In(And Out Of) Fashion

How genre-defining blogger Garance Doré found her footing in an industrythat can be seriously superficial

- Garance Dore

I never imagined that one day I would be sitting front row at one of the most anticipated fashion shows, Chanel, in the Grand Palais in Paris, surrounded by celebrities and wondering how I got there.

Well, actually, I know how: I was one of the most respected fashion influencers in the world. A New York Times writer had called me “the guardian of all styles.” Together with a few of my contemporaries, I had made online fashion noble. I received a CFDA Award, presented to me by Pharrell Williams. He said I was a visionary, and everybody applauded.

Yet something still felt wrong. Uncomfortable. When I used to whisper to my fashion friends, “You know, I don’t really like going to fashion shows,” they would remind me that people would kill for my spot. So I kept telling myself I was lucky. Until one day…

I grew up on a small French island, Corsica. My parents were young immigrants with a knack for making life beautiful. My dad came from a family of talented Italian chefs, and my mom, freshly arrived from Algeria, knew how to make life joyful, interesting, and pretty even without a franc in her pocket. My sister, brother, and I grew up in the seaside restaurant our parents had made so popular that guests included Gianni Agnelli, Brigitte Bardot, and every ’90s top model you could think of.

Corsica is wild, untouched, and beautiful. Ajaccio, the town I grew up in, was as sunny and sleepy as any village on the French Riviera or the Italian Riviera dei Fiori, with slow, warm winters and hot, busy summers far from front rows.