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The Good Buy is a podcast from Harper’s Bazaar in which editors Leah Chernikoff and Lynette Nylander invite celebrities, designers, models, and tastemakers to talk shop: what they buy, where they got it, and why it matters. Come down the fashion rabbit hole and take a peek inside the closets and shopping carts of the world’s most stylish people. Learn how they use style to tell their stories.
When it comes to shopping, our next guest is an expert.
On this week’s episode of The Good Buy, model, entrepreneur, and influencer Devon Lee Carlson joins us for a conversation about all things fashion and shopping. From spending every paycheck on Brandy Melville as a young adult to sitting front row at Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton, the founder of the Wildflower brand of phone cases has come a long way in terms of developing her sense of style.
Carlson is always on the hunt for something new, and she’s amassed an impressive collection. Her dreamy-sounding closet—complete with baby-blue carpeting inspired by Miu Miu stores—holds everything from a Bart Simpson Moschino sweater dress to a Prada bowling bag from the brand’s 2008 fairy collection.
We caught up with the internet’s favorite fashion girl to discuss everything from her early style inspirations to her high/low approach to shopping. Read on for highlights, and listen to the show in full here or watch it above.
On how she got her start in fashion:
“I’ve always loved taking pictures and making music videos with my friends and just being girls. I was always doing Myspace photo shoots, and then that turned into Facebook photo shoots, which turned into Instagram photo shoots. And then when Wildflower started in April of 2012, that’s kind of when Instagram had just started too, so my sister and I were taking a lot of pictures, just innocently, not thinking we’re doing marketing. Then Wildflower started gaining a following, and my sister and I started gaining followings. And it kind of happened. We weren’t trying to really do anything.”
On finding her personal style:
“I honestly think one of the best things you can do when you’re trying to find your own style [is] never say no. Because in high school, I was so afraid to stand out. But it wasn’t really until I was a senior in high school [that] I started being like, “Okay, I’m going to wear what I’ve always dreamed of wearing.” I started getting some more confidence and I just tried everything I liked.”
On her style inspirations:
“I always say Legally Blonde, 13 Going On 30, Cher from Clueless. Movies that I saw when I was a young girl and I was like, Oh, you can be yourself and still be a boss…I love ‘90s supermodels. I remember when I saw photos of Claudia Schiffer and Chanel the first time I was like, She’s like a Barbie doll. But then I also love Kate Moss, Jane Birkin—and Rihanna. When I was growing up in high school, she was my number one inspiration for so many things. I love powerful women who aren’t afraid to dress in a hot way and still be taken seriously.”
On building her dream closet:
“I bought my house in 2021, and the first thing I did was make a room a closet…I worked with these designers and I knew I wanted to have a baby blue carpet in the house. They sent me the first mock-up, and I was beyond obsessed. For Wildflower, we had a stone collection of different marble phone cases, and one of them was this blue marble that we didn’t end up using. I had always said that if I had a house, I’d want to get blue marble in the kitchen. And so the island in my closet has the blue marble on it that matches the blue carpet. The people who were building my closet were building RuPaul’s closet at the same time.”
Shop Devon’s Good Buys
HER FIRST BUY:
“My first time going to New York, Wildflower had just started, and I bought myself a pair of Prada sunglasses from the Times Square Sunglasses Hut. They were classic black Prada sunglasses, and then they had the Prada-like triangle logo on the side. I remember looking at myself in the mirror, seeing the Prada logo, and being like, Oh my God, that’s me under there.”
Symbole Sunglasses
$530.00 at prada.com
HER REGRET BUY:
“I bought this Bart Simpson Moschino sweater dress that does not fit me at all. My boyfriend and I had a Simpsons phase and we were talking about it a lot, so I bought the dress to be like, “Surprise.” It doesn’t fit me at all. I do emotional purchases all the time, but I tried to wear it out and it barely covers my butt. And then I tried to style it in other ways, but I’m like, ‘I don’t think this is meant to be for me.’”
HER DREAM BUY:
“I’m really hyper fixated on the Prada Fairy collection. It’s 2008 Spring. I wore it in an editorial shoot that I did with my friends Amelia, Shiva, and Yasmine. It was the best day ever, honestly. I wore a piece from that collection and I was like, I’m going to own everything from this collection that I can find.”
2008 James Jean Fairy Collection Pink Print Silk Dress
$1300.00 at 1stdibs.com
HER MOST RECENT GOOD BUY:
“I just bought red heart-shaped Moschino glasses on 1st Dibs, and I got a lovely tariff add-on for that.”
Heart Shaped Sunglasses
$106.99 at ebay.com
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