Ruby Redstone and Natalie Brennan’s podcast brings an academic yet amusing approach to bloomers, ballet flats and bows.
“You’re blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns”, Miranda Priestley, the fearsome fictional editor played by Meryl Streep, tells a quivering Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada. 18 years later, Ruby Redstone and Natalie Brennan are educating and entertaining listeners with tales of fashion history – without broaching workplace intimidation.
“Ruby knows the ins and outs of the fashion industry and I had been working in podcasting for years – it didn’t make sense that neither of us had a womenswear fashion show that we liked,” says Brennan, a podcast producer and author of the substack ISO. The pair co-host the podcast Covered, picking a different moment of fashion history – be it an item of clothing, trend or collection – to dissect. Redstone and Brennan met as teenagers at a creative writing camp but reconnected years later over Instagram. “We made what we wanted to hear”, Redstone tells Mission: “a show about fashion that’s not too serious but also doesn’t mitigate the importance of clothing.”
To this end, Redstone incorporates her experience as a fashion historian (she holds an MA in Fashion History from the Courtauld Institute of Art) treating topics ranging from the creation of bloomers to Prada’s 1999 F/W collection which equal rigor and research. “I think there is this idea that fashion is inherently frivolous and that trends are a symptom of our plagued modernity. My favorite part of making Covered has been learning about the peculiar yearnings of women before me and getting to deconstruct the idea that participating in a trend is uniquely modern.”
“At the height of bloquette, when it felt like every week there was a new article about why women are dressing like young girls, it was interesting to instead look at the way bows were popularized by 17th century men.”
Natalie Brennan
Discussing modern trends can often veer into un-evidenced analysis of what liking a certain item of clothing, word or aesthetic reveals about the inner workings of a generation or group of people. Covered plays with but resists this temptation: “I love to theorize about trends and Ruby loves to use historical analysis as evidence to reel me back in”, Brennan admits. This results in an informative yet conversational listening experience – fashion is not just used as a means to an end in understanding culture, or oneself, the urge to do this is itself unpacked. “At the height of bloquette, when it felt like every week there was a new article about why women are dressing like young girls, it was interesting to instead look at the way bows were popularized by 17th century men.”
Discussions of gender, and its changing conceptions, are unavoidable in conversations about fashion history. Redstone explained to Mission that “I think it’s impossible to talk about clothing without talking about gender! […] What I love most is then seeing how people respond to those conversations.” She received an influx of messages and opinions after their episode on Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking tuxedo and women wearing suits.
But Covered doesn’t just use clothes as a way to incite supposedly more meaningful or serious conversations. “Ruby and I both take our work incredibly seriously and Covered has been an exercise in leaning into the play of fashion”, says Brennan. “I often like to caveat that I’m less interested in fashion than I am in desire, or culture, or girlhood. And Covered has given me the permission to lean into my interest in clothing.”
“I’ve convinced her to love bloomers, she’s convinced me to embrace Gen Z baggy shorts–but at the heart of it is the fact that we both agree that women should be free to wear whatever unflattering, weird garments they desire.”
Ruby Redstone
Staying true to its name, Covered is unafraid of spanning a range of topics, time periods and aspects of the sartorial. “The show is also quite true to our friendship (and I think how many others approach their friendships too) in that we can go straight from talking about the perils of war into deciding whether or not we’d like to wear micro shorts”, Redstone explains.
That friendship also involves disagreeing about the trends they cover, which plays out on the podcast. As Redstone told Mission: “I’ve convinced her to love bloomers, she’s convinced me to embrace Gen Z baggy shorts–but at the heart of it is the fact that we both agree that women should be free to wear whatever unflattering, weird garments they desire.” Listening to the show’s far-ranging discussions, one feels not only a connection to the hosts but also to clothes and their wearers throughout history.
Homepage, Ruby Redstone left and Natalie Brennan right. All images courtesy of Covered.
