Meet Linda Rodin

LEAVE A COMMENT 2010 January 5

Location: New York, NY
Age: 61
Marital Status: Single
Education: Bachelor’s Degree, NYU

Linda Rodin has been a stunning fixture in the world of fashion since she started modeling in Italy in the 1960s. When she returned to New York City in the 70s, she fell in with the crowd who launched Bendel’s. “I styled their first catalogs,” she explains. “I didn’t even know you could have a career in stylin—back then, who knew?” Since then she’s owned a wildly influential clothing boutique, Linda Hopp, edited Harper’s Bazaar, and become one of New York’s most sought-after stylists…

But this indie pioneer would rather discuss her latest venture—a patented face oil called Olio Usso that she launched 2 years ago. The blend of eleven essential oils has a cultish following among makeup artists, models and other industry insiders. Most recently, she’s converted her own dermatologist and added a body oil and lip balm to the line.

“Trying a new business at my age—a bit of a folly—but very exciting,” she says. “Never too old for anything!”

How do you define your personal style?

Classically simple with a twist—like, a tailored men’s shirt with hot pink polka dots. I like to mix it up—be eclectic.

Do you have a signature look?

Dark navy jeans, some kind of top or sweater, and a little black coat. Lately, it’s this great Prada that’s cinched at the waist. And flat motorcycle boots.

Favorite designers?

I can’t always afford to buy designers—unless they’re on sale. But, I love Prada, Miu Miu, Roland Mouret, Vera Wang (sometimes) and Burberry. But I won’t buy a $2,000 Prada cashmere sweater—I only buy designers for very special things and for handbags and shoes. I’d buy a lot more Lanvin if I could.

Do you have any non-designer staples?

I buy jeans in bulk at Uniqlo for $39 and at Urban Outfitters (they’re called Cheap Mondays). And I like vintage white t-shirts. A white shirt shouldn’t be stylish, it should be like you’re boyfriend’s shirt that fits a little better.

How has your style evolved?

In the late 60s I wore hot pants and mini skirts. Then I did the hippy thing—long hair and big hoop earrings. I’m much less affected by trends now. If they say that red is out this month, I say, who cares. I always wore a lot of black, but then in the early 90s I started wearing hot pink and turquoise blue. Now I’m back to black, but I’ll wear touches of those two colors. They are my favorites.

Any style no-nos?

Why would anyone wear cropped pants? They make you look shorter and fatter. They don’t even look good on the runway!

And I personally won’t wear high heals anymore—except maybe once a year—because I’m not comfortable. I love ballet slippers and Mary Janes and lace-up men’s shoes. Louboutin does a great 2-inch heel with a Mary Jane strap.

Where do you shop in NYC?

Everywhere—because I’m a stylist. I like Barneys, and recently I’ve been going to The Dressing Room on the Lower East Side. I mean, that’s a store for 20-year olds, but if you really know what looks good on you, you can shop anywhere.

Oh, and I love the Albright Fashion Library. Everyone from a Meryl Streep to a runway model goes there to get clothes for events. If you have your eye on a $20,000 designer dress, you can rent it at Albright for $2,000 a night. Or rent a Hermes handbag if you want to look groovy for a weekend.

What’s your beauty routine?

I wear my grey hair in a ponytail every day; and no makeup, except for a dark rosy pink lipstick from Shu Uemura. I used to play with makeup—now I wear glasses instead of mascara.

The one thing I do is go to Dr David Colbert. Everyone over 50 should be in his office. He does the best non-invasive skin treatments. You’ll glow for weeks. He recommends Retin-A to his patients to smooth out wrinkles, but it can be drying, so now he recommends it in combination with my face oil, Olio Lusso.

Who inspires you?

Past boyfriends. One was a great writer, one a pianist and one a cook.

Are you married?

I’m single now. I have never wanted to be married, but I was engaged 4 times. I couldn’t have children so I thought, why get married? I could never bear to be with anyone I wasn’t completely in love with.

Do you have a signature item?

My jewelry. I wear two bracelets from Finn< that I never take off. Angelina Jolie also wears her stuff. And my tattoo bracelet from Aurora Lopez. I have two gold bracelets and a set of grey pearls from Soraya that I wear every day. They all sell in Barneys.

Signature perfume?

I wore LE by Givenchy for decades, but a few years ago I decided to mix things up. Now I’m wearing Chanel #19. Scent is very important to me.

Favorite restaurants in New York?

