Rachel Antonoff:
We also prize the internal giggle. You know what I mean? So we laugh constantly, and we just try to make each other laugh, and then we figure, if we think this is funny, hopefully others will.
Kerry Diamond:
Hey, Bombesquad. You're listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. We're coming to you live from Newsstand Studios in Rockefeller Center in the Heart of New York City.
We're going to be talking food and fashion today because our guest is Rachel Antonoff, the fashion designer known for her whimsical and feminist take on fashion. Rachel will be here in just a minute to tell us how she became a fashion designer, why food is such an inspiration to her, and how she recharges her creative batteries.
Today's show is supported by our friends at Free People. There is a great Free People shop right around the corner from where we record at Rock Center, if you happen to be around here. I've been a fan of Free People's clothing for a while, and I love their vibe. The Cherry Bombe team seems to be living in their Free People overalls this summer.
Anyway, Cherry Bombe is doing a fun collab with Free People right now called the Summer Supper Club. We've got videos and recipes from food stylist Mariana Velásquez and Chef Tara Thomas, two women I love and admire so much. Mariana and Tara bring style to everything they do, including this project. You can watch their videos on Free People's YouTube channel and find their recipes on Cherry Bombe or at freepeople.com/vegan-lifestyle. Got that? If you love plant based eating or are looking for some new dishes to try, you'll love these recipes. It's been fun working with the Free People people. So definitely check it out.
Some quick housekeeping, don't miss the latest issue of Cherry Bombe. It is all about the icon Julia Child. Speaking of style, Julia has miles of styles, in and out of the kitchen. You can subscribe over at cherrybombe.com or pick up a copy at your favorite bookstore or cookbook shop. Now, here's today's show.
Kerry Diamond:
Rachel Antonoff.
Rachel Antonoff:
Hi.
Kerry Diamond:
Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you so much for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
So, let's jump right into this. I made a list of, they're not the clothing names, but they're kind of the clothing names. So when you go on, and I hope all of you do this later, go on rachelantonoff.com, and you look at the clothes, they'll be a little description underneath the photo. So I'm just going to throw these words out at you, and you're going to tell me the what and the why.
Rachel Antonoff:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
Filthy martini.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yeah. So that was this oversized olive print, and we were just like, "What does olives make us think of?" And whenever I order a martini, I always say, "Very dry, very cold, and positively filthy" to the embarrassment of whoever I'm dining with, and so yeah. It was just one of the first names we thought of. Everything in the office is kind of done, we want to make others happy, but we also prize the internal giggle. You know what I mean? So we laugh constantly, and we just try to make each other laugh, and then we figure, if we think this is funny, hopefully others will.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my god. It's not going to be better than, "We prize the internal giggle." We should probably just stop the show right here. Could you repeat your martini order because that was so funny?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. I think it's, "Very dry, very cold, and positively filthy."
Kerry Diamond:
And do they usually get it right?
Rachel Antonoff:
They do. Sometimes I ask for extra brine juice on the side, but usually it's quite perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
I really love like a frosty martini.
Kerry Diamond:
Any cold drink right now.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Actually. Next up. Rainbow far. Go.
Rachel Antonoff:
Okay. So we did this Farfalla print. I don't even. The seasons all blend together at this point, but you know, a few seasons ago, and people really liked it, and so we were like, "How we do update this?" And then, you know those beautiful packages of like rainbow pasta?
Kerry Diamond:
Yes.
Rachel Antonoff:
We were just like, "We should do that." So that.
Kerry Diamond:
Farfalla, for those of you, I mean I'm sure a lot of you know this, but it's the bow tie shape.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Which was my favorite as a kid and remains a favorite.
Rachel Antonoff:
Me too. It holds cheese if you're doing a mac and cheese so beautifully. It's like a real chef's kiss.
Kerry Diamond:
Or pesto.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes. Everything.
Kerry Diamond:
Things like to cling to it.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes. Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
It's like a good friend.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. Exactly. It supports.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Next one. This was a Cherry Bombe favorite. Pon print.
Rachel Antonoff:
Pon print?
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Oh no, wait. I had it wrong.
Rachel Antonoff:
Prawn print?
Kerry Diamond:
Prawn.
Rachel Antonoff:
I was like, "Oh god. What is that? I don't know one of our prints."
Kerry Diamond:
Prawn print. I had a typo people. I'm sorry. Prawn print.
Rachel Antonoff:
This is a kind of like RA classic. One of our favorite things to do in a print is to have the thing you initially see, so big prawns, exciting, yay. But then have sort of like a hidden element. I don't know if it comes from like long periods as a child spent in like pediatricians waiting rooms where it's like you, what was that magazine where you have to find the hidden?
Kerry Diamond:
Highlights?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes. So there's like a Highlights element to most of our prints, and this one has an engagement ring kind of like once every four prawns that we imagined someone like hurdled into the ocean, and I think it's sort of like hanging off one of the prawns.
