Lauren Sherman Walks the Line

“I don’t set out to be feared.” Fashion’s reigning gossip girl reveals all: protecting high-powered sources, her own killer instinct, and why most magazines are “utter trash.”

We’re here to reclaim the “women’s magazine.” Every week, two veteran editors read it ALL to bring you everything we believe women’s media should be: juicy yarns, big ideas, deeply personal essays, hot goss, and the odd shopping tip—aka, the full Spread. Plus: Original interviews, podcasts, and more. Come hungry! 

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Ultimate Spreadsiders,

“The preeminent fashion journalist of her generation!” When, in spring 2023, Puck cofounder Jon Kelly announced that fashion reporter Lauren Sherman was joining his personality-driven, newsletter-centric media company, he did it with what Sherman’s predecessors might have called pizzazz. And, at the time, what many felt was heavy PR spin. A veteran of Lucky, Forbes, Fashionista, and, most recently, the post-Women’s Wear Daily industry bible, the Business of Fashion, Sherman was without question a well-established fashion reporter. But c’mon, was anyone really the fashion voice of a generation? Fifteen months into Sherman’s gig, the same naysayers who raised a well-plucked eyebrow at this hyperbole are now canceling their subscriptions to the rest of the trades, because who needs ’em? (Good news for Sherman: Like Puck’s other correspondent “partners,” she has company equity on top of her salary—and thus a vested interest in her subscriber base.) Now, both Sherman’s thrice-weekly newsletter, Line Sheet, and her newish podcast, Fashion People, are gobbled up not just by industry types. They’re also devoured by a much wider peanut gallery hungry for news of designer appointments, acquisitions, and earnings, but even more so for juicy tidbits about the characters who make Fashion tick. Sherman is a new-school journalist who sees herself as both reporter and arbiter. She aims to hold power players to account. And she cannot resist the casual dig. All of which makes for a mix that’s scoop-y, chatty, opinion-laced, and, yes, a little bit scary. This has earned her many influential friends, but also some quiet critics who question her all-knowing, all-seeing tone. Which, doubtless, is all according to plan: Seconds after Sherman’s latest Line Sheet lands, screenshots light up group texts (including ours) from coast to coast. Ch-ching!

Of course we had to invite her for a grill sesh in the Spread’s Zoom room, and she graciously accepted. 

XOXO,

Rachel & Maggie 

P.S. Pot, meet kettle. The same week that we were nursing our own Sherman-inflicted injuries (read on!), we were taken to task by a Spread reader for a mean-spirited aside. Lesson learned!!

P.P.S. Like us? Love us! (Thanks!) And maybe consider paying for this newsletter. Or as Lauren Sherman might say: To stay on our good side, pay up! 

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Sherman in uniform. Photo by Jeff Henrikson.

THE SPREAD: Okay, Lauren, so what did you have for breakfast?¹

Lauren Sherman: I didn’t eat breakfast. I had a burger and fries last night, late, so I won’t eat until lunch. I definitely do the 12 hours in between dinner and whatever I eat the next day. 

When you came to Puck, the drumroll was loud. What was it like to be called the preeminent fashion journalist of her generation? Did you think you were the millennial fashion expert?

I think I’m literally the only one left, is the way I would say it. I don’t love being the center of attention for stuff other than my work. Like most women, you’re taught not to be boastful. [But] I’m really proud they wanted to hire me. It seemed like I was probably the only choice, or one of few, because there just isn’t anyone else [doing what I do]—especially of my specific niche generation. All of my friends who used to be fashion writers, none of them are doing that anymore. It’s weird for people to say nice stuff about you, but this is the way Puck works—it really centers the journalists, they’re the center of the business… I don’t want to be seen as a braggy person. At the same time, one of the reasons I wanted to go to Puck was how unabashedly everything is presented. Love it or hate it, it’s a thing.

What did Jon Kelly want out of a fashion column?

The main thing for him is that you’re an expert and you’re showing the audience that you’re an expert. I always say we write about what happens in between the press releases. I write a lot about designer rumors; I never want to say, Oh, someone’s going to this fashion house when I don’t know for sure. What I can say is, Everybody's saying that this person is going to this fashion house because that’s what people are actually talking about behind the scenes. [That’s the] essence of Puck: insider information that outsiders find interesting, too. Also, early on I mentioned my husband and kid in a newsletter and Jon was like, “Be comfortable doing that—let your personality show.” He has really encouraged that like no other editor has. That’s a long way to say the mandate was essentially, Show us how smart you are. 

One thing you’re now known for is pulling no punches. It seems very casual, the way you’ll take a swipe at someone. What’s your thinking there?

