The Office Hours Interview w/ Ernest Wilkins

Lauren Sherman is a writer and editorial strategist focusing on the fashion and retail industries. Currently, she's the Business of Fashion’s New York editor. You’ve likely seen her work in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Elle.com, Yahoo Style, Racked, Marie Claire, Style.com, Women’s Health, InStyle, Newyorker.com, Nymag.com and many other publications. If all of this isn’t impressive enough for you, she recently became a mom!

We talk about The Thong Song's impact on fashion (no, seriously), why the fashion industry doesn't get thought of in the same way that other cultural industries do, the reality behind most fashion brands when it comes to finances, and why designers like Virgil Abloh and Kerby-Jean Raymond (of upstart fashion brand Pyer Moss) represent a shift in how the industry "sells clothes".

Jack Carlson is a designer, creative director, author, archaeologist, and former U.S. team athlete. He is the founder and creative director of the acclaimed New York-based clothing brand ROWING BLAZERS (and author of a best-selling coffee-table book of the same name). A three-time member of the United States national rowing team, Jack earned his doctorate in archaeology at Brasenose College, Oxford, and his undergraduate degree in Classics and Chinese at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He spent time as a field archaeologist in Italy, and has written on a variety of topics. His interests include the visual and sartorial trappings of status and power; the art and archaeology of ancient Rome and China; vexillology and heraldry; and the modern history of menswear - from the birth of the blazer and the rugby shirt in the early 19th century, to the rise and fall of streetwear in the 21st. Among other things, he’s a Fellow of The Explorers Club and a member of the I.B.F. (the International Bar Flies) at Harry’s Bar in Paris.

He and I get DEEP on philosophy, the Rowing Blazers aesthetic, why archeologists love (and hate) Indiana Jones and his general philosophy towards status, power and how we channel these themes through simple stuff like rugby shirts. I also try to get him to validate that I was wearing Rowing Blazers before the rappers and athletes were. This is a very special episode for me and I hope you enjoy!

Maria and I had a BLAST!!! We talk about her must-buy book, boy bands, why the best critics are fans, the power of the marginalized dollar AND the story of the time I met Harry Styles!

Folu Akinkuotu is a home cook, prolific baker and rare snack aficionado.

Simon Owens covers the media industry for his Substack newsletter and podcast The Business of Content. He writes about how publishers create, distribute, and monetize their digital content.

Jarrod Dicker is currently the commercial chief at the Washington Post. There, he oversees the business of The Post across advertising, subscriptions and R&D as well as new ventures (like WaPo’s Zeus, which we discuss in-depth during this interview) and is a former CEO/founder in the crypto space (po.et). Prior to his days at the Post, he ran product, engineering and business teams at RebelMouse, The Huffington Post and Time Inc.

Today's pod is a chat with Kellie Pean and Alyssa Convertini, the co-founders of Brand New A Collective. BNAC is an enlightened think-tank that translates ideas into actionable, memorable and exciting experiences, which come to life in live events, partnerships, and digital/social content.

Josh Spector empowers creators. As a consultant and the creator of the popular For The Interested newsletter, he help creators better produce, promote, and profit from their creations.

He also publishes the weekly paid newsletter, This Is How I Do It, and run the popular Newsletter Creators Facebook group. Prior to becoming a full-time consultant and creator in 2016, he ran digital media and marketing for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and The Oscars, and worked for New Line Cinema and The Hollywood Reporter.

Listen to this ASAP, especially if you’re doing planning/visualizing for 2021. We talked newsletters, creatives, entrepreneurship, and dropped a LOT of free game. I hope you listen because this one is an all-timer.

Ana Andjelic is a strategy executive and Forbes CMO Next who specializes in building brand-driven modern businesses. Ana earned her doctorate in sociology and worked at the world’s top brands and advertising agencies. She is a widely read columnist, speaker and advisor. She is the author of “The Business of Aspiration”, a book that I strongly encourage anyone working in a cultural field to read over the holiday break. We talk her book, organizational behavior, behavioral economics, the aspiration economy and why influencers are dead. This is a good one!

WELCOME TO SEASON 2! Amanda Mull is a staff writer at The Atlantic covering health and consumerism. She lives in Brooklyn but is originally from Atlanta. We talked about a zillion different things, from modern marketing to the time Amanda saw Chilli from TLC at Perimeter mall in Atlanta