RACHEL ZOE

PROFILE: Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe swept into London last week to find a city poised to loathe every inch of her infamous size 0 frame. The great weight debate had rumbled through fashion week and was reaching a climax just as Zoe an American fashionista the Los Angeles Times once claimed was single-handedly bringing anorexia back hit town. It couldnt have been more awkward if Glenn Hoddle had turned up at the Paralympics. Zoe her name rhymes with faux put a brave face on things. I love London so much, she simpered to guests at designer Julien Macdonalds pre-show bash at the Sanderson hotel on Wednesday. Id move here if it werent for the weather. Im the palest Ive been in ages. Being pale simply doesnt cut it with the former fashion journalist. Neither do baggy jeans, trainers, small sunglasses or, God forbid, body fat. Zoe, 34 (unkind fashion types insist she looks 10 years older) is a stylist and for the past 18 months the look she has devised for her long list of celebrity clients pin thin, orange tan, tousled mane; think Brigitte Bardot on crack has come to define modern beauty. For those not up to speed, being a stylist means Zoe helps famous people (mostly young actresses such as Cameron Diaz and Kate Beckinsale) choose what to wear to red carpet events, photo shoots or sometimes just to their local Starbucks. She charges $6,000 a day for this privilege. No wonder the closets of her Beverly Hills home boast more than 400 coats and literally countless pairs of shoes. Though not a designer, photographer or magazine editor, Zoe has become one of the most powerful women in fashion. The ensembles she chooses for my girls fill the pages of magazines such as OK! or Heat and add millions to the profits of her designer friends, who adore her. But her most devoted clients, such as Nicole Richie, Keira Knightley and wild child actress Lindsay Lohan, are decidedly scrawny and all battle speculation about their weight. Known as the Zoe-bots, they have matching toothpick arms and sunken faces barely able to support the fashionably enormous sunglasses their svengali encourages them to wear. To her detractors Zoe who weighs no more than a kitten herself has therefore replaced Kate Moss as the number one culprit for societys collective eating disorder. Some say she is the architect of size 0 mania a fad for super skinniness that is spreading from Zoes home town of LA around the world. After a model died from heart failure brought on by fasting at a fashion show in Madrid two weeks ago, the Spanish capital banned size 0 (equivalent to a British size 4) models from catwalks. Last week there was much debate over whether Britain should follow suit, with designers Sir Paul Smith and Allegra Hicks calling for the industry to stop using girls with a body mass index below 18 (officially unhealthy).

And Zoes view? Theres a small grey area between being too skinny and being a thin person, she has said. Though she also thinks an eating disorder is a very sad thing it kills people. I would never in a million years tell a client they had to lose weight. Theres a size for everybody, adding in her defence, People dont realise that Ive worked with people who are size 8 and 10. Though many will agree that there is indeed a size for everybody some find it mystifying that a stylist has become so famous in the first place. But Zoe is part of a new guard of celebrity valets starting to become as well known as their charges. Phillip Bloch (who chooses Halle Berrys Oscar gowns) and Patricia Field (who styled the girls on Sex and the City) are household names in America, and Mick Jaggers girlfriend LWren Scott (Nicole Kidmans stylist) has become a celeb in her own right. In a business where nothing sells like celebrity, Hollywood stylists are the new emperors of fashion. Stylists are now critical to the fashion market and Rachel is incredibly important in the industry, said Amy Astley, editor of Teen Vogue. She has kick-started many of the trends you see today. She, and others like her, have opened up the fashion industry so its not just for insiders. Now everyone knows about labels because they read about their celebrities wearing them. Born Rachel Zoe Rosenzweig in New York, she was raised in a wealthy New Jersey suburb by art collector parents. Though the house was filled with Frank Stellas and Barbara Krugers, Zoe was only interested in her mothers closet. It was like a candy store, she has said of the racks of vintage Dior and Balmain. At 13 her mother took her to Paris. I had saved every dime and dollar, and I walked right into Louis Vuitton and bought a bag. It now lives with hundreds of others in a foyer in her walk-in wardrobe. Later she studied sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she met her husband, Roger Berman, an investment banker. They dont have children, just a California mansion decorated in Missoni prints, Christmas holidays in St Barts and summers in St Tropez. Zoe says Roger keeps her sane, but he refuses to speak to her during Oscar season. After college she moved to New York to worked at YM and Gotham magazines, before breaking into celebrity styling. Her first clients were pop singers such as Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys famous, but terminally unchic. Then she moved to LA and dropped the Rosenzweig on the advice of an agent. In early 2004 Zoe got a job working for Nicole Richie, daughter of the soul singer Lionel, and Paris Hiltons sidekick on the reality TV show The Simple Life. Nicole showed up to meet me in an airport wearing a sweatsuit, she once recalled, with a leopard-print neck pillow tied around her neck and an I Love LA cap and her hair in pig tails. I think she was doing it to torture me. Richie, according to mean-spirited gossip mags, was in a chunky phase. Not for long. As her clothes became more stylish (Zoe described her as my little Barbie doll) her body began to shrink. She took to wearing a red bracelet which people assumed signalled she was part of a group called the friends of Ana, and therefore anorexic. Richie said she

