I sat down with writer and all around London fashion gal, Bertie Brandes, to discuss fashion, nostalgia and the twenty-first century.

Interview by Kate Eringer
images instagram.com/bertiebrandes

Hi Bertie! For someone so young you have come a very long way in this industry. What did you journey from school to now look like?

Well … I did a degree and then I worked for a year at Vice, then they promoted me to fashion editor, which was cool and I left in September of last year to go freelance and now I’m writing for things like The Guardian, Sunday Times, i-D, Dazed, Grazia mmmm don’t know who else. Also I’m making my own magazine, which is called the Mushpit that’s like my passion project. That’s it really!

You do so many jobs! How do you define your career? Are you a writer? Fashion Editor? Creative Director? Stylist? Or do you employ a lot of “/”’s in your working title?

When people ask me I’m always inclined to say Writer because I think there’s a sort of stigma around being a Stylist. I don’t think I’m confident enough as a stylist to take on that title, although I do really really enjoy styling and editing down shoots and working with photographers. I think it’s a great way to get to know the industry and make connections and friends. I’d definitely say that I’m a writer. I read more than I look at fashion editorials, so I think that in itself just shows. I’m more interested in words. Though, I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a ‘fashion writer’, I don’t know why not …

I don’t think you’re really a fashion writer.

No, I’m not. I think what it might be is that at the moment I’m really interested in consumerism and that fits with the fashion industry so well that I find myself writing about fashion. A lot of ‘fashion writing’ is just rewriting press releases, which is just boring.

What do you mean when you say that there’s a stigma attached to being a stylist?

It’s really really hard. If you wanna be a successful stylist, and there aren’t that many, it is really seriously hard. You have to work from like 6am till 3am every day, seven days a week and I wouldn’t want to call myself a stylist because I do not do that kind of work and I don’t have that kind of energy or desire to be successful in that kind of sense. A lot of jobs in styling are boring too, a lot of UPS packaging, and unpacking fedex’s from Paris. It’s hardcore. I don’t think I’d deserve to call myself a stylist.

What’s been the highlight?

It’s gonna be something really lame, like Hadley Freeman tweeting me. She’s my crush. Hm, the highlight of my career … My first Guardian piece was a really amazing moment for me because that’s something I’ve been reading my whole life and my dad and everyone in my family reads. It felt like I’d really accomplished something, though it’s not my favourite piece. I was really proud of a piece I did on Rick Owens and feminism for the Observer, when that Femen protester ran on the catwalk at Nina Ricci – it was a piece encompassing that. It was really interesting to write it and I’m really happy with the way that it turned out. Also the i-D piece I did most recently, about cloth manufacturing in India, which sounds a bit obvious, but I interviewed the most amazing man called Gethin Chamberlain. He has NO political agenda – writes for The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Observer, The Sunday Times – everyone. And has dedicated his life trying to convince people that buying cheap clothes is not our right as a Western country, it’s just not OK to do it. He was so interesting and I was really happy that i-D let me write that because it’s not often that you get a magazine allowing you to talk about the bad sides of fashion. Ever. Basically every time I get an invoice being paid I’m proud because it’s so fucking difficult to get people to pay you. It’s impossible. It’s shocking. I think as a writer you never really make much money.

What’s been the most important thing career wise for you to get where you are now?

Weirdly, probably my blog. My blog was absolutely rubbish, and weird, and stupid and completely parochial and obvious BUT if I hadn’t had my blog I would have never been commissioned to write my first piece. Before I worked at Vice, I was doing fashion content for them because a really good friend of mine was working there and he knew that I was a writer because of my blog, so one fashion week they were short one writer so they asked if I could come in and do it. Just that one thing spanned into the entirety of what I did for the next two or three years and that was all because I had a blog. I think it’s so important. Don’t have a tumblr, have a blog. Even if it’s just your work that you’ve done consolidated into one place.

What’s your favourite magazine?

Apart from Mushpit! She chuckles. Cheap Date, which doesn’t exist anymore, is the best magazine ever. It was a huge inspiration to us and was done by Bay Garnet. It’s basically this really cool, brilliant anti-fashion fashion; completely tongue-in-cheek, cynical and amazing. There were seven issues and a book. If they ever come up on Ebay get it! I don’t reaaaally like any magazines now. I read more newspapers than magazines just because magazines are so in the pocket of advertisers. I love POP; it’s editorially amazing. They give people the most freedom out of anyone. I really enjoy reading Love, I know it’s a bubble of aristocratic blonde girls but sometimes it’s nice to pretend to be in that bubble. Mushpit. Mushpit’s up there.

