The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Ten: The stories behind the fashion classics by Lauren Cochrane

Episode Date: August 21, 2021

The Ten: The stories behind the fashion classics by Lauren Cochrane 'Lauren Cochrane's The Ten is the definitive one-stop guide to fashion's most essential and iconic styles, with an unrivalled collection of the fashion industry's authoritative voices – from mainstream icons to underground figures – shedding light on the cultural and personal impact of classics that will never date. The perfect gift and resource for anyone with an interest in style.’ – Sara McAlpine, Fashion Features Editor, ELLE White T-shirt, Miniskirt, Hoodie, Jeans, Ballet flat, Breton top, Biker jacket, Little black dress, Stiletto, Trench. What are you wearing? In all likelihood, your outfit will feature at least one of these 10 items. Familiar, commonplace, ubiquitous - each piece has become an emblem of a certain style, carrying its own connotations and historical significance. Our social history is contained within these perfect 10 pieces - while trends may come and go, these are here to stay. The Perfect 10 includes deep dive explorations into each item's history, how it gained its reputation, and what it means today, accompanied by stylish photography and illustrations, as well as interviews with notable proponents of each item. From the evolution of the white T-shirt from army staple to symbol of achingly cool simplicity, the hoodie's birth in the monasteries of Rome to its domination of streetwear, and the transition of the stiletto from the feet of fifteenth-century Iranian equestrians to those of New York businesswomen, The Perfect 10 puts fashion in context. Showing how certain pieces are just as ubiquitous on the catwalk as on the street, Lauren Cochrane's crucial volume defines the fashion items that make up your wardrobe, and how they got there, providing the perfect excuse for the reader to wear them time and time again. "A deeper-than-deep dive into fashion’s enduring classics" – Navaz Batliwalla, DISNEYROLLERGIRL

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain now here's your host chris voss hi folks this is voss here from thechrissvossshow.com thechrissvossshow.com hey we're coming here with another great podcast oh my gosh you're just gonna be amazed uh by the author that we have on today. We're going to be talking about fashion. As most of my audience over all these years, I am a fashion god, and we have an amazing author. We're going to be talking about fashion classics. It's going toacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming out on October 5th, 2021. And I'm really excited

for you to get a chance to read this book. It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Tool toolbox that I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies. I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader, and how anyone can become a great leader as well. So you can pre-order the book right now wherever fine books are sold, but the best thing to do on getting a pre-order deal is to go to beaconsofleadership.com.

That's beaconsofleadership.com. On there, you can find several packages you can take advantage of in ordering the book. And for the same price of what you can get it from someplace else like Amazon, you can get all sorts of extra goodies that we've taken and given away. Different collectors, limited edition, custom-made numbered book plates that are going to be autographed by me. There's all sorts of other goodies that you can get when you buy the book from beaconsofleadership.com. So be sure to go there, check it out, or order the book wherever fine books are sold.

In the meantime, to see the video version of this, go to youtube.com forward slash Chris Voss, bell notification people, goodreads.com forward slash Chris Voss, and all our groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, linkedin twitter instagram and all that good stuff she is the author of the book the 10 how and why we wear the fashion classics this came out on june 1st 2021 we're going to be talking about all the cool stuff and things that go into it she is the senior fashion writer at the guardian she's written for l vogue and the telegraph she regularly posts on the radio and on podcasts to discuss She is the senior fashion writer at The Guardian. She's written for Elle, Vogue, and The Telegraph. She regularly posts on the radio and on podcasts to discuss fashion history and culture. She's the author of 50 Style Icons Who Changed the World.