Kerry Diamond:
I never noticed that.
Rachel Antonoff:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
But I didn't know about the little engagement ring.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
That's so cute.
Rachel Antonoff:
I'll show you after. I'll send you a screenshot. It's the kind of thing that you could have owned the skirt for years and maybe not notice until you were like super bored on the subway.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my gosh. You managed to make prawns look sexy.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't know how, but you did it.
Rachel Antonoff:
That's so nice. Well, Charlotte Minnett is the artist who painted those prawns and who paints a lot of our prints, and she can make any mildly disturbing thing look sexy. Which gross. Call HR, somebody.
Kerry Diamond:
Next. Loria's matcha cookies.
Rachel Antonoff:
Ah, yes. So glad you said that. Well, Loria is Loria Stern. We are huge fans. I mean her Instagram is one of the ones that whenever I'm scrolling at night in bed, I wake my dog with like my audible gasps from whatever gorgeous thing she's posted, and we just thought, "God, this would look great on a dress." And so we asked her, "Can we use this image of your?" It's like her cookies that are still in the dough sheet, and they've been cut or like stenciled out, but the excess dough hasn't been removed yet, and then there's a gorgeous, edible flower on each cookie, and so she let us use it for a print, and it's really one of my all time favorites.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. It's beautiful, and I love the... I'm not sure. Is it sort of crocheted around the neckline. It's so beautiful.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah, there's crochet, and then there's like a daisy trim. And one of my favorite things about it is that I think, if anyone even thought about it, which I'm not sure they did, but it probably seems like we just took this print that was, we did the vanilla version as well, and then maybe recolored it green, but that's actually the color of her matcha cookies which I think is so cool.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, if folks don't know Loria, you have to look at her Instagram account.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
She really is an artist.
Rachel Antonoff:
Truly an artist.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Rachel Antonoff:
And it all tastes great, which I feel like is rare.
Kerry Diamond:
She does such beautiful work. Our holiday issue is going to be the world's most beautiful baked goods.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh my god.
Kerry Diamond:
And we're definitely including her.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, that's exciting.
Kerry Diamond:
I mean her body of work is so incredible.
Rachel Antonoff:
Incredible. I feel like there's a list of people I want to send you now too.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
I want to send random accounts, but.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, you know what you can do. We can commission you to write a story.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh my god. I'd be really honored.
Kerry Diamond:
Rachel's most beautiful baked goods.
Rachel Antonoff:
I really would be honored.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. I have a few more things on my list.
Rachel Antonoff:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
Sliced bread.
Rachel Antonoff:
Mm. Yes. I don't remember the origin of this, like why we were talking about toast or sandwiches. You know, all of our prints are food-inspired. It's just kind of like what we talk about in the office and what we're all, I guess, thinking about most of the time, so yeah. Toast with various toppings.
Kerry Diamond:
And that came in, there was a top. There are multiple pieces.
Rachel Antonoff:
There's a bag. There's like a tote bag and a dress. And that one also has the Highlights element which is there's a fly stuck in one of the toasts.
Kerry Diamond:
I missed that too. And you did a collab with one of our cover girls, Paola Velez.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes. God, she's cool.
Kerry Diamond:
She's very cool. Yes.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah, she did a really great video for us making panna cotta toast, and she wore the toast dress. So it was just delightful.
Kerry Diamond:
How did that whole thing come about?
Rachel Antonoff:
Well, since so much of the spring '21 collection was food-themed, even though so much of many of them are food themed, that whole collection was actually inspired by women throughout the history of food, and we wanted to have chefs do little cooking tutorials while wearing a piece of our clothes. And so we actually do have a few more coming out, but Paola was our first, and we were really psyched.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I can't wait. We were so excited when we saw that. We were like, "Ah, it's Paola. Our favorite person in Rachel's clothes."
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah, oh my god.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, next one. Schmear sweater.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yeah. It's a biggie for us. So, we got into the world of intarsia sweaters which we found, we had kind of started doing that before the pandemic, but it turns out, people really wanted like funny, weird, statement pieces that would I guess show up in a Zoom meeting. So like a sweater with a huge bagel on it was apparently what the doctor ordered.
Kerry Diamond:
Two follow-up questions. I've seen the word intarsia before, but I never knew what that meant.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yeah. It's so annoying of me to just like toss out a-
Kerry Diamond:
No, no. That's okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
Let me see if I know what it means.
Kerry Diamond:
We don't often have fashion designers on the show, so.
Rachel Antonoff:
Okay. I mean what intarsia means to me and whoever's listening to this who actually has a degree in fashion maybe will be laughing, but it's like knitted into the sweater. It's not printed on top, and it's not...
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. It's like a part of the sweater.
