Fashion Wire DailyJanuary 20, 2005 - NEW YORK - "I'm not a big shopper, and it was one of my New Year's resolutions to become more of a shopper," Constance White confided to FWD one rainy Thursday afternoon in early January. Say wha...?!

Ordinarily, this might not seem like much of a revelation. But given that White is a veteran fashion reporter and editor who worked at Women's Wear Daily, Elle, The New York Times and Talk before landing her current gig as eBay Style Director, this admission is akin to Emeril Lagasse casually letting drop that he doesn't like the farmer's market.

Huh? You've spent your entire career working in fashion and have been a correspondent on TV's Full Frontal Fashion and a judge on Bravo's hit show "Project Runway." How can you not like shopping? "I think that's why I'm not into it," White said. "I think it was a defense mechanism that I probably developed over the years."

Despite her un-fashionista like aversion to shopping, the gracious, easygoing White had agreed to meet FWD for a retail therapy session, and we were only too happy to help her jump-start her New Year's resolution. We met White outside the Puma store in Soho and ducked into a nearby deli for tea and a quick chat.

White, who born in England and raised in Queens, New York by her Jamaican parents, earned a degree in journalism from New York University and worked at Ms. Magazine before landing a job at WWD.

"I had a twin love of fashion and music, so when I finished school I applied to Billboard and Women's Wear," the reggae and r&b enthusiast told us. "Women's Wear called first and that's really how I ended up in fashion. I could be sitting here talking about music were it not for that fork in the road."

Her early days at WWD were spent covering the fur trade, which was pretty heady stuff at the time. "This was in the late '80s, early '90s when the anti-fur campaigns really began, so I was covering not just fur — which had become this dying area of fashion — but also very important news, which was of interest to the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune. So from a journalistic point of view, it was a lucky break and very exciting."

Fast forward fifteen years to White's current post at eBay. "I had always wanted to do some work on the internet — it's exciting and interesting for any journalist — and I had just done television with Full Frontal Fashion and loved it," she explained. "eBay had this explosive fashion business and they were looking for someone who could help guide them in terms of growing their business and write an online mini-magazine for them, too. And it had to be someone who could represent them on TV. So it just clicked, and it's been great." (You can check out White's eBay column, in which she offers style solutions for men and women and interviews Marc Jacobs and other fashion A-listers, at www.ebay.com/personalstyle.)

The biggest difference between writing for print and the Web? "In print you can be more analytical and explore a bit more," she opined. "It's the extreme opposite on the Web. It's like, save the analysis and get to the point. People want information they can use immediately, for immediate gratification. It's more about 'OK, what should I buy?'"

So what do people buy on eBay? Handbags, jeans, sunglasses and shoes, shoes, shoes. "The more prestigious, the better," she said. "Everything from Marni to Jimmy Choo, and sneakers are a very big category for us, too." Ditto anything by Louis Vuitton, Coach and Abercrombie & Fitch.

White herself is a big proponent of the high-low mix, as was evidenced by her ensemble du jour: Blue faux shearling jacket, pink turtleneck sweater (Theory), jeans with a teal velvet tuxedo stripe (Gap), gold bowling bag (Courreges), a vintage white fox scarf, and baby blue boots (Ugg).

"I just started wearing my Ugg boots," the married mother of three admitted. "I bought them a year ago but I'm a pack rat. I'm that person that has to let them sit and marinate a bit, so I put something on top of them and then I forget [they're there]".

The talk turned to her judging duties on "Project Runway," Bravo's reality show in which twelve designers compete for the chance to do a runway show during NY Fashion Week next month — with the grand prize winner scoring a lucrative contract and a spread in Elle magazine, among other things. "We had some big arguments about some of the judging," said White, who can be seen on the episode airing tonight (Wednesday, January 19th, 9pm EST) and on possible future episodes, which she will neither confirm nor deny, having been sworn to secrecy by the Reality TV Police (aka, "Project Runway"'s producers).

"To their credit, they didn't just go and pick a popular soap opera star or cute actress to be the judge," she said. "They did try and get people in the business. But because we're in the business we're very passionate about it, so it gets very heated. But I can't give too much away."

One thing she can divulge are her spring 2005 style predictions (shine, sequined scarves, full skirts and the "bohemian colorful peasant look"). White, who reviews NY Fashion Week shows for the Chicago Tribune and eBay, also told us that for fall 2005 she thinks we'll see a return to tailoring and menswear touches with a continuation of this season's lust for luxe vis-à-vis velvet, sparkle and other embellishments.

All this fashion talk had us itching to, well, shop. White gamely finished her tea and we headed over to her numero uno shopping destination: Kate's Paperie (561 Broadway, 212-941-9816; www.katespaperie.com).

