We recently chatted up the always lovely Ann Shoket, EIC of Seventeen, and got the dish on her sartorial choices back when she was 17. Plus! Shoket shares her first big-ticket designer buy…and the iconic editrix who proceeded to compliment the prized purchase.
Was this your dream job when you were a teenager?
I hadn’t thought about magazines when I was a teenager, but I loved and read them voraciously. They were this window into a huge, sophisticated world, and I was desperate to get out of High school and live in that world.
What was your ideal career during your high school days, then?
I thought maybe I’d be a doctor or a novelist. I knew there was something big I wanted to do in the world!
What would you tell your teen self if you could?
“It’s a very big world out there and that there is a lot of experiences to come!” That’s the advice everybody has to hear, honestly. There are tremendous opportunities you just have to go get them. When I think about our readers, I sort of tap into that feeling—the idea of being in your bedroom, dreaming about this big life, knowing that it is out there, but just not knowing how to go get it.
Were you jazzed about fashion at age 17?
I worked at the mall—and I spent every single dollar I made in the mall.
What was your most beloved article of attire?
I thought my first pair of low oxford Dr. Martens were the most important thing I’d ever received in my life. I loved them…and I still do!
What was your most pivotal adult purchase?
The first pair of Manolo’s I could afford. I bought them at a sample sale. I wore them the first time I went to the Matrix Awards. I sat at Helen Gurley Brown’s table, and she told me I looked fantastic. I’ll never forget that moment…and I’ll never get rid of those shoes.