Second Life

Mary Lawless Lee became widely known by the moniker Happily Grey when she began her fashion and lifestyle blog as a creative outlet back in 2012. Today, her well-respected brand has an audience of over 2.6 million, plus a brick-and-mortar store in Nashville carrying Mary’s curated assortment of apparel, kids, accessories, and home goods. Mary has also broken into wellness with her mom-focused, vegan skincare line, Nemah, and most recently became an author with Happily Grey: Stories, Souvenirs, and Everyday Wonders from the Life In Between. But back before all the fashion, beauty, media, and entrepreneurship, Mary spent seven years as a cardiovascular intensive care nurse. Tune in to hear the surprising lessons that she’s carried between careers and the many lessons she’s learned along the way.

Market Director Bobby Schuessler, market editor Indya Brown, and assistant market editor Yusra Siddiqui join Hillary to talk about holiday gift giving. Bobby has a million ideas for what to give the men in our lives, Yusra brings her Gen Z lens to her gift guide, and home expert Indya is offering the chicest suggestions to deck out anyone’s halls. From affordable to splurge-worthy gifts, you’ll want to hear about them all. Plus, everyone's sharing what they're secretly hoping to receive for themselves this year.

Jeanine Lobell is a legend within the beauty industry, and her career has evolved a number of times. She made a name for herself as a makeup artist working on covers of Vogue, W, and Vanity Fair with stars like Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Nicole Kidman. She then took a major leap into the world of beauty products, founding Stila Cosmetics and pioneering paper packaging and a playful approach to makeup that resonated with a new generation of consumers. Now, she’s one-upped herself once again with the creation of her direct-to-consumer beauty brand Neen, which she launched just last April. With Neen, Jeanine created the first-ever subscription card including five peel-back makeup swatches encouraging the consumer to try out new creative looks, but only invest in the items they truly fall in love with. Hear how she’s built, sold, and pioneered brands that have changed the beauty landscape for the better on this week’s episode.

Celebrity hair colorist Matt Rez is known for his transformational work, including making Hailey Bieber a brunette and Kendall Jenner a redhead—two moments that kicked off arguably the biggest hair trends in recent history. On this episode, Matt brings us inside his legendary hair transformations, discusses his signature mid-light technique, and, of course, offers his predictions for the next major color trend.

By now, you may have seen Brightland’s gorgeous bottles adorn the aisles of your local grocery store. The brand offers high-quality olive oils, honeys, and vinegars that stand apart from their mass-produced shelf mates with a focus on integrity and transparency. The woman behind the brand is founder and CEO Aishwarya Iyer, who launched the business in 2018 to sellout success within a week, compiling a 1000-person wait list. Now, the brand’s products are available in over 700 stores nationwide in addition to Brightland’s own website. But before Iyer dove into the world of luxurious pantry staples, she spent over a decade in public affairs and corporate communications at various technology companies in both New York City and L.A. And back before that, she began her career in the luxury-products division at Lancôme. Tune in to hear about all the unexpected twists and turns and how they landed Iyer at the helm of a tasty empire.

Head of women’s and kids design at J.Crew, Olympia Gayot, is known for her impeccable use of color, spot-on tailoring, and highly functional designs. Her personal style is nothing short of fantastic too, as thousands on TikTok have noticed, praising her polished but oh-so-cool aesthetic. Olympia is here to give us tips on how to master color theory, how to use masculine and feminine pieces for a perfectly balanced look, and how she’s styling her favourites from the new J.Crew holiday collection.

At just 22 years old, Amira Rasool launched The Folklore as an e-commerce website featuring African-based fashion and homeware brands. The goal was to bring diversity to the fashion landscape here in the United States and to create sustainable revenue streams for designers who weren't being given the global recognition they deserved. Just four years in, Amira has made immense progress: She’s since pivoted the business from a direct-to-consumer model to working directly with other multi-brand retailers such as Farfetch; expanded her business to empower diverse brands in other emerging markets like South America and India; and has become one of the youngest Black women to raise $1M+ in a pre-seed round. But before it all, she was a writer and editor for dozens of top media companies including Time, Vogue, I-D Magazine, Paper Magazine, WWD, and Marie Claire. Tune in to hear how that experience positioned her to become an industry expert equipped to make a massive difference in the global fashion economy.

Fresh off the heels of fashion month, fashion editor Eliza Huber and senior editor Kristen Nichols take us inside their spring/summer 2023 trend report. The ladies break down the new trends we’re seeing emerge for spring and the designers who are doing them best. Plus, the most-viral moments from shows that were all over your timelines—like Bella in that painted-on Coperni dress—and the inside stories you may not have heard unless you were there.