Little Owl in the West Village, Hasaki (a Japanese restaurant on east 9th) and Le Pain Quotidian. I don’t cook, so I literally go to LPQ three times a day.

Last great book?

I love to read the classics—lately, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. There are so many gorgeous books that reading new bestsellers makes me ill.

Favorite wine/drink?

White wine from Australia. Right now I’m buying one called White Haven from New Zealand.

Favorite spot in NYC?

The flea market on 25th and Broadway. I never go home empty handed. My apartment is filled with items I picked up there.

Greatest indulgence?

My dog. He’s a Bassett Hound—a gift from my friend Laetitia Casta. I give him whatever dog treats he wants and tons of peanut butter and bananas. I love and adore this 70 pound creature.

And food. If I really want to buy food, I never look at the price. I bring home tuna from Paris, incredible smoked salmon from Sable’s on 2nd avenue, and every kind of cheese from Murray’s.

What do you do to rejuvenate?

Sleep a lot. Sleep is the key to everything.

Recently I developed vertigo and I couldn’t get out of bed. I went to an acupuncturist, Dr. Steven Schramm, and he was incredible. He looks like Woody Allen, and he’s completely intuitive and smart. He cured my vertigo and diagnosed my anemia and insomnia. He prescribed a really great organic steak once a week, and now I’m in heaven.

Do you have a cause or an interest that you’re passionate about?

I’m very passionate about the war because my nephew is in the army. But I always give very privately. Charity begins at home for me. I’m not a group person—I’d rather do everything on my own.

I’m also a passionate shell collector. Give me a beach and bucket and I’ll never pick my head up from the sand.

from →  

{Book Critic & Giveaway} Summer Picks from Linda Wolfe

LEAVE A COMMENT 2014 July 9

Am I a voice of one? I’ve never felt that what often goes by the title “Summer Reading” in magazines and online book review sites is what I want to read in the summer. What I want in the summer isn’t a so-called beach book, the kind you are inclined to throw away or press “Remove from Device” on your Kindle as soon as you’ve read it. What I want to read in the summer, what I save to read in the summer, are books with some meat on their bones, so to speak. Here are some that I’ve found succulent indeed so far this summer, not one of which I’m going to throw away, though I might just part with a couple temporarily, to lend to a friend with the proviso that she’d better return them or the friendship’s over. Wham, bam. We’re done, ma’am. Better yet, I’ll probably tell her to go and get the book herself.

Want to win a copy of one of these books? To enter to win, comment below by answering the question: Which of these books do you want to read and why?

FOF award-winning author, Linda Wolfe, has published eleven books and has contributed to numerous publications including New York Magazine, The New York Times, and served the board of the National Book Critics Circle for many years.

In The Light of What We Know
by Zia Haider Rahman

FSG. 497 pp.

This one, like they say about turning fifty and entering upon those challenging decades that lie ahead, ain’t for sissies. Inventive and erudite, In the Light is a debut novel by Zia Haider Rahman, whose family emigrated to England from Bangladesh when he was a young child. Displaced, impoverished, often hungry, the author lived for a time in a rat-infested condemned London building until his father got a job as a bus driver and moved the family into subsidized housing. Young Rahman, despite all the odds against him, flourished, was so intellectually gifted and industrious a student that he won a scholarship to Oxford, where he studied mathematics, and subsequently became an investment banker, then a human rights lawyer, and now, a novelist.

Not much happens in this extraordinary novel. That is, what matters is what has already happened, and how its two main characters, talk about what has happened. The families of both are originally from Southeast Asia, though one, the nameless narrator, is from a privileged third-generation family, and the other, Zafar, from a background very like that of the author himself. Friends since their college days—both were at Oxford, both studied mathematics—the pair became bankers, and prospered professionally. But they haven’t seen each other in some years. And now a gaunt and haggard Zafar has arrived unexpectedly at the narrator’s posh home.

Reunited, he and the narrator talk at length in brilliant, analytical, digressive dialogue about all manner of things, from the financial crisis of 2008, to the war in Afghanistan, to sex, manners, love, betrayal, and most tellingly, about the ways class affects and afflicts one’s outlook on life. “No one talks about class anymore,” Zafar tells the narrator, “not since the death of socialism.” But class “is you, it’s the eyes with which you see the world.”

