Less Formal, Just As Fabulous

Bravotv.com: How are the Golden Globes different from other award shows? Can you get away with more?

I don't know if I'd say you can get away with more - but it's a little less intense than the Oscars. People really have fun at the Globes. It's just a bit less formal, but equally as fabulous.

You dressed five women for the Globes: Anne Hathaway, Demi Moore, Debra Messing, Cameron Diaz, and Eva Mendes. What was the look you were going for each of them? Let's start with Anne Hathaway, who was nominated.

For Annie we were going for real vintage Hollywood glamour. Really elegant timeless glamour. Annie had a great year of fashion and took a lot of risks, so we felt that for the Globes, it was just about looking beautiful and elegant, and really returning to the young Hollywood movie star, which she does so well.

Did you have any problems with Anne's dress?

For all of the women I worked with on the Globes, let's just say it was not easy getting to any of the dresses. It was a really intense process of digging extremely deep in a very short period of time, because we didn't have a lot to choose from. The overall tone, as we talked about on the show, is that because it's after the holidays there are extremely limited resources, everything's closed, and a lot of stuff has already been seen in magazines or worn by other people.

Can you tell us about Demi Moore's look at the Globes?

Demi just took my breath away. She's just this kind of ethereal breath of fresh air. She's real, soft, subtle, elegant. I thought it was such a nice change for Demi to go soft and natural instead of that sort of edgier black look that she traditionally wears. Her hair was really soft, her jewelry was so just simple - elegant, vintage Cartier diamonds. Her look was just really, really soft and beautiful. She almost wafted down the carpet. It was very airy.

Tell us about Debra Messing's look.

Debra looked great. I like traditional glamour, and she threw her hair up in a ponytail and had big lashes and wore huge Fred Leighton emerald earrings, which I think made her look more fun and gave it a splash of color. The details added a sort of playfulness to make her overall look a little less serious. Had it been the Oscars, her hair would have been in more of an up-do as opposed to a ponytail.

Cameron Diaz looked amazing.

I can't even actually talk about her dress. Every time I look at it, I kind of freeze up. Because that was just a dream come true. That dress was a Chanel Haute I had never seen before. It was how Karl Lagerfeld did youthful couture, and in hot pink. It was the perfect dress.

Have you ever told Karl Lagerfeld to alter a dress before or --

God no. Hell no. NO! I didn't tell him, I asked. I definitely wouldn't tell him to do anything. But that was a dream. The simple Chanel diamonds were perfect and the clutch was the perfect compliment to the dress. She was just amazing. Amazing. I loved her hair - it was down and soft and young and cool, and that juxtaposed the fact that she was in couture, which is what I love about Cameron. She can do that mix and match, you know, put her personality into anything she wears. She's one of the coolest girls I know. She really is.

Eva Mendes also looked stunning.

That was a moment in time for me. Eva and I sat down before the award season started, and she said, 'This show is important to me. I haven't been seen at the Globes in many years, I really want to do it right.' There was a lot of pressure on me to deliver what would make her happy, what would make her look great and feel great. My favorite part was not only did she go for it with the dress, but she did not fight me for one second on that turquoise necklace. That was the first thing I handed to her, and we didn't even try on anything else.

Did you ever consider Eva's dress for Cameron, who occasionally wears white Dior?

No we didn’t. It's just different styles. I couldn't see anyone's dress on any other woman; each personality really came through in each look that night. That's the great thing about fashion - the next appearance will be totally opposite of that.

When a dress doesn't work for one client, do you keep trying it on other clients?

Sure that happens all the time. Yeah for sure, absolutely. But the same dress almost never works for two people in the same way. That's the irony of clothes.

Do designers ever tell you no, we won't change the style of this dress?

You know, I've never had it happen. At the end of the day, it really depends on how important it is to a designer for that to happen. But I also don't ever ask to change anything unless I think it's really going to happen. The last thing I want to do is make a change to a one-of-a-kind dress just on a whim. I don't do it for the sake of doing it, I don't do it to say, 'Oh, let’s just see what it looks like.' You do it when you think it's imminent and real.

How closely do you work with you clients' makeup and hair stylists in order to achieve an overall look?

I work very closely with most of them, but not all of them. I have stronger relationships with certain hair and makeup artists. I have certain ones who are very dear friends, and I'll meet with them beforehand to show them the fitting Polaroids and we'll talk about it. Because it is an overall look, it's a collaborative process that we all work on together.

So Brad and Taylor are getting chummy this season, but they're defying you with the desk situation.

I think with loyalty you pick your battles. Do they act disrespectful and disobedient many times? Yeah, they do, for sure. I get very angry when they seem patronizing and they're not taking me seriously. It's partly my fault because we joke around so much that they don't know when to take me seriously, or they just choose not to. It's selective attention. But at the same time if they weren't doing their jobs, then I could get more angry. But when I'm in a moment like that, in the thick of what's really important, which is making my clients happy, I don't have time to fight with them. I think if it was a slower time and they were being brats then I would probably fight back a little harder, but there was too much going on to actually deal with that.

So what can the viewer expect this season?

Rome was not built in a day. Neither is the Rachel Zoe brand. So everything takes time. Patience is essential and if you don't have it, you can leave. Everyone's replaceable. HA! Oh wow. I mean ... listen. I don't know that I act upon it, but in a conscious part of my mind, I'm like, 'Oh, everyone's replaceable.' But I don't really mean that! Really. I have deep love for my team, and that's why I tolerate them. Believe me if that love didn't run as deep as it does, neither of them would be working with me!