Meet: Tori Kohrt
Senior Fashion Director at Lisa Says Gah
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Join us as we chat with Tori about her path to Lisa Says Gah, how her personal style has evolved, starting her monthly book club, @angels.reading.club, and so much more.
Before we start, for those who don’t know you, can you share with us what you do and where you’re based?
I’m the Sr Fashion Director at Lisa Says Gah, I oversee product from the very beginning of concept to the very end of launching to the customer (and everything in between). I am based in Echo Park with my husband and cat Onyx.
Do you remember the first time fashion really got you — like, stopped-you-in-your-tracks, “this is it” kind of moment?
I can remember loving getting dressed and putting together outfits since I was a kid, but I specifically remember finding my passion for playing with color in my outfits when I was in third grade.
I got these pink cargo capris from Limited Too and matched them with a Roxy tee that had a pink hibiscus flower graphic, and Adidas Superstars that were white with pink stripes and I changed out the laces to be pink. The theme was pink!
If we went back in time to your early style days, what would we see you wearing, and how do you think that person would react to your wardrobe now?
My husband and friends always make fun of me because in college at FIDM I had a super boho style. In my defense it was 2008/ 2009 in LA and everyone had boho style. I was actually going to FIDM at the same time as Lauren Conrad while they were filming the Hills, it was peak indie sleaze!
I was pairing my spandex floral print American Apparel leggings, with an oversized crochet top from Free People, my knock off Vivienne Westwood pirate boots, and feather earrings. It is funny that indie sleaze and 2010’s dressing is coming back because whenever I look back at photos of myself and the celebrity fashion girls I looked up to at that time, I think everything looks out of control.
My style now is still fun and playful, I love colors and prints and vintage, and playing with proportions. I like to think that 19 year old me would think that 35 year old me has great style.
Lisa Says Gah has been such a touchstone brand over the past few years. From your front-row seat, what shifts in the fashion world have been the most surprising (or even pleasantly surprising)?
I’ve been at Lisa Says Gah for a little over 5 years, and honestly these last 5 years I think that the industry has changed the most (at least in my time during my fashion career). Brands can no longer just make a good product that is trend right, everything needs to have a story and feeling, and a go to market strategy that stands out above the hundreds of other companies doing the exact same thing.
How has working in fashion during the era of the internet changed the way you approach your job (and maybe even how you see style itself)?
My answer to the previous question is 100% impacted by the internet! The internet (for better or worse) has allowed anyone and everyone to start their own brand, creating a super crowded space. Along with huge swings in marketing, everything is about paid ads (even if you do not realize it) and for smaller brands and companies (like Lisa Says Gah) it is so hard to compete for eyeballs.
How have you seen online communities change the way people actually connect with brands (or even with themselves through clothes)?
I think the internet (for the better) has allowed connecting with brands and discovering new brands a much simpler process. In the beginning of my career you found new brands to carry at physical in person trade shows and showrooms, now I can find any cool new brand we want to carry on Instagram and DM them in that moment and a few months later we are selling them at Lisa Says Gah.
For someone looking to break into fashion now (or pivot into it after another career), what’s a piece of advice you’d give them?
You need to be hungry! It is so competitive and everyone wants everyone’s job, you need to be willing to work super hard; just because it is fashion does not mean it is glamorous. I remember my first assistant buyer job at PacSun straight out of college, I was commuting from Pasadena to Anaheim and I still made sure I was the first one there from my team, and the last one there from my team every day. Also, not being above starting in retail, I worked in retail all through college and I really think it gave me a leg up at the beginning of my career.
My best piece of advice that I tell every young fashion person starting in their career is you never know who you will meet that might be a part of your future (AKA do not burn any bridges). I probably would not have gotten most of the jobs I have had without having someone at the company know someone, who knows someone, who happened to work with me at some point, and gave me a great review. Even if you have a horrible fellow employee, try to stay positive, or find an ally at the company to confide in, you never know who you will meet along your career that might be standing in the wings of your future dream job down the line.
Moving away from fashion, you also have a book club! Can you share a bit more about it and what motivated you to start it?
@angels.reading.club is a monthly reading club based in Los Angeles that I started in January of this year. We love to bring community together to read, enjoy a nice glass of wine, and chat about life, love, and themes of the book. We read one book a month that I share on the 1st of every month, and then we meet up at the end of the month. My new year's resolution going into 2024 was to read one book a month, as I found myself spending way too much time on my phone and wanting to disconnect more. I ended 2024 reading more than 12 books, which had been the most I had read since college. So many friends had been reaching out loving the books I was reading and expressed interest in wanting to join a book club, and voila Angels was born!
What's been your favorite read so far that you would recommend to someone just getting back into reading
Oh okay I am going to give you a couple across different genres. Fun fiction comedy that plays into LA pop culture, ‘Perfume & Pain’ by Anna Dorn; also this is set to become a feature film with Clea Duvall writing and producing. For memoirs, I really loved Julia Fox’s ‘Down The Drain’ she has had such an intense and interesting life, I am not sure how she is still alive to tell the tale. We just read ‘The Hounding’ by Xenobe Purvis that has fictional details but is based on the true story of 5 sisters in Oxfordshire London in 1700 who were said to turn into dogs.
In general, what’s been inspiring you lately?
I am always most inspired by movies and TV, I grew up in household where I was either watching Friends with my mom or Seinfeld with my dad, and then as soon as I was a teenager I was going to the movies every Friday night; seeing Mean Girls at 15 in the theater with my best friends was life changing. A couple weeks ago I saw a 35mm screening of Diana Ross’s “Mahogany” at the Los Feliz Theatre, it was my first time seeing it and the fashion is fabulous, so inspiring!
Before we let you *almost* go, where can we find more of you?!
Let’s Get Deep
What’s your theme song? (A song that you can’t stop listening to that totally describes the current time of your life?)
I have been obsessed with the new Haim album that came out at the beginning of the Summer, dare I say it was the album of the Summer
Night In or Night Out?
Night Out (but home by like 10)
When do you feel most you?
Vintage shopping with my husband
What’s something you’re obsessed with right now?
Call or Text? Call
When was the last time you cried?
Earlier today
When’s the last time you laughed (like a big belly laugh)?
Earlier today
Current favorite follow on social media?
Lastly, what’s one thing you would tell your 16-year-old self?
Keep working hard, it pays off
Find More of Tori here:
@torikohrt / @angels.reading.club / @torikohrt
Listen to Tori’s Playlist: Here
