It’s always nice to look at the blogs of your friends because you get a little bit more from the experience. When I first met Claire, I wasn’t aware of her blog De Lune, I did however notice her easy-going and effortless style. Clothes always work best when they reflect the wearers interests and personality and Claire has certainly been able to find that for herself. She’s been sharing her thoughts, images, and outfits with the world since 2008 when she first started blogging. In the years since, she’s had quite a bit of success at building a large engaged audience. Claire has been featured on everywhere from Refinery29 to Teen Vogue. She’s currently studying Fashion and Art Fashion at The New School. I spoke with her about her approach to style , the evolution of her blog and the upcoming collaborations she’s been working on.
Read the feature after the jump
How has your outlook and approach to blogging changed over time?
Everything started when I realized how bored I was upstate. Back in 2008, blogging was such a different beast; there weren’t any established aesthetics, so everyone who went for it was trying something different. The blogs I found myself reading and admiring embraced a level of amateur curiosity that made me feel comfortable to experiment. I was practicing my photography as a high school kid, and I still feel like I have retained that feeling of embracing and trying new things.
At the same time, it’s kinda funny to me how blogging, especially personal style blogging, has become this totally commercialized thing in which there is (kind of silently) an established set of aesthetics that lead to popularity. I kind of saw it going that way, but I was hoping it would still retain that level of experimentation that we saw back in the early years. Things were less about the self and more about the clothes and where inspiration came from, and I kind of miss that. I’ve been able to get part-time work through my blog stuff, which I am grateful for, but I can’t say I feel like I will ever fit into an aesthetic that gets hundreds of thousands of readers because I can’t see myself totally embracing the status quo on it all. I still shoot with an old, clunky SLR and I don’t have a boyfriend to shoot my photos, and I feel better with it that way.
Your dad was a photographer , what have you learned from him about taking photos?
My dad has been very careful to not push his aesthetics on me, which I now feel grateful for. Back in the day I was annoyed that he wouldn’t show me how to make things “stylish”. He pretty much taught me the basics and sent me off into the wilderness so to speak. He’ll look at my photos and tell me what he enjoys or what I could work on, but other than that, it’s been his bare-bones training that has helped me the most.
Do you try to keep your wardrobe quite edited each season?
I’m really good at letting things go sometimes. If I don’t find myself reaching for something on a weekly basis, I know it will get better use by someone else. I have definitely gotten better at knowing what works for me and I’ve realized that only certain things made jsut so will make me feel amazing. So season by season, I feel like my wardrobe is becoming more personal and less cluttered.
What things are inspiring you of late (could be books, music, albums etc)?
Living in the East Village has made me hungry for its history. I’ve been reading a ton of Frank O’Hara and Allen Ginsberg along with Leonard Cohen’s biography (kinda just ’cause). I’ve also been collecting beautiful Taschen books on my favorite artists like Paul Klee, Courbet, Vermeer, Goya and Irving Penn along with the history of the Bauhaus. Of course, I also have a ton of Fashion history texts to go through. My music is pretty much stuck in its ways: always a ton of the Beatles, psychedelic rock and Miles Davis, but also stuff from my adolescent years like Interpol, Weezer, Joy Division, ect… y’know, moody kid rock.
What are some of your favorite things about living in New York?
When you grow up in Queens, you still feel removed enough from the city to feel romantic about it. I love the sheer magnitude of the city’s history, knowing that huge cultural movements were born out of streets and neighborhoods that are as old as the entire country.
Who are some of your personal style role-models?
Like a lot of girls, my mom is a looming one. She taught me to dress for myself and understand that what looked beautiful on other people would not work for me and vice versa. It’s a lesson that has helped me feel comfortable in establishing and living in my own aesthetic. I also gotta love Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin for their clean, 60’s-French sensibility and all of the Beatles and Leonard Cohen for their different, radical and performative approach to dressing. I’m a sucker for cool menswear; a good boot and printed pant, because of them.
What advice do you have on working in old wardrobe pieces and vintage items into your wardrobe?
Really get to know what works with your body proportions and don’t be afraid to take something in to a tailor for adjustments. I also like to put a vintage piece of clothing into its original styling contexts before creating some sort of ensemble around it. For example, if I have a pair of printed bellbottoms, I’ll wear them with boots and a button-down cleanly before adding some styling details like knotting the shirt or going for a pointier shoe for a nod to the 90’s.
You have a really consistent look to your blog posts. How did you define the color palette and visual style of your blog?
Thank you! I guess I’ve come to know what strikes me emotionally about a photo- stark color contrasts, simple, emotional gestures, symmetry, ect. I have always looked to Irving Penn as a base inspiration for getting to know what grabs people’s attention in fashion photography.
What’s next for you and De Lune?
I’m currently working on part two of my jewelry collab with Brooklyn-based jewelry brand By Boe, and it’s looking really exciting (reversible necklaces, ear pins, pieces with moving parts ect…). I’ll be graduating from The New School in 2014, so I’m hoping my blog will grow with me and become even more of a personal journey as I continue to figure myself out. I guess I’d just like to continue keepin’ it mad real.
Photography by Rebekah Seok
