Joe Zee helps Nicole Richie with her fashion line on the new All On The Line season.
Just listen to Joe Zee.
If that were all the struggling designers on All On The Line With Joe Zee did from the get-go, then maybe they’d get over the road blocks (professional and personal) that keep their respective businesses in a slump. However, that also would make for some pretty boring television and lucky for us the designers that seek Zee’s expertise on the Sundance Channel reality series, don’t always listen and, to be honest, watching Joe Zee lose his s**t with them is more than a little entertaining.
As the third season launches tonight, the usually unflappable (and out) Zee, who also happens to be the Creative Director at Elle Magazine since 2007, finds his head about to pop off in frustration as he works with the New York-based Unruly Heir designers, who were once successful but have pissed away their success and now rely on Daddy to write the checks.
The new All On The Line season is also going bi-coastal with both Los Angeles and New York City designers along with a slew of familiar faces such as Octavia Spencer, Mary J. Blige, Mario Lopez, Good Morning America’s Lara Spencer & Josh Elliott, Korto Momolu (season 5 runner-up on Project Runway) and Nicole Richie, who actually seeks Zee’s help for her own fashion line in the season finale.
With much to talk about with the new season, Zee sat down with AfterElton recently in Beverly Hills to dish.
AfterElton: So half your season takes place in Los Angeles this time. Have you lived here before?
Joe Zee: No, never. I come all the time, so in a way it was always a second home, but it was a second home in a hotel. This time I actually rented a house and I lived here. I did California living, and it was kind of fabulous. I love this town.
AE: One plus is you don’t really think about the weather here too often.
JZ: Oh, it’s Groundhog Day with beautiful weather. I mean I just love it. And summers in New York can be brutal, but I kind of miss the brutal part. Winters can be brutal too. I don’t know. It’s been nice just to have a change of scenery and being here. And also, the fashion scene here is so different too. It’s fun to just to get a new perspective.
AE: So, what do you make of LA fashion since it definitely is different from the East Coast?
JZ: The LA fashion scene, there’s certainly one now in a bigger way. Rodarte, Band of Outsiders, and all of these really big names becoming really international from Los Angeles, so I think it's worth highlighting. And whatever you think of LA fashion, whether you like or don’t like, it’s very specific in what it does. And celebrity culture, red carpet, all of that impacts so much in the world of fashion, and that’s all here. So it’s still money. It’s still trend. It’s still ideas.
AE: Tell me about the new season and going between New York and LA. Did you have a different approach to each coast?
JZ: I think I just really approach it the same way. I think the show definitely is elevated and gets pushed more each season. I love this season more than anything. I think it’s bigger, bolder, it’s shot beautifully, it’s all in your face. It’s a lot of heightened emotion, and I think there’s a lot more drama because there’s a lot more things to do in each episode now. You know, designing for celebrity…I wanted them to be able to also find an inspiration for the collection instead of just looking. I think in the past we used to go look for inspiration, and I feel like looking can be a bit passive. I wanted them to actually do something to be inspired, so we actually designed something to get inspiration. So there’s a lot more processes, there’s a lot more design, there’s a lot more clothes, there’s a ton of fashion porn.
AE: How do the celebrities play into the show? Are you designing for them, or are they helping you?
JZ: A little combination of both. Mostly the designer designing something for them, but getting feedback from them. So the feedback isn’t always just me, and I think that sort of came out of the fact that I style a lot of celebrities. I work with a lot of celebrities, but also we live in a celebrity culture. So if so-and-so wears something walking down the red carpet that has exponential value on a struggling business and beyond. And it was a great way for the designers then to understand that, but also for the viewer to understand that someone wearing something o n ared carpet isn’t just them wearing on a red carpet, but it actually has a domino effect for businesses down the road. You may watch the awards shows, but everyone loves the pre-show. And I think understanding that pre-show element to it is so much greater.
AE: Did any of the celebrities you worked with surprise you with their fashion insight when they actually were giving their input?
