Fashion bloggers Tom and Lorenzo are the sassy gay uncles you wish you had. Their meteoric rise to fame has captured the attention of major reality TV channels (like Bravo) and stylists and celebrities alike. They have been blogging since 2006 when they launched their first site, Project Rungay, based on the TV phenomenon Project Runway. Since then, they have only gained more fame and created their site, tomandlorenzo.com, where they provide the latest scoop on fashion, pop culture, movies, and TV shows with their own fun and candid take on things. They have been mentioned in major magazines such as Vogue, Marie Claire, People, and Harper’s Bazaar, and this month, we got their take on favorite designers, celebrity icons, and fall styles to watch.
What was your very first post and how did you decide on it?
Tom and Lorenzo: We started off solely as Project Runway fan bloggers, so there was never any question what the first post was going to be about—Project Runway! Our first post was a joke about season three contestant Laura Bennett, who showed up on the first day pulling a bunch of Louis Vuitton luggage behind her. We were instantly smitten and said so.
Who are the biggest style watch celebrities this season?
Zendaya Coleman and Yara Shahidi have really come into their own as fashionistas, and they’re both making some of the most interesting and exciting style choices for the red carpet right now. They’re redefining how we think an ingénue is supposed to look. They both like taking risks and they each bring a Kristen Stewart-like edge to their style, but they also still like playing around with traditionally romantic or feminine looks when it suits them. It strikes us as a very modern approach.
What trends do you think will be big this fall?
The future is female and she will be wearing a matching jacket and pants. Pantsuits aren’t going away anytime soon. In that same vein, both a strong power red and literal statement clothing are super hot, as are big belts, accentuated shoulders, and bold plaids. It’s about being strong, declarative, and even openly political right now, much in the same way the ‘80s were.
What’s your favorite fashion event you’ve ever attended?
Hands down: Oscar de la Renta’s Fall 2012 runway show. Not only were we privileged enough to sit front row, but we were also invited backstage and got to meet the man himself and tell him what we thought of it. This was only a year or two after we went from being hobby bloggers to professional bloggers and it was extremely satisfying to us from a professional perspective, but also a really emotional one as well. We were both a little overwhelmed that day. We still talk about it.
Who are your favorite celebrity style icons?
Any of our regular readers could probably answer this, since we’re so obvious about it: Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Lupita Nyong’o, and Tilda Swinton. Each of them in their own way truly understands fashion and how to manipulate it for maximum impact.
You guys are pretty critical of some of the designers or some of the fashion that you see, but you’re never mean. For the most part, would you guys say you are pretty well-received by the fashion world? Have you received any compliments from major designers or anything like that?
Tom: Stylists like us.
Lorenzo: The fashion world is a very funny world. We do get a lot of compliments, but they are not publicized.
Tom: Yeah, they’re on the down low.
Lorenzo: They’re on the down low because these people pretty much depend on celebrities and designers in the world of fashion, so they don’t want to come out and say, ‘Oh, you guys are hilarious. I love when you criticize X, Y, and Z.’ Obviously, they don’t come out and say that, but when we meet them in private or during fashion week and so on, they just go on. We do get people saying, ‘Oh my god, I love your book; I love what you guys have to say,’ and one of the things they say often is that when we criticize the look, we criticize the clothes, the shoes, the makeup and so on, but we never body-shame anybody. And I think they appreciate that. I think most people appreciate that, especially the readers.
Who would you like to interview someday?
We would love to interview Niecy Nash from TNT’s Claws because we love that show so much. We also both love Lena Headey from Game of Thrones. She plays Cersei Lannister, she follows us on Twitter, she says she loves us, but she’s so big. It’s people like that who are the kind of people we’d love to interview.
There are various fashion designers I know we’d want to talk to: Michele Clapton, who does the costumes for Game of Thrones and The Crown, for example. We are going to try to secure an interview with her this season. But when it comes to pop culture and fashion blogging, I think we’ve learned that there is no game plan. You just have to take it week by week. What’s coming out this week? Is it worth writing about? Do we have anything to say about it? So it’s not the kind of endeavour where you can plan out what you’re going to say three, six months from now.
The future is female and she will be wearing a matching jacket and pants. Pantsuits aren’t going away anytime soon.
What’s your favorite designer you’d love to meet, dead or alive?
Lorenzo: John Paul Gottier because I do appreciate his love and passion for fashion. He has an amazing eye for discovering new things to create new things and to celebrate new things in fashion. I absolutely love Hireshi Couture. I’m glad that’s what he’s focusing on right now and he’s always been my favorite designer.
Tom: I’m going to be a little surprising here and say Karl Lagerfeld. You know why? I have always wondered deep down: is this all just an act? He constantly says outrageous things and offensive things and he acts a certain way and I’m like, ‘I think it’s an act,’ but he’s been so consistent with it for so long that I just don’t know. I won’t say that I admire some of the stunts he’s pulled and some of the things he’s said in public—I really don’t—but first off, he is an amazing designer and I can’t take that away from him, and secondly, he’s been in the industry so long and knows so many people that I think he’d be a fascinating person to discuss fashion with. Like I said, at the bottom of it all, I would really love to know what he’s like behind closed doors. Is he really like that or is he completely different?
Do you have any major goals for the site?
Not to get too full of ourselves or anything, but we think we’re still here, plugging away eleven years after launch, because our goals for the site have never once changed. We’re here to take any given reader out of her day for five minutes at a time by focusing on something or someone fabulous—and then putting our own spin on how to be more fabulous. Since day one of blogging, we have always had one image in mind: to be the funny, snarky gay friend you sit in the break room with and flip through celebrity magazines. Aside from that, our next major goal is to finish our second book, which is going to have every single bit of T Lo style advice we’ve ever imparted or learned.
Any new sections you might introduce?
Yes! Over the next year, we plan on seriously beefing up our interviews with celebrities, fashion designers, and costume designers. We’ve always loved conducting interviews and kind of got away from them because they can be time-consuming. But lately, we’ve been feeling the need to bring them back in a big way and have started reaching out with publicists to set some things up.
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Tom and Lorenzo Talk Favorite Designers and Styles to Watch This Season: Featured image courtesy of Tom and Lorenzo
