The Insider: Lockhart Steele

Talk to Lockhart Steele for ten minutes, and you’ll probably get infected with his passion for NYC—not shocking considering he founded Curbed, Racked, and Eater—three sites dedicated to covering the real estate, fashion, and food scenes across dozens of infinitely lovable locales including his own. Here, the South Street Seaport resident/fan-club president schools us on his old ‘hood (the LES!) and the floral shirts that he’s been known to rock. —jiayi

Q: What made you start Curbed?
A: I was living on the Lower East Side and had a blog where I wrote about the way the neighborhood was changing. I realized that I really dug chronicling the way New York’s neighborhoods evolved.

Q: So, how much would you say the Lower East Side has changed since you lived there?
A: I lived on Rivingston Street for exactly ten years—from March 1, 2001 to March 1, 2011. It changed a lot. Pre-9/11, the streets down there were pretty deserted. Many of the restaurants, like Schiller’s, didn’t come along until 2003 or 2004, which is when the neighborhood began having these cool spots. Then, you have the era of the mid-2000s, which led us to rename the neighborhood Hell Square, because that’s really what it became at night. By the time I left, I’d step outside on a Friday or Saturday night, and it was like I was body-surfing.

Q: Did you grow up having an interest in architecture and neighborhoods?
A: Totally—but just casually. I think architecture and real estate are interesting because they’re both topics that get written about a lot by insiders, who write in a certain lingo that’s completely incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t learned them. Part of what we wanted to do at Curbed was to demystify that a little bit—and have a little more fun and straightforward honesty around these things.

Q: Racked was founded on the same philosophy. How do you see the relationship between Curbed, Racked, and Eater?
A: The way I think of it, they’re each telling a different side to the neighborhood story. Curbed is coming out of the point of view of real estate, but also the neighborhoods themselves—the characters and the stories that make a neighborhood what it is. One of the thoughts we had in mind when we started Eater was a that single restaurant opening could almost re-define an entire neighborhood. When Keith McNally came to Rivington Street and opened Schiller’s, that was a real big moment for that neighborhood. And then with Racked, it was the same idea. The three of them form a sort of a triangle in my mind—they each show an important part to the local and neighborhood story.

Q: There was a NYT article that mentioned your fondness for floral shirts—how would you describe your style?
A: Downtown preppy. I have a certain fondness for Paul Smith shirts. But I’m usually pretty casual.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about New York?
A: My favorite thing is just the way the city is constantly reinventing itself. Oh my god, I wake up from one construction site to another construction site—from the South Street Seaport, where I live now, to Cooper Square in the East Village, where I work— which I think is perfect considering that I started Curbed.

Read up on more awesome people here!

The Insider: Leslie Price

After tackling NYC—Leslie Price was the founding editor of Racked and worked her editorial magic at Lucky and Time Inc.—the shopping powerhouse and girl of the perfect hair headed to L.A. to prove that she could take on both coasts and to helm Racked’s West Coast editorial team. Here, she shares some bi-coastal boutique findings and the issue with leather pants. —jiayi

Q: How did you get started with Racked?
A: I moved to New York right after college, and worked at Time Out New York as a food writer for a while. I loved writing about food, but I had a real love of fashion, even though I didn’t have access to that world. I knew Lockhart Steele from Curbed, and Ben Leventhal—who, with Lockhart, founded Eater—socially. They were interested in doing a shopping site and asked me if I was interested—of course I was, so I started writing for the site. There really weren’t any fashion blogs around then, so it was a really good time to be getting into that space.

Q: How did you approach shaping the editorial voice? Has it changed?
A: It’s definitely evolved. The biggest thing at the beginning was that I was really interested in sample sales. For me, they were just emblematic of the way the industry was closed off to normal people. Things weren’t out there like they are now. Lookbooks weren’t online, and fashion week wasn’t instantly live. You wouldn’t see that side of things—you’d only see what magazines showed you. It was all so secret, and I wanted in.

Q: L.A. and New York are opposites in so many ways. Do you think that applies to the retail scenes, too?
A: I still have to figure out how brick-and-mortar really works in L.A., because there just isn’t really a lot of foot traffic. Unless you’re talking about Abbott Kinney in Venice—then I get it. In New York, I’d constantly discover places by just walking by and going in because they looked interesting. Here, I feel like stores really have to market themselves more. The discovery factor is hard out here.

Q: What’s your favorite place to shop in L.A.?
A: I’ve blogged a lot about Shareen. The woman who owns it used to be a stylist and has a warehouse in downtown L.A.—it’s enormous and full with amazing vintage. It was one of those places that I knew I wanted to go to when I came out here. When I was at Lucky, all the girls were talking about it. Whenever they traveled to L.A., they’d be at Shareen.

Q: Is there anything about fashion that you really hate?
A: I know it’s kind of the nature of the industry, but I wish that I could have a uniform. I’ll be looking at things, and I’ll be like, “Oh, I really need a pair of oxblood, leather trousers this fall.” And I really wish I didn’t want that! I dream of being that person who can find that one great-looking thing, and just wear it over and over again. Carolina Herrera always wears a white button-down, and it looks amazing—and it won’t look silly five years after, either.

Catch up with more cool peeps over here!

Of a Kind

“Working It: What the Of a Kind Team Wears to Work” Racked.com, January 26, 2012 

Of a Kind

“BOOM:  Presenting the First Ever Racked National 38”  Racked.com,  January 5, 2012

Alumni News: Thomas Sires Is the Best New Store in NYC (But It Needs Your Help)

See these two lovely ladies? Allison Sires (left) and Fiona Thomas are Loeffler Randall alum who struck out on their own, setting up shop in Nolita in December with a cooler-than-cool store that sells their house line, Thomas Sires, and a bunch or amazing knickknacks sourced around the world. If you haven’t gotten to stop by yet, trust us: It’s SICK. Proof: They are up for Best New Store in NYC at the first-annual Racked Awards. Now, you should vote for them because they straight-up deserve it. (VOTE! Now! Do it! One click!) But if you need a little incentive…we’ll give $50 off the Evelyne shirt they designed for us for a week if they win. That’s right, we’re putting our discount code where our mouth is. —erica