She lives in London, and her name is Lauren Cochran. Welcome to the show, Lauren. How are you? I'm good, thank you. How are you doing? Good. I know you were stunned when you came on the show and saw me with my flip flops and socks and my shorts and my red shirt that doesn't match my Chris Foster hat. I know you're just overcome with the shining fashion God that I am. But that being, of course, wrong. Give us your plugs so people can find you on the interwebs oh okay yeah the book is on amazon.com or barnes and noble and bookshop.org

and you can find me on instagram at lauren underscore cochran underscore there you go there you go we'll get in the show later if when my look comes into vogue but uh in the meantime tell us what motivated you want to write the reason behind the book is basically i've worked in fashion for kind of 20 years and i think think I've always been interested in people's reactions to that information and how people don't think that fashion is about them. So for me, writing this book was to show how fashion and style is. It's entrenched in how we think about society. So I wanted to show that by by writing the sort of history of 10 items that are very familiar to all of us. And so that was the kind of the jumping off point.

So give us an overarching spread of the book, what it's about, and what kind of some of the teasers for what's inside. So it's about 10 different items that will be very familiar to people. Most people will maybe own a fair amount of them. So we've got jeans, the min the ballet flat the white t-shirt the the trench coat the biker jacket brett on top little black dress i'm sure i forgot on one else stiletto and then i talk about the kind of social history of each item and how that item has meant different things at different times and we talk i talk about different kind of subcultures and demographics, but also obviously the stars and how they've worn these items. So you've got, as we were talking about,

Marlon Brando in a biker jacket, for example, the Supremes in a little black dress, the Coco Chanel in a breton top, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, it goes through the history, through those different facets. That's interesting. So how did you determine which 10 articles of clothing to focus on for this book i would have picked mostly victoria's secret models but how did you pick no victoria's secret models in this book i'm very sorry about that so i wanted to do it as i said it was about showing the kind of everydayness of fashion so I specifically zeroed in on things that that I knew that we all wore every day or even if we didn't wear ourselves

we knew they were very familiar and then I had a long list of all those items which had lots of other things on it grey mask sweatshirt a white sneaker for example but I narrowed it down to the 10 that I thought had the most interesting histories and the ones that kind of were most revealing about how what we wear tells us about our society. And of the 10, do you have a personal favorite that you like the most? Probably jeans. I'm sure most people wear jeans every day. So I think first of all, so personally, I have a kind of interest there, which apparently half the people in the world are wearing jeans on a daily basis. So I have that in common with half. But also, it's a really interesting story because they're so ubiquitous.

And how they became so ubiquitous is really interesting. And how you can almost look at an old picture and sort of date the year by the style of jeans. It's true. Especially with like acid wash jeans you can definitely do yourself wearing those i owned a few pair in the back of the day those are fashionable again though i should have saved my i still i might have a set of parachute pants somewhere i'm not sure i'd have to go check the storage unit but i remember owning a pair when i was in high school so maybe those will come back you just it seems like if you just keep it all it eventually comes back so i don't know yeah

yeah absolutely so are my socks and and flip-flops ever going to come back around is there a comeback fashion for those or is that pretty much always going to be out i can if that's really what the the mood calls for the fashion gods call for but i usually wear them with my long shorts not so short shorts the out of any of the 10 are there any that you don't like are there any that you're like repulsed by there's none that i'm repulsed by i've never owned a biker jacket really i could see you in a biker jacket yeah i just have never i've always had this thing where i put one on and i feel like a bit of an imposter. Ah, I can see you as a hell's angel.

Oh, really? That's nice of you to say. Is it? Or maybe it's not actually, considering what they got up to. I don't know. I don't know. You don't seem like the burly kind of person who has a bath for a couple of days. And wow, now I just lost the hell's angels crowd. Okay, there goes at least one of them. What's the secret to finding the right pair of jeans for your body? I know one of the problems I used to have was, well, I was fat and I reached a point where they don't make jeans for me anymore. They just go, no, that's no, we're not doing that for you anymore. What's

the secret to finding the right pair of jeans? I always think I have a sort of section about this in the jeans chapter chapter but one of the things and it's a very it's like people always roll their eyes when i say this but it is true you just have to try loads of them on ah yeah and then you eventually find the ones that suit you yeah um because they just change so much compared like when you think about brand or sort of like the finish or the shape or the fabric and obviously it's all denim but different types of denim etc etc I always think the other thing about jeans is think about what you wear with them because if you wear for example if you tuck your