wore it for religious reasons, but it still drew attention to her freakishly thin wrists. The smallest on any human being over the age of 12, Zoe has said. Zoes other clients were beginning to disappear too. Jessica Simpson, the pop singer, and Mischa Barton, star of television hit The OC, looked merely willowy in Zoes trademark skinny jeans and floaty, disco-inspired cocktail dresses but shockingly thin in their bikinis. That girl Rachel Zoe definitely has something to do with (the skinny trend), said one gossip mag journalist. Ive seen her eat and she doesnt. Its the classic living for clothes, dying for fashion. Another stylist claimed: Ive worked with Rachel all day on a shoot, and basically, she drank a giant latte and smoked a bunch of cigarettes. Zoe finds such criticism grating. I dont think its fair to say that Im responsible because Im a thin person, that because Im influencing their style Im influencing what they eat. There was this crazy rumour that I was getting diet pills from Mexico and distributing them. I was like, Okay, Ive never even tried cocaine. I dont do drugs Im too much of a control freak. Nevertheless, a picture of 19-year-old Lohan seemed to show most of her ribs were visible on her back. And yet perhaps we should have been worried for her wallet as much her waistline. Lohan took Zoe with her to Europe to promote her film Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2005. For the two-week trip they brought 10 trunks of clothes, with Lohan changing outfits three or more times a day. No surprise then to learn that, according to the American magazine Life & Style Weekly, the actress spent more than $1m on clothes and accessories last year. Her closets are overflowing with things like $8,000 Prada dresses and $2,000 Balenciaga bags, Zoe confessed. She has so many clothes she never even wears some of them. Though Womens Wear Daily recently called the Zoe look tired, she came to London to style Macdonalds catwalk show. The worry is that, by working with one of Britains leading designers, Zoe will bring her scary-thin LA aesthetic to bear on the Brits. Oh no, were much too sensible for that, says a celebrity photographer, and Rachel is actually very down to earth, especially for the fashion industry. Yes shes thin, but shes not telling anyone else to be. A nice theory, but next May Warner Books will publish Style: A to Zoe, in which the stylist and her famous friends such as Tom Ford and Naomi Campbell will offer tips on how to look fabulous ie, impossibly thin. Then Zoe has said she wants to start her own fashion label. The well-covered women of Britain might prefer she do so in California.

