(at right: Lauren Cerand by Mark Milroy)
The first time I met Lauren Cerand was Valentine’s Eve, on a restaurant patio where she introduced me to the author of one of my favorite books in the whole wide world. Our second meeting was just last Friday, when Lauren bought me a really big coffee and asked me to fetch her “the greenest banana you can find” from the banana bowl at some wacky Venice cafe. We talked about famous astrologists and street psychics and New York and California and dudes and foods and books – lots and lots about books. Lauren knows so much about books, and the world in which books live and breathe, and that is so cool to me. Also she was wearing this really fabulous top that’s like if my dream tap shorts and dream combat boots had a sister.
In general, Lauren Cerand is so fabulous. But “fabulous” is the wrong word, as “fabulous” isn’t really fabulous anymore. Lauren Cerand is splendiferous, magnificent, divine. Lauren Cerand is transplendent. Read her beautiful blog Lux Lotus, read her Twitter, read this interview. Read it all right now, and forever.
TELL US ALL ABOUT HOW YOU EARN YOUR DOUGH.
I am an independent public relations representative. I saw someone use that as a title in an early online fashion newsletter, and adopted it as my own. Later I added consultant as I started to provide clients with creative advice beyond straightforward media relations. I cut my teeth in the labor movement generating press coverage for anti-sweatshop demonstrations, and have been grateful ever since to have learned my trade by creating a spectacle and then strategically documenting it to advance a campaign. Later I had a boring office job and began to understand why publicists are so seldom respected. I’ve always thought it was the perfect job at the perfect moment, the dawn of the Information Age. I might have happily chosen otherwise in a different era, but as the great experimental filmmaker Chris Marker has said, “In another time I guess I would have been content with filming girls and cats. But you don’t choose your time.” I love that I design my own life, on every level. I am extremely fortunate to choose every project I work on with precision and devotion to my craft. I’m not wasting a second of this life, or the next one. When things were more paper-based, I had a very direct job description. In 2010, my job is more about sourcing opportunities for my clients everywhere I go. What I love most is seeing something that no one else can see, and transforming that potential into outcomes that pay real dividends. Everyone always wants to be a little more famous.
WHAT’S YOUR MOST BELOVED BOOK?
Books are magical in that they let us privately practice for life. On a physical level, I am enamored of my copy of Valmouth that came from Barney Rosset’s personal library. I had Devil in the Flesh, too, but couldn’t resist giving it to a younger man. Spiritually, I love Zuleika Dobson, Max Beerbohm’s slim, fizzy satire about an orphaned conjurer who goes to live with an elderly uncle at Oxford, and sets the campus on its ear. It’s tempting to feel sorry for the boys, driven to self-destructive ends, but she’s no better off, doomed to only love a man who does not love her in return. She’s last seen setting out for the train to Cambridge. In Sophistication, Faye Hamill’s marvelous cultural study, there’s an analysis of the book and how unsophisticated our heroine is, actually. It gets a bit bitchy, as it should. This summer I took a swan dive into the work of James Salter and have rhapsodized so endlessly ever since that it’s not unheard of to go to lunch with someone these days who says, “So… I hear you’re a fan of Jim’s…” How could you not fall for a writer who includes, in both his memoir and mountain-climbing novel, the same scenario: a woman turns to a man at the end of an evening and murmurs, “Are you going to make me sleep alone tonight?”
NAME A FEW BOOKS EVERY NOGOODFORME READER SHOULD GET HER HANDS ON POST-HASTE.
Right now I’m getting the word out about landscape and urban designer Diana Balmori’s A Landscape Manifesto – Utne Reader recently named her one of “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World,” and that’s spot-on; Dirty Baby, a provocative “trialogue” between the art of Ed Ruscha, the music of Nels Cline (of Wilco fame) and poet David Breskin; and Pirate Talk or Mermalade, Terese Svoboda’s wild and epic tale of bros, oceans, mermaids and more. Stow away with that one if you’re aching for adventure.
Other authors I’ve worked who are v.v. NGFM, with pop-up pop culture asides: New Yorker editor Ben Greenman, whose story collection What He’s Poised to Do is based on letters of lost and found loves; David Sedaris-faves Jean Thompson and Jeffrey Frank; contemporary California novelists Mark Sarvas, Maria Semple and Gayle Brandeis; Two Dollar Radio authors Lawrence Shainberg, uncle to Steven of Secretary fame, and Rudolph Wurlitzer, long-time BFF to Alex Cox. I’d also recommend the risky rewards of Laird Hunt and Jonathan Baumbach (father of Noah, while we’re at it) and the plucky heroines of Tayari Jones, Min Jin Lee and Marcy Dermansky, whose latest, Bad Marie, is about a nanny who steals the baby. If you’re a vampire fan, Meg Cabot’s Insatiable continues the tradition in a way that will outlast the trend.