your shirt you want to think about where they sit on your body because otherwise you're going to get all that kind of awful gathering at your waist for example or always comfort the most important thing is those things that only the person wearing the jeans can determine that's very true you you list several so several different icons you list william s burroughs in the trench coat photographed by alan ginsburg the iconic marlon brando in a biker jacket speaking of Hells Angels and that whole era of bikers and dudes wearing leather, I think he ushered that in, I don't know, with that biker jacket. I mean, I can still see it to this day. It's still stuck in my mind.

Sidney Poitier in a white t-shirt playing a juvenile delinquent. Would it have been a consummate actor? The actor wouldn't really come down to it, especially in his era. Marilyn Monroe in stilettos. I wear stilettos now because of Marilyn Monroe. It just helped her become a sex symbol according to your book uh muhammad i don't wear stilettos good muhammad that's a joke uh don't write me uh muhammad ali 1963 putting a hoodie through paces another icon brooke shields of course an icon not letting anything go between her and calvin's i think i remember those commercials in the 80s.

Tina Turner rocking the leather miniskirt. Yeah, I remember. I think I was a teenager when that video came out. My eyes, I think I still haven't been able to see right since they popped out of my head. Yeah, she still is just the hottest thing going. Chloe, I'm not sure I'm saying this because I'm clearly not up with the kids. Chloe Sevengy? Seven-y.

Seven-y. Yeah, I think the surname's French. Oh, okay. I flunked French. The little black dress in 1996 with a pair of tiger stripe stockings. I imagine it's a she. Is she the one who brought into fashion the little black dress? Oh, no.

The little black dress dates no the little dress dates back uh a very long time we'll not go back to who is that fashion god from the 50s or 60s and she she did that movie with with bogey and whatchamacallit and she was the cute girl and i don't remember anyway she had like a tiffany breakfast at Tiffany's. Oh, yeah. Audrey Hepburn. Didn't she do the little black dress? Or maybe, I don't remember. Yeah. So her little black dress that she wears in Breakfast at Tiffany's is still referenced as one of the classic little black dresses. It got one of them, because obviously in movies they always have a few versions of the same item.

And so one of the dresses got sold um at an auction house a few years ago for some a lot of money i can't remember quite how much it was but it was a decent amount and so it's seen as this kind of iconic example of the little black dress that was designed by giovanni who dressed audrey hepburn through lots of movies yeah, she was just an icon. Beautiful. So was, of course, Bogey. It was beautiful. Like her masculine beautiful.

That was kind of weird. And then what else do we have on the list that was interesting here? We had Amy Winehouse, of course, just an icon of a singer and a beauty in her own. In 2007, wearing her signature free ballet shoes. I don't remember seeing this picture. I should probably have to Google it. I was never into Amyy wine when she was alive i got into her after i'm a heavy metal rocker so that's probably why but she's in in no doubt an incredible talent kate middleton the duchess of cambridge black and white breton is the breton a hat forgive me for being so so i think that in america it had some hat of some description is a breton

because another american interviewer asked me the same question i was trying to google it in the background so was it uh it wasn't one of those funky hats then. No, it's like a striped jersey and it's named Breton because it was originally from Brittany. And it was originally like a sailor's outfit. It was striped because it was thought that if someone fell overboard, they'd be easier to see against the wind. Yeah, in the sort of 19th century. And apparently because it was French, the number of stripes on the traditional Breton is the number of victories that Napoleon had against the English. Ah, ah.

That wasn't the number of surrender flags they did after that. But I just lost the French card. It looks like the pants have a little bit of either Frenchy or kind of sailor look to them. Yeah, exactly. They're a bit sailor-y, aren't they? Very fashionable. I'm going to order this from Amazon and wear this next week.

