This document is an interview with fashion designer Whitney Port in the magazine Hello Fashion. It discusses Port's reality television career on The Hills and The City over a decade ago, and how she has since established herself as a respected fashion designer with her brand Whitney Eve. Though she benefited from the exposure of reality television, she still faces some stigma from "fashion snobs". However, she has proven herself through her successful brand. The article also touches on Port's relationship with her The City co-star Olivia Palermo, which was portrayed as rivalry on the show but they have matured and moved on professionally.

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3. 23HELLOFASHION.COM
HFM INTERVIEW
W
RealityTV star-
turned-designer
WHITNEY PORT
talks to HFM about
taking on fashion
industry snobs,
preparing for her
nuptials and the
prospect of reuniting
on screen with her
The City co-star
Olivia Palermo...
Let’s cut to the chase, HFM suggests. If you
had the opportunity to do it all again, would
you? Whitney Port doesn’t hesitate: “For sure.
100 percent. The only negative experiences
I had were maybe just the producers trying to
make more drama over things.” Would those
be Olivia Palermo ‘things’? “Yeah,” comes the
blunt reply.
It’s almost ten years since Whitney made
her MTV reality show The Hills, alongside
Lauren Conrad and a gang of LA fashion
wannabes. The series’ spin-off, The City,
took her to New York, where our Californian Snow
White was pitted, as the MTV’s producers would have
it, against New York’s very own Park Avenue Princess,
Olivia Palermo. It was a battle of young fashionistas that
continues to be a source of debate – even if
L
Dress, £2,970,
Julien Macdonald
W H I T N E Y
T h e w o r l d
a c c o r d i n g t o . . .

4. 24 HELLOFASHION.COM
HFM INTERVIEW
the protagonists have clearly
moved on.
Whitney, now living back
in Los Angeles, turned 30 last
month, and is set to marry her
fiancé – former producer on The
City, Tim Rosenman later this
year. Her fashion label, Whitney
Eve, is in its sixth year, and going
from strength to strength. But
she’s all too aware, four years
after the show ended, that she’s
still required to prove she’s more
than just another ‘reality star’.
“Definitely,” she says, post-
HFM shoot. “The TV show was
amazing because I got great
exposure from it and it gave me
those ‘eyes’ (910,000 Instagram
followers and counting) that
I wanted when I launched my
collection but, at the same time,
there was a stigma.”
And that remains, to a degree.
We meet a couple of days after
London Fashion Week’s end,
where she was a fixture on the
front rows, while promoting
her own collection. Influenced
by her favourite cities – “LA’s
ease and comfort, New York’s
structured masculinity and
London’s colour and risk” – her
designs have steadily won favour
in the States and she’s confident
the UK will be equally receptive
(available at whitneyeve.com).
Yet, she’s honest
enough to recognise
the fashion world is
not always a level
playing field. The
“snobbery” in
the industry is,
she says, “kind
of gross. I’m of
the mind every
designer, everyone
in the industry, should support
one another”. Her aim is to
convince, and she’s succeeded so
far in silencing the naysayers by
“producing good product. Then
people start to take notice”.
Raised in Santa Monica,
California, by dad, fashion
company owner, Jeffrey, and
mum, Vicki, Whitney is one of
five siblings. She was privately
educated at Crossroads School,
a favourite amongst the Malibu
celebrity set with former pupils
including Gwyneth Paltrow and
Kate Hudson. Graduating from
the University of South California
with a degree in gender studies,
a career in fashion was always
in her sights, but it was while
applying for an internship at
Teen Vogue’s West Coast office
that MTV came calling.
The magazine’s bosses had
agreed to allow the cameras
into their office, and, well,
both they and MTV’s
producers thought
she was perfect for
the ‘cast’. At her
intern’s interview, she
remembers, “Lauren
Conrad walked
through the doors of
the waiting room.
I’d watched Laguna
Beach and I was, like,
‘Oh my God, I get what
I’m on. I’m totally on her
spin-off show’.”
Over the course of four
years, the MTV audience
fell for her, so much so that
Whitney with fiancé
Tim Rosenman (right)
and with Olivia
Palermo at the DVF
show in 2009 (below)
W
Dress, £1,112,
Natasha Zinko
Shoes, £845,
Christian Louboutin
Earrings, £348,
Azzaro

5. 25HELLOFASHION.COM
‘ T H E T V S H O W
WA S A M A Z I N G
B E C AU S E I
G O T G R E AT
E X P O S U R E F RO M
I T. I T G AV E M E
T H O S E “ E Y E S ” I
WA N T E D W H E N
I L AU N C H E D M Y
C O L L E C T I O N ’

6. HFM INTERVIEW
when she landed her dream job
with Diane von Furstenberg in
New York, Whitney was handed
a show of her very own, The City.
Only she wasn’t quite on her own
– enter, Olivia.
Early on, Whitney sensed
there might be trouble ahead:
“The executive producer for The
Hills, who then went on and did
The City, told me that initially he
thought Lauren and I weren’t
going to get along. He hoped
that, but actually it turned out
we became good friends. So
then, for The City, I think, they
knew… ‘We’re going to make
it, Whitney’s a fish out of water
in New York City. And Olivia’s
got her act together.’ She’s like
a girl about town so they wanted
that whole dichotomy between
us. She was always so nice to me.
That was the thing. She just has
this undertone of kind of being
a know-it-all. Then you take that
into an editing room…”
It might not have been so
pleasant at the time, but both
benefited from their so-called
rivalry, and both have gone on
to make a name in fashion for
themselves. In 2012 Whitney
became a judge on the eighth
season of Britain & Ireland’s
Next Top Model.
Despite their supposed enmity,
we wonder if she’d ever consider
a notional ‘Whitney and Olivia
Show’. There’s an “erm”, then
a long pause, then a question
– “To go against each other all
the time?” – as if she’s already
exhausted at just the thought.
But we’ve misread her. “I mean,
yeah,” she brightens up. “Now
it could be fun because we’re
mature. It could be fun but it just
depends… I’m not in a place to
do a show about drama stuff.”
Quite remarkably, given the circles
they mix in, the pair has only
bumped into each other once
since MTV brought the show to an
end after two seasons. “We were in
line on the red carpet last year. We
said, ‘Hello’, and kind of waited
together. It was just before she got
married, and that’s the only time.”
Speaking of which, later this
‘ T H E Y
WA N T E D
T H AT
D I C H O TO M Y
B E T W E E N
O L I V I A A N D I
B U T S H E WA S
A L WAY S S O
N I C E TO M E ’
26 HELLOFASHION.COM
W
Playsuit,
£1,257, Osman

7. Dress, £1,455,
Natasha Zinko
Shoes, £665,
Christian Louboutin
Bracelet,
£257, Mawi

8. ‘ I WA S T H E
N I C E G I R L
T H AT J U S T
P L AY E D B Y T H E
RU L E S . I A M
N I C E B U T
I D O N ’ T T H I N K
I ’ M B O R I N G
A N D I H AV E
S T U F F TO S AY ’
Top, £1,050,
Zeynep Kartal
Skirt, £845, Mary
Katrantzou at
Harvey Nichols
Shoes, £375,
Jimmy Choo
Earrings, £100,
John & Pearl