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DAVIDBECKHAM‘I LISTEN TO VICTORIA’S STYLE ADVICE – MOST OF THE TIME’

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

ON LIFE AFTER THE CITY AND

WHY SHE CAN’T WAIT TO WED

WHITNEYPORT

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23HELLOFASHION.COM

HFM INTERVIEW

W

Reality TV star-turned-designer WHITNEY PORT talks to HFM about taking on fashion industry snobs, preparing for her nuptials and the prospect of reuniting on screen with her The City co-star Olivia Palermo...

Let’s cut to the chase, HFM suggests. If you

had the opportunity to do it all again, would

you? Whitney Port doesn’t hesitate: “For sure.

100 percent. The only negative experiences

I had were maybe just the producers trying to

make more drama over things.” Would those

be Olivia Palermo ‘things’? “Yeah,” comes the

blunt reply.

 It’s almost ten years since Whitney made

her MTV reality show The Hills, alongside

Lauren Conrad and a gang of LA fashion

wannabes. The series’ spin-off, The City,

took her to New York, where our Californian Snow

White was pitted, as the MTV’s producers would have

it, against New York’s very own Park Avenue Princess,

Olivia Palermo. It was a battle of young fashionistas that

continues to be a source of debate – even if

L

Dress, £2,970, Julien Macdonald

W H I T N E Y

T h e w o r l d a c c o r d i n g t o . . .

24 HELLOFASHION.COM

HFM INTERVIEW

the protagonists have clearly

moved on.

Whitney, now living back

in Los Angeles, turned 30 last

month, and is set to marry her

fiancé – former producer on The

City, Tim Rosenman later this

year. Her fashion label, Whitney

Eve, is in its sixth year, and going

from strength to strength. But

she’s all too aware, four years

after the show ended, that she’s

still required to prove she’s more

than just another ‘reality star’.

“Definitely,” she says, post-

HFM shoot. “The TV show was

amazing because I got great

exposure from it and it gave me

those ‘eyes’ (910,000 Instagram

followers and counting) that

I wanted when I launched my

collection but, at the same time,

there was a stigma.”

And that remains, to a degree.

We meet a couple of days after

London Fashion Week’s end,

where she was a fixture on the

front rows, while promoting

her own collection. Influenced

by her favourite cities – “LA’s

ease and comfort, New York’s

structured masculinity and

London’s colour and risk” – her

designs have steadily won favour

in the States and she’s confident

the UK will be equally receptive

(available at whitneyeve.com).

Yet, she’s honest

enough to recognise

the fashion world is

not always a level

playing field. The

“snobbery” in

the industry is,

she says, “kind

of gross. I’m of

the mind every

designer, everyone

in the industry, should support

one another”. Her aim is to

convince, and she’s succeeded so

far in silencing the naysayers by

“producing good product. Then

people start to take notice”.

Raised in Santa Monica,

California, by dad, fashion

company owner, Jeffrey, and

mum, Vicki, Whitney is one of

five siblings. She was privately

educated at Crossroads School,

a favourite amongst the Malibu

celebrity set with former pupils

including Gwyneth Paltrow and

Kate Hudson. Graduating from

the University of South California

with a degree in gender studies,

a career in fashion was always

in her sights, but it was while

applying for an internship at

Teen Vogue’s West Coast office

that MTV came calling.

The magazine’s bosses had

agreed to allow the cameras

into their office, and, well,

both they and MTV’s

producers thought

she was perfect for

the ‘cast’. At her

intern’s interview, she

remembers, “Lauren

Conrad walked

through the doors of

the waiting room.

I’d watched Laguna

Beach and I was, like,

‘Oh my God, I get what

I’m on. I’m totally on her

spin-off show’.”

Over the course of four

years, the MTV audience

fell for her, so much so that

Whitney with fiancé Tim Rosenman (right) and with Olivia Palermo at the DVF show in 2009 (below)

W

Dress, £1,112, Natasha Zinko Shoes, £845, Christian Louboutin

Earrings, £348, Azzaro

25HELLOFASHION.COM

‘ T H E T V S H O W

WA S A M A Z I N G

B E C A U S E I

G O T G R E AT

E X P O S U R E F RO M

I T. I T G AV E M E

T H O S E “ E Y E S ” I

WA N T E D W H E N

I L A U N C H E D M Y

C O L L E C T I O N ’

HFM INTERVIEW

when she landed her dream job

with Diane von Furstenberg in

New York, Whitney was handed

a show of her very own, The City. Only she wasn’t quite on her own

– enter, Olivia.

Early on, Whitney sensed

there might be trouble ahead:

“The executive producer for The Hills, who then went on and did

The City, told me that initially he

thought Lauren and I weren’t

going to get along. He hoped

that, but actually it turned out

we became good friends. So

then, for The City, I think, they

knew… ‘We’re going to make

it, Whitney’s a fish out of water

in New York City. And Olivia’s

got her act together.’ She’s like

a girl about town so they wanted

that whole dichotomy between

us. She was always so nice to me.

That was the thing. She just has

this undertone of kind of being

a know-it-all. Then you take that

into an editing room…”

It might not have been so

pleasant at the time, but both

benefited from their so-called

rivalry, and both have gone on

to make a name in fashion for

themselves. In 2012 Whitney

became a judge on the eighth

season of Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model.

Despite their supposed enmity,

we wonder if she’d ever consider

a notional ‘Whitney and Olivia

Show’. There’s an “erm”, then

a long pause, then a question

– “To go against each other all

the time?” – as if she’s already

exhausted at just the thought.

But we’ve misread her. “I mean,

yeah,” she brightens up. “Now

it could be fun because we’re

mature. It could be fun but it just

depends… I’m not in a place to

do a show about drama stuff.”

Quite remarkably, given the circles

they mix in, the pair has only

bumped into each other once

since MTV brought the show to an

end after two seasons. “We were in

line on the red carpet last year. We

said, ‘Hello’, and kind of waited

together. It was just before she got

married, and that’s the only time.”

Speaking of which, later this

‘ T H E Y

WA N T E D

T H AT

D I C H O T O M Y

B E T W E E N

O L I V I A A N D I

B U T S H E WA S

A L WAY S S O

N I C E T O M E ’

26 HELLOFASHION.COM

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Dress, £1,455, Natasha Zinko Shoes, £665,

Christian Louboutin Bracelet,

£257, Mawi

‘ I WA S T H E N I C E G I R L

T H AT J U S T P L AY E D B Y T H E

RU L E S . I A M N I C E B U T

I D O N ’ T T H I N K I ’ M B O R I N G A N D I H AV E

S T U F F T O S AY ’

Top, £1,050, Zeynep Kartal Skirt, £845, Mary Katrantzou at Harvey Nichols Shoes, £375, Jimmy Choo Earrings, £100, John & Pearl