When I use a polish, I end up changing my nail color 2.5 times a week. The '.5' is when I get them done and notice it's not perfect - I'll fix it myself.
— Eva Chen
I use pure acetone Nail Polish Remover from Nails Inc. to really strip the nail. It's actually important to dehydrate your nail a little bit to get rid of all of the oil before you put color on; then the color will really stick. Then, I use OPI Bond Aid. It's a liquid dehydrator that you paint onto each nail.
For a lot of children of immigrants, what happens is your parents want you to do something very linear that they can understand. I had an aptitude in sciences and never really questioned it.
When my alarm goes off between 6 to 6:30 A.M, the first thing I do is reach for my phone. I look at Twitter to see the headlines. It's become my news aggregator. Then I check my Instagram.
It's more instructive to learn what you don't like than just to like everything.
Think about what you like and then think about why - was it the shape? The hem length? And then repeat over and over until you find your signature style. And if you ever get sick of your signature style... change it! That's the beauty of fashion.
A good attitude is really important. And a sense of optimism, someone who has ideas and isn't afraid to pitch them no matter what level she is. Someone who is proactive. Someone with efficiency and common sense. They don't always go hand-in-hand, common sense and, well, everything else.
Instagram was initially launched as a community for artists and photographers.
There are a lot of people on Instagram desperately trying to keep up with the Joneses.
Beauty is the lowest common denominator: I don't care what they say - every girl, every woman, wants to feel pretty and empowered and beautiful, within their own definition of beautiful. I love fashion, I love shopping, but I love beauty more because I love the science of it.
I would say I am unapologetically nerdy. I was always a little awkward.
We're a show-and-tell generation. People want to see behind the scenes. The more involved and invited they are, the closer affinity they have to your brand.
There are different ways to show and tell through Instagram. What's right for one designer will be very different for another designer, and everyone's going to be figuring things out, but it's a great opportunity to use it for feedback.
The thing about Instagram and fashion is that is has absolutely taken down the sense of the velvet rope and has pulled the curtain aside on the entire experience that used to be for a select 100 people in the world. Now it is there for millions of people to consume.
During Fashion Week, I tend to do a gel manicure because it's easier.
There's a curiosity about what magazine editors do, the behind-the-curtain experience.
I have a bag and shoe addiction. If I were a doctor or a lawyer, I'd still have it.
Working at 'Harper's' was an awakening experience for me. I genuinely enjoyed the process of putting together a fashion magazine.
Build a lifestyle around your brand, and the audience will follow.
Basically, I feel like people have always taken photos of themselves. When I was in college, I had these Polaroid cameras my friends and I would have so much fun with. Today, we'd be taking those pictures on our phones. I think it's just part of culture today... Why not have fun with it?
My advice for young people is, study what you love and intern in what you want to do. And I think it's okay to pivot as many times as you need to.
My job is more about helping people tell their stories in ever more interesting ways.
I've been trying out all these bronzers, and By Terry has an amazing one called the Bronze Expert.
This is so cliche and cheesy but so true - seeing how happy people get if you A. give them a beauty product or B. give them a tip that works. There's such joy in finding a good beauty product.
Fashion appeals to everyone... Everyone gets into it.
You can get inspired from a magazine, yes, but you can also be inspired from a website, from a street-style blogger, from what people post on Instagram.
If you had asked me growing up what a stylist does or what a magazine editor does, I would have had no clue - how do you research something like that when you are a first-born child of an immigrant who only grew up knowing doctor, engineer, and lawyer as careers?
I finish off my manicure with Dior's Gel Coat, which has a thicker consistency than most top coats. It dries quickly and leaves your nails really shiny.
I bought my first pair of pointy-toed Miu Miu shoes with a kitten heel from Barneys. They were $200, and it was a big deal. I wore them with a pleated black Benetton skirt and a white shirt. I looked like a waitress.
My work life is pretty much the opposite of what you would expect.
I was very focused on school. No social life whatsoever.
Instagram is the perfect place to reach your audience because the playing field is leveled if you can create engaging/amazing/compelling content that people want to follow. Remember that there's more than just showing product. Show the woman who designed it. Write about your muses.
Print is very important because I think there is nothing like the tactile sense of picking up a magazine.
You do not need to go to journalism school if you want to work in the fashion industry. I think high schools condition you to think this way: If you want to be a fashion editor, go to fashion school. If you want to be a writer, you should study journalism. I think that the best school in life is experience.
You could be an 18-year-old girl in Tokyo wondering how you could ever break into fashion or beauty, so you follow your favourite designer or editor, see what their day comprises, where they go, who they meet, how they do it... If I were setting up my own label today, I would definitely do it through Instagram.
The best perk of my job is getting to take products home. I mean, my bathroom looks like Sephora; like a clean, smaller Sephora.
The eight months I took off between 'Teen Vogue' and 'Lucky' afforded me such amazing opportunities, and I learned so much from so many different people - the brands that I worked with, the companies that I was consulting for.
The new generation of designers, like Prabal Gurung and Alexander Wang, have hundreds of thousands following them on social media who will probably never be able to afford their dresses but still feel a loyalty to them. So when that designer writes a book or launches a beauty line, they might pick that up.
To say I like social media is an understatement.
I know how I shop and how I am inspired to buy things, and the majority of it is from Instagram. I look at people like Yasmin Sewell and Leandra Medine from the Man Repeller, as well as the countless models that have really cool street style, for inspiration all the time.
