What are you doing today?
I work at a brokerage house around the corner, researching new technologies for the financial industry. It’s hard to actually eat during lunchtime when you work in Soho. I always wind up shopping instead. Today I picked something up at the deli because I’ve just gone to Jill Stuart.
You don’t dress like someone in finance.
I think it’s more interesting when people can’t figure you out based on how you dress. Once I was in Paris, and this woman came up to me and said, “I didn’t think you were American. You dress well, and you’re very discreet.” People always tell me I dress like a French girl. I’m not sure what that means. I don’t know any French girls.
Have you read French Women Don’t Get Fat?
I’m kind of underweight as it is, so I don’t need that book.
Do you have a lot of grooming rituals?
My dermatologist is always reprimanding me for not keeping up with a regime. The most I’ll do is lipstick and mascara. I totally want to learn how to wear eye shadow, but I have no coordination and I don’t want to scare people. I do like Chantecaille lipstick. It’s the smoothest lipstick ever, like butter. But she’s stopped making darker colors, and not everyone can wear pink.
Where’s the outfit from?
The purse is Prada, from a few years ago, and the coat is Miu Miu. The hat is from one of the millions of fur stores in midtown. It’s fox. My rain boots are from a store that closed in San Francisco. That’s where I’m from originally.
Why did you move here?
I was working in trading-floor technologies, and I just lucked out. It was like, more opportunity in New York—woo-hoo! But I made the mistake of moving into an apartment right across the street from the World Trade Center. I had to move out—I threw out everything I owned except my clothes because it was just too hard to clean.
Did you stay in the neighborhood?
Oh, yeah. I love it. It’s peaceful and quiet, and it reminds me of California because it’s right on the water and the apartments don’t touch each other. I would never move.
What are you reading right now?
I’m reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It’s awesome. It’s about the World Bank and corruption. Countries wind up bankrupt as a result of being indebted to the World Bank.
What do you think of Eliot Spitzer?
I know I’ve heard that name before … He’s that guy who’s going after brokerage houses, right?