- 28 minutes ago
From mini dinner parties to maxi events for thousands, co-founder and executive creative director Piera Gelardi knows how to make lifeâand a brandâmemorable. Drawing inspiration from everything and everywhere, Piera talks candidly about how her passion for art, style, and experiences has helped put Refinery29 on a global stage, and has made her a women's media force to be reckoned with.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:01Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barbrick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief
00:06of Refinery29. Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore
00:12the funny, inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through
00:19the things that we wear. Today's guest requires a bit of an R29 history lesson.
00:32Piera Gilardi, Refinery29's executive creative director and one of my co-founders, and I met
00:38while working at Citi Magazine back in 2001. For those of you that don't remember Citi, it was a
00:44super cool, pretty indie magazine and was really a place where both Piera and I had the freedom
00:49to find and explore our creative voices, and really our personal styles. In fact, it's where
00:55Piera eventually became photo director and earned the magazine and ASME for Best Photography.
01:01In 2004, Piera and I joined our other two co-founders, Philip and Justin, to create what would eventually
01:07grow into Refinery29 as you know it now. At her core, Piera is really an art director. She sees the
01:14world, not just our company, through a very unique and imaginative lens. Everything from a meal to an
01:20event for thousands to basic outfit planning is conceived as its own art form when you're Piera
01:26Gilardi. Moments that might be overlooked by others are made truly memorable by this lady, and that's why
01:32she's a super dear friend of mine, and she's also here today to tell us why and how she does
01:37it.
01:39Hi, Piera. Hi. That's so nice. So we've been in business together for 11 and a half, a lot, a
01:49lot of
01:50years, 11 and a half years. It'll be 12 years next June. I feel like it would be so interesting
01:56hearing our origin story from your perspective, because the origin story kind of happened before
02:01I entered the picture. We used to work together at City Magazine, which is no longer in existence,
02:08but it was an incredible design and fashion and architecture and kind of an experimental
02:14downtown magazine that you and I really cut our teeth at creatively and had a lot of freedom there,
02:21and I think that's where we both sort of found our creative voices. I mean, I think it was such
02:26an
02:27exciting and interesting time. I was still at City. You had moved on to other pastures,
02:33but I was still there and was very much feeling like my entrepreneurial calling.
02:39Urges?
02:40Yeah. I mean, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, and I think I always kind of had these
02:44side projects. When I was at City, I was trying to launch that zine, Team Rad, Let's Get Awesome,
02:49and that had just kind of fallen apart a little bit because I didn't have the right partners in place
02:54that had diversified skill sets to bring it to life, and also, you know, we wanted—it was not
03:00a zine, actually. It was like a really fucking expensive, like, art book that we wanted to make
03:05that—
03:06Nothing wrong with that.
03:06Nothing wrong with that, except if you've got no money and you don't know how to get money,
03:10that's kind of a problem.
03:11Yes.
03:12So that had kind of, like, fallen—
03:13Small obstacle.
03:14Small obstacle. The printer quote, that was our obstacle. So that had kind of dissolved,
03:22and it was very disappointing, and I, you know, and then I was still at City, and I had loved
03:27it,
03:27but I kind of felt like that cyclical magazine—
03:31It was kind of starting to peter out a little bit.
03:34Yeah. Yeah. It felt like there wasn't momentum, and personally, I felt like that cycle of, like,
03:39issue after issue was just getting really boring. So, yeah, I had started dating Philip,
03:45who's now my husband and is our co-founder, and he and Justin had the idea for the very nascent,
03:53like, stages of, you know, the idea that would become Refinery29. We were living together,
03:59and it was just kind of fun for me to brainstorm with them and, you know, offer my perspective
04:04from the publishing and fashion world. But it was like—to me, it was this side project. I didn't
04:11really necessarily see the potential or think it was going to be some, you know, big empire in the
04:17future. But, you know, it was fun for me to think about something else, to help develop something
04:22else so that they— You know how to get shit done, which I think is really a rare quality.
04:26Thank you. Yeah. I mean, I think in the early days of our business, I just—I saw where there were
04:31needs, and I jumped in and did them, you know, whether that was learning Google Analytics or learning to
04:37code or, you know, photographing things. I feel like that's now, like, slightly to my detriment.
04:43Like, I need to unwind that because I need to focus. But I do think it was, you know, some—that
04:48was
04:49sort of the role that I played early on. To get back to our story, we had worked at City
04:54Magazine,
04:54and I—as you know, I came in as an intern originally, and you were the executive editor.
