Pair of Kings: A Fashion and Culture Podcast · Pair of Kings

Born DuBois on Viral Murder Mystery Parties, Vaquera's Paris Runway, Rick Owens Auditions, and What It Takes to Make It in Fashion | 13.18

·1 hr 43 min·3 clips

Saul Thompson and Michael Smith bring Lauren Born Dubois into the room and start the episode already in motion. The introduction is part guest intro, part running joke about murders, fashion work, and trying to name everything she does without making it sound ridiculous. It stays loose on purpose. From there, the conversation moves through the many jobs Dubois has in fashion and the strange overlap between modeling, character, and performance, with her treating each part like something she has already lived through. The fit check lands immediately. Michael’s indoor Ugg boots and the pair of Vicaragines covered in bleach become part of the texture, not a sidebar. Born Dubois talks about modeling shoots as a place where character matters as much as clothing. She keeps coming back to the idea that the right move is often to ask what the character is before asking about the shoe. That sounds like a joke. It is also the method. The episode gets funnier when she starts talking about improv classes. One teacher told her she was not a team player. He also told her to try stand-up because she kept making too many jokes and taking too much of the shine. She takes that as an insult and a compliment at the same time. The story works because it says more about the fashion world than a tidy industry explanation ever could. Another story comes from a Yale improv show where somebody suggested an abortion clinic as the location and the whole room went silent. Nobody knew how to recover. That dead air becomes its own lesson in timing, pressure, and what happens when a room loses the plot. The hosts stay in banter mode while still pulling out the useful parts. Fashion keeps looking like a performance job. Good taste here is not a mood board. It is a skill set that includes reading a room, making a quick choice, and keeping the joke alive without flattening the work. Born Dubois sounds like someone who has been asked to be a role, a look, and a punchline at the same time, and learned how to use that pressure. Pair of Kings keeps the pace rapid and the judgments casual, but the conversation still lands on something sturdier than gossip. It is about making a self in public and still knowing when the shoe is doing the work for you. That is why the episode holds together. It is chaotic, but it is not vague.

As heard by us

Fashion talk with model-shoot looseness, improv scars, and plenty of personality.

The episode treats fashion talk like a social scene, and that is where it works best. Born Dubois moves through New York murder notoriety, model-shoot improvisation, modeling, improv class, and the teacher who told her she was not a team player with enough ease that the…

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Why you'd press play

Fashion-industry chatter with improv bruises and a guest who has actor, singer, stylist, and model cred.

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