"I love to come to Kate's because they have so many special things," she said as we entered the busy stationary emporium, which is known for handmade wrapping paper, bespoke business cards, unusual writing instruments and crafting supplies galore.

"It's like every little corner shelves a surprise," she said as she fondled a red mock croc business card case. "Also, being someone who is exposed to fashion every day — good fashion, bad fashion, great fashion, awful fashion — it's almost a kind of reverie to come into Kate's because it has everything to do with style, so it's certainly pleasing to me and wonderful in that way, but at the same time it has nothing to do with clothes or shoes."

She meandered around, oohing over monogrammed coasters ("these are

wonderful, adorable and they make great gifts") and ahhing over handsome leather luggage tags. "See, this is what I love about this store," she enthused. "You always see some little treats for the eyes. It's almost like hide-and-seek, and the taste level is always just right — it's never too underdone and never too overdone as to be gaudy."

She moved on to a display of old fashioned photo corners (the paper triangles used to mount photographs in albums). "Also, it's a very modern store," she added, "But there is perhaps a taint of nostalgia to the store — like with these — which makes it very attractive."

White was thrown for a loop when reminded that FWD had allotted $100 for her Shopping With and she was encouraged to spend it. "Oh, I didn't know that. I'm actually supposed to buy something?" Well, yes, Constance, that's why it's called Shopping With. "That throws me into a panic," she replied. Her eyes widened in horror. "This is going to make me insane. I'm not at all a decisive shopper, so I try not to do it because I make myself and everyone else crazy."

We assured her that we were paragons of patience and that we wouldn't force her to buy anything if she really didn't want to. She nodded with relief and continued to browse. A table of elaborately tooled and embossed journals caught her eye. "How special," she said, thumbing through a burgundy leather wine journal with the raised gold figure of Bacchus on the cover. "What a wonderful gift to give someone who likes wine. That is also what makes this such a great Manhattan store, because it's like, what do you give to people who have everything when you're not prepared to give them an Hermes Birkin bag."

Oh, so she didn't send out Kellys for the holidays? "I gave out ten for Christmas," she shot back with a laugh. "I'm sorry, yours is on the way."

White made her way around the store and perused racks of perpetual calendars from Italy, bins of sparkly 50-percent-off holiday ornaments and packets of fancy paisley Kleenex before coming to a glass case full of pens.

"In my family pens were considered a really special gift," she told us. "It was something very prestigious. Beautiful pens can make me very happy. I always do like to have a nice pen. Right now, for instance, I carry around a mini Mont Blanc. I might have bought it here, even, but it has no ink in it."

We can remedy that. "We can, but I wouldn't because I have [replacement cartridges] at home," she replied. "It's just under something." Like an Ugg boot box, perhaps?

She went to take a closer look at the multitude of pens on display, which ranged from $49 (for Sensa's colorful gel grip pens) to $275 (Yard-O-Led's Perfecta Barley Ballpen) to $450 (A.T. Cross's Verve silver fountain pen) and beyond. "I like extremes," she said. "Either very modernistic pens — streamlined, silver, aerodynamic-looking — or sort of ornate old world."

She eyed an elaborately filigreed gold Parker — made to commemorate the Queen of England's Golden Jubilee — that sat in a velvet-lined box on the bottom shelf of the case. "I do like a Parker pen but I don't own one," she sighed.

She pulled herself away and walked over to a wooden armoire that held room sprays, candles, sashays, bath salts and other home and toiletry products. She bypassed triple milled soap in the shape of a Scotty dog and picked up a figurine labeled Le Chat Sophisticate. "I want a cat," she said. "I'm tempted." But then she spied a box that held twin soaps in the shape of dress forms with a tiny ribbon tied around each waist ($25). "Oh, this one is better. And it [smells] creamy. Thank you!" And with that, the shopaphobic-turned-(we hoped)-shopaholic began to get into the spirit of things.

She considered a three-piece red oval box set that could be used for gift-giving or storage ($40), showed us decks of self-help cards she liked with titles such as "52 Ways to Find Your True Love" and "52 Ways to Make a House a Home," and gave a very decisive ix-nay to a wicker picnic asket-bay ("That's the kind of thing you definitely buy and put under the Ugg boots") before circling back around to the pen counter, lured by the siren song of the limited-edition Parker.

"Can we see this gold Parker pen," she asked the girl behind the counter. "How beautiful," she trilled, turning the weighty jewel-crowned pen over in her hands to get a better look at the inscription, which she read aloud. "Queen Elizabeth by the grace of God, queen of this realm and her other realms and territories, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith..."

And only $825! "You think they would go up a little for a shopping spree?," she inquired with a wicked grin. Uh oh. So much for Ms. I-Hate-To-Shop. We were beginning to think we had created a monster.