Kerry Diamond:
That's super clear. And a schmear. What is a schmeer for those who don't know or don't live in New York?
Rachel Antonoff:
Exactly. A schmear is, well, for me growing up a schmear was anything that you could, I think schmear was a verb. Like you schmear something on something else. So I think usually it's like a spread.
Kerry Diamond:
I think, I think of it as both the noun and the verb, but I always think cream cheese.
Rachel Antonoff:
Me too.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Rachel Antonoff:
I think that's my go to schmear, but I think my grandmother might think like literally chopped liver.
Kerry Diamond:
Right, right.
Rachel Antonoff:
On a Ritz cracker.
Kerry Diamond:
So it's a bagel. Is it a specific kind of bagel? Is it an everything bagel, or is it a plain bagel?
Rachel Antonoff:
It think we did... Oh god. Now I can't remember. I think we did plain.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
I'm very excited about a sweater we have coming out soon-ish, and it's a rainbow cookies intarsia, and I thought of it because we actually have little like brown sequins representing the sprinkles.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's fun. What is your classic bagel order?
Rachel Antonoff:
Everything bagel with cream cheese.
Kerry Diamond:
Everything bagel with cream cheese. Okay. No lux?
Rachel Antonoff:
Not really. I'll totally have them if they're around, but if I'm ordering I just want. Oh, you know it's sesame with cream cheese also though.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Toasted?
Rachel Antonoff:
Depends.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh.
Rachel Antonoff:
Depends on the place.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
If it's like just come out of-
Kerry Diamond:
You don't trust people to toast it properly.
Rachel Antonoff:
Or I feel like some bagels are so amazing that toasting them almost like doesn't give them their fair shot of being their best selves.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
And then toasting a bagel though is a sure fire way to make any bagel taste a little better. So if it's not a great bagel, definitely toast.
Kerry Diamond:
So if you didn't know, we're recording this show in New York, and people here have very strong opinions about things like bagels.
Okay, this next one is an important, but it is not one of your food items. It is Randy's reproductive system sweater.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yeah. This is one of our old standby classics, and a really long time ago we drew a female reproductive system, and we thought, "Mm. That would be cool on a T-shirt," and shockingly enough at the time, maybe naively so, it was not meant to be political. We actually, it was a part of a season that I think the theme was science fair. Oh, no. Whatever. It was something about like human anatomy, and so it fit into the theme of that season's collection. And then it sort of grew legs of its own, if you will, and people took it really politically which we're absolutely fine to lean into that because we have very strong opinions there.
So now a percentage of sales of those sweaters and T-shirts we donate to Planned Parenthood.
Kerry Diamond:
It's an amazing sweater.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
It literally is a uterus on your sweater. And it does surprise me to hear you say that you didn't do that as a political statement. That was my assumption.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. I mean that, you know, we've always lived in politically charged times, of course. But that was when Obama was president and things were, not everything felt so intensely charged.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Antonoff:
And so we naively thought, "Oh, we can do a body part on a sweater."
But, one of favorite things about it. Not but rather and, is people, friends will call me all the time to tell me their reactions that they got from men when they were wearing the T-shirt or the sweater, and it's often people think it's a ram's head. People think it's like a Torus thing, which I guess ram's head. And then whenever men find out, typically they get very uncomfortable, and it's amusing.
Kerry Diamond:
I mean that's not the reason why I'm happy that you did that sweater and the subsequent T-shirt and everything that it's on now. I think a sweatshirt, a T-shirt, a sweater. You know, a lot of people don't know what their uteruses look like. Bravo to you for doing that.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thanks. My gynecologist has it which was maybe my proudest moment.
Kerry Diamond:
Is Randy your gynecologist?
Rachel Antonoff:
It actually was my friend's gynecologist, and that's who we named it after at the time.
Kerry Diamond:
How does Randy feel having a uterus sweater named after him?
Rachel Antonoff:
I actually don't know. I don't think Randy knows.
Kerry Diamond:
Really?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah, and I sort of lost touch with that friend, so we really should change it to the Doctor Cristina Matera sweater, who's the best.
Kerry Diamond:
That's pretty funny. All right. We're going to go into some traditional questions now.
Rachel Antonoff:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
So, you are a fashion designer. How did you become a fashion designer?
Rachel Antonoff:
You know, in a really side door kind of surprise to myself kind of way. I intended to be a writer, and I was freelance writing. I was writing mostly about bands, but I always loved clothes. Just growing up, clothes were such, sort of escape for me. I remember, a lot of my memories of childhood are of like mind-numbing, slow-crushing boredom, and a lot of those memories take place at temple. So, no offense to synagogue. It's a wonderful place, but I remember staring at my shoes a lot in synagogue as a child, and just wanting to wear tap shoes, so I maybe could like practice a little routine.
