I wouldn’t count myself as the biggest Lula fangirl, but after Leith Clark’s talk with Katie Baron last night I’m a total convert. With a dreamy, hypnotic Canadian voice that sounded like it could be from 70s Laurel Canyon commune (srsly, I want this woman to start a radio show), Leith talked to Kat about her career and setting up Lula magazine. She looked typically dreamy with the centre-parted fringe she’s made her trademark, pretty mary-janes with delicate studs and a blue lace Prada dress.
Self-assured in a non-arrogant way she demonstrated to the audience -which was largely made of students- that persistence and even being annoying, was the key. Leith advocates finding the people you really love and admire, then pestering them until they let you intern. Pretty good advice. I think she’s quite a good advocate for that childlike ability to soak up influences like a sponge and the importance of that. She said to Guardian a few years ago: “I think we are most true to our tastes when we are young and before anyone has told us what we should like.”
It was also interesting to hear the way that she set Lula up, just as an outlet for all the weird and wonderful stuff that she loved, going against the ‘fierce’ fashion that was really big mid 2005-6, mentioning a few times ‘what’s the point of having a girl tied up, it’s just weird’. It’s also clear that she’s very pro women and part of a wave of women who are expanding out what it means to be a feminist. My favourite part of the talk? Her saying ‘be whatever you want’, it sounds simple but in the context of everything that she’s achieved it’s a really beautiful statement.
