Coolest Person in the Room: Rian Phin

Hi Rian! Did you have a nice New York Fashion Week?

Yeah, it was busy, even though I didn't do that much. It was fun. I was not managing my time well.

Tell me when your interest in fashion started.

Probably with my mom. She was best dressed when she was in college, her mom was a seamstress, and she always would get dressed up and ask me to help her pick out her corporate job outfits, which I think is fab, when I was like six. And then being addicted to the internet is why I was obsessed with fashion.

Were you on Tumblr?

Tumblr, chat rooms, literally forums. Anything I could do to get closer to fashion, I was on it. I liked seeing older people discuss in forums when I was in elementary school. I wanted them to tell me what I was supposed to think about the shows.

Did that help you develop your own language to talk about clothing and fashion?

Yeah, I feel like it also helped me feel confident saying critical things, because people in chat rooms take fashion really seriously and have horrible attitudes. So I was like, Okay, you can feel confident saying that something isn't good in fashion. It's not a personal attack; it's just about the critique of the work.

How did you get your start writing about fashion and then making video content?

I used to write for Rookie, which was a very Tumblr-based, feminist magazine. I also used to make sewing tutorials a long time ago, and then I started combining writing and talking about fashion on Tumblr into video content, because it's really boring and hard to explain how to sew something by typing about it. Then I made a TikTok account, and I was just like, Everything everyone on here is saying is wrong. Nobody was saying anything true or historical or putting it into context. And it was so misogynistic and racist and homophobic. So I was trying to use what I did on Tumblr, talking about gender theory and feminism and race theory, which is also what I studied in college, and then loving fashion and wanting to talk about that with people. I combined it into one by accident on TikTok.

Sincerity has to be the thing that wins.

What is usually the response that you get from thinking about fashion so thoughtfully and connecting it to all of these topics?

At first, people were like, “It's not that deep. It's not that serious. This is not what this is.” But I think over time, people have really adjusted to seeing that things either are that complex or can be, and that it's just fun as a thought exercise to make things deeper than they are, especially in such a hostile time. It went from people being like, “That's not true, and you're wrong,” to people being like, “I'm open to learning.” People are much more receptive now.

I'm kind of tired of everything being a joke and everything being a meme. I want some seriousness to come back so badly.

Sincerity has to be the thing that wins. You have to take some things seriously. You have to be vulnerable at some point. It's such a negative way to live that you have to laugh at everything. Where’s the earnestness? Where's the human connection? Where’s the love?

I’m hopeful that we're at a turning point in that regard with everything, not just in the fashion industry. How do you find so much meaning when looking at collections, especially when there’s so little context in the show notes more often than not?

My brain hangs on to certain things. If they say one sentence that mentions nature, I'll be like, Oh my god, I was reading a book about nature. And I just make up what I want things to be, and I can make the connections and draw them back to the brand's history. That's the benefit of researching, is being able to make stuff up and create this web of connections between things that maybe aren't there. That's where my heart took me.

What do you think has happened to the art of criticism?

It's hard to criticize because obviously it's important to have access to press info, especially before other people in order to have visibility on the content that you make. But when you're more critical, not all brands receive that well, and they don't give you access to information that can help you better understand the collection or better process it. Also personalizing it can be hard because they can be like, “That wasn't the brand messaging or the intention.” All ways of talking about fashion online are really restrictive sometimes.

I could go to the club every night or I could just read books. It's probably better to just read the books.

How can people develop a more thoughtful relationship to fashion?

If you're always learning about anything, it can be easy to have more complex thoughts about something that you like. The only reason I was able to start thinking about fashion in this way is from learning about art, gender studies and queer studies at the same time and then applying it. Learning constantly makes it really easy.

The challenge is that we're in a time when people are willingly not learning. It's too hard; it’s overwhelming. It's easier to just laugh everything off.

That’s what people say, but learning makes you happy. It's such a sad time. The only thing I can do is learn, because it's the only place I can get happiness, where I'm not like destroying myself, destroying my body. I could go to the club every night or I could just read books. It's probably better to just read the books.

What are you reading right now?

I'm usually reading boring fashion textbooks because I love it, but I'm trying to branch off into fiction, like I got that book Raving. Apparently, it's about partying in Bushwick, but it's fiction. I can't wait to read it.

Which collection at New York Fashion Week spoke to you the most?

The Luar show, because I'm queer, a person of color and feel really connected to very overtly, visibly queer fashion shows. It's also part of what I studied in college and the thing that interested me the most. Luar is such a weird, beautiful fashion house. It's so transgressive and powerful. It has so much energy.

What do you think about what you're doing is speaking to brands and the general population on social media?

I think brands like the idea of someone creating a story or a world, and inviting other people to consider the stories of the world, or revealing the things that maybe they're either trying to say or possible ways of thinking about the work, instead of just letting it pass by. I'm giving people an opportunity to spend more time with a brand, instead of just scrolling through pictures. Hopefully, that's what they like. I always wonder, Why do brands pick me?

Where do you hope to take all of this?

I want to have a media company. I want to have a book club. I want to have a place where people can read and learn about things in person and talk and do presentations and create art about the cultures around these forms of fashion. I want this to be something that activates in-person and online and just makes fashion accessible. I also want someone to pay for me to go to grad school so bad. I need a fashion college to be like, “Ugh, love your TikToks. Come to school for free!”

Photography: Diego Villagra Motta
Styling: Angelina Cantú
Hair: Skye Melena
Makeup: Mollie Gloss

Photo assistant: Xandra Hafermann
Styling assistants: Mo Johnson, Monica McMahon
Makeup assistant: Emme George

Editor-in-chief: Justin Moran
Managing editor: Matt Wille
Editorial producer: Angelina Cantú
Story: Andrew Nguyen
Location: Arlo Williamsburg