the nogoodforme.com interview: Diane Vadino of Bunnyshop

One of my hunky-doriest afternoons in recent months was the Saturday I drove up to Sherman Oaks, had a really successful shopping excursion at Buffalo Exchange, then celebrated said success by heading to Dupar's to eat blueberry pie and drink coffee and read many chapters of Smart Girls Like Me by Diane Vadino. In Smart Girls, Diane (she of my personal favorite fashion blog evarrr, the much-beloved Bunnyshop) introduces us to a Jersey girl named Betsy Nilssen who's pluckily enduring such traumas as her lifelong best friend's impending wedding, a brain-melting assistant-editor gig at a fashion website, and a rollercoaster-y kind of romance with one very troublesome co-worker - all while grappling with a certain pre-millennial panic that's got her stocking up on freeze-dried pot roast. It's all so much whip-smart, giddy fun, even as all that twenty-something single-girl torment hits way close to home.

Confession: Diane actually did this interview way back in December, but I'm just getting around to posting it now: Sometimes it's just really hard for me to do stuff. Still, better late than never, and all that, and Diane's musings on New Jersey shopping secrets and the hotness of Rab from Johnny Tremain are so worth the wait.

How was Smart Girls Like Me born? It's weird because I never really set out to write a book. I'd been doing loads of spoken word slams, and always felt like a big dummy because I'd be competing against people doing pieces about oppression or war or economic injustice - and there I was doing these pieces about some guy who dissed me at a bar. But all those pieces added up to a story I was really desperate to tell and at a certain point I just started looking at them as small parts of a larger whole.

Is there a heavy autobiographical element to your lead character? How's that affected the experience of having the book read by so many people? It's so crazy because you know, there are definitely those times when I'm just sitting around with nothing to do and I'll look at some of the reviews online, and one of them I just saw was like "incredibly annoying characters" - and you're just like, hey! This whole experience has been about learning how to get over stuff like that - there's an element to it that's like reliving middle school, but at 32. So, yeah, definitely, Betsy's enough me and some of the others are enough people in my world that when they're read as incredibly annoying, there's a real pinch.

What are your all-time favorite books? Were there any books that were particularly influential/inspiring in writing Smart Girls Like Me? There are just so many. I wrote the first draft of Smart Girls in second person, because all those spoken word pieces were in second person - that turned out to be a big mistake, but I spent a lot of time reading two books that use it about a billion times better than I was able to: Lorrie Moore's Self Help and Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City. And then a million more. I love For Whom the Bell Tolls, and West With the Night, and anything by John McPhee. I just read The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, and it's amazing - so short, which is something I would really like to try next. In the Cut by Susannah Moore has my favorite ending of any book I've ever read. And at one point I was going back and forth a lot between my boyfriend in London, school in San Francisco, and home in New York, and I had a copy of JD Salinger's Franny and Zooey in each place, because it was just so right in so many ways.

Who do you consider the most stylish girls (and/or boys) among fictional characters in the book world? Oh! That is really hard. I keep thinking of Cecelia in Atonement but I'm sure I'm just actually thinking of Keira Knightley. I can say that my number one fiction-character crush was on Rab in Johnny Tremain. Am sure he was super stylish in Revolutionary War-type manner.

We love how Betsy is so New Jersey-loyal. Any fashion treasures/secrets/insider-y info about New Jersey you'd care to share with us? Oh, so much! I actually grew up in the outlet capital of central Jersey, in Flemington. (It was super exciting when we got a J. Crew a few years ago.) There are loads of great antique towns, like Somerville, Lambertville and Red Bank. My favorite vintage store on the planet is Incogneeto, in Somerville - I've actually witnessed NYC vintage shop owners come in and buy all this stock (and then, I bet, jack up the prices.)

What's the relationship between Bunnyshop and your fiction-writing? Are they pretty separate from each other, or do you find that they feed off each other? They're really super separate. I was worried for a while that Bunnyshop would eat up all that head space that the fiction should use, and I also worry that Bunnyshop's just so time-consuming that it'll always end up coming first - you know, just that classic thing where work comes before doing something fun. (I worry a lot.)

