Getting Ready For NYFW With Brett Cooper
Brett Cooper began her New York Fashion Week the way few women in Manhattan did that morning. At 6 a.m., she was feeding pigs on her farm in Tennessee.
"That was the last thing I did before we left," she tells me, seated beside me at the Elena Velez show on a Thursday evening in Chelsea.
By 9:50 she, her husband, and her baby were on a flight out of Nashville. They landed in New York around one. Lunch was first, at Maison Pickle on the Upper West Side, where the fried chicken sandwich arrives molten with Gruyère. "I was basically wearing the cheese," she says. "Totally worth it."
Traveling with a baby, she admits, still spikes her adrenaline. "Not because I'm worried about him. I just don't want to bother anyone." But he's a great flyer. Old enough now to notice faces, grin at strangers, and wave for the first time. "He was making friends on the plane. That part makes it sweeter."
Hair and makeup came to her hotel. She worked again with the same artist who did her glam for her first live show in New York last year, Yuko Takahashi. "It felt right to bring her back," Brett tells me. "There's something grounding about keeping your team close."
Her look that evening was understated.
A black dress rented through Rent the Runway. Dr. Martens. A perfect smokey eye. I slacked the Gen Z girls on the Evie team a photo. "Brett omg now I need that dress," replied Rachel.
"I rent almost everything," she tells me. "I don't need a closet full of one night dresses." The shipment she planned for her Fox appearance didn't arrive in time, so Fox News pulled options for her instead. She shrugs with a flexibility that makes everything she does look incredibly easy for a young mom with millions of followers.
"Are you Brett Cooper?" She must have had 10 people approach her in the span of seconds as she’s walking to the front row. We meet George Santos, who informs us that Brett is in 50% of his conversations. Iconic.
She's wearing a sapphire ring (her baby’s birthstone) that her brother gave her when her son was born. A David Yurman bracelet from her husband. Earrings discovered at the bottom of her suitcase minutes before leaving for the airport. "It felt like a little gift," she says. "Like it was supposed to be there."
Motherhood has altered even the way she packs. "I focus so much on his things that I forget about mine," she laughs. For someone who's recognized as often as she is, she's surprisingly down to earth.
Between fittings and shows, she'll tape an episode of her YouTube show, this one about fashion and politics and where the two intersect. "If I'm at Fashion Week, I want to talk about what it represents," she says.
The next morning starts early with a fitting at Fox. She often rents looks for television, but the network keeps a wardrobe on hand. After filming, her husband has already planned a Valentine's dinner at a restaurant in the city.
New York isn't new to her. She grew up coming here for auditions, represented for years by CESD Talent Agency. "I've been coming here for work since I was eight," she says. "It feels familiar in a strange way."
Not many women can say they wake up at 6 a.m. to take care of pigs and a baby and make it to NYFW by night, looking effortlessly gorgeous with a smokey eye. Was she going to the afterparty, I wondered? No, she missed her baby.
As I'm writing this not even 30 minutes after the show ended, X is exploding because a video of Clavicular, the viral looksmaxxer who walked Elena Velez's show, was filmed meeting Brett Cooper.
“Liv! Hi! You look incredible!” Brett exclaims. We're backstage with Liv Schmidt, the founder of the Skinni Societe, who the mainstream media tried to cancel a while back. Liv was dropped by her modeling agency Elite and was now walking in her first NYFW show with Elena Velez. Brett recognized her even with her show makeup on and ironically had reached out to see if we'd do a profile on her during her cancelation to help stand up for her.
Loyal to her friends and a great wife and mother, it's inspiring to see how Brett does it all with such graciousness and the high energy of a young woman.
As for the rest of her NYFW plans? Aside from the upcoming Evie party, filming hits and spending the weekend enjoying the city with her family is her priority.