NEWYORK TIMES MAGAZINE REPORT: BEING RACHEL ZOE

Correction Appended: It was pouring rain in Paris in early July, and Rachel Zoe was late for the 11:30 a.m. Chanel haute couture presentation. Oh, I shouldnt say who my favorite is, Zoe told me the day before the show. So many of the designers are my friends. They all want to get their clothes on my clients. Still, for Zoe, a Hollywood stylist who has dressed stars like Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz and Keira Knightley, Chanels red-carpet ball gowns would have been a top priority of the couture calendar. And yet there she was, stuck in traffic in her chauffeured Mercedes sedan, an hour away from the Chanel show, which was to be held at a former palace in St.-Cloud, a suburb of Paris. As always, Zoe (pronounced ZOH) was dressed for the designer she was viewing. She was wearing a bright pink nubby wool Chanel jacket, black pants and her usual five-inch platform open-toed shoes. All the Zoe trademarks were in place: she was very tan; her long blond hair was carefully styled to look carefree; there were ropes of gold chains around her neck and stacks of diamond bangles on her wrists; and enormous (Chanel) sunglasses nearly obscured her face. Even wearing high heels, she is short and stick-thin, but Zoe, who is 36, does not seem fragile. The masses of jewelry, the outsize sunglasses, the whole noisy, 70s-inspired look add up to a hectic, ostentatious, theatrical sort of glamour. Its the look she has duplicated on her clients, making the so-called Zoe-bots paparazzi favorites, as well as walking advertisements for a host of top designers. A cross-pollinator of the worlds of Hollywood celebrities, high fashion and tabloid magazines, Zoe has become a powerful image broker, a conduit to the ever-more lucrative intersection of commerce, style and fame. Early in her career, in 1996, she worked as a stylist at YM magazine, dressing such teenage pop stars as Britney Spears andJessica Simpson, girls who were young enough to be molded and popular enough to be influential. Around the same time, magazines like Us Weekly began inventing their own cadre of celebrities, like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. They had no discernible accomplishments or talent, but they did seem to go out a lot, and they thrived under the flash of the paparazzi. Magazines like Us constructed provocative narratives around them their romantic woes, their drug problems and Zoe, who began working with Richie in 2003 when she was viewed only as Hiltons plump sidekick, saw an opportunity. Nicole is now what people refer to as the big thing that happened, Zoe told me in Paris. Everything went from nowhere to everywhere. Nicole was about creating a look. Because of her fashion sense, which was really my fashion sense, she became famous. It was a huge moment: Nicole became a style icon without being a star. And then Nicole became a star, too. Because of circumstances that remain murky, Nicole and Rachel no longer speak. But the relationship made their careers. Zoe began working with Lindsay Lohan, Kate Beckinsale and other tabloid-ready stars eager for a new fashion identity. Now she has 20 clients, each of whom reportedly pays her more than $6,000 a day to dress them for

events, big and small. Some pay only for premieres and award shows; some also retain Zoe to provide clothes for their daily lives. The financial scope of her business also includes incentives in the form of money and/or clothes, accessories or jewels, offered by designers eager to dress a particular Zoe client for a particular event. Around three years ago, everything began to change, Zoe said as she ran through puddles toward the entrance of the Chanel show. The nature of what, or who, is a celebrity has expanded. We arent saving lives here, but we are creating images, and images create opportunities in a lot of areas. Normally Chanel refuses entry to latecomers, but Zoe was allowed into the show. Three publicists cooed over Zoes appearance as she quickly kissed them hello on both cheeks and rushed past to her seat in the front row. The models were already walking down the muddy runway when Zoe took out her digital camera and began snapping shots of the dresses. There were many potential choices for her clients. A ruffled black chiffon flapper style gown might be perfect for Jennifer Garner; a more restrained, narrow sequined sheath might suit Keira Knightley. Although Lohan is a fan of Chanel, Zoe was not looking for clothes for her (Lohan was in rehab). Unlike Richie, who became famous for being famous, Lohan is actually a very good actress. But since her association with Zoe in 2004, her life in the tabloids and her style obsessions have eclipsed her talent. For an entire year, Lindsay wanted to wear three different looks a night, Zoe told me earlier. We were changing in cars, in bathrooms. I would have to bring two assistants with me so we could exchange the clothes, shoes, bags and jewelry, because what am I going to do with the clothes when she takes them off? You cant just leave diamonds in the car! But do you know how many designers she hooked up? When Lindsay would wear Chanel, it would sell out in four hours. Lohan may have moved merchandise, but she seems to have simultaneously stopped attracting audiences to her films. Exposure in magazines like Us Weekly and In Touch, which Zoe seems almost to guarantee, promises a huge but very particular kind of fame. While, say, Jennifer Aniston has sold endless magazines, all those eager readers have been less quick to buy tickets to her movies. Only The Break-Up, which neatly mirrored the tabloid narrative of her life, was popular. And yet, if mass stardom of the self is your goal, there is no quicker path than the tabloids. Zoes job her innovation in the business was to maximize the fashion component of the Hollywood-equals-celebrity equation. And for Zoe, fashion means the red carpet. Movies dont necessarily depict a glamorous existence, but the red carpet has the gloss of perfection. When images of the girl and her gown are beamed around the globe, the dress, the bag, the shoes instantly become coveted symbols of a dream world. The power of it all blows my mind every day, Zoe said as the Chanel show ended. Anna Wintour is one of my heroes, but they say that Im more influential. As great as it is, Vogue wont change a designers business. But if an unknown brand is worn by a certain person in a tabloid, it will be the biggest designer within a week. When I worked with Nicole, there were things that she wore that designers had to remake for another season because there was such demand.

