Three Questions With Gwen Stefani

woman with Gwen Stefani

Because I’ve been waiting for this moment for the past 22 years…

At this point I’ve met more celebrities than I could list for you. Not to say that I don’t occasionally get excited, I mean, I definitely sent this pic of me, Tori Spelling and Ian Ziering (hi, 90210!) to half of my friends because I was so amped. But, that said, when I got the email invite to a party for L.A.M.B. sunglasses and gx Eyewear, I actually had to stop, take a breath, and re-read the email to make sure I was reading it correctly.

It did indeed say that Gwen was going to be there and, by some act of god, the amazing PR people were nice enough to grant me an interview with her. I sent screen shots of the email to half of my friends from college, because I knew they would know how exciting this was for me…I’ve been a Gwen and No Doubt fan since I was 12. I pretty much wore out my Tragic Kingdom CD and, not to brag or anything (*but actually bragging*), but I’m even on the fan-level of knowing about No Doubt’s album before Tragic Kingdom (yep, they had one and not many people know about it!) called The Beacon Street Collection. That’s the sign of a true fan, guys. Just saying. Also, check out “Open the gate” and “Squeal” on that album cause they’re still favorites.

I debated whether or not to show Gwen the above photo.

This was one of my first No Doubt concerts (one of 21!) and I was 18 here, a freshman in college and just so excited to see No Doubt perform live at Roseland Ballroom. I did end up showing the photo to Gwen at the end of my interview (thank you for the courage, champagne) and she was like “whoa! That’s amazing! How old are you here?! That was so long ago!” At the end of the interview Gwen thanked me for coming to so many of her concerts, and I pretty much walked away on cloud nine after finally getting to meet my all-time favorite idol.

I managed to hold back my tears (when we were looking at the old photo I could feel them coming!) and we definitely all got a good laugh when the PR person asked “why didn’t you tell me you were such a fan when we were emailing?!” I replied, “because I was afraid you wouldn’t let me interview her if I told you!” So. much. joy, guys. Seriously.

And now for the actual interview…

Where did you get your inspiration for the L.A.M.B. sunglasses and gx Eyewear designs?

Honestly, everything I’ve ever done is selfishly inspired by myself (we laugh together). I’ve wanted to do sunglasses for so long and it never came together, then I finally got the right partners and, weirdly, after having Apollo I needed reading glasses for the first time! It’s weird because my whole family has them and I never needed them before! I wanted them to look good if I have to wear them! And then my son, who’s been wearing glasses since he was probably five inspired me because it was hard to find glasses that were cool and I didn’t get to do the junior’s line until just recently and that’s been super exciting.

It’s just a really fun thing- really trying to make that be like stuff that kids would want to pick themselves, but I also wanted styles that look like shrunken grown up glasses, and that’s a really hard thing to find in the market…so we did a little bit of both. My son helped me design the emoji glasses because he actually stuck emojis on his glasses with a glue gun and I wanted to use his idea! It’s all removable and you can collect different emojis to use every day. Optical has been super shockingly fun to do.

And sunglasses I’ve wanted to do forever…they make such a huge statement. And growing up in the 90s in the hip hop culture, they’re just a huge part of a look, you know? My whole thing about my look has never been one thing, it’s always been about a combination. The masculine and the feminine, the makeup, it’s just all of that combined is what makes that, and sunglasses are a huge part of that.

Tell us about your beauty regimen.

I’m one of those people that’s really simple; I wash my face, put moisturizer on and I’m good to go. Also, I am crazy about makeup. I told Revlon 100 times they’re so smart to pick me because I’m really obsessed with makeup. Weirdly, when you have to wear glasses you can wear a little more makeup and I’m so into that. But I’m quite simple. When you think about it, I’m a girl that’s been in a band since I was 17 years old. I traveled the world on a bus with all guys. You really kind of have to keep it simple, but not makeup-wise (we laugh again). I haven’t worn a red lip all summer but this is my first day back!

If you could give your 22-year-old self any advice what would it be?

That’s a good question. Personal stuff aside, honestly when I look back at everything, the one thing that really worked for me was to just be honest and real and who I am. That’s what won at the end of the day. All that fake-ness is never gonna get you anywhere. Being me worked.