So, tell us all about how you started Bunnyshop. I'd been working at a fashion magazine for ages (at least ages in my-resume time), having come to it with an absolute disdain for/fear of fashion - I literally interviewed for my job in a jean skirt and (unbelievably ugly) polo top. But I really came to appreciate it, or at least parts of it, in those four years, and I wanted to see if I could apply any of what I'd learned.

What was your original vision for the blog? I had no idea what it was going to be - I remember e-mailing my sister and being like, Wouldn't it be cool if there was a blog where you could tell people about cool lip balms? I'm really excited to do more with it this year (two words: tote bags.)

Who are some of your favorite fashion designers? I love Courreges and Chloe and Balenciaga and Vena Cava and Rodarte. I cannot afford any of them, so I bought a sewing machine instead.

What are some of your favorite clothing shops (around your town or in the whole wide world)? Most of my favorite things are from Topshop - it really does that thing right of making something super cool that's not a billion dollars - it's going to be weird/awesome when it comes to the U.S. In San Francisco there's this amazing vintage shop called Painted Bird in the Mission that's awesome and affordable - I also love Candy Store on 16th and Flicka on Fillmore. In NY I love Bird in Brooklyn, Loom in Park Slope and Bloomingdales, if I need something vaguely professional - but I probably pick up most things at H&M or Forever 21 or on eBay.

Who are your style idols? I just love some of the French singers and actresses from the 60s, like Francoise Hardy and Chantal Goya. And I am in love with Charlotte Gainsbourg. I think part of it is that they don't seem to be fearful of aging, or part of some super fucked-up youth-bimbo machine. Which is boring and stupid and lame. Beth Ditto! She's amazing. I just saw her in a documentary about a rock music camp for girls and she literally made the hair on my arm stand up, she was so incredible. I don't think she's ever looked in a mirror and said, "I'm too fat to wear [x]," and that is super-inspiring.

Whose closet would you most like to raid? Carla Bruni, I love her. Especially now that she is dating Nicolas Sarkozy (so super random) she can probably get a whole bunch of stuff free.

What's your favorite clothing item (or outfit) lately? I hate pants - I have lots of denim, but only one pair of pants-like items that aren't jeans. (They're cargo pants.) So anything but that, basically. I've noticed that I basically give up in winter and pretty much just wait for it to get warm again.

Who are your favorite bands/musicians? Bruce Springsteen! But also Regina Spektor, the National, Sleater-Kinney, Feist, Lily Allen, MIA, the Killers, Mull Historical Society, Kanye West. I just drove cross country and back and I ended up listening to a lot of audiobooks, too, most by Bill Bryson.

What music do you like to listen to when primping? I have a whole routine for Kanye West's "Stronger" - I freaking love that song. I also have some interpretive dances for most of the Legally Blonde soundtrack.

Name one record you loved when you were a little kid that you still listen to today. I am sure I am not the only person out there who still loves the theme song from The Greatest American Hero.

Favorite makeout music? I actually really like CNN or something on in the background. That is probably sort of weird.

Who's your number-one all-time music crush? Without a doubt: John Taylor from Duran Duran.

What's next for you in terms of projects, books, etc.? Ha! Learning to cook something other than orzo. Watching Project Runway and learning to sew better and make letterpress cards and I'm actually trying to make the audiobook for Smart Girls into a project for art school, where I'm a junior. I have a bit of a problem focusing. Otherwise, I'm sort of sifting through ideas to see what's going to stick.

Lastly but not leastly - share one of your deepest secrets to clothes-shopping success, pretty please? Oh! Mm, I don't know about secrets but I do have one rule I try to abide, which is that any purchase over $200 needs to be held overnight and then bought the next day. Basically I need to be treated like a six-year-old in a candy, ribbon and pony store.

Posted by Liz in Interviews
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