Zoe was interrupted by two carefully groomed publicists in head-to-toe Chanel. They were concerned that Zoe had not seen every look in the show. Zoe promised to come to the showroom. She checked her BlackBerry and called her driver to find out his location. Im exhausted, she said, to no one in particular. My problem is, I kind of want to do everything. I was up until 4 a.m. checking on things in L.A. I have the fashion world, the Hollywood world, the creative world, and then I have the Rachel Zoe world. I have to deal with all of it. On a gray day in Paris, Zoe was having lunch at the Bristol, where she was staying with her husband, Rodger Berman, who was once an investment banker and now produces award shows for television. I love Paris, Zoe said as she studied the menu. If I spoke the language, Id live here. She looked up at the waitress, who had appeared at the table. Can you do crudit? Zoe said. The waitress looked confused. You did it yesterday. With cucumber. If not, I guess a salad, no dressing. The waitress still looked confused. You see, Zoe said to me, theres just too much of a communication barrier. Zoe took a sip of her English Breakfast tea. I wish caffeine had vitamins in it, she said. At times, Zoe, who was wearing a neon yellow patent leather Courrges jacket from the 60s, can seem like a dizzy character in a backstage musical. She seems to alternate between playing the madcap heiress (complete with costume) and the wisecracking best friend. But in both guises, her intense determination and ambition become almost immediately apparent. Zoe is, in many ways, her own best client.

In the last few years, stylists have become a dominant part of the business, says Meredith OSullivan, a publicist who represents the actresses Jessica Biel and Rosario Dawson, among others. And Rachel is a large part of the reason. Having a stylist is now a necessary element in any publicity or marketing campaign. As soon as I sign a girl, I insist that she get a stylist.
The economics of the stylist have significantly affected the movie business. A stylists fee, which can range from $4,000 to $6,000 a day plus the cost of assistants, is usually paid by the studio that is distributing the stars film. Zoe, like most stylists, has an agent who negotiates with the publicity department of the movie company or, in the case of TV, the network. Its such a racket, said one head of publicity at a major studio, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of angering any actresses who work with Zoe or other top stylists. During awards season, when you are nominated or presenting an award, then it makes sense to have a stylist. But now, B- and C-list stars are demanding stylists for everything. The level of insanity is very high. But the bottom line is, if you dont give them what they want, the actresses say they wont do any press, that they wont appear at the premiere. Sometimes I feel like saying, How difficult is it to just go out and buy a dress? Horror stories are rampant: last year, for instance, Nicole Kidman demanded upward of $100,000 for her stylist, makeup artist and hair person to be flown by private plane to the Rome Film Festival for the premiere of Fur, a low-budget, independent film about the photographer Diane Arbus. The studio, Picturehouse, decided not to pay for Kidmans team for the New York premiere of the film. She, in turn, decided not to turn up. It was cheaper for us if she didnt support the

film, said an executive familiar with the marketing for Fur. We should all come back in our next life as stylists. While stylists, including Zoe, never say they aim for the tabloids, all are concerned with coverage in those pages, because that is where the clothes are seen by the largest number of interested readers. Nicole Kidman may be leagues away from Nicole Richie, in both talent and prestige, but she is keenly aware of the fashion pop of the tabloids. And her exposure (created with the help of her stylist, LWren Scott) is carefully choreographed. Kidmans last few films have disappeared quickly, but her Chanel ad was a hit. What Kidman wears still sells. The fashion choices made by a stylist like Zoe are usually safe and often geared to their commercial possibilities. Today actresses tend to look appropriate and boring. Gone are the days when Cher would don a beaded headdress for the Academy Awards or Jane Fondawould accept her Oscar in an off-the-rack pantsuit. True, the eclecticism of awards-show dressing started to die well before Zoe. In 1989, Wanda McDaniel, who is married to the Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy, went to work for Giorgio Armani and began dressing stars like Jodie Foster (Armani still dresses her) and Julia Roberts, as well as most of the leading actors in Hollywood from George Clooney to Warren Beatty to Clint Eastwood. Armani never charged for the service the company even provided its own stylist to check on the fit of the garment and to assist with any accessories. Some stars continue to work with fashion designers in this way. Reese Witherspoon has an arrangement with the company Nina Ricci for red-carpet events, and Rene Zellweger usually wears the designer Carolina Herrera. But neither is structuring her career around tabloid exposure.