(more…)

{Giveaway & FOF Book Critic} Fall Reads From Linda Wolfe

LEAVE A COMMENT 2013 October 16

I had a hard time deciding which fall books to review, because there have been so many terrific ones published of late that it’s been hard to choose among them. But here’s a half dozen fabulous reads, three novels and three memoirs, that will make you forget it’s turning cold out there because you’ll be cozily at home avidly turning pages.

FOF award-winning author, Linda Wolfe, recently published her powerful book, My Daughter, Myself: An Unexpected Journey, in June. She has published eleven books and has contributed to numerous publications including New York Magazine, The New York Times, and served the board of the National Book Critics Circle for many years. Her latest reviews capture everything from 1960s Kabul to present-day hostages in Somalia.

Win one of these fall reads! To enter, comment below by answering the question: Which of Linda’s picks do you want to read?

First, the novels:

Claire of The Sea Lightby Edwige Danticat

Knopf. 238 pp.

I was blown away by award-winning novelist and memoirist Edwidge Danticat’s latest book, Claire of the Sea Light. It takes a writer—but only a supremely gifted writer—to give you a village, and that’s what Danticat has done here, given us the story of an entire Haitian village, told through the linked experiences of a fascinating a group of characters. There’s the girl of the title, Claire, a perceptive seven-year-old whose mother died giving birth to her and whose impoverished fisherman father, Nozias, hoping to ensure the child a better life than he can provide, wants to give her away to a wealthy townswoman. There’s the woman, Gaelle, whose own daughter has died and whose beloved husband has been the victim of a bystander shooting. There’s the owner of a private school whose son has failed to live up to his youthful promise, a hardworking restaurateur whose son has grown up to be an enterprising radio journalist, some corrupt policemen, careless gang members and a young housemaid raped and impregnated by a member of her employer’s family. The lives of all these people, and more, come together over time to provide a stunning portrait of Haitian life, one we never get from news stories about the island. Equally stunning is the technique with which Danticat handles the progression of time and the secrets that lie in time past, there for the taking if only we could make time run backward.

Danticat uses words sparingly, and to great effect. Here she is describing Haitian wives who prefer to live in antiseptic Miami but occasionally return to visit husbands stuck in Haiti by their businesses: “the so-called expatriate wives came back each time fatter and reeking of citronella, every mosquito and salad and untreated glass of water suddenly their mortal enemy.” Here she is, seeing Haitian youth through the eyes of the schoolmaster. “There was something tragic about a generation whose hopes had been raised, then dashed over and over again… Their leaders and elders—including himself—had made them so many promises that they’d been, for whatever reason, unable to keep.”

This small book—it’s only 238 pages long—more than holds it own against this season’s enormous doorstopper books. It’s tiny, but as exquisite as a gem.

(more…)

{City Guide} Top Second-Hand Spots from Coast to Coast

LEAVE A COMMENT 2011 January 6

Are you an Old Digger?

From a 1992 Armani Suit to a 1952 Chanel handbag, second-hand finds are a savvy FOF’s best friend. Here are 11 tried and true spots that FOFs turn to for timeless treasures.


1. William Temple, Portland OR
Portland’s better-vetted, lower-priced version of Goodwill sells furniture, vintage clothing and housewares. Proceeds support William Temple House’s mental health counseling, emergency social services and pastoral services. FOF Lisa Johnson says, “I love shopping at William Temple, a wonderful thrift store in Northwest Portland that my daughter turned me on to.”

2. Boomerang, Jamaica Plain, MA
FOF deeptodeep says, “My favorite place to shop is Boomerang, a large neighborhood thrift shop whose profits benefit Aids Action Committee. I find wonderful clothes there as well as cool assorted household items such as brand new West Elm sheer linen curtains that were $6 per panel (I purchased all six!) The stock changes constantly so there are always surprises and the potential for a score.”

3. Albright Fashion Library, New York, NY
FOF Linda Rodin says, “I love the Albright Fashion Library. Everyone from a Meryl Streep to a runway model goes there to get clothes for events. If you have your eye on a $20,000 designer dress, you can rent it at Albright for $2,000 a night. Or rent a Hermes handbag if you want to look groovy for a weekend.”

4. GreenFlea Market, New York, NY
FOF micheled says, “”I find great deals at a fabulous flea market on 77th St. and Columbus Ave. I bought a Tiffany vase for 5 dollars there. It had some discoloration on the bottom, but I fixed it up with a green pen. I also found a gorgeous black velvet cape lined in white with a hood and a pocket for gloves. I purchased this little gem for about $45 have used it over the years.”