05:01Taught me so much. You know, we had loved working together. I was always—you know,
05:05you were a mentor to me. So someone who really inspired me and who, you know, was much more
05:10accomplished in your career than I was. So early on, I suggested that Philip and Justin get in touch
05:15with you. And I—I really—I didn't—this is not what I expected would happen. I thought that they—that
05:22you would say, oh, you know, sounds like a cute idea. Here's an intern or like an assistant that I
05:27used to work with that you guys should talk to. And so I was totally floored when you had drinks
05:32with
05:32them. And you called me up and you said, I—you know, I'm really looking to get into digital.
05:37I think this is an amazing idea. And I want to do it, but I can't tell, you know, how
05:43in it you are.
05:44I only want to do it if we can work together and we can, like, make magic together again. And
05:49it was
05:49like—for me, that was like such a lightbulb moment because I hadn't seen the potential, I think,
05:55because I was in it and I was just doing what needed to be done to help them to establish
06:00it. I
06:01didn't—I didn't see the potential and I also didn't have the mindset to say, oh, I want to—I
06:07want to make this official. I'm putting my—I'm putting my time into this, like, what's this
06:11arrangement look like? So it was actually when you joined and you got pen to paper saying, like,
06:16what the arrangement was for you that I then, you know, you encouraged me to, like, do the same
06:21because I was just donating my time to it, you know, as like a friend, girlfriend,
06:27creative spirit, just excited about new stuff.
06:31One of the things I wanted to ask you is obviously self-expression. Just feeling at home in your
06:38personal style is something that you and I really inspired us in the beginning when we first started
06:43crafting what the voice and vision of Refinery29 would be. And it was really exciting for us at that
06:49time because street style was really starting to become a thing and that was really all grounded in
06:55just people wearing what they wanted to wear. What was one of the most sort of significant
06:58things that happened when you were growing up that really kind of just clarified for you,
07:04you know, who you were or like how you wanted to express yourself through the things you wore?
07:08Yeah. I mean, when I—when I started dressing myself, I was a very expressive dresser. I had a lot
07:13of fun with what I wore.
07:15I had a lot of flair, mixing and matching things. I got really—I was really into color and weird
07:20textures like vinyl, sparkly vinyl and sequins and, you know, fishnet and all this stuff. And I had
07:29a—I had so much fun with my dressing. And my junior year of high school, I went to RISD Art
07:36Camp. I
07:38met people from all over the place, you know, all these other teenagers that loved art and fashion and
07:43were creative and dressed crazy. And I was—
07:48Your people.
07:48Oh my God, my people. I was so—I mean, I'm still friends with a lot of people that I
07:52met there. I felt so good about who I was and—and I saw this future for myself. Strangely there,
07:59I also met this girl who I fell in love with. We ended up dating. She went to a high
08:05school near mine.
08:06She had never dated a girl before. And she was like, not really cool with it. And she didn't
08:11really—she didn't tell her parents. She didn't really tell her friends except for her two
08:16gay best friends. So it was kind of like a secret. And she—I think because she was so
08:23uncomfortable with the fact that she was dating a girl and she didn't want to tell anyone about it.
08:28And I think it was—
08:29She wasn't ready to confront who she was probably either.
08:32Yeah. She also started to like—because she wouldn't really introduce me to her friends as
08:37who I was. She started to like really criticize what I would wear. And she wanted me to wear her
08:43clothes and be more like her. She kind of—she dressed kind of raver, like a polo raver, like big
08:48jenkos and like, you know, big polo shirts and stuff. It was this really weird moment where I started
08:54wearing things that really didn't feel like me. And—and at times like she would convince me to wear her
08:59clothes. So, you know, and that just felt so bizarre. And I remember somewhere towards the
09:05end of our relationship, her convincing me to wear this outfit of hers. And I went out and I ran
09:11into
09:11people that I knew. I felt so icky and felt so bad about myself that I like was letting someone
09:19kind of
09:20dictate what I should wear and—and that they were making me feel so bad about myself that I was like
09:26not inhabiting my identity that I was— You weren't following your gut.
09:30Yeah. I wasn't following my gut. And it felt so awful. And I, you know, I realized like I never—I'm
09:35never going to do that again. I'm never going to let anyone make me feel bad about what I wear
09:39and
09:39how I express myself. And that's just not—that's not cool. You shouldn't do that. So now I'm wearing
09:44fringe and stripes and rivets.
09:47And if people don't like it, go fuck yourself.