Thats really what I object to about what Rachel Zoe does, said the major studio publicity head. If an Academy Award-nominated actress has 50 appearances to make and she hates to shop, were happy to hire her a stylist. But to pay exorbitant amounts when the designers and the stars just want publicity in the tabloids, that is not going to help a movie at the box office. Zoe did not invent the job of stylist to the stars, but she did expand what the job could entail. In the past, stylists concerned themselves with the Academy Awards and a few other black-tie gala extravaganzas. Everything changed with the popularity of red-carpet preshows and the popularity of fashion and celebrity in the tabloids, OSullivan told me. What Zoe recognized is that the tabloids virtually the only magazines to increase their circulation substantially in recent years pretty much split their coverage between the bad behavior of their chosen stars and what they wore, whether it was to jail, to a premiere or to pick up their kids at school. Because of the tabloids running photos of people in their downtime, that became a thing, Zoe said as she waited for the food to arrive. So, we started doing fun outfits to go get your coffee in the morning or if you were going to the Ivy for dinner. You know what Im saying? The obsession with the tabloids fuels the business. Was I responsible? Yes. I think people should look cute all the time.

Life for Zoe and her clients became a constant red carpet. She put them in a combination of designer pieces and vintage finds from the 60s and 70s, which is also the way she dresses. After her days at YM, Zoe continued giving Jessica Simpson, then 16, advice on what to wear. The girls started asking for my help when they had an event, Zoe explained. Theyd say, Oh, my God, Rachel, only you could wear such a huge pair of sunglasses. Or, Only you could wear a ring the size of your hand. And, Id say: Thats nonsense. You can wear it, too: its about having confidence in taking a risk. And without risk, theres no reward. The reward, of course, was fame. Not just for clients like Nicole Richie and, later, for more established stars like Cameron Diaz, but for Zoe too. Top designers suddenly sought her out, and she was asked to create a line of evening bags for Judith Leiber, to consult on the Gaps shoe Web site and to be in an ad for a Samsung cellphone. Her autobiography/fashion guide, Style A to Zoe, will be published in October. The book is a narcissistic swirl of drawings of Zoe, photos of Zoe with her celebrity clients and glowing testimonials from fashion eminences like Valentino, mixed with tips how to strike a pose and what to pack for a trip to Europe. Hopefully, the book will teach people, Zoe said at the Bristol as her food finally arrived. Youre only here once. Why shouldnt you do it with style? Zoe looked down at her plate. Steamed vegetables were fanned around a small dollop of sauce. What is this? she asked. Zoe picked up her untouched plate and beckoned the waitress. I need to send this back, she said. Bring it to me without the sauce, please. As the waitress left, Zoe continued. It has to be the big picture for me, she said. A lot of people saw this job as you put them in a dress and thats all. I didnt see it that way. I want them to look great all the time. And I dont nickel-and-dime people. A lot of stylists say they are hired for this, this and this so thats the only thing Im going to dress them for. Im like, are you nuts? If my client calls me and says Im going to a friends premiere, Ill say, come over and lets do something cute. And I wont bill them for that. It all adds up anyway: more outfits means more photos, which means more designer credits and greater awareness and money. Through her involvement with Zoe, Lohan was offered not only the covers of top fashion magazines like Harpers Bazaar and Elle but also upscale advertising campaigns for Miu Miu, Pradas younger sister. No one wants to stay in the tabloids, Zoe said as a new plate of vegetables was placed before her. But its actually not a terrible place to start.

In late July, Zoe was in Manhattan to work on her newest venture, the relaunch of Halston, perhaps the most iconic American fashion house of the 70s. Her involvement came about in a typical Zoe connect-the-dots way. Zoe met Harvey Weinstein, the Academy Award-winning movie mogul, at a fund-raising event in 2005. Weinstein had a new interest in fashion. His girlfriend, Georgina Chapman, had become a co-designer of Marchesa, a label that specializes in evening dresses. Eager to help Chapman, Weinstein strongly suggested that the stars of his movies wear Marchesa gowns for big events. I also put the gowns on my girls, Zoe said now, as she sat in the

