The social butterfly meets his match on Fashionably Late With Rachel Zoe.
By Brandon Voss
Derek Blasberg isn’t sure how he met Rachel Zoe. “The fashion industry is like a big family where you just sort of grow older knowing people the whole time,” he says. The event-hopping fashion insider does, however, recall that he first bonded with the celebrity stylist in 2007 at a fabulous party she’d organized with Missoni for Demi Moore. “I still remember everyone being super tan and wearing zigzag-fringed tunics.”
Of course he does. Author of the bestselling etiquette book Classy: Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady, Blasberg, who recently left Harper’s Bazaar to become Vanity Fair’s “Man on the Street,” will now join Zoe to gab about all things stylish on the half-hour talk show Fashionably Late With Rachel Zoe, which premieres September 24 on Lifetime.
As seen in recent promos for Fashionably Late, Blasberg and Zoe complement each other like, well, her chunky gold jewelry and bohemian maxi dresses. “When Rachel and I get together, we can talk incessantly about anything: hems, hair color, Warhols, the weather — you name it,” he says. “I think the biggest challenge on the show for both of us will be staying on topic and wrapping up our conversations in time for commercial breaks.”
Those Lifetime promos refer to Blasberg as Zoe’s “sidekick,” but he thinks “co-host” is a better fit. “Sidekick makes it sound like we’re fighting crime,” he says. The ads also suggest that Zoe will be depending on Blasberg to represent gay men’s trends and style preferences. What a responsibility! “I would venture to think that Rachel knows as much as I do about gay men’s trends and style preferences. Probably more.”
As she proved during five seasons of The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo, Zoe also knows a thing or two about how to make a catchphrase stick. Just don’t expect Blasberg to add any quotable quips like “I die” and “bananas” to the pop culture lexicon. “The reason that those catchphrases work is not only because they’re ridiculous, but also because they fall out of her mouth so effortlessly,” he says. “I just plan on being there to catch them.”
Next, September 2015.