Eva Chen cuts a distinctive figure on the fashion circuit. The first thing you notice – even before the razor-sharp bob and her penchant for colourful printed dresses and sequinned cocktail skirts – is her ear-to-ear smile. Look at any one of the numerous street-style pictures of her and you’ll see it. But then, it’s hardly surprising – after all, she’s landed her dream job. Last June, 33-year-old Chen was appointed editor-in-chief of American fashion magazine Lucky by Anna Wintour, creative director of Condé Nast to bring her brand of fun and congeniality on board: ‘Lucky is approachable and it’s friendly, and that’s my persona,’ insists Chen, who put Blake Lively on the cover of the September issue to announce her arrival. ‘I like to have a dialogue and conversation with our readers,’ she says. Approachable is her default setting: she stays in constant contact with her social-media followers (60,054 on Twitter and 99,449 on Instagram), whether she’s brainstorming a new fashion-shoot concept or grabbing breakfast on the run.
Chen was studying as a pre-med student at Johns Hopkins University before she diverted into the world of fashion, undertaking an internship at Harper’s Bazaar. The self-proclaimed shopping enthusiast went on to assist a host of top fashion editors (including legendary stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, who styled Blake Lively for that Lucky cover) and worked her way up to health and beauty director at Teen Vogueover seven years. Her digital savvy, paired with inexhaustible energy made her a natural choice for the magazine’s top job.
Chen’s USP lies in her down-to-earth attitude: ‘I have to pack for weeks away when I travel. A street-style photographer stopped me in Paris during fashion week and said, “I think it’s really brave of you to wear the same things in each city”. He made it sound like I was fighting a war, when all I was doing was dressing like a real woman!’ Here, she takes time out to speaks to The Style Report.