Style and Substance

THE UNWRITTEN RULE TO LANDING AN INTERN- ship at Vogue is that you have to know somebody. Indvik didn’t, but she was summoned to New York City for an interview nonetheless. “Oh, Dartmouth—you must know Lisa Salzer,” said the Vogue editor, mentioning the Lulu Frost jewelry designer, class of 2004. Indvik shook her head no.

“Eugenia Kim?” the editor ventured, referring to the class of 1996 hat and accessories designer. No again.

“Wait. You just emailed me randomly and I responded?” the editor asked, incredulous.

Despite her lack of connections, Indvik got the intern- ship. And eight years later, that same editor would be just as likely to say, “Dartmouth? You must know Lauren Indvik.”

As the editor-in-chief of the news site Fashionista, In- dvik manages 12 staffers and 20 freelancers while regularly making the rounds to fashion weeks in London and Milan. She’s sat front row at Oscar de la Renta shows, interviewed Victoria Beckham (“incredibly impressive”) and Sheryl Sandberg and published exclusives about Burberry, Ralph Lauren and Yahoo, among others. After Vogue, Indvik moved on to TheStreet.com and Mashable, where her favorite beat was the intersection between fashion, business and tech- nology. With Fashionista Indvik wanted to elevate her work above the hundreds of celebrity-obsessed fashion blogs and instead create a trusted news site that pulls back the cur- tain on how the fashion industry works. “If we’re going to write about a celebrity on the red carpet, we’re not going to pretend she dressed herself,” says Indvik. “We’ll talk about her stylist and what type of contract he or she is under. Our most popular stories explain the industry, from modeling to retail to earnings reports.” Indvik is having a great time editing, reporting, testing new media strategies and running conferences. But being fashionable? That, she concedes, is a challenge for everyone, even her. “I still have a hard time getting dressed!”

The young fashionista got started with an internship at Vogue.