There’s something about being a teenager where you just worship magazines; did you have that too?

Yeah, you’re completely obsessed. When I was 17 I collected up my magazines, and I had every single Sunday Times Style for the past four years and I scrap booked them all into a huge magazine. I made my own!

I did the same thing on a piece of canvas! It’s all velvet, ballet inspired pieces.

That’s amazing! That will come back around and you’ll have the perfect moodboard. Keep it and do that shoot!

What’s been the most challenging part?

When I was working full time was staying inspired because when you’re in one place everyday it’s really hard to distinguish stuff that you really care about and stuff that you only care about because it’s on The Daily Mail sidebar of shame. Honestly I would go on that all the time and it’s just such a waste of time, so stupid. And as a freelancer, it’s just staying positive because you really don’t know when you’re going to get any money. It’s really scary. You can go two weeks without hearing from someone about getting work that’s paid. That’s why it’s so important to have your own project, even if you’re not getting paid for it. Then you can just throw yourself into that whenever there’s a lull. But that is really really hard. And I still don’t know if I’m a freelancer in my heart of hearts. I’ve always wanted to have a business … maybe I’ll sell these jumpers!

What do you make of the fashion industry?

I think that the fashion industry is an industry and a lot of people forget that. I did for a long time as well. It’s based on hard selling and profit. It’s the third industry in the world and employs more woman than any other and it’s just absolutely gigantic and you’re never gonna get anything for free. And that’s really important to remember. It’s very easy to get sucked into what is essentially advertising. And people take advantage of you. You have to be really cynical I think. I am so cynical.

I think that everyone that does well in the fashion industry is cynical.

You have to be. Otherwise you’ll get the piss taken out of you in less than a week. If you’re afraid to piss off designers you’re never really gonna be that respected by the people outside of the industry. But then again, it’s amazing and the photographers are the best artistic photographers also. If we keep working at it I think it’ll be worth it.

And specifically, the fashion industry in the 21st century?

The internet has changed everything. Mostly in an editorial sense. Magazines are changing because they only shoot full looks now because of advertisers, because they can’t afford to pay for themselves which is really sad, and that’s quite boring. It’s also more democratic, because of the internet you don’t have to be part of such an elite group to be heard. It’s going in a really interesting direction. I’ve written about this for the next i-D, about Moschino and Chanel and selling and consumerism. It’s less glamorous now, but I think that’s a good thing. I like the fact that it’s bigger.

What is your career aims for the very near future?

Well, The New Yorker. But it’s a strange time. I’d like there to be a magazine that I’d be desperate to write for. I’ve been talking about this a lot with friends, like photographs and art directors etc, and there needs to be something new. There hasn’t really been a new magazine. It would be great if there was something that we were all obsessed with like The Face, that we could all write for and was really cool. I want a new thing. I think everybody does. I don’t know what it will be but that’s exciting. I think if everybody wants a new thing a new thing will emerge.

I wonder if it will be online.

That’s the thing! When I asked my aunt, who works at British Vogue, about starting my own magazine she said that to start a magazine now you need one million pounds. Start up. A print magazine is gonna cost you this much. To get the advertisers happy you need a huge print run. And that costs a lot of money. That’s daunting. But someone will do it!

What are the ideas behind the Mushpit?

We started Mushpit in 2011 and was very much inspired by the magazine Cheap Date. We almost wanted to parody the magazines that we were told we should be reading. We’re too old for Sugar and J-17, we’re not going to read those but the grown up magazines like Cosmo, Glamour, they were just boring and not relevant to us in anyway and they weren’t cool and they just sucked like, look at this model in a Saharan desert – who cares? We were just like fuck it let’s do our own one, and we used our student loans and got it printed by this hilarious man called Wayne on Essex road with loads of pages upside down and really shit quality and we really had no idea what we were doing but it was fun and now we’re on our sixth issue. It’s still tiny but it’s a total passion project. I think it really helps me to have confidence in the other things that I’ve done or am doing in my life.

Thank you Bertie!