{"id":30830,"date":"2021-09-09T13:53:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T13:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=30830"},"modified":"2021-09-10T14:36:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T14:36:18","slug":"five-questions-for-imgs-leslie-russo","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/five-questions-for-imgs-leslie-russo\/","title":{"rendered":"FIVE QUESTIONS FOR \u2026 IMG’s Leslie Russo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leslie Russo (Courtesy: Leslie Russo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elsa Schiaparelli said, \u201cIn difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Hedi Slimane claimed that \u201cfashion somehow, for me, is purely and happily irrational.\u201d\u00a0 Are you aware in your role as a power behind New York Fashion Week of imposing a sense of order on the outrageous and irrational even as you herald it? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes.\u00a0 I am. But think that the role that we play is that we are enablers. I think that we are a little bit the benefactors of the artists.\u00a0\u00a0 We are patrons of the art.\u00a0 I think we provide the infrastructure, the support, the access to the pieces of the puzzle they want to activate. But it is really up to the designer and the talent to create the vision that they want.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not our place to put \u201corder\u201d on it.\u00a0 It\u2019s our place to really give some infrastructure.\u00a0 I always use this example of me as a personality, but I think maybe it relates a little bit to what you\u2019re saying.\u00a0 I like to say, I\u2019m the Keith Richards – personality-wise, not the drugs or the alcohol.\u00a0 He\u2019s the one who runs the band.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little more behind-the-scenes.\u00a0 He\u2019s a little quieter – not the one jumping out in front.\u00a0 Maybe Charlie Watts.\u00a0 We\u2019re not the frontman. I think of that analogy in terms of myself because I prefer to be the Charlie Watts or the Keith Richards.\u00a0 I think there is something to that.\u00a0\u00a0 Where is the structure and then where does the performance happen within that?\u00a0 Our role is to create the best environment and the best opportunity for the artist to really have their vision come alive.<\/p>\n

Sara Burton said, \u201cI really believe that a woman shouldn\u2019t have to dress like a man to feel strong.\u201d\u00a0 Yves Saint Laurent: \u201cI wanted women to have the same basic wardrobe as a man.\u00a0 Blazer.\u00a0 Trouser.\u00a0 Suit.\u00a0 They\u2019re so functional.\u00a0 I believed women wanted this and were right.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Are you perceived differently if you wear a dress in your professional life instead of arriving at a meeting in a great pair of pants? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes.\u00a0 I can tell the difference.\u00a0 Well, first of all, we work in fashion so if there is any industry in which you can get away with wearing anything you want, this is the industry.\u00a0 But speaking more broadly, I think those barriers are starting to break down.\u00a0 But I noticed that there was a time in my career when I wouldn\u2019t wear dresses at all because of what I felt like the\u00a0 \u2026 ahh \u2026 tension would be toward me.\u00a0 I think that that may be less for this next generation. But definitely for my generation, I was always sensitive to it.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019ve done both.\u00a0 I wear suit jackets and jeans.\u00a0 I wear a skirt or a dress when I have to.\u00a0 But I think being in a high-powered position, it does still raise eyebrows.<\/p>\n

You asked me when we first met how I balance being a mother and having such a big job and then stopped yourself because you thought it sounded sexist to ask that because men never get that question about being a father and having a big job.\u00a0 Honestly, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s sexist because there is an expectation for women to be able to do it all. I grew up with an Italian grandmother.\u00a0 Very old-fashioned.\u00a0 I still cook and clean up and make the bed.\u00a0 I still do all of the stuff,.\u00a0 And yet, yes, have this big job.\u00a0 And I have two sons.\u00a0 One is 12 and one just turned 15.\u00a0 Years ago when I was at Glamour<\/em> we had the \u201cGlamour<\/em> Women of the Year\u201d event at Carnegie Hall and we honored Billie Jean King.\u00a0 We gave out her book and she gave a speech.\u00a0 I think it is the opening quote of her book: \u201cPressure is a privilege.\u201d I always think of that.\u00a0 Anytime things feel untenable I always think, \u201cYou know what, this is what it\u2019s like to have a full life.\u201d If I have a superpower it is being able to multitask and do a million things at once without ever losing my cool.\u00a0 It\u2019s a balance, but it is also one life. I don\u2019t see it as now it\u2019s work time and now it\u2019s not work time. Now I\u2019m doing the kids and now I\u2019m doing my own thing.\u00a0 It all overlaps.\u00a0 I look on it as this is all me.\u00a0 And I\u2019m unapologetic about it.<\/p>\n

