Laila Gohar has never been one to follow the rules. Her catering business, Sunday Supper—which she began on a “leap of faith”—evolved out of improvised dinner parties, and though she dreams up new menus regularly, she’s not a fan of following recipes. So it’s no surprise that when it comes to her work wardrobe, Gohar relies on instinct more than convention: She’s been known to cook all day in her Sunday best, and has ditched her It bag for pockets. Here, she tells us what kinds of outfits she cooks up in—and out—of the kitchen.
Fresh Out the Oven
I divide my time between the kitchen and the office. When we have an event I
m in the kitchen and when I’m in the kitchen, I
m usually in comfortable clothes but—it’s embarrassing—I wear my nice clothes, even though I probably shouldn’t. I wear everything in the kitchen, whatever I would wear normally. And then I put an apron on that I got at the artist supply store over my clothes and I wear kitchen clogs—I have metallic ones I
m partial to. It’s impossible to stay chic when it’s hot and humid out, especially when you’re running around in the kitchen. I find that wearing makeup makes the situation worse, so I don
t really wear that much when I’m cooking.
There’s a lot of Comme des Garçons in my wardrobe. I just got these Comme pants and I ve been wearing them nonstop. They re really structured and really oversize and made from this incredibly stiff fabric. I joke to my boyfriend that I look like a potato sack. I’ll wear them with this Opening Ceremony top that I love—it’s red and neoprene and also really oversize. If I’m going more casual, I’ll wear the pants with a white T-shirt for a more relaxed look.
Office Space At the office, it’s pretty much the same—minus the apron and clogs. I don’t really change how I dress for the office, I wear what I wear in my regular life and that’s a lot of boxy structured things. I don’t like flowy, stretchy materials. So I wear a lot of neoprene and good cotton, because they make for interesting shapes. I’m into anything that’s sculptural right now—earrings, dresses, skirts. Besides Comme des Garçons, I really love Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Creatures of Comfort, and Jacquemus. What I wear on any given day really depends on how I m feeling. Right now, it’s a lot of really structured, oversize things, with sculptural shapes. I’ll basically do that until I’m kind of over it and then move on to something else. I go through these phases—for a while, I’ll look like that and then something will shift and I’ll be into something else. It’s an evolution.
Grandmother Knows Best I’m kind of a grandma. I tend to like things that have sort of a granny vibe. When it comes to shoes, I basically wear what I describe as old woman shoes. And Maryam Nassir Zadeh makes the best old woman shoes! I’ll wear those ones to the office because they’re cool but also they’re comfortable. I also wear granny panties—my friend Daphne [Javitch] has a line, Ten, and I love their panties. First and foremost, granny style is about being comfortable. Which is important because to do what I do I need to be comfortable.
And then the second part of it is that it’s when something is a little bit dated but in a cool way. It’s hard to describe. You know when you see grannies, and they just look chic, and comfortable but also like they aren’t, I don’t know, trying really hard? I’m really into that.
I’m not really into bags. Actually, I kind of hate bags. Recently I’ve just been stashing things in my pocket. I have a big wallet that I can carry almost like a clutch. I just can’t be bothered with a bag. As for jewelry, I wear a little bit. I’m the kind of person that wears two things and never takes them off, so they have to be things that I can do everything in and sleep in. I usually wear a gold chain my grandma gave me and I have these really thin gold bands that I wear on my fingers. I do, however, like to have fun with my earrings and wear ones that are really big or really sculptural. And those I’ll switch out, depending on the event. I have tons and tons of different kinds of earrings and I’ll mix them up depending on my mood.