And I always found that dressing up was sort of this element of transformation. You could just be somebody else. You could be transported to another place, and so for me that's what fashion was always about.
And I basically, god, this is like 15 plus years ago. I had a roommate, and we both loved dressing up, and we sort of had this combined closet of all of our like, we would just buy crazy vintage dresses and chop them off. We would get dressed up just to like go for a walk around the block or go get a drink, and we were constantly talking about clothes we wished that we had. So like, "God, a dress like this would be so cute but with a print like that and pockets like this."
And I truly don't remember what possessed us to attempt to actually do it. I think just like the naivete of youth, and I don't know, but we did. We had my neighbor from New Jersey who was a seamstress. We had her sew up three samples for us, and then we like, hawked them around town, just like cold emailed editors and said. We photographed them on ourselves like morons. It was really... there were so many things we did that when I look back on, I have like a full body cringe, but also my heart softens for those sweet, young girls. We got into some stores and never looked back.
Kerry Diamond:
And this was pre-social media?
Rachel Antonoff:
This was pre-social media. I remember it was right at the beginning of Myspace, I think because we made a Myspace profile, and I remember someone, whatever like messaging us on there, and I was like, "Oh my god. People are seeing it." Yeah, but it was before real social media.
Not to say it wasn't a real business because you made samples. You took them around. You got them into stores. When did fashion become a real business for you?
Rachel Antonoff:
So that line I had with my friend for a few years, and we did well, but we didn't know what we were doing. And so for example, our first, I think we had an order for 16 units, and we sold them to the store for $100. That was like our wholesale price. But our cost of goods was $125, and we, I remember us being like, "Oh my god. I can't believe we only have to pay $25 a garment to be in a real store."
So margins were not a thing.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my gosh. I'm laughing because maybe it was a year or two ago we had these two women from Connecticut who are hilarious. They had a business, I think called the Granola Girls. They made the world's most amazing granola, and they were like cost of goods. 100%. So you can make something that's amazing. You can't just necessarily make money from it.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, exactly. We sourced our fabric in Midtown, and it didn't occur to us to check, "How many yards of this do you have? Do you have stock in this?" So then finally when we got into Barneys which was like a huge, major, exciting career moment, Barneys ordered like, I don't know, 200 units of this one dress, and we went back to Mood Fabrics, and they were like, "Yeah, we're a retail store. Like you shouldn't be shopping here."
So I learned on the job in a really intense like crash course kind of way. And the long-winded answer to your question is, I don't think it was a year or two into Rachel Antonoff that things were in order in an appropriate way as far as like, "This is the margin that we try to hit." And even like our wholesale is more than our cost which was an exciting term.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm. Wow. Did you have to go fundraise? Did you have to hire a lot of people? How did you do all of that?
Rachel Antonoff:
You know we had really minimal overhead at first. We were our own models. We had my neighbor sew the stuff, and we were both really, really lucky to have family support, but we pretty much didn't do anything until we had store orders. You know, there was no e-commerce then. It was like a wholesale model only. So basically if Barneys placed an order, we did need to borrow some money to get it made, but then we knew that money was coming in. You know, up until very recently I was pretty much our accounts receivable person, so I'm like sitting there writing the checks thinking, "Holy shit. I know I made the decision to hire this person or do this thing, but like now that I'm writing it, it's wow."
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. It's funny because you're in this position where you're like, "We're not broke, but we're kind of broke."
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
"Like in a few months we're not going to be broke, but right now we're broke."
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes, exactly.
Kerry Diamond:
It's this dance. Yes.
Rachel Antonoff:
And like 10 years I wouldn't have believed how not broke we are. Like it would have been amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
So today, you are direct to consumer, right?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have wholesale accounts?
Rachel Antonoff:
We do still have wholesale.
Kerry Diamond:
You do. Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
But we've really shifted the focus of the business to direct to consumer which was in large part during and because of the pandemic.
Kerry Diamond:
What else did you have to change about your business because of the pandemic?
Rachel Antonoff:
One thing that we had been talking about for years that always felt fiscally responsible but wildly unappealing to me was this idea of instead of new, new, new, how do we try to repurpose the existing? I don't even want to say old because it's just existing. And so you know, we have this incredible library of patterns which are costly. You know we pay a lot of money to have these patterns made, and it's as a designer, it's fun to start from scratch and just want to do completely new stuff that looks nothing like the old stuff, but as a person trying not to contribute to like the rapid end of our planet / trying to be a fiscally responsible business owner, if we augment patterns or do the same dress in a completely different print, to most people that feels super new. And to a lot of people, I'm learning this about myself as a shopper as well, you find something that fits you well, you kind of want to have it in any different color or print available.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Antonoff:
So that is what we started doing because the pandemic started. We had no idea what was going to happen to us as a business, and we knew that we are absolutely not going to be developing new styles. Even if it weren't financially responsible, we wouldn't have been able to fit them and go see the pattern maker. We were just working from our homes. So the only new things that we could do were prints, and we really leaned into our what we call conversation prints which I think, I'm not sure where that started, but I think it just means any print that can start a conversation.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that.
