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A Look Inside Japanese Breakfast Lead Singer and Author Michelle Zauner’s Epic Wardrobe

In this episode of 7 Days, 7 Looks, Michelle Zauner walks Vogue through her epic collection of Thom Browne, Simone Rocha, and more.

Director: Catherine Orchard
Director of Photography: Rachel Batashvili
Editor: Tajah Smith
Senior Producer: Jordin Rocchi
Associate Director, Creative Development: Alexandra Gurvitch
Commerce Fashion Market Editor: Madeline Fass
Associate Producer: Qieara Lesesne
Audio: Sean Paulsen
AC: Haitao Zeng
Cam Op: Helen Cassell
Gaffer: Sam Warga
Set Decorator: Taylor Horne
Set Decorator Assistant: Javier Scalley
Glam: Maiko Waki
Stylist: Cece Liu
Stylist Assistants: Tawnee Clifton, Brittney Aceves
Filmed on Location: House of Oyo
Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar
Production Manager: Kit Fogarty
Senior Director, Production Management: Jessica Schier
Post-Production Coordinator: Andrea Farr
Post-Production Supervisor: Marco Glinbizzi
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Associate Talent Manager: Phoebe Feinberg
Director of Content, Vogue: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Programming, Vogue: Linda Gittleson
Executive Producer: Ruhiya Nuruddin
VP, Digital Video Programming and Development,Vogue (English Language): Joe Pickard

Released on 06/26/2022

Transcript

Hi Vogue.

I'm Michelle Zauner.

I play in a band called Japanese Breakfast

and I'm the author of Crying in H-Mart,

and this is Seven Days, Seven Looks.

[upbeat guitar music]

[bright electronic music]

So this is a classic Michelle look.

The shirt is Mukzin, the jumper is Sandy Liang,

the chain is Mara Peralta, and the boots are Prada.

I don't know what happened,

but I hit my 30s and suddenly wanted to start dressing

like I attend boarding school.

Maybe it's my attempt to reclaim my fading youth,

but I really like dressing this way now.

It just feels like fun uniform, it feels sharp,

it's a little edgy.

Sandy Liang is one of my favorite designers in New York.

This is like an everyday look for me.

Shopping, dining with friends.

Classic.

I love accessories that are playful

and just love this little extra feather moment.

Pretty much when you go on tour,

you live in one hoodie or jacket of choice

and this has been my new addition.

I've never owned a fleece before, weirdly.

I played a show at the new Gucci Museum

and Sandy was there and rolled up with her two

friends who were both wearing her signature fleeces

and I just thought they look so cozy

and it was just something that I wanted to live in on tour.

So this is my new favorite fleece.

I think in order to be a classic item in my wardrobe,

it has to have like a little bit of edge and tailoring.

I have to wear like a comfortable fabric.

I'm also very happy that I'm in this new period of my life

where I can wear a thigh high boot and still feel casual.

It feels like I am a grown woman.

[upbeat electronic music]

This is my after party look.

It is full Simone Rocha,

who I love and I feel like was really

emblematic of the whole Jubilee album cycle.

Something changed in me once I started Japanese Breakfast.

I used to feel like I had to present super butch

to be taken seriously as a musician,

and now that I'm older,

I just feel like I can express my full femininity

and still rock a stage.

I love to wear like a big dress at an after party

'cause it's an instant talking piece

and this kind of just makes me feel

like a giant Jigglypuff or like a high-fem Michelin Man.

The first lyrics for the first song on the album,

Paprika, is lucidity came slowly,

I awoke from dreams of untying a great knot

and unraveled like a braid.

And so I knew for this album cycle,

I was gonna be wearing a lot of long braids

because to me it sort of symbolized releasing tension

and ushering in this new sort of era of joy

and a lot of the Simone Rocha shows have models

with long braids in it.

And I feel like the style goes really well

with her dresses and simultaneously,

they feel almost like soldier dresses,

but also princess dresses in a way.

It's a really interesting tension

between like masculine and feminine

and it's just so unique and creative

and I just love her work so much.

I like to be playful with my accessories

and try to introduce something

with a little edge, a little punkier.

So I put on this Junya choker

and these Reposeux scorpion earrings.

The rings are Mon Cher Moi.

They're super colorful and fun.

On the feet are these giant Simone Rocha platforms.

Gives me the height that I need

to feel powerful at an after party.

[upbeat electronic music]

This is what I would wear to a festival or a show.

It's a Rodarte jumpsuit and Doc Marten boots.

I actually wore this jumpsuit

for our first late night performance

on Jimmy Fallon, and afterwards,

Kate and Laura Mulleavy saw me in the jumpsuit

and invited me to shoot for their

pre-fall campaign in 2021, which was super fun.

I love all of Rodarte's clothes.

I think it's just so elegant and romantic

and they're the kind of clothes that I never imagined

that I would get to wear and has been such a joy to

get to know those two incredible designers

and wear various looks over the years.

I first found out about Rodarte when I went to see one

of my favorite musicians, Joanna Newsom, live in New York

and someone asked her what dress she was wearing

and she kind of coyly said, Oh, custom Rodarte.

