A Meaningful Phone Convo with Liana Satenstein
Talking freelance fashion journalism, Vogue, closet cleaning, and #NEVERWORNS with TikTok’s favorite Senior Fashion Writer at Vogue Liana Satenstein.
Liana Satenstein, or should I say TikTok’s favorite Senior Fashion Writer at Vogue, is often seen wearing a pair of thin, rectangular glasses with some Tom Ford-era Gucci pants, maybe a cork wedge, but certainly a chunky Vogue microphone in-hand as she interviews writers around the office about their outfits, predicts trends, or talks anything 2000s fashion. That is, until July 6 when Liana posted an Instagram photo of a photoshopped Vogue cover with her face on it, reading “Goodbye Vogue!”
Goodbye Vogue, but not goodbye fashion. Liana now writes freelance for Vogue, while focusing on her YouTube, IG Live, and Substack series #NEVERWORNS, as she talks closet efficiency and incredible (never worn) garments with some of fashion’s most notable personalities—Ganni Creative Director Ditte Refstrup, GQ’s first fashion critic Rachel Tashjian, 2000’s fashion it-girl Devon Lee Carlson, and The Nanny’s Fran Drescher, to name a few.
Keeping to the tune of her article published the morning of our interview, “Are We Having Meaningful Phone Conversations Anymore,” Liana and I had a thoughtful phone conversation about her journalism experience beginning as a freelance fashion writer, closet cleaning, Vogue, and #NEVERWORNS. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
CN: I'd love to learn a little bit more about your background—where you grew up, and if that had any influence on your interest in the fashion industry.
LS: I'm from a small town in Massachusetts, it's called Amesbury—it's essentially a pilgrim town. It's like bootleg Gilmore Girls. No outlet, really charming, but nothing to do. I knew I wasn't gonna stay there. Because it was so boring, basically, I just became fascinated with magazines. And that was sort of my portal out of this town. This was in the early 2000s, the social media landscape was different. I kind of became obsessed and I was like, I'm gonna move there, [to New York]. And so I did that.
CN: What magazines were you reading?
LS: I was doing the standard prescription. Vogue, Nylon at the time, British Vogue, Vogue Italia…I was a bus girl at a pizza place and I saved up all my money, and I would go blow it on magazines.
CN: What attracted you to reading about fashion specifically?
LS: I think it kind of shaped an idea that I had about New York… I almost mood boarded, or starter packed, what I thought New York was from reading these magazines at the time.
CN: How did moving to New York and landing a job at Vogue happen for you?
LS: I graduated, I couldn't get a job anywhere. I basically found jobs on Craigslist, my first one was doing sales for a Rabbi, and it involved cold calling—I was horrible at it. I got fired within six months. But while I was doing that, I made sure to keep in touch with everyone that I interned with [at Marie Claire and Women’s Wear Daily], and I was like, I will literally write about anything, honestly, like nail polish. One of the girls linked me up with a girl at Fashionista, who published a big article at the time for me about how Orthodox Jewish women dressed in Crown Heights, and that was really fun because it was on the ground reporting.
I did this all by myself at the time. I was probably 23 with a pathetic bank account balance, really sad. While I was at that weird sales job, because I'd written that article about Ukrainian designers in MarieClaire.com—not print, but still, anyone who writes about their country…they love it. So I got in touch with one of the girls [in Ukraine] and they have a thing called Kiev Fashion Week, and I wanted to go—I speak Russian fluently. So I bought my own plane ticket, sat with my friend, and I photographed their fashion week and the street style, and I pitched it to Women's Wear Daily, I got that published, and then long story short, I got fired from that sales job. Weirdly enough on LinkedIn, okay. LinkedIn—LinkedIn is for olds—but I was like, okay, whatever. This woman reaches out to me from HR from LinkedIn, and they're looking for someone to come in at Vogue. And so I just went in, and I mean, I had to go through so many interviews. Degrading. Horrible. I had no clothes at this time, either. Just a Rag and Bone blazer I got at Beacons.