That’s my personality. Someone said to me when I was very young, “You can say mean things but in a nice way.” There’s no maliciousness to it, but…I really hate passive aggressiveness. I’d rather people be very up-front. One of the reasons I wanted to be a journalist was I just want people to know what’s actually going on. So sometimes you have to say something that could feel a little harsh, but I try to make it as matter-of-fact as possible. This is so cliché, but I just reread Nora Ephron’s Scribble Scribble. There were all those rumors that she was going around telling everyone who Deep Throat was; and the way she wrote about her boss, Dorothy Schiff [the owner/publisher] of the New York Post—it’s not mean, but it’s so straightforward. There’s an essay about the Goodwins in Esquire that got screwed up, and she just eviscerates them without saying anything about them personally. The thing about me is I’m not the most slick writer in the world. But I do get to a truth that I don’t think a lot of people are able to, and the only way I can do that is by being really blunt. I wish I was a little more clever, and I could write around it in a way that would also impart that, but I don’t have that capability.

Sherman's newsletter includes recurring "bits" about Ozempic and our beloved Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) podcast—which we cohost. .

So, one example of the casual swipe is that you’ve been really outspoken in your opposition to the name of the podcast that we guest host: Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!).

[Laughs] Guys! I know you both agree with me that it’s not a good name.

Actually, we don’t! But we do know what it’s like to be swiped at in your newsletter…

Well, I definitely was targeting it to the people who founded the [podcast], not you two. But I don't think it’s the right name. First of all, it’s a huge cliché, like beyond. But the perfect example is Tina Brown: When [one of the other PID hosts interviewed her], they asked her what would be her dream magazine. And she was like, “nobody reads magazines.” Because she is modern! [But] I think it’s a great podcast and you two in particular do such a good job: I love the Joanna Coles one. I thought the Willa [Bennett] one was amazing. The Linda Wells one, I loved so much. I just don’t think it’s about it being a print product anymore. Print Is Dead [as a title] is not good enough. It’s not good enough to me. So the reason I keep joking about it—and I will stop someday²—is I do think they should change the name of it.

We want to push you on that. Are the digs part of coming across as authoritative? It’s sort of a grand tradition—look at Nikki Finke or John Fairchild—being the authority on an industry is being a little bit feared. People open the thing and they’re a little afraid of what might jump out at them that day.

I’m a little afraid every time they open the thing! I always ask the editor who helps schedule it what time exactly it’s coming because I need to mentally prepare. My first job as a reporter, my first editor said to me, you’re very authoritative. I was like 24. I’d wanted to be a fashion writer since I was 14, so I was studying fashion writing for a long time. And I just do have an innate point of view on things, too, that just comes out naturally. But the work that went into it after she said that was learning what I don’t know—and I will never know everything about fashion, never. It’s so complex, there are so many people [involved], and everything’s subjective. But what I would say is, I don't set out to be feared. What I set out to do is not to lie to people about what I think, not to couch it. I do love John Fairchild³. The Nikki Finke comparison…she made a lot of shit up, which I do not do.

So is being feared part of the magic?

I do think making people sit up a little bit—no one [else] does that… The thing is, everywhere I’ve worked, there are people who get mad at what I do. People want to have as much control as they can. I remember at Lucky once, we did a “get the look for less” on a Dolce & Gabbana skirt that had been on the cover. [EIC] Brandon Holley called me like, “You’ve got to get rid of that—they’re gonna freak out.” At Business of Fashion there would be little things about, “the way you talked about this brand—we don't appreciate.” I don't get calls like that anymore. But I do get calls like, “We respect you, but we feel like you’ve got this part of it wrong.” And that is what I need, as a reporter. The fear thing is interesting. I think it’s always existed a little bit because people know I’m willing to go further than most people will go. I definitely have not cultivated it. I’m not shy, but I’m also not a gregarious person, especially when I don’t know people. And so at events, I’m a bit like, are they afraid to talk to me?

How does this all work? You publish your own phone number in the newsletter for people to share tips, which people think is wild. How many texts are you getting a day? How many DMs are you getting?  

I’m texting with at least 20 different people every day. The difference with other places is I can be in at the beginning of a story and write it. I used to report on some stories for two years, gathering notes. Now, it’s like every little bullet point [in the reporting] is a little story. I publish on Mondays and Thursdays; on Wednesdays we have [beauty-industry columnist] Rachel Strugatz’s column, and I write a little bit up top for hers too. I keep Wednesdays for writing, and for reporting calls only—no in-person meetings. And then Friday afternoons or Sunday mornings, I write Monday[’s column].

You’re kind of doing as one woman what the whole Women’s Wear Daily paper used to do—you cover a ton of ground, that’s part of what intrigues us about your job. Also, as established, we are print dinosaurs. So we wondered what the fact-checking standard is at Puck, especially if so much of what you write is coming out of tips from sources that may not be anonymous to you, but are presented anonymously to us in the newsletter. What are the rules over there? And how do you protect your sources? The industry is super small and we know people are speculating on who a tip came from.

