034: Lu Zhang-Beaulieu, the fashion blogger's fashion blogger
On Lulu and Your Mom and forging forward
I first started following the fashion blog Lulu and Your Mom when I was eighteen (for those counting, that was sixteen years ago). For those of us raised on a diet of online fashion communities such as Chictopia and Lookbook.nu, spaces that democratized and made accessible elements of fashion media as we know it today, Lulu and Your Mom was holy scripture. Helmed by Lu Zhang-Beaulieu, who incidentally helped launch Chictopia in 2008, Lulu and Your Mom was unlike anything else I’d known.
Lu’s blog was a formative education in fashion, art, music, interiors, and architecture for me. Her interests and inspirations served as my introduction to designers such as Jil Sander, Christophe Lemaire, Ann Demeulemeester, and Rei Kawakubo; few bloggers spoke of these designers at the time, and none with quite as much conviction as Lu. Through Lulu and Your Mom, I learned of Crystal Castles, Kartell lamps, and MA-1 bomber jackets, and began to form a preliminary understanding of the importance of representation in the very white space that is fashion, through imagery and words Lu shared of models such as Fei Fei Sun and the late Daul Kim, and her reverence for Asian designers and photographers.
Despite Lulu and Your Mom’s popularity, Lu was prone to stepping away from the blog whenever it all got a bit much, when the boundaries between the private and the public would verge on dissolving. Then, as many fashion bloggers began to ride the influencer wave, Lu went in the opposite direction, quietly working on her own clothing brand, The Fashion Club, which was reminiscent of early Helmut Lang and Miu Miu today, and was far beyond ahead of its time.
The last entry on Lu’s blog is from a little over ten years ago. As social media kept growing new and more heads, I lost sight of Lu, who was already rather private to begin with. Then, about two years ago, I happened to come across her profile on Instagram, delighted to discover that her curiosity and love for design remains steadfast, from sourcing a black velvet Haider Ackermann dress for her wedding, to demonstrating the adaptability of her beloved clothes, wearing Ann Demeulemeester while 34 weeks pregnant or SC103 at 3 months post-partum.
After playing it cool in her DMs for a while, I recently decided to shoot my shot, and so here we are, catching up with Lu. My eighteen year old self is screamingcryingthrowingup, to say the least.
Tell me a little about yourself.
I just turned 40. I think for this stage of life, exposure therapy is best. So here I am saying my age aloud. I live in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. In a beautiful Spanish home under the Hollywood sign. With my husband and two little boys.
I feel like I’m at the precipice of the most meaningful work I will produce. This year was challenging. Through most of it I was pregnant and displaced. Trying to get to that next stage of life. In those moments I really felt inspired to connect with myself. I voice dictated stories, I logged ambient and transient sounds, I learned to do makeup (finally).
For the past year I’ve been developing a short film that connects philosophy, technology, and the self. Sometimes I think about starting a Substack, the same way I think about re-starting my TikTok but.
Reading your blog was a revelation, a portal into a world I had previously not known. I read books, watched films, and listened to music, doing all the things we do to unlock and build our creativity, but your blog served as a guide into the world of fashion that newcomers today aren't all that much aware of, introducing me to designers, editorials and ideas that continue to hold a special place in my heart. What or who was that moment of revelation for you?
San Francisco in the 2010’s will always be meaningful to me. It was so fun. We would drink on rooftops, cut the line at Salem shows, and picnic every day. Everything was so moody back then. Portishead was permanently playing through my head. I remember digging through an old Cosmic Wonder catalog while eating tangerine slices.
In 2010, my friend Franklin threw a Walter van Beirendonck1 fashion show at the Berkeley Art Museum. That was my first experience with a designer I had only previously known through the internet.
What prompted you to start blogging?
I’ve had a blog since the Livejournal days. I still wish I hadn’t deleted my Tumblr. Being chronically online has always been a part of my personality. It’s just that the format changes from time to time.
In 2008, I joined a small team in San Francisco that was looking to launch a website called Chictopia. Because I was the youngest person on the team, I inadvertently became the face of it. Back then, the community was small. I remember being on WhatsApp with the founders of Lookbook.nu (another fashion community) trying to meet up in Shanghai.
Blogging was a natural extension of socialization for me. Back then, it was a lot less about creating a vehicle for fame. It wasn’t that I wasn’t aware of what was happening in blogging (ie: the transition to influencers). It was that I was fundamentally opposed to it. Because I knew that community would be eroded. And you wouldn’t be able to go back.
Your writing style and tastes were distinctly different from other blogs. Maybe I'm projecting, but did you ever feel like an outsider, particularly when the vision of the fashion blogger started to become more exact?
I think being distinctly different was a problem, yes. The most successful bloggers were certainly ones with a more open identity. I did feel pressure to like things I did not like. And conform my thoughts to ones that were socially acceptable online. This was the era of girlboss, after all. The era of toxic positivity. The era of the rise of fast fashion. There were so many conversations I would have loved to have, but did not feel safe to speak about.
I did briefly make videos on YouTube where I would just eat food on camera in silence. I got a lot of death threats. But now there’s #mukbang.
To be out of sync with the tide is to be swallowed whole. You can be out of sync by being too behind, but also too forward.
During your time as a blogger you often went through deeply private moments, keeping your personal life very much personal when overexposure was all the rage. Could you share some light on this?
I’m a pretty private person, tbh. I know I sacrifice aspects of our para social relationship with this. Which is why I decided to re-frame that relationship after sharing my wedding. I felt like that was a deeply personal dive into our mind. And I’m glad I did it.
I still use being online as an exercise to expand myself as a person. I share aspects of myself that I personally want to explore further. It just gets harder as the platforms to do it become exponentially worse.