CN: I remember reading on your Instagram that for one of your interviews you used the Vogue closet—I didn't know if that was real, or if that was like a “Devil Wears Prada” kind of thing, but…
LS: Oh, no, that was real. Sally, my former boss, who was the former creative director there, she took pity on me.
CN: Do you remember what you were wearing?
LS: It was a white shirt dress and these green suede peep toe mules. I had also gotten a $13 Manicure pedicure down my street in Queens for this situation.
CN: What were some of the bigger moments of initially working there?
LS: I think it was a Rag and Bone party, honestly.
CN: Do you have a favorite piece you've written for Vogue?
LS: Oh, I have a few. One of them is about this heelless shoe at Saint Laurent. They did this shoe that didn't have a heel, and I'm such an idiot with math, really, like pathetic stuff. I couldn't fathom how a model was able to walk in it. So I called up the chair of physics at Columbia, and he explained it to me, drew me a diagram, and I wrote it. And it was so fun, I love doing that because I learned something new and fashion was this vehicle to do it.
I recently did something on this Gap chunky striped turtleneck from the 2000s. I saw it, I had a memory and I wanted to investigate it—everyone seems to have this sweater, everyone seems to have a memory. I talked to the designer of it, talked to a few people that worked at Gap at the time, spoke with a woman who got married because of the sweater, and it was just all these weird stories that were because of the sweater.
CN: Why leave Vogue?
LS: I'd almost been there for nine years, and I love everyone there dearly. Really, I mean, they essentially raised me…throughout my 20s. I think I was just like, I want to do my own thing. I wanted to do longer form and also pursue my own stuff. I love writing about absolutely nothing. And I'm sure everything that I write on Substack can go on Vogue.com, that's fine, but I just like to be a little bit more, who knows, pervy and use illegal images that I probably need rights for if I were to write about this for Vogue.
CN: The majority of your images on Substack play into 2000s/2010s imagery. What about the early 2000s/2010s appeals to you fashion-wise?
LS: I grew up during that time, that's when I really fell in love with this world, and something [else] I've been noticing is no tech. It's like a fantasy where people are more in-tune and they lived more. I was thinking about it, like, I'm getting all these ads on my phone for tech neck—neck fat or something like neck humps. It’s from looking at your phone! People twenty years ago were not getting this. They might have had carpal tunnel syndrome, but they didn't have carpal tunnel neck. There's an elegance that exists in that time, because there was no tech and there was no Instagram, no iMessage. You had a beeper, maybe. You probably don't know what that is.
CN: Now let’s talk about #NEVERWORNS, I’m a big fan of the live series and also your writing on Substack. But when did that come to be, and why did you decide to start pursuing #NEVERWORNS more seriously?
LS: I actually had this show for Vogue, there was one episode and then COVID happened so we had to stop, called Liana Closet Shrink. I had started cleaning out people's closets at Vogue for extra money, lol. And my mom's an antique dealer, so I had grown up around people getting rid of their stuff—going to estate sales, trailer parks, yard sales and seeing how people get rid of things and the psychology behind it. So my boss, Sally, knew that I was good at doing that, and she was moving apartments and was like, ‘Hey, can you help me sort through all my crap.’ It was interesting because I learned so much about her just through her clothes, and it would never have happened with just a normal conversation. I started doing it for women in the office, and it kind of snowballed and then obviously COVID hit, I couldn’t do it anymore. I was like, I have nothing to do sitting in my apartment. Alone. I'm just gonna do some weird series—I'm just going to interview someone, it’s gonna sound like a weird hotline, and then it kind of spiraled. The clothes were essentially the vehicle to storytelling, which I loved… I actually got some pretty big people on there. I got Fran Drescher, I got [Real Housewife] Dorinda [Medley], we love Dorinda. I got my boss Choma on there. I got Drea de Matteo from those Sopranos, a killer episode. From there, you're filming someone, you're talking about their never worns, you're getting to know them, and then with the clothes that they don't wear, you can buy the clothes…It’s a beast.
CN: What’s the most rare/expensive item you’ve purged from someone’s closet?