Miuccia Prada said, \u201cYou can wear the most powerful dress and not be powerful.\u00a0\u00a0 You can dress like a stupid little girl and be super powerful.\u00a0 Sexiness is in the mind, it\u2019s not what you wear.\u00a0 In that sense, I think that clothes are just something you use.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not that the dress transforms the person.\u201d\u00a0 Mary Quant said, \u201cFashion is a tool to compete in life outside the home.\u00a0 People like you better without knowing why.\u00a0 Because people always react well to a person they like to look at.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Do you remember the first big fashion purchase you made after you began to make money and was it transformative or more tool-like as you had the experience of wearing it?<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Yeah!\u00a0 Yes! I do remember it.\u00a0 I totally do.\u00a0 It\u2019s a real story.\u00a0 Okay, I\u2019m gonna tell this.\u00a0 I have something I now call \u2018Prada rage.\u2019\u00a0 This is a true story.\u00a0 And if I showed you my closet you\u2019d see I still have what I bought.\u00a0 It was probably 1995.\u00a0 It was when Prada was on the map as the thing<\/em>.\u00a0 I did not have a good winter jacket.\u00a0 I was working at Interview<\/em>.\u00a0 My boyfriend at the time worked with me at Interview<\/em> – I ended up marrying him, we\u2019re now divorced –\u00a0 said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get a good jacket.\u201d\u00a0 He loved clothes and told me I had to get Prada.\u00a0 So I bought this bubble coat from Prada. It was square-shaped. I remember that it was my entire paycheck.\u00a0 After I bought it, I cried on the street.\u00a0 My boyfriend kept saying, \u201cYou\u2019ll buy it but you\u2019ll have it forever.\u201d\u00a0 But I cried because I had no money.\u00a0 I could not believe I had just done it.\u00a0 I got into a fight on the street with a store owner for being in front of him or something.\u00a0 I got into a yelling match. That was my Prada rage.<\/p>\n

I do believe in the transformation of clothes.\u00a0 I mean at the end of the day it\u2019s all about who are you as a person and how do clothes enhance who you are projecting in the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s all a matter of comfort. For me, I\u2019ve always felt the most confident when I feel like I walk into a room and people aren\u2019t staring at what I\u2019m wearing, but I feel like myself.\u00a0 Of course, that depends on the room that you\u2019re walking into.\u00a0 I think that clothes are very powerful.\u00a0\u00a0 To offer a quote back to you, I think it was Donatella Versace who said that \u201ca dress is a weapon.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 There is something very powerful about fashion that says who you are to the world and who you want to be. But you have to own it and you have to feel that way.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it can cover up your not feeling that way.<\/p>\n

Karl Lagerfeld said, \u201cFashion is about change – and I like change.\u201d\u00a0 Nicholas <\/em>Ghesqui<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>re: \u201cWhat I find most interesting in fashion is that it has to reflect our time.\u00a0 You have to witness your own moment.\u201d\u00a0 We have experienced so much change in the way the pandemic altered the world regarding live cultural events such as NYFW.\u00a0\u00a0 As we emerge, how do you see us paying witness to this moment?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I would like to close with a quote from Alber Elbaz and remember him and say his name.\u00a0\u00a0 He died of COVID in April.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI think that if we inject a little bit more love into fashion and less fear – because today I feel it\u2019s more about fear and less about love – we would have a beautiful reason to wake up every morning.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 What wakes you up in the morning, Leslie? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Possibility.\u00a0 The idea that you never know where the day is going to take you. I am a big believer in possibility. Anything is possible. That to me would be my answer to what wakes me up in the morning.\u00a0\u00a0 I think Alber was a light in this industry.\u00a0 I think the fear he talked about is the fear of change, to be honest. Because for an industry that is very forward-thinking, it is also very nostalgic. I don\u2019t think of myself as a nostalgic person at all.\u00a0 I feel as if I can let things go and move on.\u00a0 I think that idea of looking forward to possibility is the thing that I always get up for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29575,"featured_media":34246,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[23,38,16],"yoast_head":"\nFIVE QUESTIONS FOR \u2026 IMG's Leslie Russo - Grazia USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/five-questions-for-imgs-leslie-russo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FIVE QUESTIONS FOR \u2026 IMG's Leslie Russo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elsa Schiaparelli said, \u201cIn difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Hedi Slimane claimed that \u201cfashion somehow, for me, is purely and happily irrational.\u201d\u00a0 Are you aware in your role as a power behind New York Fashion Week of imposing a sense of order on the outrageous and irrational even as you herald it? 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