But no, I see what you mean. It's very cool. She's a beautiful, iconic woman as I am. But yeah, she looks great. So you pick these items as different benchmarks in the thing. And then with each order of clothing, you give tips on how to wear the classics now. So if you want to wear these classics now, this probably helped me with the stilettos because I don't think I quite look good

in them yet. So maybe I need to have the slinky dress or give us some tips on how to wear these classics. I talk about different ones. I think that I suppose the sort of takeaway across all of them is because they are so ubiquitous. You have to think of new ways to wear for example with like a trench coat which we're so used to seeing in a khaki or a kind of beige I talk about how if you have a like a brightly colored trench coat it's complete it looks completely different for example or you were talking about wearing the stilettos with a slinky dress and actually they look really interesting when they're worn with with something else like with a pair of baggy jeans or something more casual because you've got those very obvious

things like a slinky dress and slettos everyone see everyone's seen that before so to change it up and make it modern is the is the way to do it is to switch it up a bit that gives me some ideas i don't know what to wear i've had a number of girlfriends that have had this problem why do you recommend women have more than one little back dress they always have that black dress in the closet that they're always trying to fit in and usually bikini for whatever's when summer's coming up they're like i'm getting into that bikini and you're like it's okay sure have fun with that why do you recommend they have more than one little back dress oh sorry um because you don't wear the same dress to this to all these different things that people say the little black dress is

very versatile but you would you probably wouldn't wear the same little black dress to a job interview that you would to a cocktail bar probably not you know it would be a bit strange or to wear the cocktail bar dress to a job interview for example so it's about having just different options so I have I probably have four or five different ones and I have one exactly that's very like work focus it's got longer sleeves and a sort of I don't know below the knee hemline then I've got like another one that's got a kind of really full skirt and a kind of like vest top type type bodice thing which is much more like going out on the weekend. And so you have a kind of various, they are very versatile,

but you also want to be able to adapt what you're wearing to where you're going. Yeah, that's why I say to have more than one. Awesome sauce. Can you tell us what one female or one male present day celebrity you feel is making a big impact on fashion? There's quite a few. I would say in terms of in terms of men probably different celebrities including timothy chalamet the actor who wore

this amazing like gold suit to the can film festival a couple of months ago uh little nas x who is like really knocking out the park in terms of quite a fashion forward looks and in terms for women i would say the people that i always look at if i see something on like social media i would if i see the mention of rihanna i will always look at what rihanna's wearing i like i actually she's it's not my style particularly but i think that what jill biden wears is really interesting because she wears she supports she's obviously not that interested in fashion, but she supports young designers by what she wears. And I think that's quite impressive and powerful.

Michelle Obama was an amazing fashion icon, but it's a different thing, isn't it? I laugh for a second because I thought you said Joe Biden. Oh, no. And I was just thinking of the recent scurfuffle about the black dress. Oh, I don't know about that. Not the black dress, the tan suit. He did the Obama tan suit just recently.

And it says Fox News is melting down over the failure of democracy and the breaking of our Constitution because of a tan suit but he wears it well although i think obama did a better job with it but yeah obama what an icon gone i i agree with you jill is just an amazing beautiful woman and a fashion icon in her own it's interesting to see the politics in this country they get all they got all upset over over someone who's fashionable but i don't know it's really weird so welcome to america so what what do you think of the past celebrities of your which ones have had the most influence on what we wear today who do you think sticks out the most oh that's interesting question i would say if you think about the people in the book that i've got they they are like iconic images and iconic kind of moments. So that picture

of Marlon Brando in the biker jacket with the white t-shirt on the motorbike, that's like very much a kind of iconic image. And ditto, she's not in the book, but Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, she has had like huge impact on what people have worn in terms of like ideas of what chic is she's very much held up as this icon of chic i think probably also someone like jimmy hendrix jimmy very much impacted what i mean he still impacts what people wear now that dude is yeah he's a god man yeah absolutely that dude was a god yeah a lot of great people that you have listed here that are just amazing people katherine hepburn oh yeah prince of course i think he pretty much influenced the whole 90s or maybe