I first learned about Comme des Garçons through your blog; it was a blue polka dot dress from the tricot line, which turned me onto the wonderful world of Rei Kawakubo. From the time I started following your blog you were wearing the likes of Comme, Yohji Yamamoto, and Ann Demeulemeester, very unlike what other bloggers were drawn to at the time. What is it about designers of this realm that you were and still are attracted to?
I loved that dress. I had to retire it eventually because it developed holes. There is a Prada 14’ silk dress with a similar silhouette that I’m dying to find. I feel like certain designers attract certain personalities. And I just identify more with the subset of people who enjoyed these brands. I felt welcomed.
American shoppers more entrenched in the fashion scene are only now slowly learning about brands and designers such as Lemaire, but you were blogging about the like from so long ago, which is interesting because information today is accessed and disseminated at lightning speed compared to ten to fifteen years ago. How were you discovering back then, and has that process of discovery evolved over time?
Before there were blogs there were forums. They feel like newspapers now. Superfuture and The Fashion Spot were two of my go to’s.
In high school, I was on an AOL fashion forum with one of the girls from MTV’s Rich Girls. In college, I was on a private fashion forum created as an offshoot of this old website called luxuryfashion.com. I made friends with a user who was also an Art Center student in Pasadena. He introduced me to shops like Ooga Booga and brands like Bless.
Yoox used to sell pieces 2-3 years old. At 19, I collected Tom Ford for Gucci and original Margiela at a discount. No one knew history like fashion dealers on eBay. Bonus lore if those items got reposted on Tumblr. If anyone wants to reminisce about the old eLuxury.com my DM’s are always open.
I think the last bulk of discovery I did was when I e-friended Mainland Chinese influencers on Instagram and let them introduce me to incredible up and coming Chinese designers like Rui, Louis Shengtao Shen, and Oude Waag.
Your last entries on Lulu and Your Mom (really the greatest name for a blog ever) were around 2014. I remember that period as the rise of the hyper-capitalist Influencer; what led to your final decision to stop blogging?
I’m very privileged to have experienced the entire thing from inception. But this was not a good time for my mental health. Equipped with a fast fashion appetite, management, and a desire to climb the something ladder, these new influencers left simply no room for those who did not want to become a walking billboard for brands.
I think the industry is a lot healthier now, with different types of content able to find their niche audience thanks to a matured algorithm. But the early 2010’s was a time for filtering out those personalities who did not want to sell, baby, sell. Honestly, this time still gives me a twitch.
I enjoy being the blogger’s blogger. Like an IYKYK secret.
Remember Chictopia? For so many of us, it was transformative in the way we observed, shared, and consumed fashion, but what was it like for you on the inside?
Something that people don’t realize is that the front pages were individually curated by me. I had the team build a publishing platform on the backend that allowed me to surface the best content and push it to the top. I reviewed every single piece of content that was uploaded. It took me hours each day. For this reason, you always saw a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles with excellent photography and composition. If you loved what you saw, you loved my work. Compare this with your typical Instagram algorithm today filled with unrealistic beauty standards and ubiquitous style. It largely matters who is doing the training.
Some fashion bloggers pivoted to influencing. But you didn’t. Your next move was to launch The Fashion Club. What was that journey like?
It was hard because I was doing it all myself. And buyers kept wanting me to be something else trending at the moment. For example, they pushed me towards the direction of Outdoor Voices. Imagine, if I had kept doing the cropped shirting, pleated skirts, and nylon jackets I started with? Looks a lot like Miu Miu today. But all they wanted me to make was leggings. In retrospect, I should have stood my ground.There just wasn’t anymore left in me.
I remember when you were working on The Fashion Club that sustainability was very important to you, and has only become more so with time. How has sustainability changed your relationship with fashion?
I would never do a RTW line ever again. The world does not need another one. I love the idea of pivoting to special occasion wear. Made-to-order gowns for weddings and elopements. Clothing that is inherently cherished. With low impact.
Currently, I’m looking for a dress for our vowel renewal. The process makes me very happy.
What are some misconceptions about California/LA style? And what aren't?
I think the biggest misconception is that LA has no style because we don’t wear coats and we don’t have seasons. I find this argument is more telling of the person and their inability to be creative. I love coats but I wouldn’t trade it for a proper winter.
There is a lot of athleisure here, but there is something deliciously kitsch about seeing your realtor’s assistant show up in head-to-toe Alo and post thirst traps from an Open House. I love leggings, I just don’t want to make them.
From Lulu and Your Mom to being a mum of two, what are some instrumental lessons you've learned along the way?
1. Confidence is the key to all good decision making. My biggest mistakes have always come from a place of insecurity.
2. I’m not a perfectionist. I have let go of this aspect of myself in favor of growing through doing.
3. There is no reward for being first or special. Only for when the world is ready to receive you (i.e. with the tide).
I've been waiting sixteen years to ask you this: why Lulu and Your Mom?
I just never wanted to take it seriously, until I did, and I was stuck.
Until next time!
Of Antwerp Six fame, alongside Ann Demeulemeester and Dries Van Noten. Recommended reading: “Putting Together the Antwerp Six”, 1Granary
Our relationship to social media is so different than it used to be. Especially since it used to be a reflection of our real life. And now simulacra, it’s the other way around. Thanks for letting me yap. I could talk about internet history for days. Somebody come get the hook!
Lulu!! It's so good to hear from her, I know all too well a lot of OGs peaced out of fashion blogging in the early 2010s when influencing became near-compulsory as a career turn, I appreciate that she did something different with The Fashion Club (and before that, Shoes and Your Mom). She's right that it was once a community, and the brand deals/follower emphasis really did erode it to the point it's basically gone now unless we're talking of the forum holdouts.