JZ: I think they all surprised me to a certain extent because they’re all very savvy about fashion especially when it relates to themselves. But I mean we did one with Zoe Kazan who has a movie coming out, Ruby Sparks, and she was very on-point and meticulous about every design detail of the garment. And I was like ‘wow, I wouldn’t have guessed that from her,’ but I love that idea from her because she’s such a brainiac. She’s an accomplished actress, but then she’s so low-key about the fashion, too. Mary J. Blige, she was great. And we had Octavia Spencer on and she was inspirational [and] she knew her stuff. She was like ‘oh no honey, we need to do this,’ but then was so inspirational in her delivery and comical, and I just wanted to go home and hug her. She was so amazing. Yeah, we just had great people on this season and everyone approaches fashion in a different way.
Last season, Zee worked with acclaimed designer Nicole Miller on the show.
AE: Was the fact that you spent more time in LA than ever before change your fashion perspective on it at all?
JZ: I don’t know that being here changed my perspective about fashion. I kind of like fashion everywhere I go anyway. For me, I’m not one of those that live in a bubble and think it’s only about New York, Milan, Paris, London. I think there’s fashion everywhere you go, it’s how people approach fashion. I don’t think someone living somewhere in a suburb in the middle of the country doesn’t have good take on fashion, it’s just a different take and I love a different take. I think that’s really what’s so interesting about this industry... that you should be able to welcome different things.
There’s a lot of LA cliché fashion and that’s totally fine, and I think that’s the part what’s interesting is that it’s very eclectic. But I definitely drove a lot to downtown LA, and I had never in my entire life gone down there that much. I know every shortcut during rush hour to and from downtown. I will say that is my biggest learning experience coming out of this.
AE: That’s big, being able to navigate traffic in LA is huge. Do you think the key to your longevity and your career is the fact that you’re very open to looking at everything, whereas some people are in a bubble and they just see one thing?
JZ: I think that’s my least favorite part about the fashion industry when people get tunnel vision into what they’re supposed to like and what they like. I don’t like to be the majority. If everybody likes the same thing and I like it too, great, but I’m very much about being inclusive instead of exclusive. I think I’ve done fashion for so long, and I feel like for so long my industry wanted to keep things exclusive. I’m always about being inclusive. I want everyone to come to the party. I want everybody to have fun, I want everyone to enjoy it, so how do I do what I do and make it democratic? And I think maybe that perspective is what I bring to whatever ideas I do and let people have fun with it. I like people to have a glimpse into the window of my life. I like that part.
Zee's day job is his role Creative Director of Elle Magazine
AE: Where does that element come from? Because I’m guessing that’s not just a career thing, that’s who you are?
JZ: It is who I am.
AE: But did it come from your upbringing or a mentor along the way, because it’s a great way to be.
JZ: I think it’s just a personality thing. I feel like I always wanted that element of it. I think if you just look at pure management style…I’ve never been the type of person where like yes, there’s hierarchy [and] you have to have that or have disorder and chaos, but I like welcoming everyone. Every place I go, I like to have meetings and I want assistants and interns to be there and I want them to have a voice and speak up and give ideas for this.
If we go out, I used to always, right from the beginning of my career, include interns and assistants because I feel like there’s none of this, ‘you can’t talk to me,’ and ‘you can’t be a part of me.’ It’s not who I am and that’s never going to be who I am, because that person who may feel intimated to speak up may have a million dollar idea. But if you include them your voice gets to be part of the project you work on, and it lets them feel empowered enough to be able to have ideas and make decisions, and I think that’s how you grow. I think maybe part of it is maybe along the way the people that mentored me let me have a voice and let me grow. I really respected that, and I think that’s it. It’s a tough thing and I don’t think it exists in every aspect of industry. I don’t think it’s also specific to fashion. I feel like maybe that can exist in a lot of different industries, but I don’t know... I like to party with everybody. [laughs]
All On The Line With Joe Zee airs Mondays at 9pm on the Sundance Channel.