Blake Nelson, while not a client of mine, has driven me so many places I wanted to go in so many cities –– starting with Paranoid Park at 3am on the night we met –– that I am honor-bound to tell you that his next book, Recovery Road, is the best thing he’s ever written. It comes out in the spring when he goes on tour with Michelle Tea. He suggests this song here, and I like it.
WHO ARE YOUR STYLE IDOLS?
While my focus on digital culture sends me as far into the future as I can go in the present day, all of my style cues come whispering through the fog in the wake of a vanished world. The women of the Surrealist movement – Dorothea Tanning and Meret Oppenheim, in particular – are extraordinary. Look at the former’s Birthday (a topless self-portrait with a lemur, if I recall correctly) [at left], and the latter’s Object, a fur-covered tea cup, c. 1936, and that’s all the style you need.
WHOSE CLOSET WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO RAID?
Nora Joyce, bar none. In those dirty letters, James makes her underwear sound fantastic.
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE FASHION DESIGNERS?
For daydreaming, I love the Belgians. Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Veronique Branquinho, Stephan Schneider, Cathy Pill. When someone dear once gave me a ticket to travel anywhere in the world, I went to Antwerp, a city famed for its diamonds, fashion, beer, fries and chocolate. I also like American family brands, and am particularly loyal to Sol Moscot (opticians) and Pendleton (clothes and blankets).
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CLOTHING ITEM RIGHT NOW?
I’ve been wearing these little Swedish denim shorts I bought in Stockholm this summer at a surf shop slash coffee bar called 6/5/4 (that’s sex-fem-fyra). When I was in Rome for the film festival last fall I bought a pair of full-length saffron gloves at Sermoneta. The current season in New York, weather-wise, is somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum. Recently I cut my hair very short after years of growing it down nearly to my elbows and it has definitely altered my style. Before it was very sumptuous, mostly capes and riding boots, and now it’s quite different, sleeker to go with the coif. I like to feel unhindered, as though I might take off at a moment’s notice to chase an enchanted stag through the forest. And now I wear lipstick every day: Estee Lauder’s “Berlin Red,” inspired by Otto Dix’s portrait of Weimar Era celebrity and dancer Anita Berber [below], or NARS “Fire Down Below” or Chanel’s “Lover.” I like mine very classic, and very red. Romantic advice I just IM’ed to a pal looking to turn the corner with a friend: “Get him in a dark place, and wear lipstick.”
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE MUSICMAKERS?
Japanther is pretty much the Platonic ideal: killer songs, full-stop, that are only enhanced by collaborative projects with artists they admire like Ray Pettibon, Dan Graham and Penny Rimbaud and admirable commitment to their personal ideals. This spring they played a benefit, along with Care Bears on Fire, for Girls Write Now, a nonprofit I’m involved with in New York, that raised thousands of dollars in one night. Publicizing their latest album, Rock ‘n’ Roll Ice Cream, was the culmination of a dream. I’m also very blessed in that one of my main projects is helping to curate “Upstairs at the Square” for Barnes & Noble (bn.com/upstairs + iTunes), and so have had the chance to work with Patti Smith, Nick Cave, introduce Au Revoir Simone to David Lynch, et al.
WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO WHEN PRIMPING?
Always: Blossom Dearie, especially “Blossom’s Blues.” Sometimes: Nellie McKay’s “Politan.” Lately: Kellylee Evans’ album NINA.
NAME ONE RECORD YOU LOVED AS A LITTLE KID THAT YOU STILL LISTEN TO TODAY.
My parents were older than usual when they settled down, and the hippie thing just passed my house completely. The current comparison for the look and feel of my childhood would be Mad Men. The Platters are a particular favorite of my father’s, and hearing “Twilight Time” takes me right back to driving in his Mercedes, vintage even then, especially back and forth from Upstate New York, where he grew up, to Maryland, where we lived. My mother was a flight attendant and partial to Dylan, but that was as edgy as things got. My personal favorite song is “Silhouettes” – this version by the Ronettes is pretty good, but I always heard the earlier one done by the Rays.
FAVORITE MAKEOUT MUSIC?
On our second or third date, my college boyfriend (an older, Sicilian surfer up from Brooklyn who had landed in the same dead-end town as me for a spell) and I danced in my living room, achingly slow, to Social Distortion’s cover of “Under My Thumb.” He was always talking about how he was against monogamy and then he ended up loving me with such ferocity I thought I would die. I do remember that my nineteen-year-old, raven-haired, chain-smoking self used to wish, when we made out, that our cells would actually merge.
