Sartorial Sitdown With Cintra Wilson

Though perhaps best known for her biweekly "Critical Shopper" column in the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times—a post she's held for several years—writer Cintra Wilson is far more than just a crafty wordsmith or, as some may think when reading her words ripped out of their carefully constructed context, a provocateur. Cintra the woman, though first and foremost a tough, platinum-bobbed cookie, is also a supremely likeable, self-effacing woman who, no matter who you are or what you do, is 100% locked-in to learning more about you, and how the hell you both ended up at the same random party. When she's not hosting her monthly literary group at Pasita (the members of which range from writers of all kinds to doctorates in rocket science to theater actors to the occasional question-dodging friend up from DC who we all know isn't really a Foreign Service Officer), Cintra is either scouring eBay for clothing her boyfriends hate or actively disobeying her friend Simon Doonan's advice to never earn a living as a writer.

She's been one of the most influential writers in my short career as a fashion journalist, and fortunately, she agreed to open up a little about herself, whether she actually likes shopping, and what we can look forward to reading from her in the near future.

Because your Critical Shopper column often features fashion-forward clothing boutiques, readers tend to assume you're really into the stuff. Are you?

I'm crazy about fashion, and if I had the means, I'd follow Daphne Guinness around like a toddler and imitate everything she does. But I am an underpaid writer, so I really can't afford any of that stuff. I try to keep impulse-purchases under control. Even the occasional, smart, "investment" buys I justify for myself have been quite debt-enhancing.

I think of fashion as a very immediate and fluid art form, so I try to look at top-shelf, couture boutiques the same way I look at art galleries – I don't need to own the stuff to appreciate what it means, and what it makes me feel.

What about fashion girls, in general? What is your impression of women in the industry?

Honestly, I am such a weird, rogue anomaly in the fashion world. I barely know any of those chicas. In my very limited experience, the girls you see running around at fashion week tend to be quite smart, fretfully beautiful girls who are perhaps a little more tightly-wound and insecure than their less-fabulous counterparts. It seems they're rather cruelly competitive with each other, which I presume is a motivational habit they picked up back in the nation's top prep schools. The people I really enjoy and admire, on the scant occasions I happen to be hanging around the fashion scene, are the hardcore fashion lifers like Lynn Yaeger and Mr. Mickey [Boardman]. They have a great way of metabolizing fashion ideas with their own creative enzymes.

Which has been the most fun Critical Shopper installment to write? The one you're most proud of?

Writing that column is always very fun for me. The structure of the column is pretty tight and specific, but since it is critical and therefore subjective, there is a certain contained rumpus area where I am allowed to really fool around with language. I try to open myself completely to the experience when I go to the different boutiques, take in as much information as I can, and let the spaces themselves dictate the column–so they're all very different to me, and I like different pieces I've written for different reasons.

But certain stores have inspired me to get into rhapsodic fugue states. I'd have to say the Dolce & Gabbana article remains one of my personal favorites; their Madison Avenue space was so over-the-top, it inspired a really bonkers, somewhat ecstatic piece of writing, which was also informed by a certain paranoid, political edginess that was in the air at the time (it was written shortly before the 2008 presidential election.)

Lately I am enjoying the pieces I get to write about stores that have a lot of history to chew on, like Beretta or Tiffany.

When you go to a store in preparation for writing the column, do you ever tell the people working there who you are and what you're up to?

I mostly succeed in doing it anonymously, but sometimes I have no choice. You can't really hang around high-end jewelry stores trying on $37,000 tennis bracelets and jotting down notes for hours when there's three nervous attendants, you're the only person in the store, and you don't seem particularly interested in buying anything. Sometimes I lie to people and give them a fake name, since there aren't a whole lot of Cintras running around, but that always feels dirty to me. If I really go nuts for a store, I will sometimes tell them who I am before I leave, because I know they'll be happy with the review.

Whenever someone tells me fashion/style writing is inherently vapid, I always forward your latest column to them. How would you respond to someone who tried to tell you what you write isn't as elevated, intellectually, as say, a column in the Politics section of the paper?

Well, fashion isn't an obviously brainy thing to write about–it is a fairly hermetic world that exists in its own froofy bubble. I think homophobia and sexism may play a role in the trivializing of fashion; I think it is regarded as being something of a feminine ghetto, to the extent that it is tethered to the beauty industrial complex and women's magazines (the stock in trade of which tends to be largely inane articles about How Getting My Teeth Veneered Helped Me Have Better Orgasms, etc.) But I think it's a mistake to write off fashion as being devoid of intellectual content.

Do you think it's at all an important subject to write about?

I don't see fashion as separate from the rest of society; it's a very eloquent voice in the cultural dialogue and a really strong indicator of what direction the socio-politico-economic winds are blowing. All of our most immediate feelings about the world we live in are reflected in fashion, so yes, I do think it's important.

You can pick up a surprising amount of social information from the runway.
The prevailing themes in new designs can be read like texts – they contain quotes from history; shapes and cuts from the past that are intended to evoke the cultural attitudes of certain eras that seem to be repeating themselves.

A good example of this was the windows of Barney's right after the Obama election. Most of the looks during the last administration were very buttoned-up, Barry Goldwater-revisited, modest suits and dresses that were direct visual quotes from the non-hippy, establishment-wife looks of the mid-60's. It seemed like the very minute Obama won, Simon Doonan splashed out and filled the Barney's windows with big dopey flowers, Women's Lib-type images of female rock stars like Carly Simon, and various other peacenik, free love, flower-power symbols. Fashion had been repressing its anti-war, hippy protest looks before the 2008 election. Previous to the administration change, designers seemed to be collectively drawing their inspirations from socially conservative looks that represented the other side of the Vietnam conversation — the dress code of the ruling powers, as opposed to the style of the opposition. Things look a bit more loose now than they did just over a year ago.

What is the best advice you've ever gotten from someone on making it as a professional writer?

It actually came from Simon Doonan, who said, "Have a real job on the side." It's a great piece of advice that I've never followed. Writing is a terrible way to make a living.

Any upcoming projects you can share?

Actually, I am very excited about a new book I am working on. It's called
Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling the Belt Regions to Expose America's Fashion Destiny.

It's going to be a big road-trip fashion research project about the Bible Belt, Rust Belt, Frost Belt, Sun Belt, Cotton Belt, etc. It's about how a region's political economy is reflected in its fashion, and how fashion affects how people feel about themselves and their possibilities for the future. It's about "fashion determinism": you are what you wear.

That sounds incredible. You've had a big, pretty high-profile year in 2009—what lesson have you learned over the past 12 months, if any? (yes, that is a leading question)

I think it really began to make more than just abstract sense to me that if you stare at anything long enough you will eventually see the face of God. Everything becomes everything and nothing simultaneously if you zoom in or out on it enough. Does that sound like I've been drinking the wrong kombucha?

No more than usual, but let's talk about something more concrete: you have 5K to blow at Barneys—where do you go first, and how do you spend it?

For the record, I have never in my life had 5K to blow at Barneys, but if I did, I'd probably end up buying something boring, sensible, indestructible thing that I thought would last the rest of my life for about 2K... and then I'd buy all my Christmas presents.

If there was a gun to my head and I was forced to be frivolous and self-indulgent, I'd head right for the Rick Owens, Lanvin and Givenchy and probably end up with a long, bruise-colored garment, platform bondage boots and/or some tarted-up variation on a big black bowling bag.

Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Redacto

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