Audie Cornish is an award-winning journalist and reporter who is best known for delivering us news as a co-host of NPR’s flagship news program All Things Considered for 10 years. Over the course of her career, she’s interviewed a range of subjects—from stars such as Bruce Springsteen to political figures such as senator Elizabeth Warren—and reported on major historic events, including 9/11 and the 2008 election of former President Barack Obama. Now, after almost two decades in radio, Cornish is jumping over to a new type of journalism as an on-camera anchor and correspondent for CNN. On this episode, hear how Cornish knew it was time to make a change in her legendary career and what it means to be a student after a long while as the teacher.

Who What Wear Editor in Chief Kat Collings is fresh off a plane from Paris and here to talk about her last seven weeks abroad. From her wedding in the South of France to a honeymoon across Italy to fashion weeks in London and Milan to Rosh Hashanah spent in Tel Aviv, Kat has a lot to fill us in on. Tune in to hear about what she packed for each locale, the major trends she spotted in fashion capitals around the world, and her tips for sourcing the best vintage abroad. Plus, we talk details around our new Sperry boot collab and how to style it for fall.

Jessica Knoll is the New York Times best-selling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and The Favorite Sister, and her work has been published in over 40 languages. Her books are so gripping, in fact, that they’ve both been adapted for film and television, respectively. With that career success also came a pivot, as Knoll has made a name for herself in the industry as a standout screenwriter and producer with even more projects under way. She’s adapting the Reddit short story “I Think My Mother-in-Law Is Trying to Kill Me” for Sony and sold her first original script, ‘Til Death, to Amazon. But back before Knoll was adapting stories for film and television and even before she was writing the books that would inspire them, she was an editor at Self and Cosmo magazines. Tune in to hear how her multifaceted career has unfolded in unexpected and fascinating ways.

Adair Curtis is an acclaimed interior designer and co-founder of JSN Studio—a multidisciplinary design and styling firm he runs with his husband, celebrated stylist Jason Bolden. His clean and elegant aesthetic has landed him countless celebrity clients, features in Architectural Digest, and a new Netflix series, Instant Dream Home. On this episode, Adair walks Hillary through our "Dream Home" feature on Who What Wear, where he dishes on the latest design trends worth investing in. Check out our "Dream Home" feature with Adair here: https://www.whowhatwear.com/home-decor-trends-room-by-room

Yasmin Sewell is the founder of Vyrao, the world’s first well-being brand to fuse energetic healing with master perfumery. With scents like I Am Verdant and Witchy Woo, the brand has designed six personal scents to evoke specific emotional reactions. But before Sewell was building a brand around her love of wellness and energetic connection, she had a legendary career in fashion that included opening an avant-garde boutique in London in the ’90s and working at major retailers Browns, as the buying director, and Farfetch, as the vice president of style and creative. Tune in to this episode to hear what drove Sewell to make the drastic career change, what she thinks being creative is really all about, and why she’s more fulfilled now than ever.

This week, Hillary speaks with Kendra Scott, designer, philanthropist, and founder of her namesake jewelry brand. Since 2002, Scott’s jewelry has been worn by women all over the country, including major celebs such as Mindy Kaling, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, and Priyanka Chopra. Today, the business is valued at over $1 billion. Behind the business, though, life hasn’t always looked as shiny as Scott's designs. She’s detailing it all in her new book, Born to Shine. Tune in for a sneak peek into everything that went into creating this incredibly personal project. Shop Born to Shine: Do Good, Find Your Joy, and Build a Life You Love here: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Shine-Good-Find-Build/dp/1546002324

Lele Sadoughi is a designer and the owner of Lele Sadoughi. She is best known for her iconic knotted, jeweled headbands seen on women such as Kate Middleton, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, Mindy Kaling, and Naomi Campbell. Before striking out on her own, Sadoughi designed for brands such as Rebecca Taylor, Banana Republic, and Anthropologie. In 2006, she launched the first-ever jewelry collection for J.Crew, creating iconic pieces that are still sold today, including the well-known bubble necklace. In 2012, while working as the jewelry design director at Tory Burch, she entered her second life and founded Lele Sadoughi. In this episode, Sadoughi discusses how she designed jewelry for a whole generation of shoppers and what the winning formula is for creating pieces that are stylish, affordable, and widely appealing. Plus, we dive into her pivot to face masks during the pandemic and how she responded to a global health crisis.