09:50Exactly. You lead one of the biggest teams in the company. You know, our company is now like,
09:56I can't even believe it. It's eclipsed like 400 people. It's incredible all over the world. It is
10:00nuts. We did that. We did that. We built that city. We did build that city. It's a great city
10:05at that.
10:06But how do you inspire that feeling, you know, without it feeling like pushy or setting a certain
10:11expectation that people should express themselves, but how do you actually—how do you share that kind of
10:16opportunity with people on the team? How do they feel inspired by that and how do they express it?
10:21I think part of it is setting an example and pushing myself to express myself and continue to
10:27grow and evolve my style and really look for a lot of interesting outside references. I try and
10:33encourage my team to do the same by doing things like we do a monthly meeting where everyone brings
10:39inspiration and visual inspiration that they're excited about. It's always amazing because we often
10:44see so much similarity in terms of the things that we're excited about. I think that's so important
10:49to give the space to explore and to look for new ideas and references. It's really, to me,
10:56my role is pushing people forward and giving them the space to be creative. So I think just having that
11:02dialogue and trying to bring inspiration into the environment, I think it's so much more interesting in
11:09how you actually create something new is to truly remix it and truly mash up references from different
11:14places. And I get a lot of inspiration from art and podcasts and all these different places that can
11:19trigger different types of ideas.
11:21You know, you help the team to get kind of re-inspired as well. But what are some tips that
11:27normal people or people that aren't creative directors can kind of like—or can rub off on them?
11:34I think, you know, I mean, I think museums and French films are great if you love those things. But
11:39some people feel totally alienated by those things and they don't, you know, they make you—they make
11:44some people feel like an outsider or like those are untouchable and too highbrow. I think—I think
11:51inspiration comes in all shapes and forms. So be—I think being receptive to what actually gets your brain
11:58going. Inspiration finding shouldn't be a slog. It should be fun and that's what—
12:03So following like what actually feels good.
12:05Yeah.
12:06And just like that you look forward to. It doesn't feel like work.
12:08Your inspiration should feel good. It should be something that you really enjoy. I think another
12:12way to get creatively unstuck is also recognizing the people that make you feel creative. Everyone is
12:19creative.
12:19And not creative.
12:20Yeah.
12:21That make you feel stuck.
12:22Yeah. Figuring out, you know, like sometimes for me, there's like two junior people on my team
12:27who I just have a great dynamic with. I feel really comfortable with them. They make me laugh.
12:33So sometimes if I feel stuck, I just ask if we can talk for 10 minutes and we just kind
12:38of have a
12:39back and forth and then that unsticks me. I think laughing, that's another thing that we learned in our
12:44city days is, you know, I try when I'm leading a brainstorm, I try to be really like say something
12:51really stupid to start or something absurd, more stupid, but absurd. Because I think that once you
12:58laugh, it kind of opens up your brain. You're not like, I mean, when you think about a block,
13:02it's like a hard ball that's like blocking the flow of things.
13:07It's a barricade.
13:08Yeah. Laughter can like shatter that and open up the synapses to come up with interesting ideas. So
13:14it's finding things that bring joy and laughter and enjoyment because so often when we're blocked,
13:22it's like we're forcing ourselves to, to think about something where like, that's not when you
13:27get into a flow. That's not when you kind of find the answer. In my opinion, I love like depth
13:33and meaning. I love things that are, you know, I'm very visual and I love beauty, but I'm
13:38what I'm really obsessed with is like depth and meaning and doing things that are, that might
13:45delight the eye and the senses on one level, but then you realize there's this other deeper level
13:52to it. So it's been an interesting process as we've grown the company from literally, you know, coding,
13:58coding stories and making collage images and photographing things like ourselves to having this team,
14:06you know, this amazing team creating content. But it's such a different creative process from
14:12doing something yourself to learning how to educate people about the way that you think so that they
14:18can think similarly, but do things in their own style. And there's so much beauty in people bringing
14:24their own style and their own creativity to the table. So it's, it has been an interesting shift in
14:30how I exert my vision to learn how to do it on that much bigger scale and how to bring
14:38that
14:39inspiration and that education into the environment. I mean, I love it when someone sends me something
14:43and they're like, Oh my God, this is so amazing. And I'm like, I had nothing to do with it.
