An Interview with a Fashion Idol of Mine: Harper’s Bazaar’s Chrissy Rutherford

I love following fashionistas that I admire who look a little like me.  This thinking stems from years of growing up where the beauty ideal was uber-gorgeous blondes that dominated the runways and fashion magazines during the 90s.  While I loved the original Supermodels, I couldn’t really relate to any of them (except for Naomi Campbell). I remember even as a teenager being frustrated when women like Claudia Schiffer and Stephanie Seymour would be interviewed, divulging their makeup secrets and favourite red lipsticks and nothing they suggested ever suited me. Case in point, gorgeous blonde model Daniela Pestova being interviewed and stating that her favourite red lipstick of all time was Max Factor’s “Drumbeat Red”.  At the time of the interview, I was a 16-yr-old, makeup-obsessed nerd who ran out to buy that too-orangey lipstick that ate up half of my allowance. My thinking was: “If it looks great on her, it’ll look good on me, right?”  WRONG. Sigh.

Fast-forward to 2015, and there is a host of models, actresses, etc. that I look up to and draw inspiration from who look more like me. It’s great! From Kahlana Barfield to Kerry Washington, there is no longer a shortage of inspiration for black women (who inspire everyone).

I have been following Chrissy Rutherford for a while now.  A young, black woman living in New York, she became Harper’s Bazaar’s Digitial Editor in August 2011 and has been writing some of my favourite online articles. Here is a fun little interview that was posted earlier this year that I think all of us fashion and beauty obsessed people can draw inspiration from. Also, I find this interview particularly useful for those fashion graduates looking for guidance on breaking into the fashion world (something that some of my readers are asking me for advice on).

Read on!

Chrissy Rutherford is the Senior Digital Editor at Harper’s Bazaar. She cultivated her digital savviness while working as an assistant at InStyle.com, and then went on to be the shopping editor for FashionEtc.com. Chrissy’s love for fashion flourished during two summer internships in the fashion closet at Bazaar. When she’s not catching up on the latest high-fashion news, covering industry events or interviewing her favorite models of the moment, she enjoys shopping and riding her bike around downtown New York.

Amanda:
You started as an intern at Harper’s Bazaar and are now the digital editor, right?

Chrissy:
Yes, I got my first start in the industry as a fashion intern at Harper’s Bazaar—I helped with sample trafficking and got to assist on a few photo shoots. It was an amazing experience that really helped me to understand how the industry works. After college I did an assortment of freelance fashion jobs from showroom sales, to styling assistant until I landed at Instyle.com—that was my first experience in the digital world. It all just clicked and I realized that that was exactly what I wanted to do, and then I landed back at Bazaar, which is where I always dreamed of working.

Amanda:
Is this the career path you had in mind so far?

xo,

*Interview information and header image courtesy of http://slasher-girl.myshopify.com/.  Interview conducted by Amanda Del Duca.