Rachel Antonoff:
Me too.
Kerry Diamond:
People who are in the food world listening to this know the food world has gone through some incredible changes over the past few years, but fashion. I mean you mentioned Barneys was one of your first outlets. For those of you listening, that was like the department store everybody wanted to be in, in New York. That's gone. Now so much is e-commerce, and you've got all these resale sites now.
Rachel Antonoff:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
I love the RealReal.
Rachel Antonoff:
Me too.
Kerry Diamond:
He's got a lot. So I was just curious for you as a designer, where is everything headed, and how do you feel about all these changes?
Rachel Antonoff:
I think for the most part they're really great. I think that one thing I've picked up on, it feels like sort of a conversation happening, is instead of buying inexpensive disposable clothing, saving your money and investing in pieces that you will hopefully have for a long time to come. I know we have a good amount of price resistance. On Instagram we get a lot of comments like, pretty aggressive, abrasive like, "How dare you? You must be laughing all the way to the bank."
And it's like, "Let me assure you. We're crying on the way home from the bank. We're not laughing all the way to the bank."
Kerry Diamond:
And you could easily do like #Gucci hashtag.
Rachel Antonoff:
Right.
Kerry Diamond:
Something else. Places that charge 10 times what you charge.
Rachel Antonoff:
Well, unfortunately, and I think, you know I wouldn't necessarily have known this, but it's really expensive to pay fair wages. So we have factories making our stuff. The samples and the pieces that they're sewing first had to be, you know you pay for the fabric. Like when you break it down, you sort of come to realize that if you're paying $9 for a tank top, I don't know what kind of conditions it was made in.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Rachel Antonoff:
And I understand. I wouldn't necessarily always be able to afford our clothes as well, but I can sleep at night knowing that we have vetted our factories. We've met the people who work there, and it's a good situation.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. When you look back at the young, burgeoning designer that you were with your roommate, having the neighbor sew up clothes, how do you feel about the personal growth you've experienced?
Rachel Antonoff:
That's such a good question because I never really look back and think about that. I'm so caught up in the, just the to do lists of every day. And I think it's so cool. I think it's really amazing.
Rachel Antonoff:
When we started doing this, I remember my dad said to me, "This is going to distract from your writing." And he was absolutely right, but did it ever, and in the best way. And I think that that is such an interesting lesson that like, I feel like we're all sort of journalists of our lives, and you got to sniff out the lead, and it's not always what you thought it was going to be. So if you feel like you've got a sense of something and there's a direction that you, is maybe a little left field, I explored that, and it really became something, something that I absolutely never intended on doing and was not trained to do.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that you threw a little journalistic lingo there. The lead, for those listening, is the first paragraph. So I love that.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, thanks.
Kerry Diamond:
The first paragraph of your life. That's a really nice thing to think about.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah, you got to find the story.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Well, another thing they say in journalism is, "Don't bury the lead."
Rachel Antonoff:
Right.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you know that term?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Rachel Antonoff:
So true, and I feel like a conversation print really drives that home. It is not burying the lead.
Kerry Diamond:
It absolutely does. Rachel, you are so creative, and so many of us just adore you for your creativity.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you recharge?
Rachel Antonoff:
You know, I need a lot of recharging. I have learned that I'm an actual introvert. Not, you know, I think people really like to toss these words around now, and I've learned that being an introvert doesn't mean that you like to be alone. It means that that's just how you need to recharge whereas some people recharge by being around others.
So I spend a lot of time alone. I have like a special chair that my friends and family tease me about, and I sit in my chair at night, and I have snacks and watch my stories and do my work.
Kerry Diamond:
Watch your stories. What does that mean?
Rachel Antonoff:
God, I love television.
Kerry Diamond:
You do?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes. I love television.
Kerry Diamond:
What are you watching right now?
Rachel Antonoff:
Okay. Right now. Well, at night I fall asleep to Gilmore Girls pretty much night for the past forever. It's just a thing. And then, when I'm actually watching, I'm watching Physical with Rose Byrne. Really good. I started the White Lotus. I just finished season two of Never Have I Ever. It's phenomenal. If anyone out there is on the fence, like I'm a fully grown adult. Yes, I know it's a high school show. It's great. Seriously.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I'm taking notes. You come from a very creative family?
Rachel Antonoff:
Mm-hmm. I do.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. How did your parents instill creativity in you?
