Rachel Zoe on Finding Success without a Plan

On the literal first day Rachel Zoe decided to be a freelance stylist, Tommy Hilfiger called her up to style a 2-week campaign with the biggest celebs and supermodels. She had 0 faith in herself but he trusted she could do it. Rachel spent her career mainly behind the camera until her clients – who were the it-girls of the time – started pulling her in front of the paps too. That turned into a Bravo TV show about her life, “The Rachel Zoe Project” and several fashion-focused brands centered around her styling. The best part? She never planned any of it.

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Rachel shares: 

• The subconscious impact of growing up near New York City

• How she managed her limelight career as an introvert

• Why she decided to allow Bravo to film her life, despite swearing it off initially

• Whether or not she’d be able to launch her styling career in the age of social media

• How not having a plan for her whole career ended up working out 

On Her Biggest Fashion Pet Peeve in the Workplace

Rachel: Sometimes I’ll walk in for a meeting and someone's in shorts in a boardroom with sneakers and a blazer. And I'm like, okay, I'm here for that. We live in LA. But I think there's a fine line between it looking cool and chic and it looking like I just left the beach in Malibu, but had to run up for this meeting.

On Getting Hired by Tommy Hilfiger After a Career Crisis

Rachel: I had gotten hired for a freelance job through a friend and I made more money in literally five hours of work than I made in the year. And I said, this is crazy. What am I doing? I was making literally nothing and working 24/7. And so I said, forget it. I'm going to go freelance. And everyone's like, do you have your first job? I was like, “No, this is insane.” And I remember crying on the floor of my New York apartment at 25, a very Sarah Jessica moment of just like, what is my life?  Cause I think 25, at least for me, and I see a lot of people now at 25 being like, it's an inflection point. Like, I don't want to take another dollar from my parents. I need to live on my own. I really need to be responsible for myself, but I can't afford to be, and it's scary. And so that's what it was like for me. And I went freelance and the day I decided to go freelance, I'm not joking. Like the next day, I feel like quite literally – Tommy Hilfiger called me into his office and asked me to do it. He hired me for a two week campaign with the biggest celebrities and about 20 supermodels.

On Learning the Business of Fashion

Rachel: I'm still continuing to learn the business side. There's definitely a learning curve. I've always I'm the first one to say do not put a spreadsheet in front of me. Never put me in charge of finances. Never put me in charge of a spreadsheet or modeling or projections or any of that. That's not my training. It's not my strength. But if you ask me about strategic planning, go forward instinct: does this feel right? What do you think of this opportunity? What do you think of this business idea? That is very instinctual to me, like, and I think some of that is.  A little bit. How styling is like breathing for me, right? Like that to me is even easier than breathing sometimes. I think business a lot of that comes from time and experience and learning and understanding not just the industry of fashion, but the psychology of people and customers and women. For me, my brand mission has always remained constant, which is: always to try to help empower women to live their best life in every possible way on any budget and all of that. It was always to be accessible and relatable, not to alienate and be intimidating.

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