The former Vogue editor and content strategist spills her secrets on self-care, sleep, and how she’s untying her worth from her work.
Zara Wong Is More Than ‘The Girl With the Cool Job’
The former Vogue editor and content strategist spills her secrets on self-care, sleep, and how she’s untying her worth from her work.
Welcome to The Wind Down, a monthly interview series on Bed Threads Journal. Here, we speak candidly to experts and thought-leaders across a range of disciplines on, well, winding down, and what self-care looks like, actually. For this instalment, we speak to Zara Wong.
I f you ask Zara Wong where to get an ice cream in Sydney, you won’t get a simple answer.
“I like Cow and the Moon overall,” she says. “But also the creaminess of Rivareno, the ‘Let’s go camping’ flavour at Bodalla and the old schoolness of Gelato Franco. And there’s something to be said about how Gelato Messina has come to define and do so much for Sydney gelato.”
It’s this commitment to excellence – whether it’s dairy treats or vintage jewellery – that makes Zara one of the most coveted editors and curators in the Australian fashion and beauty industry. Her resume includes stints at Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, WWD, MECCA, and the GM of Brand and Content at luxury fashion retailer Aje.
“I’ve always been so curious and want to find the best of the best,” Zara tells Bed Threads Journal. “Whether it’s for travels, how to do your laundry, shopping, cooking… I like doing, seeing, having and experiencing nice things.”
And if you subscribe to her popular newsletter, Screenshot This, you get to experience the fruits of this labour on the regular. Each week, Zara curates the best of fashion, beauty and culture for her thousands of loyal followers, from the perfect wardrobe staples to an article or podcast she’s loved.
But for a fashion and beauty insider who doesn’t like to settle, Zara is remarkably down to earth, sharing how she stays true to herself in an industry that can take itself very seriously. “While I loved fashion, I really loved the business of fashion, the craft, the history, and the skill in styling, designing and words. I was less interested in the status side of [fashion], I suppose, and was so much more in awe of the world of fashion,” she said. “This kept me really focused on why I wanted to be there rather than having to mould my personality to fit in.”
We sat down with Zara in the Sydney home she shares with her husband and toddler, to talk about self-care, wardrobe must-haves, and how she’s untying her worth from her work.
I love sleep. Self-care is getting eight hours of sleep.
While I loved fashion, I really loved the business of fashion, the craft, the history, and the skill in styling, designing and words. I was less interested in the status side of it.
A friend once described me as “the girl who has a cool job at a cool company”. Sometimes your own sense of value or self-worth can be wrapped up in it… It was nice being on maternity leave and having a break from that.