back seat of a black sedan on her way to a vintage store downtown called Resurrection. And we became friends. Zoe is also friends with Tamara Mellon, the president of Jimmy Choo (Zoe not only put Jimmy Choo stilettos on her girls; she also styled Jimmy Choo ads). It was Mellon who learned that Halston was available and brought the idea to Weinstein and Zoe, when they were all vacationing in St. Bart two years ago. At $22 million, Halston was not expensive the brand has been relaunched twice already, and both efforts were financial failures. Weinstein secured the company through a private equity firm. Zoe was intrigued. I said: Are you kidding? In a minute Ill do this, Zoe exclaimed. She was wearing loose jeans, a sleeveless white shirt unbuttoned to her sternum and an even larger amount of gold jewelry than usual. I keep changing my sunnies, she said as she fished in her Birkin bag for another pair of sunglasses. When the light changes, you have to change your sunnies. Earlier that month, the Halston team named Marco Zanini, a former Versace assistant, as creative director. Hes kind of brilliant, Zoe said. All the talent without the ego. But this is a slow process: Im used to moving fast. Our C.E.O. is a Virgo like myself. We are always saying, keep it moving, keep it moving. Growing up in Short Hills, N.J., Rachel Zoe Rosenzweig (her middle name was then pronounced ZOH-ee) was fascinated by Halston. The daughter of wealthy art collectors, she was surrounded by Frank Stellas and Keith Harings, but her earliest memory is of her mothers closet. I was 13 going on 30, she recalled. And to me, Halston was a true superstar. I wanted to be in his world. I wanted to dance at Studio 54 and fly to exotic destinations. And his clothes represented that dream. Zoes phone rang. Her ring tone is the opening notes of Riders on the Storm, by the Doors. Im not sick of it yet, she said as she put the BlackBerry to her ear. Whats up, babe? It was Taylor Jacobson, one of her two assistants, calling from L.A. Its bananies here, just bananies. Livs fitting went great. But she needs some bags. Get some Atwood, Choo and Vivier. And I saw Annie last night. Shell wear the white long for the Hamptons premiere on Monday. You have to get the jewels to her from Cartier. Cavalli is so happy about the premiere. What else? What else? I have lost my short-term memory Im just getting blonder by the day. To translate: Liv Tyler and Anne Hathaway have several events, and clothes are needed. Zoe and her team almost never buy anything new they borrow or they are given garments from nearly every designer. Some designers say no. A year ago, Zoe contacted Olivier Theyskens, then the designer of Rochas, about dressing Keira Knightley. He refused. I was shocked, she said after ending her phone call. I honestly could not believe that he wouldnt want to dress her. Hes a brilliant designer, but he doesnt understand how the business works. Despite her roots in the tabloids with teen stars, Zoe is determined to elevate her business from mass to class. Her idol is Carine Roitfeld, now the editor of French Vogue, who started out as a stylist and inspired designers like Tom Ford at Gucci. I had someone say to me the other day, You

are my muse, Zoe said as we passed a Starbucks. And I said, Dont put that pressure on me. She stared out the window. We have to stop at Starbucks. Even when Im in Paris, I only drink Starbucks coffee. Otherwise, I feel like Im cheating on this country. After ordering an iced tea and placing the cup inside another cup (I hate condensation, she explained), Zoe returned to the car. With all her new projects, the book, the Halston deal, the Leiber handbags that are priced from $2,500 to $16,000, it is surprising that Zoe is still fussing over Anne Hathaways dress for a local premiere. I keep saying Im going to cut back on styling, Zoe said, but its hard to give up. To be totally honest, I struggle with these two people: the Rachel that is the 100 percent service let-me-chase-you-down-the-red-carpet person. And then theres the other Rachel. Ive worked at this for 14 years, since I graduated from college, and right now, there are many opportunities to be Rachel the individual.

She has already started shedding skins. Even though she had great success with Lindsay Lohan, Zoe has now distanced herself from the troubled actress. I havent really been with Lindsay in the last year, she said. When I was with Lindsay, wed stay up all night and try on clothes. Clothes made her happy. But Ive only seen her two times in the last six months. Zoe paused. I always wonder, How would I have been if I was 18 and around millions of dollars in fame and fortune? How would it be to be wanted by everyone? Todd Shemarya hates to use the word brand. It sounds so using, he said when I met him for drinks at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles in August. As Zoes brand agent since last year, Shemarya, who was boyishly dressed in jeans and a baseball hat, is largely responsible for her expansion past the world of styling. What I do, Shemarya explained, is to take an entity, whether it be a celebrity or a stylist, and enlarge their profile. I take whatever anyones best assets are and then I apply those in a business situation. Shemarya, who also represents stars like Brad Pitt,Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston, got his start in the fashion world. He owned a modeling agency and began booking his models for commercials and other endorsement-related work. I dont give myself the credit for starting the endorsement thing, Shemarya explained, but it didnt get big until I started doing it. Elizabeth Taylor had White Diamonds perfume, but it wasnt that big of a deal yet. Now my clients endorse jewelry, pens, water, jeans and much more. But we are very careful. We dont endorse anything that will not enlarge an entitys profile. In many ways, Zoe and Shemarya share a worldview: everyone has to get dressed in the morning, so why not have some role, financial or otherwise, in those choices? Both utilize the allure of celebrities, and both have altered the existing business model. Zoe has made every insecure actress (and they are all insecure) feel that her fame/success/career depend on what clothes her stylist tells her to wear, and Shemarya has turned top actors into brands without, he says, compromising their artistic credibility.

