Factory Girl and Style editor at large for NYLON magazine, jewelry designer for Lia Sophia, stylist, an expert on E! Scouted and not to mention a great person with great shoes. All of this is the reason why she is a real inspiration whom I've been following for about 5 years. Dani Stahl is someone who I've spoken about so often on Musings of Krav. Four or five years ago I bought my first issue of NYLON magazine and I was amazed by the uniqueness of its content. Specifically the Factory Girl articles in which Dani went to a new factory and talked about her experience. In my last post about her I closed by saying "my dream is to interview her one day and I'll do any and everything to make that happen", well that dream has come true. We spoke about everything from her college years at NYU to her ever growing closet that takes up her whole apartment. I felt so comfortable and it felt like a regular conversation between friends. (I wish lol) Needless to say, it was something I'll always remember and cherish. Here is the interview portion of my conversation with Inspiration: Dani Stahl.
Krav: Over the years what has been your favorite experience while doing Factory Girl?
Dani: Off the top of my head I'm just wildly in love with Chanel, I mean who isn't?
I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do it with them three times over the years now. I've been to the bag factory, I've been to the shoe factory and I've been to their perfume factory. Anything to do with that brand just lights up my face and my heart. I really enjoy them all.
What influences your style?
I tried to define my style. Like, am I preppy? Am I rocker? And I realized that I'm not just one of those things, I'm all of it. I think fashion is fun, so have fun with it. Whatever I'm kind of in the mood for. If you feel confident in something, then it'll look good. If you don't feel confident in it, then it won't. I think everything influences my style, I would say my style is eclectic and fun. Note: The original question I wrote was; "Your style is so eclectic and fun. What influences your style each day?" I told her about it and it was just like wow !
Have you always been interested in fashion?
Always into it, I had a mother and a grandmother that were into it. I was always playing around with stuff. I was always drawn to it. Especially with an art background, just creatively and visually. Your clothes are thee ultimate way to express yourself and I guess my hair and nail color.
What's the craziest hair color that you've had? That green ombré. That definitely takes the cake and I've had like, lavender extensions.
Vintage clothing already has a story, while new clothing allows you to make your own. Which do you prefer?
Well, they're both pretty on point. I mean I love vintage, I particularly love vintage jewelry. My mother is a vintage jewelry collector and I design jewelry too, it's called Lia Sophia. Me: I know (we both laugh) It's always sort of vintage inspired. Really, all very good design is. I love vintage but I love something chic and brand new for sure.
So, what's it like designing jewelry?
It's very cool. You find inspiration from anywhere, again really rooted a lot in vintage inspiration. You can find inspiration in architecture, art, photography. I mean, you really could find it in anything. It's a really cool creative process. I've been doing it for like 7 years now. I started with 10 pieces now I make about 40.
If you could pick a song that describes your view on life, what song would it be and why? "Girls just wanna have fun" by Madonna (laughs) self explanatory. A little cyndi lauper?
How does it feel when people tell you that you inspire them?I feel so lucky to be able to have people look at what I'm doing. As you can tell I love to talk to people so I'm very appreciative. It's very cool when people like what you do.
What's it like filming E! Scouted?
Scouted is great, I'm super into the TV thing. I've always done NYLON tv so I'm comfortable. It's sort of a natural progression to all the other stuff I do. So Scouted's amazing, I love my team. Second season you will get a little more of me.
Over the years, what has inspired you to keep following your dreams?
I think the thing that has been cool in my career is that it keeps changing. I keep getting the opportunity to improve on what I'm doing and doing new stuff, so it never gets boring.
What's your advice to those following their dreams? As you know things can happen that may discourage someone.
The path is never straight and it's never going to go exactly as you plan it, nothing does. So, you just have to keep an open mind and try to remember to stay positive. You know especially on a creative path, it should keep you interested. I hate to see anyone give up. It's your dream, right?
