Meet Style Icon Olivia Palermo

Olivia Palermo talks to IMAGE editor Rosaleen McMeel about dressing for success, her mother’s influence, and staying perfectly polished ?

Olivia Palermo’s seamless leap from reality TV to style icon has been as flawless as her perfectly symmetrical features. With a covetable wardrobe and a flair for accessorising, she has fast become a front-row fixture at shows such as Valentino and Dior. Best of all, her looks are accessible, a savvy mix of designer investments and high street finds. As one of the most photographed women in New York, the pressure must be huge to always look perfectly groomed 24/7 ?

?Not at all. I wear what?I love and feel comfortable in. I get it from my mother – watching her get ready, and how she would get me ready. It is important to feel good, and being groomed plays a role in that.?

Palermo has masterly parlayed her expertise by becoming a style icon for the digital age, turning her passion into a hugely lucrative career as the founder and creative director at OliviaPalermo.com. The key to her success? Authenticity. In a digital world full of white noise, Palermo’s USP is her sincerity. She has chosen her partners deliberately, and you believe that she uses everything she endorses. Her most recent collaboration is with Ciat? the global nail brand.

?I’ve been a?fan of the brand for a while and have always had an interest and passion for beauty products, and I wanted to create?a collection that was authentic and true?to my own beauty style. Ciat? have been great collaborators, and I am so proud?of what we have achieved with this collection, across the packaging, colours and innovative formulations and textures.?

The nail collection is already available on brownthomas.com now, but the AW15 colour collection will be online and in stores from mid-September, coinciding with Olivia’s visit to the capital.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a weekly best-dressed list that doesn’t include Palermo, so it’s inevitable that our conversation turns to clothes. Firstly, the challenge of dressing for the office. ?Comfort is key. You have to be able to sit in it, walk in it, bend down in it, and your outfit should transition from day to night easily by adding maybe a different shoe, belting your dress, or adding accessories.? Her top five style rules? ?Have a great tailor; don’t wear anything too tight; have fun with colours and patterns; when in doubt, belt it; and a structured jacket is a must-have.?

Finally, her favourite Ciat? nail collection shade? Hutch, a rich red inspired by and named after her mother, Lynn Hutchings, who wore a similar shade whilst Olivia was growing up. ?It’s the most perfect red.?

 

Olivia Palermo will be at Brown Thomas Dublin to launch the Olivia Palermo X Ciat? London collection on Saturday, October 10th, from 12pm-3pm.

To read more from this exclusive interview, pick up the October issue of IMAGE Magazine, out now.

@rosiemcmeel