He now plans to reinvent Zoe. The way I see it, Shemarya said, fashion is now bigger than the movie business. Its a world that has no end. And yet, nobody can guess who their customer is. Every fashion house is looking for a formula. Rachel has a formula. Shes paid attention to the marketplace. She figured out who wanted to buy what. And now shes beyond being a stylist: Rachel Zoe is a brand that creates brands. Although Zoe has no design training, Shemarya plans for her to have her own line of sunglasses, jeans and shoes. Very few designers ever went to design school, Shemarya said. And a lot of actors never went to acting school, and they were very successful. You either have a talent or you dont. And Rachel may never have been a designer, but shes been a creative director every single day. She creates outfits for people. She invents stars. Shemarya says he feels its crucial that Zoe move away from the tabloids. Her associations with the Lindsays, the Nicoles cheapens the brand, he explained. I didnt want Rachel to be seen out as much. And Im not sure I would have chosen Halston for her. Theyve tried to revive that brand before, and it hasnt worked. Sometimes the universe gives us a signal. Shemarya sipped his iced tea. Lets face it, he continued, you can take any entity and make them famous. But how long will that fame hold? I dont think people are stupid. They are interested in the tabloids because they want an escape from reality. And Rachel figured that out. But when Nicole became famous, it was a different time. Im not sure people are so easily persuaded today. His current goal is to reinvent Zoe as a television star. While audiences would probably like to see her behind the scenes with her famous clients, Shemarya imagines her as a 2007 updated version of Elsa Klensch, an early fashion reporter who had a weekly show on CNN. Klensch concentrated completely on designers and their creations. Her show was never provocative or celebrity-oriented Klensch would have had no interest in Zoes actresses.

I know what people want, Zoe told me. They want to watch me with my assistants backstage with a star. She isnt unaware of what brought her to the publics (and Todd Shemaryas) attention: without the girls she dresses, who is Rachel Zoe? Thats the challenge, Zoe continued. I understand what people want to see, but Im interested in something else. I want my show to be about the history of fashion, about these brilliant designers and their homes and their lives. Shemarya agreed. We want to do something educational, he told me, that you can still make money off of.

Theyre negotiating a deal with Bravo, home of Project Runway (which is co-produced by Harvey Weinstein) and many makeover shows. I would never do anything like a reality show with any of my clients, Shemarya insisted. Too much information cheapens the brand. And you can go from high to low, but its very difficult to go from low to high. Thats one of the challenges with Rachel. At her white modernist house in the Hollywood Hills above Sunset Boulevard, Zoe and her assistant, Lia Davis, were sitting at the space-age table in her kitchen looking at dresses on the

Internet. I die for this, Zoe said as she looked for a strapless gown that might work for Jennifer Garner, but nobody can wear this its just too tight. Davis, who was wearing a loose black smock dress with silver gladiator sandals, wrote a note on the pad in front of her. Will people do feathers? Zoe asked. Yes! Davis enthused. Chanel wanted to dress Garner, Zoe continued. You should find out about that. As Davis made another note, Zoe retrieved a diet Snapple from her refrigerator. It was nearly 2 in the afternoon, but Zoe was wearing a long white cashmere bathrobe and high-heeled espadrilles with full photo-ready hair and makeup. She looked particularly bony, her narrow frame accentuated by the tight belt of her robe. Her extreme thinness has spurred gossip: in recent months Zoe has repeatedly denied rumors that she is dependent on drugs and has, in the past, supplied clients.

