Second Life

Ron Robinson is the founder of BeautyStat and the cosmetic chemist behind Hailey Bieber’s skincare line, Rhode. Robinson began his career at Clinique in the ’90s and, over the past two decades, has worked on products for industry giants like Revlon, Avon, L’Oréal, and Lancôme. He launched BeautyStat as an educational platform for beauty enthusiasts in 2009 but ultimately moved into developing his...

Alyssa Wasko Stein is the founder and designer of Los Angeles–based womenswear brand Donni. Stein has had entrepreneurial tendencies since childhood, but she didn’t always know her love of fashion would take her down the designer path. She studied a different part of the fashion industry (retailing and consumer sciences) and secured a coveted internship in Chanel’s visual merchandising department...

For our second annual Who What Wear 100 Beauty Awards, Beauty Director Erin Jahns is joined by beauty editors Jamie Schneider, Kaitlyn McLintock, and Maya Thomas for a roundtable discussion about all of their favorite products. After spending months testing items from the buzziest new brands and the industry giants, the team has narrowed their top picks down to 100 items across haircare, skincare,...

Katie Sturino is the founder of Megababe, the innovative beauty brand known for nontoxic, cult-favorite products like Thigh Rescue and Bust Dust. She's also a body-acceptance advocate with a highly engaged community of close to one million supporters across platforms. Sturino joined Hillary Kerr on Second Life back in 2020 to talk about her winding career path from PR to social media to beauty (li...

Ann Foley is the costume designer behind the grounded and detailed wardrobes of the hit show The Last of Us. In this episode, Foley (whose extensive career also includes work on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and She Hulk) sits down with Who What Wear Senior Fashion and Social Media Editor Tara Gonzalez to discuss the costume design process for The Last of Us season 2. Foley shares the journey of...

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, a prominent grassroots organization fighting gun violence in the United States. She initially aspired to be an investigative journalist, and she earned a journalism degree but transitioned into a career in public relations, spending nearly two decades in corporate communications at companies like Anthem and GE Healthcare. After taking a step back...

Emilia Wickstead is a New Zealand–born, London-based fashion designer known for her refined yet playful approach to feminine dressing. Since launching in 2008, she’s evolved her namesake brand from a made-to-measure model to producing seasonal ready-to-wear collections, shown at London Fashion Week for the past 13 years, and expanded into bridalwear. In this episode, Wickstead joins Senior Fashion...

Jessica Malaty Rivera is an infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator renowned for making complex public health information accessible, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While initially premed at USC, she pivoted to studying health promotion and disease prevention, and worked in the nonprofit sector after college. She was later recruited to research emerging biological th...

Kathleen Felix-Hager is the Emmy Award–winning costume designer behind the vibrant and evolving wardrobes of the hit show Hacks. Felix-Hager, whose extensive career also includes work on Veep and Dexter, sits down with Who What Wear Editorial Director Lauren Eggertsen to delve into the sartorial world of Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels. In this episode, Felix-Hager shares the journey of developing d...

Anushka Salinas is the CEO of the parenting tech company Nanit. Salinas began her career as an assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor, discovering her love for fashion and business data. She then pursued her MBA and serendipitously met the founders of the groundbreaking clothing rental company Rent the Runway when it was still just an idea. She began working for the company as an unpaid intern during bu...

Christos Garkinos, the self-proclaimed "Robin Hood of fashion," joins Who What Wear Market Director Bobby Schuessler to unpack his winding career, from growing up working in his family's Greek restaurant to becoming a reality TV personality and pioneering the world of luxury resale. Garkinos grew up infatuated with the Home Shopping Network, and after stints at big corporations like Clorox and Dis...

Courtney Claghorn is the co-founder of SUGARED + BRONZED, the nation’s largest sugaring and sunless tanning destination. Claghorn's journey began in 2010, out of her Santa Monica apartment, while juggling a full-time job in the fintech industry. After becoming dissatisfied with the high prices and underwhelming experiences of local spray tanning, she saw a gap in the market, and with just $1000 an...

