Among the voluminous amount of people that inspire Andrea is Mary Randolph Carter, who was my first boss and mentor in the fashion business at Condé Nast. Carter, as we used to call her, is not as famous as Andrea’s other muses, like Joni Mitchell and Alison Mosshart, but she is just as much a visionary. A connoisseur of authentic Americana would be an understatement – Carter would make you want to wear a general’s paper hat like George Washington’s when he crossed the Delaware on a daily basis. She opened my eyes to the magnetic allure of those that are completely their own person in their aesthetic without an ounce of pretense, like Andrea, and thus contributed to the birth of SLU.
I became obsessed with Andrea, the co-founder of Lucky Magazine, when I first saw her at the Rag & Bone show in her white Victorian boots that she told me she has pictured herself wearing for her entire life. It was Andrea’s overall vibe that stood out as so attractive among the hoards of derivatives. In jeans, no makeup, long hair, and the quintessentially unflashy and state of the art jacket – maybe Rick, Gary Graham, or Comme – Andrea’s earthy and effortless presence is glaring.
I love that her number one style influence is Bob Dylan and that she is so unwavering in her devotion to him with every conceivable variation of worn, iconic boots and belts. She says jokingly, “I am supposed to want to look like Audrey Hepburn.” She describes her mom as a “groovy” woman who ran around in the ‘burbs with Jane Fonda’s Klute haircut, which was done on St. Marks when Andrea was growing up. Her parents bought her the Scavullo book, “Women,” when she was around fourteen years old and the seeds of her career took form. She was not only making magazines when she wasn’t at school, but memorizing every alluring female that the photographer legend featured in his book. One was Maria Smith, a Warhol-era beauty that Andrea recognized at a magazine shoot twenty years later.
One of Andrea’s claims to fame is that she styled the infamous Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love shoot for Sassy Magazine. It is so indicative of Andrea’s commitment to heartfelt connections that she chose the same sweater that Kurt wore for that shoot – it was her father’s from college – as one of her looks for this one. The sweater is as much a reflection of her taste for edgy classics as it is of her sartorial coolness and nonchalant grace. In her layers of patchouli and turquoise, Andrea has a gift for choosing the consummate creative influences, but she is one herself.

Check out Andrea’s blog, I Want to be Her.

If you love Andrea, you may also like Sam Quartin, Natalie Joos and Frederique van der Wal.