Rachel Antonoff:
They are just like nonstop balls of creativity. Like fiery, crazy, out of control, creative beings. So most of my early memories were, I mean they both love culture. My dad is a musician, but the creativity it's not in the arts kind of a way. It's like in this silly... Silliness was a huge thing in my home. So like practical jokes were rampant. Just, they are people, my parents are tickled by a lot of things, and it's really inspiring.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. If folks want a little glimpse to how fun your parents seem to be, your latest lookbook.
Rachel Antonoff:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
Can you tell us about it?
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
And tell folks what a lookbook is, just in case people don't know what that is.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yeah. So a lookbook is the collection of images from any new collection, and it's called a lookbook, and my phone consistently auto corrects it to cookbook which I feel like is apropos.
But my parents, one thing you can say about them is that they are down for whatever, to the degree that I'm like, "You guys. It's okay to say no." But we shot this most recent lookbook during the pandemic, and we, the four of us, me, my brother, and my parents, we were a pod, and we took it quite seriously. So I was like, you know, "We're not going to be working with models and hiring outside people." So it was us. And my brother's partner is a photographer, so she photographed me and my parents and my brother in the lookbook in our childhood house. And it just...
Kerry Diamond:
It's amazing.
Rachel Antonoff:
It was really fun, and actually the most difficult talent I've ever worked with. Could not get them to focus.
Kerry Diamond:
What was in those riders?
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh my god. If only there had been riders. I would have submitted one.
Kerry Diamond:
But your parents really went for it. I saw that, and I was like, "I don't know that my parents would have gone to those lengths to support me the same way Rachel's parents did her."
Rachel Antonoff:
They're incredible. They are just really excited about what we're both doing. They like, when Jack is on the road, they kind of live on tour with him. It's really nice.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Let's talk about food.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Because food obviously is such a source of creativity for you as we established earlier in the show. What was the food situation growing up?
Rachel Antonoff:
The food situation growing up. So it was Jersey in the '90s, so you know, what you were saying earlier really kind of rang true for me. That we weren't, it was like Chinese every Sunday, and then we'd go to the Golden Palace every Sunday and next door was a Dairy Queen, and so for me, Chinese food and soft serve is basically peanut butter and jelly. Like I cannot imagine or conceive of one without the other.
But while we weren't adventurous with food, food was fun. So, I have this memory, I think we must have just been like out of groceries, but I have this memory of my mom saying, "Let's pretend we're French, and eat bead and cheese." And in hindsight, I'm sure that's because that's all we had at the moment, but she made it an adventure.
And like god, Benihana was just really, I mean for us that was like the culinary peak or Sizzler.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, for a lot of us. Mm-hmm.
Rachel Antonoff:
We went to Sizzler all the time, and that salad bar. I just remember thinking, feeling sort of like a little ratatouille, like the mouse, not the food. "Wow, you can combine this and that and make a whole new taste flavor." Food was just always fun. Treats were fun. We were all very much like sort of treat trained.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. What was Halloween like in your house?
Rachel Antonoff:
God, so fun. It's not that we... Costumes were kind of whatever. That was fun. But what I really remember is the end of the night, my brother and I, sitting on the floor, dumping out our candy, and then doing elaborate treaty level trades. I will give you like three of these and one of those, and I'll clean your bathroom if you give me that. And this was before things were safe. So like, the neighbor might give you a homemade brownie, or you know, like a candy apple, and that would never happen now.
Kerry Diamond:
Who cooked at home?
Rachel Antonoff:
My mom cooked. My dad did not cook. I'm trying to think. We went out a lot.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Rachel Antonoff:
We had a sick sibling. We had a younger sister who had a brain tumor, and it took up a lot of the focus in the household. And so I think, yeah, god, thinking back, this actually really must have played into my feelings about food because whenever, if she was undergoing chemo or my mom had to be with her at an appointment, there were so many neighbors and family friends who were always dropping off something hot in a tray. And I think learned to associate like, "Oh, this will cheer you up. This is what comfort is." And luckily that didn't take me all the way into some kind of disordered eating.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Antonoff:
But just, you know, food has power.
Kerry Diamond:
Was she the youngest?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Aw.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
How did you parents recover from that? I mean your describing of them, you sound like such an optimistic, warm family.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. I mean they did, and they didn't. I think it fractures people forever. But they are really optimistic, and they are both always sort of just in search of the bright side and the positive. And they're kind of really introspect- I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but my dad is like literally to try ayahuasca these weekend.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow.
Rachel Antonoff:
So he is like, he is looking into things which I find very impressive.
Kerry Diamond:
He's a seeker?
Rachel Antonoff:
He is a seeker. Yeah. And my mom is like fun. She's excited to eat something fun, watch something fun, do something fun. You could probably say to my mom like, "Let's get in the car, start driving, and just see where we end up," and she might say yes.
Kerry Diamond:
I think I told you, I did a little bit of homework on you. I didn't just come to this interview cold, and I found this sweet video that you and your brother had done with Andrew Bevan who's such a sweetheart from Teen Vogue.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yeah. I love him.
