Youtube’s Head of Fashion & Beauty Partnerships
WHAT ARE 3 WORDS TO DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
“Figuring it out.”
WHAT’S YOUR MOTTO?
Nothing good is easy, and nothing easy is good.
WHAT’S ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND?
Lots of those cheap sleep masks they give out on airplanes and old issues of The New Yorker
WHAT GIVES YOU GOOSEBUMPS?
“The Shawshank Redemption” and those sappy Campbell’s Soup commercials.
WHAT IS YOUR BAD DAY BACKUP PLAN?
I eat naughty foods like French fries and York peppermint patties on bad days. Curiously, I also eat French fries and York peppermint patties on good days.
WHAT ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR?
The advances in communication that allow me to stay in touch with my family and friends even though I’m thousands of miles away from them most of the year. I know people complain that technology is rotting our brains and depriving today’s youth of an active lifestyle, and I’m sure it is. But being able to FaceTime my nephews who live in Texas makes me so happy.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS?
The reckless use of international data and roaming charges while traveling abroad.
BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?
Once, when I was still in college, I was devastated that I didn’t get some job I was absolutely certain was going to make or break my entire career in the fashion industry. (It didn’t.) My grandmother called and told me, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Everything that I’ve done in my career has taken longer, required more work, and utilized more energy than I ever thought it would and more than probably anyone who looks at my job realizes. It’s taken me a while to grasp that that was a good thing.
BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER GIVEN?
“The toes you step on today may be attached to the asses you need to kiss tomorrow.”
HOW DO YOU PRESS PAUSE?
I go to my childhood home in Missouri. It’s been on pause since the 1990’s.
WHAT DID YOUR 8-YEAR-OLD SELF LOVE DOING?
I loved making people laugh. And learning about dinosaurs.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE MAGIC POWER WHAT WOULD IT BE?
That’s easy. Teleportation. There is nothing more humiliating than going through T.S.A. security.
WHAT MAKES YOU FORGET TO EAT?
Pff, I wish.
WHAT 3 THINGS WOULD YOU GRAB IN A FIRE?
I have boxes of photos from the pre-digital age that mean a lot to me. And my Dad’s wedding suit and this oil painting of my mother that she had done by one of those street vendors on her honeymoon.
WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE – YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE?
Moving to New York City without a single person – not even a distant relative or friend of a friend of the family – to call on when I got there. This was before social media allowed you to make friends without ever really making friends. My address book was completely empty, which still amazes me.
FAVORITE WORD?
I say ‘fuck’ way too fucking often.
FAVORITE WORK OF ART?
When I was a kid, my mother signed me up for classes at the St Louis Art Museum, which is a fabulous museum and I take everyone who comes home with me to prove it. They have a large-scale version of Monet’s waterlilies and one of Edgar Degas’s ballerina statues. They were always my favorites, and I make pilgrimages to them every time I go home.
FAVORITE BOOK?
When I lived in Brooklyn, I used to read Tennessee Williams’ plays on the subway rides in and out of Manhattan. I had just graduated college and was striking out on my own, and I would read those plays and turn them into little movies in my mind while the hustle and bustle of New York would go on around me. It was a special time in my life, so now I look back on ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’ with such fondness.
Visit Derek’s YouTube Channel and follow him on:
