Biz Sherbert on American Apparel, the Tabi’s ‘perverse f*ckability’, and the internet’s impact on fashion
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
A good fashion podcast that’s as entertaining as it is informative can be hard to come by. Enter Nymphet Alumni.
Hosted by friends Biz, Alexi and Sam, their topics cover everything from reminiscing of growing up on the internet (American Apparel & The Tennis Skirt Industrial Complex) to contemporary pop culture (The Milf-ification of BILLIE EILISH: Emergency Roundtable). We caught up with co-host BIZ SHERBERT, who you may know from Instagram as the fashion encyclopaedic @markfisherquotes, to talk about the triple Ts - tennis skirts, Tumblr and Tabis!
Phoebe Shardlow: Hey Biz, how are you?
Biz Sherbert: I’m great, sitting in an airport bar.
PS: The first episode of your podcast, Nymphet Alumni, was all about the rise and fall of American Apparel, which deeply resonated with A LOT of former Tumblr girls (myself included) - could you tell us what American Apparel means to you?
BS: It’s really cool to hear it resonated with you! Growing up in the southern United States in the 2000’s and 2010’s, I really only knew American Apparel through images on Tumblr. Even then, I was more interested in the lives of It girls who wore American Apparel, like JOANNA KUCHTA and SKY FERREIRA, than the clothes themselves. So while I do feel a lot of nostalgia for that time, more than anything I’m attracted to American Apparel because it’s kind of like a well-preserved specimen that can be studied and dissected in order to understand what was driving that period of culture, and how things have changed since. Looking back now, it feels like one of the last enfant terrible fashion empires before all of fashion got DIET PRADA-fied.
PS: What was your favourite piece from AA?
BS: This stretchy black off the shoulder top with a built-in choker. It was the only thing I ever owned from American Apparel and I purchased it the year they started closing all the stores. Both a baptism gift and a parting gift.
PS: Why do you think, back in the early-mid 2010’s, we were all so caught under American Apparel’s spell?
BS: Quoting my sister here (who is sitting with me in the airport bar): “It was slutty but basic. It was the GAP but for sluts.” There was also so much intense lore surrounding American Apparel. Any brand with heavy lore is fun to get in on, especially when you’re young and experimenting with identity through clothing.
PS: You’ve got an incredible knowledge of contemporary fashion history - where do you think that comes from? How do you go about researching?
BS: Thank you so much! There’s so much I don’t know. I’m just always looking shit up and writing things down. When I was working as a hostess at a restaurant a couple years ago I would spend a lot of my shift looking up fashion history and theory and making notes between answering the phone and making reservations.
PS: Do you have a favourite fashion editorial?
BS: I’m not really a true editorialhead, but I love STEVEN MEISEL. Right now I feel really inspired by the VERSACE F/W 1998 campaign he shot and MeiselPic, the cover story of Vogue Italia’s December 2009 issue.
PS: How would you describe your podcast and why did you start it up?
BS: We use fashion and aesthetic movements as a framework to understand larger cultural moments and try to have some fun along the way… Alexi, Sam, and I started it because a lot of fashion media is musty and has no real understanding of the internet’s impact on fashion, which is a big area of interest for us, so Nymphet Alumni is our attempt to change that.
PS: Who would be your dream guest to go on the pod?
BS: I’m so bad at setting up ideals, but definitely someone dead, fictional, or tragic. Maybe ALEXANDER MCQUEEN or the dead Kennedys, like the ghosts of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, not the band. But maybe the band too. Or LANA DEL REY in 2011.
PS: Ok, let’s say only one fashion photographer can photograph you for the rest of your life - who would it be?
BS: Meisel. If he is not available then I would accept KENDALL JENNER with an Instax Mini.
PS: Jennifer’s Body or The Virgin Suicides?
BS: The Virgin Suicides! I actually didn’t see Jennifer’s Body until I was at university because I was kind of prohibited from watching horror movies growing up. But I mainlined The Virgin Suicides hard.
PS: What’s an era of fashion you feel most nostalgic for?
BS: Right now I feel most nostalgic for the ‘80s because that’s when my mum was my age.
PS: What’s ‘out’ for summer 2021?
BS: Trendy bikinis, fertility-signaling, good lighting, Substack drama, flying out to meet your internet friends.
PS: What’s ‘in’ for summer 2021?
BS: Airport bars, cheeseburgers, tap water, tennis bracelets, chimney sweeps and disappearing into the mist.
PS: You describe the MARGIELA Tabi shoe as having a ‘perverse fuckability’ - would you wear a pair yourself and if so, which ones?
BS: I would — the best way to know something is to wear it. Walk a mile in these Louboutins, as they say. I’d borrow a pair from the estate of my dear friend Ch’lita… may she rest in peace.