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The Good Buy is a podcast from Harper’s Bazaar in which editors Leah Chernikoff and Lynette Nylander invite celebrities, designers, models, and tastemakers to talk shop: what they buy, where they got it, and why it matters. Come down the fashion rabbit hole and take a peek inside the closets and shopping carts of the world’s most stylish people. Learn how they use style to tell their stories.
Never doubt supermodel Paloma Elsesser’s commitment to vintage fashion. The morning she was due to appear on Bazaar’s podcast, she woke up at 4:45 a.m. to bid on rare Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe pieces on sale at Kerry Taylor Auctions. Later, as she was sitting down in the interview chair, she hit “purchase” on a pair of Phoebe Philo heels. This is a woman who does not mess around when it comes to her collection.
One of the most important models working today, Elsesser has walked the runway for everyone from Marni to Fendi to Balenciaga to Michael Kors. She’s worn the Victoria’s Secret wings, appeared in a Doja Cat music video, and won multiple Model of the Year awards. First discovered by Pat McGrath as a student in New York City, she quickly rerouted her future plans to become a psychologist, stepping boldly into the world of fashion. And her influence extends far past her work in front of the camera—she’s a writer, an advocate for inclusivity and diversity, and a once-in-a-generation style inspiration.
Known for her archival red-carpet pulls and downtown-New York street style, Elsesser has a knack for finding vintage gems and spotting emerging labels, for seeing the possibilities of a dress that’s not necessarily in her size, and for putting together “sexy strange” combinations that, first and foremost, elicit conversation. She approaches shopping with the eager eye of a collector, and has a curiosity that, in her own words, allows her to “see beauty in a rock as well as a Phoebe Philo flat.”
She joins the podcast to discuss her early experiences with personal style, the way she reworks pieces to fit her body, and the experience of being a fashion reference for so many people around the world. Read on for highlights and watch the show in full above.
On her experience with fashion growing up:
“I’ve always occupied a body that looked different, an experience that looked different, especially from the peers that I grew up with. I grew up in L.A. in predominantly white spaces and financially in different brackets. And I had to figure out what worked for me, when I felt the world wasn’t designed for me to feel special. I wasn’t given permission to feel special, be the one, first pick, first draft, and that suddenly became okay. From an earlier age, I built a muscle and a skin for it. But I had to figure out what I liked about myself really early.”
On her “sexy strange” personal style:
“I don’t like dressing model-y. I just think it’s like gorgeous, gorgeous gowns. Some girls eat that so well and want to exist as this kind of alien distant mystery enigma, and I love watching my friends exist in that, but that just doesn’t feel like my experience. I’m the least mysterious person ever. I always want to be a template for an invitation to thought. I’m okay with people being like, ‘She looks terrible.’ But I want you to think about why you think that I look terrible.”
On her shopping philosophy:
“I love to shop. You know when you see a crush? I feel that way when I see something on the RealReal that I’ve been waiting for. The most orgasmic, climactic hit is when you complete the look from different places. You get the top from Vestiaire and then you get the runway bottom from—oh my God, better than sex.”
On being a reference for people everywhere:
“I really appreciate and value and treat it as a privilege to be a reference. No one sees bodies like mine in archive clothing. People don’t see that rare McQueen dress on me, or the Junya or the Commes. I think it’s important for us not only to create a reference and be on that mood board, but also just [to show] what’s possible in the way that we dress.”
On not gatekeeping her It girl finds:
“I’m not an influencer but I’m a person of influence. And I’m okay to do the work for a girl who maybe doesn’t have access to New York City or London or L.A. to also architect her world with beauty and sophistication and nuance and all these things. I’m a sucker for beauty. This world is hard, there’s a lot of painful things we have to navigate, and it’s okay for beauty to be a balm to that gristle and that texture.”
Shop Paloma’s Good Buys
HER FIRST BUY:
“The first thing I bought [that made me feel like I’d made it] was a Phoebe Philo philosophy tri-fold bag when she was at Celine. Actually, that one made me feel like I made it, but the precursor to that were [green and black] Chanel flats. I couldn’t afford to buy shoes over $1,000—this is when they were $650, they are no longer $650—but I could scrape some money together to get them, and it was a way for me to participate in that world when I couldn’t fit into or afford the clothes.”
HER REGRET BUY:
“I think it’s all a vestige of the time. Sometimes I think like, ‘Did I really need to spend the money doing that?’ I never feel that way about archive clothing. Ever.”
HER REPEAT BUY:
“Phoebe flats. A good shape that can take you through the day is so special.”
HER DREAM BUY:
“I love Margiela. I’m not a do-or-die, but I would love an artisanal piece. I think there’s also something so deeply sacred and sentimental about the history of these clothes at a time when fashion was yes, less inclusive, but was so deeply expressionistic. There was so much creative freedom and a prowess for exposing our humanity.”
HER MOST RECENT GOOD BUY:
“I had a big shopping day today. I banged the credit card pretty hard today. My last buy, literally as I was sitting down, were a pair of Phoebe Philo heels.”