And I just thought that was like

such a sweet moment to be a musician

and get to have a relationship with a designer

and I feel really lucky that I've

gotten to know them over the years as well.

And this is just like such a fun festival look

because I tend to like things that are short-sleeved

because I sweat a lot on like a hot stage.

It's really shiny and it hits the lights really well

and who doesn't love a sequin jumpsuit?

It's also really easy to move around,

which is really important when you're playing live

and taking a guitar on and off and jumping around.

It's breathable and comfortable, and yeah,

it's just the perfect festival concert look.

[upbeat electronic music]

So this is what I would wear

to a reading for my author duties.

This is head-to-toe Thom Browne.

I feel like author Michelle is a little less extra

than Japanese Breakfast Michelle.

And so I like to wear like a nice tailored kind of suit.

I also feel like Thom Browne is

the dress code for authors right now.

It just makes you feel really sharp and professional,

it's always very clean, it's so iconic.

I feel like this particular look is great

for the spring/summer.

It makes me feel kind of

like Luke Wilson in The Royal Tenenbaums.

I just need like a little tennis headband.

So the earrings are Fry Powers.

I wore a lot of Fry Powers to the Grammy's.

They're really fun, colorful little rings.

The only accessory I really wanna talk about

is my book, Crying in H-Mart.

I really love going on reading tours because as a musician,

I'm so used to having to carry a lot of really heavy gear.

A lot of the times I'll be carrying

like 80 pound amplifiers upstairs

and so it's so nice to just get to go on a tour

where all I have to do is carry this book and read from it.

I wrote this book over the course of like five years

and the thing that really helped me was

having really hard, fast rules.

And I find that it just helps us

like an exercise and forgiveness

of getting really great raw source material.

So, when my editor told me that they were looking

for a book that was 80,000 words long,

I decided that I would write 1,000 words every day

until I hit that word count

and it was a lot of really sloppy,

like off-the-cuff writing,

but I found that it was so helpful to look back on and edit

because it really released a lot of things I wouldn't have

if I didn't have those types of rules.

And so I wrote this book a lot on tour in vans, on planes,

in between soundcheck and showtime.

[upbeat R&B music]

So this is my summer look.

These sunglasses are Gentle Monster.

I love these socks and these Miu Miu shoes

were a real splurge for me this year.

They go with like every outfit and they're such

a perfect summer shoe and I love them.

The set is Mirror Palais.

I feel like this is the perfect outfit to wear

when running errands, out to lunch with friends,

I would even probably wear this to a summer festival

'cause it's really light and breathable and colorful.

And I love yellow.

Yellow was like the major theme color of my album Jubilee

and so I tend to wear a lot of yellow when I perform.

[light funk music]

This is my red carpet look

The dress is Valentino and the rings are Hiro Taka.

I would pair this with my very special

Chanel, classic Chanel purse.

This was my mother's purse.

My mom was such a huge fan of fashion

and when she was alive, I was like such a tomboy

and I was really kind of anti-fashion.

Like, in a way, I felt like fashion

I think was almost anti-feminist and I didn't get it

and I appreciate it so much more in my later life

and I feel like my mom would be so proud to see me

on the red carpet in a Valentino gown.

So yeah, this is her coveted classic Chanel purse.

She wanted one of these for a really long time

and it just reminds me of my mom

and all of her elegance and stylishness.

Just like makes me really appreciate

like good craftsmanship.

I always wear this bag when I go to like

a really important meeting or event.

I wore this bag when I got my book deal

and it just gives me power.

It makes me feel like my mom is with me.

I think my mom would be so proud.

If she was alive,

I would so love to get to buy her a designer purse

in this period of my life where I, you know,

have enough money to buy her one.

I feel like as an only daughter,

that's like your dream is to gift your mom

like a designer bag, and unfortunately, I can't do that,

but I like to carry her bag with me

and I think of her often and feel like I got so

many great styling tips from my mom

and she would be so delighted to see me

playing dress-up now.

[bright piano music]

This is my tour look.

I sleep in a bus, in a moving bus,

and cart heavy gear in and out of buildings on tour

and so I have to be very comfortable.

Comfort is key.

This is my favorite shirt.

I bought it in Seoul.

I'm honestly like a big junk food fan,

and particularly Cheetos and Hot Cheetos

are a favorite of mine.

These are Eclipgian pants, plaid pants,

and these are Gucci slides.

I'm lucky that I have pretty small feet

'cause they're children's size

and so my friends bought them

for me for Christmas 'cause they were cheaper.

And then this hat is, you know, signature J. Brekky.

This is a Japanese Breakfast baseball cap.

I became a hat guy over the course of the last few years.

My mom would be very happy to know

that I am blocking the sun from my face.

And if I have a messy hair day,

it's a perfect thing to throw on.

I like having a playfulness in my wardrobe.

I think I really embraced color over the last few years.

I used to kind of only dress

like a stagehand in all black

and wearing like a pop of color,

like a yellow pant with an oversized snack brand tee

expresses who I am.

I'm just a goofy gal waiting to have a good egg.

[upbeat R&B music]

And that's what I wear in a week.

Thanks for watching.

Bye.

[Michelle laughing]

I feel like I'm about to do interpretive dance.

[upbeat electronic music]

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