Babba C Rivera: Ceremonia Founder and CEO

This week, Hillary sat down with Kristen Nichols, Who What Wear's associate director of special projects. Kristen put together this year's Luxury Report, which details the brands and celebrities influencing designer shopping, the most coveted high-end items of 2023, and, of course, the ins and outs of the quiet-luxury trend. Plus, Kristen shares how to source sold-out items like the Alaïa fishnet flats, and Hillary explains her theory on why all fashion leads back to the Olsen twins.

15 Marras 202329min

Though Heidi is a highly sought-after interior designer now, she didn’t predict she’d end up in the design world. After graduating with a masters in international public health, she spent her early career working at a medical clinic in the Gambia. But when she returned to the U.S. to continue working, she was disappointed by how administrative many of the stateside roles were and began a quest to find a new career. She tried a variety of career paths including bartending, acupuncture school, and teaching scuba, but she still couldn't find anything that felt right to her. That is, until she began blogging about design. Through her blog, Heidi landed her first job at a design firm, and eventually, she set out to create a firm of her own. Today, her firm works on projects across the country, and just this September, Heidi debuted a book called Memories of Home, which details 12 of her incredible projects.

13 Marras 202350min

Mara Hoffman began her eponymous brand in 2000 by designing and selling one-of-a-kind, handmade garments out of her New York apartment. Twenty-three years later, she's still known for making gorgeous statement pieces with bold colors and prints, but she continues to evolve her approach toward sustainable design and manufacturing. Hoffman recently partnered with textile-to-textile recycling company Circ to release a groundbreaking dress made from 50% recycled textile waste, and she is this year's CFDA Environmental Sustainability Award honoree. This week, Editor in Chief Kat Collings sat down with Hoffman to discuss designing from a place of honesty, the "change or die" mentality, and where they hope fashion is headed.

8 Marras 202333min

Vicky Tsai founded her skincare company, Tatcha, with the goal of helping heal people’s skin and soul. But while Vicky’s a major player in the beauty space now, it took years of trial and error to find work that matched her values. She first began her career on Wall Street as a derivatives trader at Merrill Lynch in New York City, but after witnessing 9/11 firsthand, she left her job to attend Harvard Business School for a fresh start. She interned at SK-II, then took a job at Starbucks in China, and later joined a tech startup focused on sustainability. Even with a successful career, Vicky still struggled to find her purpose, while simultaneously dealing with acute dermatitis on her skin. Then, 10 years into her corporate position, she decided to choose her own happiness. With no plan and a mountain of debt, she quit her job and began traveling. While visiting Kyoto, she learned about the beauty practices of geisha, and soon afterward, her skin was healed. She knew she had to find a way to bring her learnings to the masses, and with the help of geisha and cultural advisors, Tatcha was born.

6 Marras 20231h 14min

Stacey Battat is a costume designer and longtime collaborator of director Sofia Coppola, known for her work on films like The Bling Ring and The Beguiled. But most recently, Battat took on the huge undertaking of crafting the looks for A24’s newly released biographical drama, Priscilla. Based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, Coppola’s Priscilla, which stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, depicts the couple's epic yet tumultuous relationship, this time from Priscilla’s perspective. From the late ’50s to the early ’70s, Battat had a ton of ground—and fashion eras—to cover when it came to costume design. She’s here to talk about how wardrobe choices impact character development, what type of research is involved in telling true stories, and why having a solid team is of the utmost importance.

1 Marras 202334min

Growing up, Sohla El-Waylly always had a passion for cooking, but it wasn’t until after she graduated college with an economics degree that she made the leap to attend culinary school. In the years following, she worked in fine-dining restaurants, even opening and running her own high-end diner for a year, before pivoting to food media and landing jobs at major food publications such as Serious Eats, Bon Appétit, and The New York Times. Along the way, she began showcasing her cooking skills on camera, and most recently, she served as a judge alongside Dan Levy on the HBO competition cooking show The Big Brunch. And now she’s embarking on yet another new venture with her first cookbook, Start Here, which hits shelves October 31.

30 Loka 202352min

This week, Hillary hands the mic to Who What Wear Editor in Chief Kat Collings for a special episode welcoming Nikki Ogunnaike to her new position as editor in chief at Marie Claire, Who What Wear’s sister brand! Nikki has big plans for the iconic publication, which she hopes to make feel like "a group chat of your most ambitious friends." The two EICs discuss growing up with Marie Claire, high-impact, low-lift personal style, and the accuracy of the Miranda Priestly depiction of an editor in chief.

25 Loka 202327min

Emily Schuman had the initial idea for a food and fashion blog called Cupcakes and Cashmere back in 2008, and today, the company has grown into a full-fledged media and e-commerce business. In addition to running the Cupcakes and Cashmere company, engaging with the 570,000+ followers on her personal instagram and designing and restocking the bestselling jewelry on her online shop, Emily recently embarked on a new endeavor: candles. In December 2022, Emily debuted Lavune, initially launching with holiday candles like Evergreen and Ember, which have returned for this fall season alongside the line’s core collection. Before she was running her own businesses, Emily spent her early career working in media advertising, first at Condé Nast and later at AOL. But while she was gaining valuable knowledge about publishing and the digital landscape, her free time was consumed by writing about the things she loved.

23 Loka 202356min