consulting agency, Tank Form, at any given time. So it’s shooting an ad campaign or developing a web shop, which we just did for Vivienne Westwood.  We also do custom magazines for brands like Levi’s.

How do you feel about covering celebrities in magazines?

For us, celebrities are famous architects or interesting artists or people who do interesting things, it’s not necessarily the People or the US magazine celebrities that we go for.

The internet is so fast and economical…why do you continue to do print?

The thing is, nobody really knows what the right business model for online is.  So I think our biggest challenge right now is figuring out what is the right business model for online and for print.

And now…  Time to interview the celebrity !!! You’ve always been one of my favorite people to shoot for the blog! How has becoming a street style icon affected your work?

I think the biggest impact has been around helping Tank and BecauseLondon, getting people either interested in it again or to discover it for the first time.

You have to remember there’s a bigger picture. If you can read a newspaper every day and have a bigger perspective than the fashion bubble that exists, you become much more aware that fashion isn’t your whole life.

You’ve been in Vogue quite a bit recently, what are the perks and the pressures of being a public figure?

I know a lot of young people who are eager to start their own magazines. What advice would you give them?

Just sticking to your point of view and making sure whatever you put out has a very specific point of view. And that the people you work with really share that point of view.

That, and getting a great team. We have 22 people in our studio now. But you need a great publisher, you need a great creative director, and you need a great editor. Those 3 people will see you through years of ups and downs.

What is your biggest dream for the future?

Well, I would like to be the next SI Newhouse (The chairman & CEO of Condé Nast).  But, I want to be the next SI Newhouse with an on-line and print marriage that’s future proof.

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Ok ! So I think you know a little more about her work – I find it super cool… Well maybe it’s because mine is a little bit the same (except we’re much less than 22 at Garance Dore Studio !).

If you have other questions for Caroline, you can ask them in the comments or on Facebook, I love to bother her with my million questions. And if you want to know more about other careers, fashion or not, just make your suggestions ! I am listenning !

Have a great day !

Check out my other career posts here !!!

Noooo wayyyyyyyyyy! That’s not chocolate!!! It’s style! Look at those prints. All you want to do is buy all of them just so you can coordinate.

Okay, maybe I’m getting a little carried away. If you live in New York, maybe you know these super trendy Mast Brothers chocolates made in Brooklyn by two very bearded men and distributed to all the chicest coffee shops in NYC. When I first saw them, I was just a little annoyed by those $8 tablets that danced around in all my favorite places. And since I’m more snobby than the snobbiest of snobs, I snubbed them.

Well, as you can see, the chocolate won : one day I saw the bar with the fancy anchor design and I couldn’t resist all of the beauty in the packaging. I bought one, had a taste, and really, the blend of chocolate, salt and almond made me fall head over heels. Like Rachel Zoe said, I died.

I suppose I should add for full disclosure that I’m totally addicted to chocolate, so it doesn’t take much. At the Studio, there are some who understand that bringing me a bar of chocolate is the best way to bribe me. So all that said, last time I was in Brooklyn, I went looking for this goodness at the source.

Here’s a few photos of their awesome boutique (and you can see their chocolate “factory” in the background, which is far less frightening than Willy Wonka’s). And on that, I’ll let you go.

I have to go ease my chocolaty conscience with some yoga.

Translation : Tim Sullivan

It’s super interesting.

I’m sure you’ve all heard that there will be no Céline show this season : Phoebe Philo, the famous artistic director for the brand, is expecting a baby in April and so has decided to replace the show (which has to be something terribly stressful) with an informal, intimate presentation.

We don’t know much more (and that’s how it should be), but the first reaction I had, personally, was to be super pleased by the strong message sent by the designer. After the downfall of designers in recent seasons, to see someone take the risk of actually giving herself a personal life, it shifted something for me… Something really hopeful.

We already knew that Phoebe Philo took a break between Chloé and Céline to take care of her kids – which potentially helped her develop her professional life as well if you consider the incredible comeback she’s had for the past four seasons. She also had the entire design studio move from Paris to London so she could stay close to her family.

And it’s just so cool how at all the shows, her parents are always there, right in the front row. Her way of navigating her professional and personal life is really inspiring.

Okay, all these sentiments are sweet and all, but I’m curious to see what happens with this Céline “no show.”

Some people say choosing not to show could put the brand at risk. In that case, if this “pause” for Céline results in some sort of loss of momentum – with people losing their jobs for example – will everyone point the finger at Phoebe Philo?
A friend was telling me about a story in the French newspaper Libération : there was a study showing that ethnic criteria, which used to be the first professional discrimination factor, has shifted back (yeah!), but the first factors now are gender and maternity / pregnancy (ouch).

As we can see, it doesn’t take a lot to scare the markets and the recruiters. So to cancel a show…

Tell me, what do you think of Phoebe Philo’s choice ?

Translation : Tim Sullivan

When someone told me that Solange Knowles was going to be the DJ for our party tonight at Tiffany, I practically fell out of my chair* : “Hoooow cool is thaaaat! She’s so cool we have to meet her!!! This is the perfect opportunity!”

And that’s how we ended up at her place in Brooklyn yesterday, taking a look through her closet, talking design and music (when she asked me if I wanted her to do a special dedication for me for the party, I didn’t know what to tell her – I feel like I’m about to become a lost cause when it comes to music.) and so it was a totally inspirational trip.

The colors and prints she surrounds herself with (in the picture, she’s wearing Marni pants and a vintage blouse), her haircut, and even the way she does her makeup… I’d been following her on her Damn Blog and she didn’t disappoint!

With that, I’ll stop with the superlatives and let you go. Scott just got back from two weeks and Europe and I’m so happy to be next to him again, finaaaaaallyyyy!!!

I’ll take some photos at the Tiffany party, I promise! Big hugs!

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* Yep, seriously… There were screams. There were shouts. I danced around the apartment. And I just about fell out of my chair. And that’s how it goes when I’m super happy. When I’m a little PO’d, I’m calm. Super calm. So yeah, that happens rarely.

Translation : Tim Sullivan