LS: I found a diamond ring in someone’s pocket. And I was like, ‘hey, you have a diamond ring. It’s a really expensive diamond ring and you forgot about it.’ I think people not knowing what’s in their bags or pockets is interesting.
CN: Who’s closet was the most fun for you to look through?
LS: I think Dorinda is funny, because Dorinda’s a freak. And she has great taste and great stories. Fran Drescher was great because she went on a really enlightening tangent about spirituality and the concept of stuff, and you would think with that kind of character on the Nanny she’d be really materialistic, but in actuality she’s very down to earth and likes to part with things, and doesn't really care about materialism so much.
CN: What clothing piece in anyone’s closet do you think says the most about them as a person?
LS: I think honestly the bag, and what’s in the bag. Because some people don’t clean out their bags.
CN: What’s your go-to bag right now?
LS: Honestly I’ve been kind of roaming bag-free, #unemployed, but for real Tory Burch gave me this wild doctor’s bag. It’s really tiny, its very 90s—it looks like elevated Nine West. It’s really just tiny and structured which I love.
CN: Who’s your dream #NEVERWORNS guest?
LS: I think Kati Couric would be really fun. Janet Jackson, Madonna would be crazy, Judge Judy, honestly Bernie Sanders could be really fun. Because you know you would just learn so much about their personality through their clothes. I would love to know how Bernie Sanders shops in a day…I should pitch this story. Shopping with Bernie.
CN: What would you ask Madonna?
LS: I would ask what was the most career defining piece that she wore, and/or what was the piece that she got the most flack from. And also she used to wear a lot of men’s suits in the early 90s, she’d perform in them and grab her crotch and do all this raunchy stuff, so I’d be like, ‘tell me more about that.’
CN: What was your first designer purchase?
LS: It’s not designer, but I got this leather jacket in high school second-hand at a place where you could buy clothes for $1 per pound. I still have it. It kind of opened up a whole different world for me I think, that jacket. Everyone cool had a leather jacket and I was like, wow, I’m so cool in this small town smoking a pack of Marlboro 27 cigarettes with my leather jacket listening to Kings of Leon with the headlights off with my friends.
CN: Why do you collect designer clothing, like Tom Ford Gucci, for example. How does that resonate with your personal style?
LS: I think he’s an amazing designer, I think he’s a sexy designer. He designs for almost the elevated everyday, is what I like to term it. I like to look elevated and sexy, and I think he did that the best. Also Michael Kors for Celine, amazing. And I also really like the thrill of the hunt. I do not pay full price, I do not spend a lot of money on my clothes. I probably spend less than your average high schooler going to the mall.
CN: Do you have any advice for aspiring Senior Fashion Writers at Vogue?
LS: I think it’s about having a point of view, and I think it’s being able to spot something very weird. So basically there’s like a sea of noise and nonsense, and you have to look at that sea of nonsense and say, I’m seeing this from a different angle, I’m extracting something different from it. So for example, let’s say the color of the season is burgundy, for some reason. Great, you can do just a regular news article, and say this color is burgundy and it first appeared on this runway…whatever, who cares. I think what you can do is go one step further and maybe talk to psychologists, a trend forecaster, or something like that. Dig a little bit deeper. I don’t know, what are you interested in?
CN: I’ve been really into Miuccia Prada for both Miu Miu and Prada…I feel like I’ve based my personal style around that 90s imagery in the past couple months.
LS: And why do you like it?
CN: I think it’s so sporty and practical, but also sexy and tailored with the suiting that Raf [Simons] is doing there more recently. But also just the ethos of a hot, sporty girl and clothing that isn’t explicitly ‘sexy,’ like a longer skirt, clunky shoes, or a waist bag, but they’re practical and look fantastic.
LS: There you go. I love Prada, I love Prada Sport—I love those ugly ass shoes that she does. There must be some weirdo out there who only collects Prada Sport and must have an insane collection, there you go. So figure out what makes you tick. It’s finding that weird thing and having a point of view. Be confident about what you have to say. Say the wrong thing and say it loudly, no I’m just kidding.