The Muse and the Dream: Dara's Story

Dara is a model, stylist, and fashion director at Interview magazine. From her beginnings in San Diego to the iconic runways of New York, Dara speaks of a journey that is a testament to creativity and conviction. Recognized for her bold, visionary style, she views fashion as an art of crafting desire and glamour, where the method of persuasion is as crucial as the message itself. Her styling for Hunter Schafer and Troye Sivan highlights a unique blend of raw talent, intuitive expertise, and hard work. She’s walked the runways for Marc Jacobs, Kenzo, and Moschino; posed across the pages of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar; and styled for an impressive array of brands like Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, and Miu Miu. What she sees as contemporary now is everyday optimism—and fluidity in interpretation, just like images.

Episode Highlights:

• Growing up in San Diego with a creative mother and a pop-culture-obsessed father, Allen recalls watching Disney movies, writing in cursive, immersing in arts and crafts, and wanting to be an animator.  
• She describes herself as a child being in her own “little world,” a feeling that contributed to her strong sense of self as an adult.
• With a level of conviction required for creative pursuits and an early interest in image-making, Allen cherishes the performative aspects of both modeling and styling.
• Her career in New York took off quickly, through connections to Candy magazine, the VAQUERA label, and stylist Ian Bradley. 
• Allen says the unique thing about her generation’s access to information—and noise—is “this real emphasis on understanding your history and the context and everything that kind of surrounds what we’re doing.” 
• Allen became fashion director at Interview magazine, thinking of the role as writing with clothes and writing with photos. 
• She recognizes a sense of absurdity in the fashion world and emphasizes the performative aspects of everyday life. 
• When asked what’s contemporary now, Allen says, “optimism; levity,” and speaks to enjoying even the challenging parts of the work, and fluidity. 

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