5. The Antiques Garage Flea Market, New York, NY
FOF Audgar says, “My absolute favorite place for a great deal is the flea market on W. 25th St. on Saturdays and Sundays! Grab a cup of coffee and get there early!”

6. Regal Rags, Annapolis, MD. 410.224.3434
FOF Sue S. says, “This small, consignment shop just outside of D.C. re-sells only designer clothes. No one ever wants to wear their designer duds twice, with all the fancy affairs in D.C., so here they are…worn once and some with tags still on. And, the prices are unbelievable; I bought a beautiful Ralph Lauren sweater (with the tags still on) for 5 dollars!”

 

7. House of Lavande, Palm Beach, FL
FOF Mary Nedvins says, “”Every piece of jewelry there has a history.  The pieces are classic but carry an emotional reference to eras of days gone by.  And I know that no one else will be wearing what I’m wearing.”

 

8. Trashy Divas, New Orleans, LA

FOF Marybeth Bond says, “When I was writing my book, 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways, so many women told me ‘We love to go to thrift shop with our girlfriends. We take $10 and try to get something really funny for the other person.’ In New Orleans there’s no place like Trashy Divas on Magazine Street.”

9. Couture Allure, online. 617.281.8133
FOF Debra J. Bartgis says, “I met the owner, Jody on eBay seven or eight years ago. She’s very discriminating, her clothes are unique and she’s an extremely helpful seller. She will give you her opinion if she doesn’t think something is right for you.”

10. Rusty Rose Vintage Clothing, Solvang, CA. 805.688.8031
FOF joanspeirs says, “Sometimes I find the best deals on eBay, but it can be time consuming. I prefer to go to my favorite second hand/vintage clothing store Rusty Rose.”

What’s your fave place to shop second-hand? Click here to add your Fab Fave Shop.

{Weekly Roundup}

LEAVE A COMMENT 2010 July 30

TGIF! Take ten minutes to get up to speed on all the fab blog posts from the week…

Make mistakes. (Yes you read that right.)

Hillary’s M-O-B dress designer revealed and everything else you don’t need to know about the wedding.

What is big? What is too big? What is not big enough?

Fedora frenzy.

Gaga’s gray and it’s okay.

Flip flops are worse than high heels.

FOF Linda Rodin models a new clothing line. Doesn’t she look great?

Madonna is on the wrong side of the camera.

Have a lovely weekend, FOFs. Xox.

P.S. – It’s a great weekend for a trip to the museum…Have you been to the MOFA?

Image by Chance via A Cup of Jo

{Style Expert} We asked our FOFs: “What is your signature piece?”

LEAVE A COMMENT 2010 May 18

From a $39 pair of jeans to a vintage jewelry line worn by 1930s movie stars, here’s what we discovered FOFs can’t live without…

Joseff Vintage Jewelry
“I love vintage costume jewelry. There is jewelry from a man named Joseff who was a designer in the late ’30s and early ’40s, he designed jewelry for Gone with the Wind and many of the Hollywood movies.” –Carol Guber

Cateye glasses
“I almost can’t wait until I need glasses in order to buy the classic rhinestone studded tortoiseshell cateyes that my mother used to wear!” –m8200n

Uniqlo Jeans
“I buy jeans in bulk at Uniqlo for $39 and at Urban Outfitters (they’re called Cheap Mondays).” –Linda Rodin

Wolford Cotton Stretch Bodysuit
“I wear a Wolford cotton stretch body suit every day to pull everything together. It’s a comfort thing and it eliminates lines.” –Linda Dresner

Black Pant and Tunic in Allie-Coosh’s Signature Fabric
“My favorite items of clothing are a black pant and a tunic in my signature fabric – a washable microfiber that comes in 44 colors. I can make it work for day or glam it up for evening.” –Paulette Martsolf

Judith Ripka Necklace
“My signature piece of jewelry is my Judith Ripka necklace I won on Oprah’s Favorite Things Show in 2003.” –ghall1972

Dior Sunglasses
“My Dior Sunglasses are my newest favorite find. Beautiful designs that feel and look spectacular. Worth every penny.” –lifeiswonderful2

Roberto Cavalli Dress
“My signature item is a Roberto Cavalli dress that I absolutely love. It’s bias cut, stretch material and the color is dreamsicle orange and cream swirl. It’s very sheer and huggy and comes to the knee. I wear it with spiky Gucci heels and every time, mens’ jaws drop and women say, ‘Where did you get that?'” –Debra Deem

What’s your signature piece?  

from →