Back Row with Amy Odell

On this holiday episode of The Back Row Podcast, Amy Odell shares a special installment of Retail Confessions, featuring an anonymous interview with a former Harrods sales associate.

The interviewee discussed what it was really like working on the shop floor at one of the world’s most famous luxury department stores — from intense sales pressure and demanding clients to the unspoken rules of the über-rich. To preserve anonymity, the interviewee’s responses are read by Amy’s husband, Rick.

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Amy Odell talks with model and writer Lauren Chan about what she calls a "recession of size inclusion" in fashion. After years of progress, brands are reverting back to casting “straight size” models by default —and the consequences go far beyond aesthetics.

Lauren shares a fashion week story that captures the problem perfectly: a major entertainment cover shoot featuring a size-12/14 talent had no designer samples available, Amy and Lauren discuss why it matters when the fashion industry ignores bigger bodies; how AI will affect body diversity in fashion; the impact of GLP-1s; and more.

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FOR PART TWO OF THIS PODCAST, sign up for Back Row Premium in Apple
or Spotify. In part two, Amy gets Dana Thomas's thoughts on Emily in Paris after watching it for the first time; how French attitudes toward plastic surgery compare to those in America; and how the French feel about the Bezos billionaire lifestyle.

In this episode of the Back Row podcast, veteran fashion journalist Dana Thomas joins Amy Odell to talk about Emily in Paris! She reveals what it was really like to actually live the fantasy of moving to Paris at 18 years old to work in fashion, how it influenced her style, and how actual French fashion is so different from the show.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Why Emily in Paris works as fantasy
01:30 Dana Thomas’s real “Emily in Paris” story
03:40 Modeling and learning French beauty and style rules
06:40 French chic vs. American cool
09:50 Life as a teenage model in the 1980s
12:00 Falling in love and moving to Paris
14:00 How French women actually dress
17:20 Scarves are very important
22:30 The French style formula, explained
26:20 Handbags, pockets, and why French women don’t carry much
29:00 Men’s style in Paris vs. the "Emily in Paris" fantasy

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Gods & Kings (book)
Fashionopolis (book)
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This episode was produced by Amy Odell and edited by Amy Odell and Jonathan Voytko.
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Gwyneth Paltrow has long been known for promoting various wellness fads that drive experts crazy. Long before she was publicly singing the praises of raw dairy products, she would publish "detox" diets each January. These were the foundation of Goop's wellness business. In this excerpt from Amy's latest book Gwyneth: The Biography, hear about how Goop began, how its viral diet advice generated great controversy (along with invaluable notoriety) in its early days, and how health and medical experts felt about it all.

Get the full Gwyneth audiobook here.

Get Gwyneth: The Biography in hardcover or ebook here.

Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio from Gwyneth by Amy Odell, read by Chante McCormick. Copyright © 2025 by Amy Odell. Used with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 

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What can we glean about Condé Nast's politics from recent current events? Teen Vogue has been shuttered, but Vanity Fair's Trump 2.0 package was a journalistic achievement of the sort rarely seen these days. Anna Wintour is a known Democratic supporter and fundraiser, yet she's been cozying up to the Trump-supporting Bezoses for Met Gala money. Amy Odell is joined by comedians and cultural critics Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton, who host the highly addictive and excellent Good Noticings podcast, to figure out what this all says about Condé Nast right now. Plus, Melania Trump’s $40 million documentary, and how it ties back to all of this.

Chapters:
0:00 – Welcoming the Good Noticings podcast
0:37 – Vanity Fair’s major Trump 2.0 article and what it says about Condé Nast
4:42 – Anna Wintour is leaning into controversy
6:30 – Why did the Trump team do the Vanity Fair story?
7:15 – Christopher Anderson’s photo spread
8:53 – The discourse around Karoline Leavitt’s lip filler
15:16 – Reacting to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos sponsoring the Met Gala
25:34 – The fashion relevancy of Melania Trump’s $40 million documentary
29:26 – Would Vogue put Melania on the cover? Speculation!
33:06 – How will controversy affect the Met Gala’s future?

Links & Resources:
Good Noticings Podcast

Apple⁠⁠

Spotify
TikTok: @goodnoticingspod
Instagram: @goodnoticingspodThe Olivia Nuzzi Good Noticings episode

Claire Parker Instagram: @clairethescare
Ashley Hamilton Instagram: @ashleyhammm

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