Stacy London wants you to wear whatever you want.
Ms. London, a fashion expert and entrepreneur, is best known for the show “What Not to Wear,” which she co-hosted with Clinton Kelly on TLC for over a decade. But as she’s changed, so have her views toward style: She no longer wants people to adhere to a specific set of fashion rules.
“Style is about the individual, and that is never about whether or not you are participating in trends,” Ms. London, 55, said. “It’s about what you are doing with your raw material, your body and your self-expression.”
“What Not to Wear” ended in 2013, but the co-hosts teamed up again for “Wear Whatever the F You Want,” which airs on Prime Video. Instead of rules, it focuses on channeling inner fashion desires. “I may not think this is the best we could have done, but have I made you the happiest? Because that’s the goal, and that’s the shift between where we were and where we are now as a society,” Ms. London said.
In addition to the show, Ms. London designs clothes for women going through menopause for her QVC line By Stacy London. “I still love style and I still love fashion, but I wear suits, I wear trousers. I feel more confident that way than I did wearing skintight pencil skirts and five-inch heels,” she said.
Ms. London moved into a three-bedroom apartment in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood in Brooklyn in 2006. It’s filled with racks of clothes, art and dinosaur knickknacks.
“I knocked out every single wall, so it’s just a duplex loft with no doors,” she said. “There’s a huge staircase in the middle of the apartment that leads down to the bedroom and the dressing room.”
Ms. London shares her home with Dora, a “completely vindictive” 8-year-old Morkie (Maltese-Yorkshire Terrier).
SLEEP MODE It depends on what Saturday night was like, but I can sleep in anywhere from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There’s just something about sleeping in. My bedroom is a dark little cocoon, and Dora sleeps with me. I love my sheets and my mattress, and sometimes I’ll get coffee and get back into bed and read. I have a whole separate shelf with books on my reading list, and I’m slowly working through them.
FINDING THE CURE I’m obsessed with Salt’s Cure’s brunch and sitting on their patio. You can go one of two ways: You can do salty or sweet, or salty and sweet. I can never decide, but I usually start salty and then go sweet. The egg, avocado and hash brown is one section of my breakfast, and the gluten-free chocolate chip oatmeal griddle cakes are the second. I always have to order extra eggs because Dora’s going to eat them. Yes, I’m that person.
WALK IT OUT I love walking to Dumbo, and I like to go to Brooklyn Flea. I’ve found incredible designer pieces there for really reasonable prices. Some things that people wouldn’t necessarily know, more so ’90s designers that I love, like Romeo Gigli. Also, because I love tchotchkes, it may be something like accessories or a weird little trinket I want to put on a shelf. If I’m in Dumbo, I’ll also without fail go to Front General Store, which has vintage clothing and jewelry. Walking by the carousel is always fun for Dora. There’s tons of dogs she could potentially attack, but she also loves being by the water.
PERFECT FIT I’ve been working with my friend Suleika Jaouad, who recently went on tour. She does not love shopping, and she doesn’t love styling. She has great taste, but I don’t think she trusts herself enough. So on Sundays, I’ve been doing fittings for her here, just in my clothes. She’d rather wear things of mine that she likes and she can fit and she knows.
COFFEE CATCH-UP I like to go to Liz’s Book Bar, which is a bar and a bookstore. It’s a lovely atmosphere, and I’ll meet my friends there. They’re my neighbors, and we try to make a point to see each other on the weekends. I might order an iced latte, or I might get a bottle of rosé.
SUPPORTING LOCAL I’ve been in Carroll Gardens for so long that I’ve really watched this area gentrify completely and utterly overnight. It’s been hard since Covid to watch so many small businesses not make it, so I try to be as supportive as possible. There are two stores I love on Court Street, Rue Saint Paul and Woods Grove. If I’m in the mood to shop, I’ll go there.
TAKEOUT TIME There’s nothing better than Han Dynasty. I order the rice noodles stir-fried with scallions, egg and shredded chicken. The noodles are oily, and they come with chili oil on the side. I find that it’s spicy but not salty, so I add some salt. Then I’ll literally eat an entire container. Currently, I’m watching “The Righteous Gemstones,” but I’m a scripted TV connoisseur. I watch everything scripted.
HOUSEKEEPING The thing I have to do to cap off my Sundays is to go through my entire week. I’ll look at my calendar, coordinate with my assistant and coordinate with my housekeeper, who takes care of Dora when I travel. I get very overwhelmed with too much information, and frankly, there’s a lot going on right now with the promotion of my new show. I have the best assistant in the world — she’s like my other half.
SNUGGLES My scrubbing and polishing — what I call my skin care and teeth polishing — routine can take about 40 minutes. Dora goes and sleeps in her little anti-anxiety bed and then we go downstairs. I usually go downstairs to bed before her and then I wait for the little pitter-patter of her feet before I turn off the light so she can get up on the bed, too.