14:47I didn't
14:47even know that thing was happening. And they're like, how is that possible? It's so you, it looks like
14:52your, it's so like your vision. And I'm like, well, that's, that's a big compliment because
14:58that means that I've like taken my vision and like taken it up here, but that people are doing things
15:04that like make me so proud. And that actually, when I look at like that video, I'm like, Oh,
15:09I don't even know how I would have actually done that, but they did it and they brought so much
15:13creativity to it. So it's a, yeah, it's like, it's like being the conductor of the orchestra versus
15:21the violin player, the theremin player. You are married to our, one of our other co-founders,
15:36Philip Vamborius. You want to know about her sex life? No, I wasn't going to actually ask about your
15:41sex life. But you know, I'm sure he'd love that. Oh, he would love it. He would. But you know,
15:45what's been exciting is to really see Philip's style evolve. There's kind of this image of,
15:52you know, startup people and like the kind of things that they wear. And it's really been
15:56exciting to see Justin and Philip each kind of finding their groove. Just yesterday, I saw Philip
16:00wearing a pair of polka dot sneakers with a little, with a little kind of like red kickback thing in
16:06the back. It was really adorable. And it reminded me of you. What's it like to, to be married and
16:10to
16:11live with somebody that you work with every day? I mean, I love it. I grew up in a family
16:15business.
16:15So for me, like work and life have always been mashed up. I am really passionate about what I do.
16:22And Philip's really passionate about what he does. And we're building the company together. So we find
16:27it, I find it exciting. I feel like it connects us and bonds us. And I, it's been amazing for
16:32me to see
16:33him grow so much in his leadership and to see, you know, what he's contributed. And I, and it's also
16:39amazing for me to see him see me and like, admire me for my leadership and my creativity. And I
16:47don't
16:47know, there's something really beautiful about that. I feel like I know him so fully because I
16:53see him in these different aspects of life. And I also love that I see, you know, Philip, you know,
16:59dances at home and is like a goofball that, you know, maybe people at the office don't always see
17:04also how he sees my style. Like he's not like a traditional dude that just like likes it when
17:10I wear like really short skirts. Yesterday when I was wearing this, like high, these like high
17:14waist denim, like riveted jeans with this denim jacket, he was like, he just like stopped what
17:20he was doing. And he was like, you look amazing. He's like, that is the look. I even think when
17:26we
17:26started the company, I, I felt as, as I grew as a manager and a leader that I didn't really
17:34have any,
17:36really many role models out in the world for the type of leader that I would like to be.
17:42Most of my role models were right in front of me were, you know, the different, you know,
17:46all the amazing women that we work with yourself included, you know, I, I knew that the vision that
17:52I had for myself was a leader that, you know, had, was, um, imaginative and, and curious and,
17:58and kind and, and all these things, but I didn't really see a lot of examples of that. I kind
18:03of saw
18:04a leadership style that played off of more traditionally male attributes. And so I think
18:10that's been interesting over time to figure out how to build my own unique leadership style and
18:16starting to see many more women that are setting an example for unique leadership styles that feel
18:23more, more feminine. So I think that's, that's been, that's really exciting. And I feel like the
18:28world has only, you know, seen yay big of what, what can happen when women are, you know, reach their
18:36potential and are, are taking those opportunities and starting to, to grow in a big way.
18:42I love that. Thank you.
18:44Thanks, P.
18:45Creativity.
18:47Yeah. Expression.
18:48Yeah.
18:49That's my jam.
18:50I love it.
18:51Well, and I love you too, P.
18:53I love you.
18:54Okay. Thank you so much for being a guest on Unstyled. I hope you'll come back again soon.
18:57I would love to. That would be my absolute pleasure and delight.
19:01I hope you're inspired after hearing Piera Gilardi's story. For even more Unstyled extras,
19:06check out Refinery29 or my Instagram at Christine Barbrick. You can also join the conversation using the
19:12hashtag Unstyled across your social media. And of course, we'd be super grateful
19:16if you'd please subscribe to Unstyled on iTunes and rate us while you're there. You can head to
19:21Refinery29.com to find this episode and more and make sure to sign up for our exclusive Unstyled
19:27newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every week. Our show today was produced and edited by Elisa
19:32Kreisinger with production assistance from Rebecca Easley for Refinery29. Copy and research support
19:38provided by Lila Brilsen. Our theme music today is by the artist Koff. Hannes Brown produced our
19:44episode music and we recorded Unstyled with Paul Ruist. We'll see you back here next Monday for our
19:50last episode, a conversation with Dr. Samantha Boardman on the psychology of style. We'll even
19:55have a bonus episode with R29's very own Connie Wang.