Kiki Women; Kate Reardon
We're thrilled to bring back our Kiki women series, starting with editor-in-chief of Times Luxx magazine, Kate Reardon. Get ready for a whole new wave of inspiration, from women at the top of their industries.
We sat down with Kate Reardon at The Chelsea Townhouse to discuss her extraordinary career.
Having started out at American Vogue, Kate has taken the world of glossy magazines by storm, working as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and editor of Tatler before joining The Times to head their Times Luxx publication. With magnetic wisdom and passion for fashion and journalism, Kate Reardon talked to us about her inspirations, advice for budding journalists and, of course, her love for jewellery.
What do you think your jewellery says about you?
Jewellery is an extension, obviously, of fashion. One can be very trend-driven with jewellery. But because of its incredibly long-lasting nature, people are very comfortable wearing jewellery that might not be completely in tune with what they think their outfit is saying about them that day. Because it has such an emotional connection, you're not going to take off the collection of extraordinarily beautiful bracelets that your nine-year-old twins have made you just because they don't happen to fit with your carefully constructed ‘I'm a glossy magazine editor’ outfit for the day. So there's a wonderful tension that you get with jewellery that can be many things all at the same time.
Do you have a favourite colour gemstone?
Kiki has always been famous for her use of colour and she is absolutely right in that she often says jewellery is a great way of adding a pop of colour. We tend to dress conservatively but you can express little flashes of excitement through jewellery. The necklace I'm wearing today, green amethyst, I think is so beautiful. It's very hard to ever find that effect in fashion. Kiki's use of colour in her work is really powerful.
What drew you to your favourite piece?
Kiki's carousel earrings, where you have the whole range of colours going around the ear I think are just so compelling. They are so joyful, the antithesis of that boring, uptight, safe, constrained jewellery that so often people go for just because they feel it's an investment.
I think if you are going to be making an investment in jewellery, it should be unambiguously joyful. Frankly, we're not all going to have great hair days every day, there will be days when we look absolutely knackered. You put on a pair of these carousel earrings and nobody can look at anything else anyway. I love those earrings, but particularly for that, for the intrinsic joy in them.
What led you to your career in fashion & journalism?
I always wanted to work in fashion, mostly because I couldn't believe that you would actually get paid to do that. It was extraordinary to me that you could play with clothes and pay your mortgage. I was incredibly lucky to get a job very early on when I was 19 at American Vogue, which was better than any university or degree or masters. It was like doing a PhD in fashion. I was spectacularly unqualified for it. I had no work ethic at all, no taste, no style, but I completely drank the Kool-Aid, fell for it hook, line and sinker, had the most incredible time and the most incredible education.
Do you still find the industry exciting?
So I've been working in this industry for 35 years and Kiki is about to come up for her 40th anniversary. Neither of us are bored yet. I think both of us find, every day, the same thrill as we did at the very beginning. I mean, Kiki has the immense luxury of being able to be incredibly creative and to be able to express it through jewellery, which she's so good at. Her customers keep coming back again and again because she keeps offering them something fresh, but it's still her tone of voice coming through.
And 40 years later, we all still care about Kiki's tone of voice, which is riveting.
What advice would you give to anyone starting out in the industry today?
The career advice I would pass on is perversely to do the work. So even if you can't get a job, even if you feel that there are only four jobs and all of them are currently taken that you want to do - you can write a blog, you can set up an incredible YouTube channel, you can do something on social media. This will prove to people that you are then interviewing with, if you want to be employed in a traditional way, that you are that passionate, this is what you can do. Before this digital world, you really did have to rely on one person saying, yes, I will hire you to do this. Nowadays, you can just do the work by yourself and there is virtually no barrier to entry.
That will prove to any prospective employers who you really are, where your passion lies and if you really are prepared to do the work and if it is that important to you. Also who you are inside, rather than trying to fit into any sort of structure or code that an organisation might give you.
Watch the full video interview on YouTube here.