Its absolutely not true, Zoe told me in Paris. I never even get drunk. I dont like to let my guard down. I never lose control of where my head is. If I have an entire glass of wine in a night, thats a lot. Others agree. Rachel is a nurturer, says Cameron Silver, who owns an upscale vintage store called Decades, one of Zoes favorite destinations. If she has a vice, it is shopping. She told me once that she has buyers guilt every day of her life.
In fact, except for the living room, with its sculptural Philippe Starck couch and the huge bed in the master bedroom, this house is dominated by clothes. Theres an enormous walk-in closet, with clothes organized by color. Her dresses are grouped according to category (designer, style, period and then hue). There are eight built-in drawers for jewelry, ranging from classic Herms cuffs in the top drawer to more delicate 20s pieces in the drawer below. A second bedroom has been turned into a closet, where Zoe has stashed some of her furs. This room is just for coats and scarves, she said as she walked down the hall toward her office, where 50 handbags were placed on the floor in neat rows of five. Downstairs, what was once the garage is now the showroom. This is where all the clients come, Zoe explained. In the showroom, Zoe opened a closet, exposing at least 70 pairs of jeans, organized by size and cut. Six metal racks were packed with gowns, and there were rows of shoes, waiting to be tried on. On the desk were Polaroids of Zoes clients, Debra Messing andMaria Sharapova, in various ensembles. A photograph of Lindsay Lohan was torn out of a tabloid. There was a red circle drawn around the ring she was wearing, and someone probably one of Zoes assistants had written H. Stern, the name of the manufacturer. Zoe turned the clipping over. Youre not supposed to see that, she said. Zoe picked up a Polaroid of Jennifer Garner. I do have rules, Zoe said. I dont like the girls to wear black for awards shows. It doesnt photograph well. And I dont normally do gray, even though Lia loves gray. I stay away from brown and certain shades of green. Basically, I dont like any of the colors that dont look good on me. Zoe laughed. I never truly decide about a dress for a big awards show until five minutes before they have to leave. Its always Cinderella off to the ball.

Davis appeared in the showroom and asked Zoe to come back upstairs so they could finish making their choices. If you snooze, you lose, Zoe said as she followed Davis back into the kitchen. The dress Cameron wore to the Costume InstituteI grabbed as soon as I saw it on the runway. And then everyone wanted it. Zoe sat down and stared at a baby-doll dress with a white collar designed by Giambattista Valli. I feel like Ive seen this dress before, she said. I love it, but I feel like Ive actually put this exact dress on someone. Zoe paused. Maybe Ive been doing this too long, she said. Maybe its time for a change.

RACHEL IN AN INTERVIEW: When Bravos The Rachel Zoe Project, a reality series that trailed the accessory-clad, vintagegown-collecting celebrity stylist and her feuding underlings, aired last year, it wasnt only Zoes trademark catchphrases (I die!) that reeled us in. We were hooked watching the office or rather fashion-closetpolitics unfold. Zoe playing supervisor (and sometimes referee) to her assistantsbow-tied newbie Brad and the leather-clad, low-on-patience veteran Taylor reminded us, as if we didnt already know, that fashion is indeed work. With the show scheduled to return on August 25 for a second season, we asked Zoe what shes learned about being the boss.
My first job, I worked atYMand I had an extremely tough boss who made me cry every single day.But what I took away from that was how I would never be. And it taught me how to fend

for myself.

[Brad and Taylor] are like my children.So its disciplining when you need to, straightening

things out when you need to. But most importantly, they need to get the job done right and the clients cant ever feel the tension or drama thats going onuntil they watch the show. Believe me, Ive had clients going, I had no idea that happened that day.
Im not a tough boss in that I dont raise my voice, I dont freak out, and I dont have a temper most of the time.But because I instill such trust in both Brad and Taylor, theres really

no margin for error. Brad always says, like, Youre easy in that youre not constantly demanding a million things, but he knows that my expectations are so high that he doesnt want to let me down. Im more passive aggressive. I assume that they know how I want this done, and when its not done that way, thats when Im upset. If Im like, Why dont we have 15 different jewelers to look at right now? Why do we only have two? its because I had assumed they would call in 15.
In your professional life, you really should have that separation of, these are your employees. You want to enjoy them and be around them, but you shouldnt be hanging out

every night or talking until 2 in the morning and know everyones deepest, darkest secrets.

But with Brad and Taylor, its just inevitable that thats how I am with them because we just spend so much time together. Weve shared hotel rooms.
I think that Taylor was hard on [Brad], but I would also defend Taylor in that she needed to be.Im not with them 20 hours a day, so I dont see what goes on. I stepped in, and it was like,

Jesus Christ.
If something happens and I know that [my assistants] are right, Im gonna fight.

Ive fired clients before who have disrespected them. You cant treat them one way and me another way.
Everyone wants to be a stylist. If you know thats your calling, then you need to intern as

much a humanly possible. You need to go to fashion school if you can. I wish I would have done that. Times are really different now. Intern for designers. Intern for magazines. Get as much training as you can possibly get. Because when I look at resumes, when I see that, I know that theyve experienced the chaos before.