his new wave that did that i'm a massive prince head so i can't believe i just didn't i didn't just say prince yeah yeah what's going on monroe bridget burdough coco chanel all these people of course you know these are the people that i shaped my fashion around of course so there you go you mentioned a lot of shoes in the book tell us what are most versatile or most essential for people to have because i i just don't flip i think it's a bit different for guys because i don't really talk about guys shoes in the book particularly okay cool so we'll go on the women's shoes i think probably obviously to to walk in a pair of to be able to walk in a pair of stilettos is a beautiful thing so if you can do that then that's great for you i would say like in terms of versatility you probably want like a kind of mid-heel shoe that you can wear you don't what

you don't want to have to do is take another pair of shoes in your bag that is not very chic so you want a kind of shoe that you can wear all day and that kind of translates into lots of different events. So a mid-heel shoe, maybe a sandal that's easy to wear in the summer. I would say also a pair of nice flats. Not necessarily ballet flats, but ballet flats would fit into that. They've come back into fashion recently. And then also I would say a pair of plain sneakers, like so you can run around.

And they're much more accepted these days. I talk about that in the book a bit about how the sort of, because dress codes are changing so much to, for women to wear a pair of sneakers, even in more conservative offices is now more acceptable, which I think is great. Yeah. It's, it's just amazing all the different things that women can do with their looks and their clothes. And for for men we're just a whole lot more simpler unless i i guess you really want to go for it of the 10 pieces in your book which one tends to be the most expensive and do you have any advice on how to achieve the look on a budget that's an interesting one i guess probably the trench coat or the biker jacket and i guess because outerwear tends to be more expensive.

But even then you can get them for reasonable prices depending on where you shop. I would say both of them to get the nicest ones and the ones that aren't lots and lots of money. Unless you have free money, which most people don't. Those trench coats cost thousands of pounds. I would say the best way to get both of those things and you'll get a really nice version of them is to get a vintage. And there's lots on kind of eBay and Depop and places like that, that you can browse and find one that kind of suits you and that sort of strikes you in a way that feels like it's part of your style. There you go. There you go. Anything more to plug out on the book before we go?

I can't think that there's anything else about the book itself, no. Yeah. You got to buy it and read it, people. We can only tease out so much. We can't give you the whole book on the show. So it's been wonderful to have you on, Laura. Give us your plugs so people can find you on the interwebs and order up the book. Okay.

The book is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoblebookshop.org. And my Instagram is lauren__cochran__. There you go. There you go. Lauren, it's been wonderful to have you on the show. Thank you for coming on and being with us today. No problem. Thank you for having me.

There you go. And guys, order up the book wherever fine books are sold, but only go to those places that have the fine books. The book is called The Ten, How and Why We Wear the Fashion Classics by Lauren Cochran. Order that baby book up today and figure out your little black dress strategy. There you go. You should do a book on bikinis next, I think, and help women figure out that whole bikini thing that they do when summer comes around. Anyway, thank you for being on.

Thank you for my audience for being here. We certainly appreciate it. Go to YouTube.com, Forge Says Chris Voss, Goodreads, Forge Says Chris Voss, all of our groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and all that good stuff. Thanks for being here, and we'll see you guys next time. So we're excited to announce my new book is coming out. It's called Beacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming out on October 5th, 2021. And I'm really excited for you to get a chance to read this book. It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Toolbox that

I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies. I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader, and how anyone can become a great leader as well. So you can pre-order the book right now wherever fine books are sold. But the best thing to do on getting a pre-order deal is to go to beaconsofleadership.com. That's beaconsofleadership.com. On there, you can find several packages you can take advantage of in ordering the book. And for the same price of what you can get it from someplace else like Amazon, you can

get all sorts of extra goodies that we've taken and given away. Different collectors, limited edition, custom made numbered book plates that are going to be autographed by me. There's all sorts of other goodies that you can get when you buy the book from beaconsofleadership.com. So be sure to go there, check it out, or order the book wherever fine books are sold.