A Night at the Museum with Garance Dore

Blogger extraordinaire, cool French woman, and quite frankly the awesome-est person in fashion, Garance Dore, swept through Chicago last week to receive a very special — and first of its kind — Fashion Inspiration Award  for her innovative contributions to style and design, awarded by the Museum of Science and Industry during a very festive, Fashion Forward fete at the museum.

Garance is one of the first bloggers in the world to have coined the “street style” movement, and her eponymous blog is a combination of cool digital partnerships, great photography and spectacular videos (Pardon My French is a must-watch!) She has collaborated with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior and Chopard, and for almost a decade has contributed to the enormous growth of the fashion blogging community. Back in 2012, along with The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman, she was honored with a CFDA Media Award, the first such award to have been given to a blogger. Talk about breaking glass ceilings and being accepted by the fashion industry.

And despite all of her success, Garance has remained humble, ever-so-charming, and quintessentially French, all qualities that make her an even bigger rarity in the fashion business.  We caught up with her moments after she received the Fashion Inspiration Award and talked fashion, technology and who would she give such an award to.

FF: Fashion and technology have always meshed so well together; it’s an never-ending love affair if you will. Why do yo think that is?

GD: Because technology is very commercial and fashion is about innovation; so you take all that, put it together and you have magic. Technology is also everywhere, so it will permeate in every field.

FF: You were one of the first bloggers to have solidified the street style movement, which was a complete game-changer in the industry. Who or what do you think will be the next game-changer in fashion?

GD: Well, I wish I knew.. but I wouldn’t tell you because I will do it. [laughs] When we first started, people were like ‘What the hell are you doing?’ New things always start like that. You almost don’t know what you are doing; you don’t know if it’s an innovation, it’s just a stupid, ridiculous idea. And then if, or when it succeeds, and people start saying it’s amazing — things change. So, real change always comes like that. You don’t see it, and then suddenly it slaps you in the face. So I don’t know what the next game charger will be, but I can’t wait to be slapped in the face.

FF: Who would you give the Fashion Inspiration Award to and why?

GD: Someone like Stella McCartney. I think she is really pushing fashion forward, and she doesn’t even advertise it.  She is trying to do fashion first, and you don’t know it, but everything you wear is actually environmentally conscious and vegan. I think that subtle and pretty great.

In addition to honoring Garance, Fashion Forward also featured 28 wearable technology pieces, some of which you can see in the slide below. The exhibit included an LED dress from Diffus Design, a Cutecircuit tuxedo illuminated by an iPhone app and a Fiber Optic Little Black Dress by Alison Lewis for Switch Embassy. The event also raised more than $40,000 for the museum’s annual fund, which supports exhibits and science education programs.

[Editor’s Note: After my chat with Garance wrapped up she mentioned that if you read her blog, that means you are her friend. At this point my heart could not have  taken any more cuteness from this woman! So yea, we are friends now. 🙂 ]