That song was his pick. Mine came a little later. We were driving at night in my old, beat-up Range Rover, and I wanted him to come over, a desire he was sternly refusing to quench. Just as we neared the last turn before leaving campus and heading toward my house, I pushed the cassette into the tape deck and Edywn Collins’ “A Girl Like You” came on. I waited silently for my prey. I didn’t wait long.
WHO’S YOUR ALL-TIME NUMBER-ONE MUSIC CRUSH?
I’ve had a pretty intense love affair with Chet Baker for years. In his sublime collection Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy, which I only read this summer, Dave Hickey makes a convincing case for Chet Baker Sings as the best makeout album of all time.
Once, a man, perhaps in an attempt to remove the competition (he wrote, after we met, “Don’t listen to too much Chet Baker. Getting found is much better than getting lost, trust me”) recorded me my very own version of a song I’d said I wish existed. I still listen to it all the time. But it didn’t cure me.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE SHOPS?
The leopard print coat I bought at the extraordinary vintage emporium William Armstrong & Son in Edinburgh (and later had cropped) was easily worth the plane fare. Another great thing about Edinburgh is that all of the charity shops are laid out in a row on one street.
For the pulse on new designers, Loveless and Dover Street Market in Tokyo are as next-wave as it gets. In New York, Project No. 8 represents the avant-garde nicely. I also shop at Saks Fifth Avenue because it still exudes classic glamour after all these years.
In Paris, Diptyque and Deyrolles, for candles and taxidermy, respectively.
In Los Angeles last week, I bought two pairs of tuxedo pants for the very nice price of $15 each at Aardvark’s in Venice. The best thrifting, anywhere, however, is hands down in Palm Springs. All of our best showgirls go there to die. The Ace Hotel & Swim Club is relatively cheap and a weekend there is highly recommended.
Lately stylist and vintage collector Sally Cohen has been finding all of my best things for me, a trend I’m happy to continue.
IF YOU COULD SUBSIST ON ONE FOOD FOR ALL ETERNITY, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Never-shrinking slices of the spectacular coconut cake at Chez Fonfon in Birmingham, Alabama.
AND, FINALLY, PLEASE SHARE ONE VERY TREASURED SECRET TO LIVING LUX LOTUS-LY.
That’s easy – there is only one: “DRESS LIKE A CAT UNTIL YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT.”
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Tags: Anita Berber, Ann Demeulemeester, Blake Nelson, books, Chet Baker, coconut cake, Dorothea Tanning, Japanther, Lauren Cerand, Meret Oppenheim, mermaids, Nora Joyce, Sicilian surfers, taxidermy
Excellent! I love interviews and this one is excellent.
i heart lauren SO MUCH. xo k.
Thanks for mentioning “Air Guitar.” I just finished reading it myself on your say-so. Fantastic!
GOD LAUREN CERAND IS SO FUCKING COOL
May I just say what fun you are to dress, my dove? I adore finding shmatta for you! It is my calling, as well as my pleasure.
She caught you, by the way, with transplendent. Ha!
Thank you for the kudos! Off to the shops..
Lauren’s way of wording things transports me to another time or dimension or something! I am always swept away by her articulation of something misconceived as minor – she makes it feel so wonderful and grandiose.
[...] by Wings. Watching: Mad Men oh god why’s it ending so soon what are we gonna do???? Reading: our Lauren Cerand interview and this depresso thing about Evan Dando Wearing: Lakers t-shirt with sleeves rolled up, my jeans [...]
fuck drama unless ur talkin bout band of brothers.
[...] Being a literary publicist is no task for slouches. When you’re paid to buzz a book, the inherent dilemma seems simple enough: why should people believe you about how great something is, when they know you’ve been hired to say so? The task, then, seems to be a combination of developing a reputation for impeccable integrity when it comes to working only with products you truly adore, combined with cultivating a public persona so that your tastes are themselves trendsetting. In an industry where most publicists at the corporate publishing houses are bubbly, young and enthusiastic, but too often faceless and with little control over which projects they take on, freelance public relations representative Lauren Cerand is a singular powerhouse of vision and personality. If there’s a hotter freelance publicist in the country . . . well, there isn’t a hotter freelance publicist in the country. Specializing in “strategic consultation,” Lauren’s clients range from Barnes & Noble to the Authors Guild to writers as diverse as Meg Cabot and Tayari Jones. Time Out New York called her one of the “cultural gatekeepers in the literary world,” and indeed, she is so much in demand that she only takes on approximately one in sixty writers who query her. She regularly speaks to audiences, from the big boys and girls at Book Expo America in New York, to small-and-intimate local forums like the Pilcrow Literary Festival in Chicago where I first met her—and regardless of the venue she knows how to rock a house. She also knows how to dress like a cat, what music you should be listening to, and is generally too fabulous to even be called fabulous. [...]