Tom Broecker is the costume designer of the legendary NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live. Broecker, who has been with the show for over three decades, is responsible for the design and creation of all of the costumes for the show—sometimes creating up to 200 for just one episode. Today on the podcast, he joins Who What Wear Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer Hillary Kerr to discuss the intricat...

Angela Vranich is the co-founder and chief product officer of the baby-and-kids food brand Little Spoon. Angela jump-started her career while still in college by founding a nationwide organic food marketing company. After graduation, she got a job in television, producing culinary competition reality shows out of Philadelphia. But she quickly realized it wasn’t for her. After a cross-country move...

Prabal Gurung is a world-renowned Nepalese American fashion designer who established his eponymous label in 2009. In this episode, Gurung joins Senior Fashion and Social Media Editor Tara Gonzalez to discuss the origins of his brand—from his childhood in Nepal and India to becoming a prominent New York–based designer—and his newly published memoir, Walk Like a Girl (order a copy here!). He also sh...

Rosie Johnston is the founder of the clean fragrance line By Rosie Jane. Johnston originally trained as a makeup artist and began working in London, then moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to build her skills and clientele. In 2003, she founded Rosie Jane Cosmetics, which offered an ahead-of-its-time multipurpose lip and cheek pot. While the venture didn’t last, she realized she had a love...

On Monday evening, just after the 2025 Met Gala arrivals wrapped up, Who What Wear Shopping Director Bobby Schuessler sat down with Editorial Director Lauren Eggertsen and senior fashion and social media editor Tara Gonzalez to debrief on the most successful and creative interpretations of this year's theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. After a night full of touching homages and nuanced refer...

Styling duo Wayman Bannerman and Micah McDonald are some of the most exciting voices working in red carpet fashion today. They’re known for bold, experimental, and thoughtful looks that have repeatedly landed them on The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Stylists List. The pair, who originally met in Harlem and bonded over their love of fashion, have been working together for over a decade and have curat...

Kristen Kish is a chef, restaurateur, author, and host of the hit Bravo cooking competition show Top Chef. She briefly studied international business in college before dropping out to pursue culinary school. After finishing her training, she worked several jobs in the restaurant industry in Chicago and Boston. In 2012, Kish was cast in—and won—the 10th season of the legendary culinary competition...

What does it take to make it as an independent designer today? Is New York Fashion Week dead? This week, Who What Wear Associate Features Editor Ana Escalante breaks down her recent piece for our Spring Issue about the state of the fashion industry—and what it feels like to be an American fashion designer in 2025. She and Editorial Director Lauren Eggertsen discuss why Ana wanted to explore this t...

Ariana Ferwerda and Kiley McKinnon are the co-founders of the women’s ski and activewear brand Halfdays. McKinnon is a former freestyle aerial skier who competed at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, and Ariana holds degrees in marketing and marketing research from Michigan State University. Despite their different professional backgrounds, when the two met in Denver in 2019, they commiserated over th...

Grace Na is the founder of Pistola, a Los Angeles–based womenswear and denim brand. Since its creation in 2013, Pistola has become a go-to destination for reasonably priced, trendy, high-quality denim styles—including a few viral hits, like the pink denim jumpsuit Greta Gerwig wore while directing the Barbie movie. This week, Grace joins Who What Wear Shopping Director Bobby Schuessler to discuss...

Anna Harman is the co-founder and CEO of the ear-piercing and earrings brand Studs. She began her career as a mutual fund formation lawyer but soon realized she didn’t have a passion for law. She then spent several years at the asset management firm Bridgewater Associates before moving into business, eventually landing at Store No. 8, Walmart’s brand incubator. One day, while trying to get her ear...

Violette Serrat is a makeup artist, designer, and founder of the popular makeup brand Violette_FR. She began her career in fine art and makeup artistry (listen to her Second Life episode from 2023 here!) before launching Violette_FR in 2021. This week, she joins Who What Wear Beauty Director Erin Jahns to talk about her brand's recent launch in over 190 Sephora stores across North America and how...

Tennille Jenkins is a content creator and co-founder of the popular and long-running blog The Tennille Life. She studied interior architecture and design in college and started her career as an interior designer before spending several years as a stay-at-home mom with her two daughters. At age 30, she began to consider returning to the workforce and unexpectedly landed a job as a corporate flight...