Style Profile: KCRW DJ Liza Richardson
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Style aside, Liza Richardson is cool from head to toe. The DJ who dominates the airwaves for KCRW’s ‘The Drop’ every Saturday night also does music supervision for movies and TV shows like ‘Friday Night Lights.’ Add to that the fact that she surfs religiously and was the first DJ ever to play live at the Oscars in 2007. Here’s a peek at Richardson’s personal style:
Personal motto: Work smart, not hard.
Musician style icon: PJ Harvey, when she wore a red one-shouldered dress with black pumps at the Wiltern theater in October of 2004. I often wear the same thing, but with a black one-shouldered Costume National dress and red pumps.
Purse du jour: My large white Bottega Veneta shoulder bag.
I dig fashion because: It’s fun. Getting dressed is like DJing. There’s only one perfect outfit or song sequence for any particular moment. You start with something you really want to say and build from there. You may wear/play a few basics, but you want to decorate the whole look/set with your own idiosyncratic signature.
Animal you most resemble: In jeans and a T-shirt, I’m kind of a collie mix.
E-mail or handwritten thank you note: Always both.
Memo to designers: Please bring back the catsuit.
(Whoops, she probably means this one -- at right --worn by Emma Peel.)
Best movie soundtrack for a rare, rainy Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles: Morvern Callar.
Go-to outfit: People generally freak out when I wear my Agnes B. spandex pantsuit (right). It’s an automatic compliment magnet. Or my usual combo of boots, black leggings, acid pink tee and white slim-fit parka. I want to be a parka designer when I grow up.
Makeup must-have: Chanel Extracils Mascara Noir, piled on luscious and long.
CD you love enough to marry:
Devendra Banhart’s ‘Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon’ is definitely top of the pops for me this year.
Style start: My grandmother gave me a lot of designer duds from her heyday. Pierre Cardin, Pucci and little tailored suits with weights in the hems. Here I am, wearing a linen coat with embroidery that she had made in Rome by a lady named Lydia De Roma.
Photo credits: all photos of Richardson, from her collection; PJ Harvey, Island Records; Bottega bag, shopstyle.com; collie painting, Margaret Fletcher; cat in pool, oldmaid.blog.co.uk; ‘The Avengers’ box set, A&E.