Kerry Diamond:
And it was how well do you and Jack know each other.
Rachel Antonoff:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
And you had to answer questions in advance, and one of them was your biggest fear, and yours was losing your brother. His was germs.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes, that's right. I remember that. I think I actually still have that paper because they're really funny side by side.
Kerry Diamond:
And I had to laugh so hard. I'm one of five siblings.
Rachel Antonoff:
Mm-hmm. Oh, wow.
Kerry Diamond:
And I'm with you. I'm the oldest, and I think I share your fear. I just thought that was a really sweet moment, and it made it obvious how close all of you are.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. We are really close, sometimes for worse, mostly for better, I think.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. Let's talk about the next collection.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
We talked about the lookbook. There is some food in the next collection.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes. There is some food. So our next, we have fall coming out soon which has a lot of food. For fall we have a banana split sweater.
Kerry Diamond:
Which is so cute.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Is it intarsia?
Rachel Antonoff:
It is intarsia. Yes. Look at you.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm going to work that word into as many sentences as possible, Rachel.
Rachel Antonoff:
You're doing it. What else do you have? It's funny because we're always working in the past and the future and so rarely in the present. So it's like, we're designing spring '22 right now, but we're producing pre-spring '21.
Kerry Diamond:
There are so many fashion seasons.
Rachel Antonoff:
I know.
Kerry Diamond:
It's too much.
Rachel Antonoff:
It's really confusing.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Rachel Antonoff:
And then the season that's actually coming out at any given moment which right now is fall, that's sort of the thing that we already did the work on. So it's fun. You have to sort of reacquaint yourself with it. But yeah, lots of food stuff coming out.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell me about the Ally Coalition. So this is something that you started a few years ago with your brother.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. We started it back when my brother was in a different band. That band and I started this organization, and yeah, basically we raise money for shelters.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm. Tell us what kind of shelters.
Rachel Antonoff:
Shelters for homeless youth which is a disproportionately large part of homeless youth, and it started with a little bit of a vague, you know, we wanted to inspire people to help, and then we realized, "No, let's put our money where our mouth is." So now we just say, "We raise the money," and then we know we got the shelter a fridge, and we got them five more beds.
Rachel Antonoff:
So, yeah. That's what we do, and once a year we have a big, what we call the talent show which is our main fundraising event of the year.
Kerry Diamond:
When does that happen?
Rachel Antonoff:
December.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, December.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah, so we're planning.
Kerry Diamond:
We can look forward to it.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Can people buy tickets to it?
Rachel Antonoff:
Not yet.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
And hopefully, it will be in person this year.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
Last year was, you know, via Twitch? Yes, Twitch.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. And why is this a cause important to you?
Rachel Antonoff:
Honestly, there's no root feeling of why. There's no personal experience exactly. It's just an inequality that we felt very aware of and thought, well, we can do a little something.
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm. Okay. It's still summertime. When people hear the show it will still be summertime.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you taking a vacation?
Rachel Antonoff:
I'm not. You know I'm still sort of tentatively navigating the COVID landscape. My parents have a house on the Jersey shore, and so I try to go up there a lot.
Kerry Diamond:
I love the Jersey shore. Which part?
Rachel Antonoff:
Long Bridge Island.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I love LBL.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah, it's great.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, it's the best part of New Jersey.
Rachel Antonoff:
We grew up going there, and it's actually where I spent most of the pandemic, and it just like, it means so much to us. So I'll go there, but I'm not planning anything at the moment.
Kerry Diamond:
Geographically, such an interesting little slice of land.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, very.
Kerry Diamond:
You could be standing on one side and see the water on both sides. It's so interesting.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes. It's really beautiful, and it's also just politically become very interesting. We've been going there since we were very little, and it wasn't until the past few years that we realized, "Oh, wow. There are some gaps in opinion and feelings between our neighbors and ourselves." And we've had a lot of really interesting, somewhat tense conversations over the past few years.
Kerry Diamond:
I'll throw out a divisive question.
Rachel Antonoff:
Sure.
Kerry Diamond:
Saltwater taffy. Yes or no?
Rachel Antonoff:
Hmm. Conceptually yes. Taste in my mouth-wise, not as much.
Kerry Diamond:
I've never been able to understand salt water taffy.
Rachel Antonoff:
It doesn't taste good, and I think, you know the way your body must sort of be scientifically built to recognize things that are food and that aren't? My body doesn't recognize taffy or, I'm probably not allowed to stay this either, but like Subway sandwiches. My body is like, "That's not food. Don't swallow. Just don't do it."
Kerry Diamond:
So we won't be seeing saltwater taffy on any Rachel Ant's stuff.
Rachel Antonoff:
I mean maybe. The initial taste is kind of nice. I think it's more of the texture. I'm just like, "Oh, it's silly putty."