Yes, I was talking to someone the other day who was like, “Did this person tell you this, because they also said it to me in that way?” I was like…do with that what you will. Fact-checking? I have never worked anywhere where I had a fact-checker, other than if I was doing a print piece. And I’ve also not been fact-checked for [some] print stuff. So I’m used to fact-checking my own work. If I’m going to say something is happening, it needs to come from a direct source, someone that knows for sure, or from three sources around the direct source. That’s a very traditional newspaper way of working. I never really had anyone to teach me this stuff, but I learned that from Teri Agins at the Wall Street Journal. Once, probably 10 years ago, I had a good scoop but didn’t have three sources, so I didn’t publish it, and Women’s Wear scooped me. Teri [said I should have run with it]—“you had that from a direct source, you didn’t have to have three sources.” If I don’t know something’s for sure, but I want to talk about it because it’s what everyone’s talking about, I say that—“I don't know if this is for sure but everyone’s talking about it.”

In some cases you’re creating the news yourself. For example, lately you’ve mentioned [New York Times Styles editor] Stella Bugbee a few times. Then you put her name forth as a possible successor to Anna Wintour. Now it’s in the air; she’s in the running in a lot of people’s minds because you put her there. 

I’m sure Stella’s mildly annoyed, but it’s not bad for her bosses to think that. I am a huge fan of Stella’s; I like her as a person, we like the same kind of clothes, I think she’s a really good editor. And if I was Steven Newhouse, I would hire her. It’s just so clear to me. [But] there’s no reporting around that; I don’t think that’s anywhere near happening right now.

But now if she gets that job, it could on some level be because you put it out there.

Yes, I want stuff that I think should happen to happen. I want Supreme to get sold because I don’t think VF [Corporation] is the right financial backer for them. I want Abercrombie to buy Victoria’s Secret. At BoF, it used to be, This is the news. Then it became about What the news means. Then BoF became, What should I do about it? I think this is what modern journalism is like: If I’m the expert, just say [what I think] instead of calling some analyst who has been doing it for less time than me and doesn’t really know and I’m just going to feed them what to say back to me.

Last week, you called Women’s Wear Daily “spectacularly trashy” and most magazines, quote, “utter trash.” But then one paragraph later, you were saying print is hot, hot, hot.

I meant spectacular trashy in the best way. It was awesome in the ’70s. But I think that, yes, most magazines are terrible. They’re bad. You don’t want to read them. The visuals, everybody just references everything else. I think there are a couple people doing a really good job: I just bought an issue of L'etiquette, the French magazine. It’s great. It’s like cool Lucky. I didn’t Google translate any of the stories, but the style in it is really good. [Magazines] don’t have to be bad anymore. They can be niche and you can do well with niche. But the problem is that people like you two don’t work at those magazines anymore. And I know you probably have lots of friends there so you can’t say this, but there just isn’t as much talent in media—in fashion media or women’s media—as there used to be for a variety of reasons: Mostly that you can’t get paid enough. And it’s so limited in the way they operate. Unless you read the New Yorker—and think about the New Yorker, like, they need to think about the future a little bit more—that and New York mag are best in class. They’re the only ones doing it every week or every couple of weeks in a real way, to me.

But then why are the people you’re talking about in fashion wanting print, print, print?

They’re not getting ROI on digital advertising. So they are like, Where can we get rich people? All they need is the high net worth individuals—everybody else stopped shopping.

Okay, final question. What does the voice of the fashion industry wear? What are the last three things you bought?

Oh my god. I bought a pair of old lady pumps from The Row. I bought a T-shirt from The Row that I returned. I bought a sports bra from On running. I actually have been shopping a lot recently in a way that my husband should not know about. I bought a blazer from Maryam Nassir Zadeh that hasn’t come yet. But I spend way too much money on clothes. 

You aren’t getting lots of free clothes? 

I am happy to take a discount—this stuff is expensive! But at one point I did a story about how Kate Spade was getting bought by what is now Tapestry, Inc., and the stock moved. And I was like, I shouldn’t be taking free stuff. It’s just not worth it in the end. I really miss getting that Hermès scarf every Christmas, though. That was nice.

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

1. We’re not calorie-shaming. On Fashion People, Lauren kicks off every interview with this question.

2. A woman of her word—this is from the Line Sheet Sherman published the day we spoke to her.

3. From the New York Times obit of WWD- and W magazine editor/publisher John Fairchild: “Everyone who crossed his path knew to beware of the newspaper’s saucy headlines and withering asides in capital letters. He even gave designer collections letter grades, as if Carolina Herrera and Donna Karan were back in high school.”