We will never know if Olivia Palermo (New York, 1986) finds the trends or if the trends find her. The truth is that this New Yorker, baptized as the total it girl back in 2009, even in the pre-influencer era, has shown sense of smell, a clinical eye and art to turn everything she touches, everything she wears and everywhere into fashion and money. where it appears.
The photos that accompany this interview bear witness. They were made during Olivia's visit to Madrid to present her collaboration with Scalpers, a capsule collection made by hand with Olivia who has been involved in the design of all the pieces. The sophistication of the garments reveals the New Yorker's aesthetic references, but also her sense of smell.
A collection of eight garments, intended to be a party piece that will surely have a much longer run thanks to one of Olivia's great talents, the art of mixing everything. Big brands with small ones, luxury textures with austere ones, party clothes with everyday clothes. To do this and always succeed, you have to know a lot. It is an acrobatics only available to observant people with good taste.
He doesn't like the term influencer at all. Your representative interrupts this interview to let me know. And it's fair. Olivia was already an authority long before the word contaminated everything.
She came to fame thanks to her character in the reality show The City, which began airing in 2008. Since then, her versatility has collided with all kinds of labels: it girl, socialite, blogger and now influencer. Frustrated attempts to simplify a much more complex personality. Olivia Palermo is fashion history and the longevity of her leadership in the industry is good proof of this. “I am a person with influence.” Said like that it sounds better to you.
She says she always knew she was destined to be a public figure and would always be in the spotlight. I ask her if she doesn't mind having each of her looks examined with a magnifying glass. “It's a pleasure, I like that people dedicate themselves to scrutinizing every detail, that they learn and get to know new brands through my work,” she responds. However, she has had the ability not to mix her private life with work. Looking at her Instagram you can never guess about the state of her marriage or the intimacies of her lifestyle.
It is elegant: it mixes styles and textures but not leisure and business. “I was clear from the beginning that I had to separate work from my private life, so I am very careful and strict with my times and with what I share on the networks,” she says.
The pandemic was for her, as for many, a turning point. By then she already had a website, she had built a fashion line and a beauty brand and had a team of full-time employees. She decided to stop and start from scratch. She closed everything. Now she has an employee and manages her social networks herself with the help of Johannes Huebl, her husband. She is in the process of resetting, reconnecting with her audience to recover Olivia's voice, which for some moments had seemed lost among the demands of marketing. She has a solid status on Instagram with more than 8.2 million followers.
Olivia says she is enjoying the moment. “I work a lot, but I am passionate about what I do. I love fashion, I like my community, and so much good energy among all those people that it encourages me to wake up every morning.” She likes how fame has diversified with social media. “Before, the world of celebrities was reduced to movie stars, music stars and some top models. It was exclusive and exclusive, and much smaller. Social media has brought new voices, we are now surrounded by interesting voices and original points of view that perhaps we were missing before.”
Her strategy is clear and always the same: If Olivia Palermo has a clear identity and an influential voice, the brands will come alone. She will always choose according to three criteria: “On the one hand there are the brands that I like and are part of my universe. In that case the relationship is organic. On the other hand, there are brands with potential that are growing in a coherent way and identify with my universe. And finally, there are those that represent an innovative way of understanding fashion and the world and keep my mind open.”
She assures that she does not miss those glorious times when there were no algorithms to deal with and she was simply Olivia Palermo and no more explanations or digital maneuvers were needed. “I think you have to enjoy the past, but not live in it, and that's what I try to do. I am not nostalgic and I like to be in the present and move forward. I am attentive to the things that begin to move and announce the future. "I don't think we should idealize the past, I prefer to always look forward."
