Deskside with: Jessica Matlin
On building brands, being a podcast pioneer, and bridging editorial and commerce
We are so excited to share this one!
Jessica Matlin is a powerhouse in the beauty and luxury retail space. As Director of Beauty and Home at Moda Operandi, she is a master curator—driving merchandising strategy and editorial direction for both established and emerging brands. She is also co-founder and co-host of the groundbreaking beauty podcast, Fat Mascara, which has garnered over 10 million downloads since its 2016 launch and features intimate conversations with industry icons from Bobbi Brown and Charlotte Tilbury to celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jane Fonda. Before joining the Moda team, Matlin's distinguished career included roles as Beauty Director at Harper's Bazaar and editorial positions at publications like Cosmopolitan, W, Allure, and Lucky magazines.
We sat down with Matlin to discuss brand building, her pioneering work in podcasting, and her unique perspective on bridging editorial and commerce—plus a few of her favorite things. Here's what she shared:
Your career spans journalism, podcasting, and retail. How has your understanding of beauty evolved across these different roles, and how do they inform each other?
For years, as a journalist, my job was to know where the wind was blowing next in beauty and make it feel relevant to whichever audience I was speaking to. I had to adapt to the reader for long-established publications as varied as Teen Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
With Fat Mascara, I utilize these journalistic skills, of course, but the true challenge was to build an audience and a new digital brand. Together with my partner, Jenn Sullivan, I was able to create something that broadened my view of the beauty world. Also, being an entrepreneur gives me insight and empathy to the people who I work with and interview on the show, and now work with as a retailer.
When I started at Moda from editorial, it was like grad school: I had to learn a new language. However, after having conversations with founders and executives for years, I felt like I knew what questions to anticipate. The curiosity and genuine interest in people that fueled my early career has also proved invaluable in retail.
Fat Mascara was a pioneering beauty podcast when it launched in 2016. What gap did you see in the beauty conversation at that time, and how has the landscape changed since then?
In 2015 I was listening to WTF with Marc Maron (my boyfriend had turned me onto him) and Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast. You have a comedian and an author (respectively) talking to other creatives for an hour or so really casually about their work, sharing great stories from their childhoods and long-forgotten gigs. They talked about their influences. It was amazing. I was standing in my studio apartment listening to this, and I said to myself (maybe aloud?), “Is there a show like this for beauty? I have to do this.” I thought about I would tell people about something I’d just learned that week: Terry de Gunzburg of By Terry (former creative director of YSL Beaute), had created this one really offbeat product to use on a David Lynch film – it’s good light in a bottle. Who wouldn’t want to hear that? I was bursting with that tidbit, along with a million great stories like this from my time at W, Allure, and at Cosmopolitan (where I worked at this point). I wanted a place to put them. I wrote down the idea on a Google doc that day, and the rest was history.
What’s funny is that when we launched the podcast during Fashion Week 2016, people had no idea what a podcast was. The day it came out, my friends and colleagues were excited for me, but moments later there was an awkward, “Cool! So what is it exactly?” Even some of our guests had no idea what they were recording or where they could find it afterward.
I’m proud that Fat Mascara created an entirely new conversation in beauty. It’s been a big part of my life, and when I look at how other people have interpreted the genre, it makes me happy to see that we have had an impact.
From your years as a beauty editor, what makes a brand's PR pitch truly stand out? What common pitfalls should brands avoid when approaching editors?
I pay extra attention to emails that are one-offs for me versus blanket press releases. I’m not a prima donna demanding a custom release here—what I’m saying is that a quick email or heads up sharing a few details about a story or project will get my attention versus a standard release is a good strategy. You can even just change the subject line.
Having worked as Beauty Director at Harper's Bazaar and now leading beauty and home at Moda Operandi, how do you see the relationship between editorial and commerce evolving?
Media and commerce have been enmeshed for a while now, and it’s mutually beneficial for both partners, and I don’t see that going away anytime soon. I think some of the commerce can go beyond affiliate links and listicles – I would like to see how some titles could build richer partnerships with retailers and brands that make editorial sense. Between the combined talent on editorial and retail teams, what kinds of creative collaborations could you build that really make a brand or retailer stand out? That’s the kind of work I loved doing at Harper’s Bazaar. You can go beyond lists and Awards franchises.
Quick Hits:
Apps: Moda Operandi, NYT, Spotify, Audible
Restaurant: In New York, Odeon with friends for the Trinity: fries, Diet Coke, and white wine. At home in Hoboken? Anthony David’s for takeout.
Current Read or Daily Media Diet: WWD, BoF, NYT, New York Mag, The Guardian
Item You’re Eyeing: This fabulous arrangement from Diane James.
Piece of Life Advice: Keep your eyes on your own paper.