So what's the most she'd ever spent on a pen? "I've never thought about it," she replied. "Probably about $300, though I've been given pens of more value... This is horrible. It makes me want to buy a pen. I want to buy it."

After a nanosecond's deliberation, she handed back the pen and walked to the counter to pay for her soap. Along the way, she picked up a plain Moleskine notebook ($14) to use during the upcoming NY Fashion Week shows — it had a pocket built into the back cover that was perfect for stashing business cards — as well as three stylishly sleek white and gray Presentation pencils ($1 each) to display in her home office. Grand total: $45.62.

We headed over to her second stop, Puma New York (521 Broadway, 212-334-7861; www.puma.com), where she hoped to find some comfortable kicks to wear during Fashion Week. As we walked down Broadway she talked about what shows she was most looking forward to (Narciso Rodriguez, Derek Lam, Peter Som and Tracy Reese).

"I want something colorful that will take me to spring," White announced as we made our way to the minimalist, high-tech looking store's subterranean shoe level. "A mix of blues would be ideal. With that in mind, I'll start looking and see what grabs me. But I'm thinking blue."

She immediately honed in on a pair of mod $80 ankle boots near the back of the store. In white. "This might be a two-pronged solution," she said. "This could be great. I wonder if they're water resistant."

She turned them over and saw they were part of the Nuala line, which caused her to grimace. "Hmm...would I wear boots designed by Christy Turlington?," she mused. "They do kill two birds with one stone, though. Two style solutions. And you could wear them in the rain or snow. These are very tempting."

Not tempting enough. She replaced them on the shelf and headed to the other end of the store, where she picked up a fashion-forward knee-high number called the Mostro Alto Boot ($200), also in white. Made of perforated leather with multiple Velcro closures, the boot/sneaker hybrid looked like something that might be worn in a modern day remake of Barbarella. She liked them, but was wracked with indecision. "These would be nice to wear with cropped pants, but if it does rain during show week, I won't be able to wear them because they're perforated. I can see, like, now getting two."

After fifteen to twenty minutes of back-and-forthing, during which she painstakingly weighed the merits of the Nuala vs. the Mostro Alto ("I'm sorry, I'm falling into my pattern") she asked a cheerful young salesclerk to bring her both styles. He returned with two boxes and announced he did not have the Nuala in white, only navy.

She tried them on and checked herself out in the floor-to-ceiling mirror. "These are not comfortable," she announced with what appeared to be relief. One down, one to go. The clerk helped strap her into the Mostro Altos (apparently, it takes a village to put them on), and White rolled up one pant leg to get a better look. She stood in front of the mirror looking at them from this angle and that and deemed them comfy, but ultimately concluded she would get more use out of them in black, which they didn't have in her size.

"It pains me, but I think it's the right thing to do," she declared. "They are so attention getting I would prefer them in black. It's a real fashion statement. Maybe I'm too shy." And maybe you need to call your Shopaphobics Anonymous sponsor right about now, young lady.

She sat down and sighed wearily, her body slumped in defeat. By now — a good forty minutes after we'd arrived at Puma — it was clear that White was no longer having fun and was dreading the thought of having to continue to (ugh!) shop. We told her this was supposed to be enjoyable and that she shouldn't feel pressured to do anything she didn't want to do, like continue to (ugh!) shop. Her shoulders immediately relaxed and she broke into a big smile. "Oh, thank you!" she said brightly. "With that in mind, I'll take one last look around."

White walked the entire length of the sneaker wall, which ran the entire length of the store, several times looking for shoes that spoke to her. She picked up, thoughtfully considered, and put down what seemed like fifteen to twenty different styles, most of them (it must be said), not blue. After another fifteen minutes or so, she asked the clerk to get her three sporty sneakers: the Anjan, the Mostro and the Klim.

He brought out all three and White tried on the Klim — a rust/gold leather rock climbing-inspired number with a cool black rubber toe and sole — and declared her search for the perfect show week shoe over (cue soaring music). So...what happened to her much-ballyhooed hew toward blue, her zeal for teal?

"I went back to the blue and green, which was my thought cause they would work best with my wardrobe and are really spring like, but they're boring," she replied. "I'm bored with them now."

Could it be true? Had White really truly (and finally) found a shoe she liked and conquered her shopping aversion? Indeed, she had. We went upstairs to pay for her new sneaks ($108.63, of which she paid the $54.25 balance). "Thank you," she said as we waited for change. "Thanks so much."

No problem. We had all the time in the world. And White had just taken the very important first step on her road to recovery, thanks to FWD's Shopaphobics Anonymous program. Give her a hand, people.