Kerry Diamond:
It's a conundrum.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. We're going to do a speed rounds.
Rachel Antonoff:
Okay. Fun.
Kerry Diamond:
And then let you out of here. You bake.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
I've seen some things on your Instagram.
Rachel Antonoff:
I do bake.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. What is your most-used kitchen tool?
Rachel Antonoff:
My KitchenAid mixer. It's great.
Kerry Diamond:
Treasured cookbook?
Rachel Antonoff:
Treasured cookbook. Sorry to be basic but-
Kerry Diamond:
Do you use cookbooks?
Rachel Antonoff:
I do. It's probably Julia Child's cookbook.
Kerry Diamond:
That's okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
It's classic.
Rachel Antonoff:
I've made that beef bourguignon like 30 times maybe. Probably like 10.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you listen to music in the kitchen?
Rachel Antonoff:
No, but only because I don't have a system set up, and because I love to listen to my stories on TV when I'm baking.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. Oh, really?
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
I'll just put on like Sex in the City or something I don't really have to pay attention to, and they sort of keep me company.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. Kitchen footwear of choice?
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh. Crocs.
Kerry Diamond:
Really?
Rachel Antonoff:
Really comfortable.
Kerry Diamond:
Why are crocs having a comeback? Can you explain it to me?
Rachel Antonoff:
I think because the pandemic required us to take a hard look at comfort, and people weren't looking at our feet for the most part. And so I had never worn crocs until last March, you know, two Marches ago.
Kerry Diamond:
Because people are standing on line outside Croc stores now.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, really?
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, I didn't know that.
Kerry Diamond:
And they have those pins now.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
On them.
Rachel Antonoff:
I don't really like bedazzle my Crocs, but they are extremely comfortable and since they're rubber, they're just like great house shoes.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
You can like literally toss them in the dishwasher.
Kerry Diamond:
Thumbs up for the Crocs.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
From Rachel Antonoff. You throw them in the dishwasher?
Rachel Antonoff:
Not with other items and not my outside Crocs.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Rachel Antonoff:
But if I feel like my indoor Crocs need a little spruce, yes, I will.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. It's the whole thing. Last pantry purchase?
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh. I have a bunch of high gluten flour that just arrived from King Arthur.
Kerry Diamond:
What will you be doing with the high gluten flour?
Rachel Antonoff:
Challah.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, nice.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah. It really makes a difference, the high gluten.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. We do have to talk to you for our baking issue, don't we?
Rachel Antonoff:
I would love that.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. What's the oldest thing in your fridge?
Rachel Antonoff:
I just cleaned it out yesterday. You know, there was some really old heavy cream.
Kerry Diamond:
Dream travel destination?
Rachel Antonoff:
Italy. Anywhere in Italy.
Kerry Diamond:
You could wear your pasta pajamas.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Those are so cute.
Rachel Antonoff:
Ah, thanks.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Okay. If you had to be stuck on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Rachel Antonoff:
Rachael Ray because she's cozy, and she has taught me a lot of things I know, and she's wonderful.
Kerry Diamond:
I love it. She's a good egg. She was on the show once, and I loved her.
Rachel Antonoff:
She's really great.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, Rachel, so are you.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
This was so much fun. I already knew I loved you, and now I love you even more.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
So, thank you for being on the show.
Rachel Antonoff:
Likewise.
Kerry Diamond:
And for all the support. I don't know if everybody knows this, but when we did the Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner cover, you graciously made this adorable sweaters for it.
Rachel Antonoff:
That was fun.
Kerry Diamond:
And folks might see some Rachel Antonoff fall pieces in our next issue.
Rachel Antonoff:
Yay.
Kerry Diamond:
So stay tuned. Thank you for letting us borrow those.
Rachel Antonoff:
Oh, any time. Are you kidding? It's so fun.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. Have a great summer, Rachel.
Rachel Antonoff:
Thank you. You too.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Rachel Antonoff for a fun chat. I really enjoyed that. Be sure to check out Rachel's designs rachelantonoff.com.
Thank you to Free People for supporting today's show. Don't miss the Cherry Bombe and Free People Summer Supper Club. Head to cherrybombe.com or freepeople.com to learn more.
Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe magazine. Want some more Cherry Bombe in your life? Sign up for our newsletter at cherrybombe.com.
Love this episode? I hope you do. You can find Radio Cherry Bombe interviews with other stylish foodies including Jenna Lyons and Sofia Coppola, wherever you get your podcasts.
Radio Cherry Bombe is recorded at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Thank you to Joseph Hazan, studio engineer of Newsstand Studios and to our assistant producer Jenna Sadhu.
Kerry Diamond:
Thanks for listening, everybody. You're the bombe.
Harry from When Harry Met Sally:
I'll have what she's having.