Fashion’s Crystal Ball

Fashion People - Audacy | Puck

In this episode of Fashion People, host Lauren Sherman interviews renowned astrologist Susan Miller, blending personal storytelling with cos

Key takeaways

• Susan Miller's astrological expertise is rooted in both family tradition and personal adversity, including a rare circulatory condition that shaped her resilience.

Main topics

• Susan Miller's personal journey and medical challenges

Notable quotes

"When I was little, it was being happy for Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or my birthday. I would get an attack once a year..." – Susan Miller on her rare medical condition.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a heartfelt exchange between host and guest

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:04) Hello and welcome to Fashion People. I'm Lauren Sherman, writer of Bucks Fashion and Beauty Memo Line Cheat. And today with me on the show is famous astrologist Susan Miller. We chat about her life in publishing and she even makes a prediction about the future of the luxury industry. Speaker 2 (0:22) Before we get going, I wanted to remind you that if you like this podcast, you'll definitely love Puck, where I send an email called Line Sheet. If you're a fashion person, you get that reference. It's an original look at what's really going on inside the fashion and beauty industries. Line Sheet is scoopy, analytical, and above all, fun along with me a subscription to puck gains you access to an unmatched roster of experts reporting on powerful people and companies in entertainment media sports politics finance the art world and much more if you're interested listeners of fashion people get a discount just go to puck.news fashion people to join puck or start a free trial Speaker 2 (1:06) Happy Friday, everyone. Hope you had a great week. This week in line, Rachel Sturgatz outlined the business of being Hailey Bieber. We stan Hailey Bieber. She also has an amazing business that I think is going to get more amazing. We've talked about, Malik and I talked on the podcast about how no one dislikes her. We're obsessed. But Rachel got really good, juicy details on how her businesses are doing, not just road. I highly suggest it. I also wrote about Gwyneth Paltrow's dinner. For Sam Altman, that is supposed to take place this weekend in the Hamptons. As of this recording, it's still taking place. I need to, you know, I'll update, check line sheet. Because maybe by the time line sheet publishes, there will be news. Malik also looked into the increasingly tense situation at J.Crew. They have debt. they're like not for sale, but everything's for sale type vibe. We love the rebranding, but has it worked at retail? Are they too reliant on off price? These are all questions that Malik asks. There's lots to read and debate. I also went to dinner at the wonderful Frances Pennington's house this week. Frances is a Tory Burch executive OG, and she invited many of my allied friends over for a sort of farewell before we head off to Paris for the school year. It was so nice. Speaker 2 (2:23) As we were leaving, you know, I've gotten to know Frances really well being in L.A. And I understand why Tori holds her so close and also understand why she holds Tori so close. A friend of mine, I texted him. I said, oh, man, Frances is just truly the best. And he said, yes. And we also sort of have Tori to thank for this. So it always goes back to Tori. But thank you again to Frances. She's just. really wonderful human being. It was so nice. If I had tears left in me, I would have shed them, but I don't. I can't cry anymore. Okay. I have to admit, I was a bit distracted though. As many of you know, I was profiled in the style issue of Vanity Fair. which is on newsstands next week by this writer, Aidan McLaughlin. He makes fun of the fact that I can't pronounce anything. So it's either McLaughlin or McLaughlin. I don't know. Aidan, you're great. Aidan with an A. It is a very strange feeling to be subject of a proper profile. Obviously, I love attention. I do a job where my name is on everything I write, like everything I make. I like attention. I do this podcast. I'm a presenter. But this kind of attention can feel like a lot, especially the kind of Leo I am. Going back to Susan, you'll see when we talk about it. I'm not supposed to be the subject of a 2,000-word story. And it's nerve-wracking. It's like it was interesting to see. I thought he did a great job. It was interesting to see what he focused on, what he didn't. If you're interested in my work at Puck and you're interested in Puck in general, I suggest you read it. I know many of you do not subscribe. I think you should, as I say at the top of this podcast every single week. There are definitely things I could take issue with. The catty quotes were anonymous. I would really love to know who any of these quote unquote fashion editors were. And there were a lot of really good people interviewed on the record who got cut, who were like, they didn't use my quote. Or I had all these other quotes that were better or whatever. I also. I hate being compared to a gossip columnist because I don't think my male colleagues, I definitely report on gossip, but I wouldn't say that I gossip. I know it's a unique distinction and who really cares. This is amazing to have all this attention, but I don't think my male colleagues who do the same sort of work I do would be considered in that way. And it's just like a little bit grating. But anyway, generally, I think that Aiden really managed to capture who I am. As a person, like it really came through and at my work and in a very flattering way. I thought it was really nice. As one of my old colleagues said, he's like, this is the nicest or the most flat, not nicest, because it wasn't nice, it was kind. He said it was the most flattering profile of a journalist I've ever read. So I'm in Vanity Fair. What a life. Thanks to Aiden for not asking me how I get my sources. The most annoying question ever. And for Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Mark Waducci for his gumption. I'm really flattered and appreciated and grateful and all that stuff. Now let's get going with Susan. Speaker 2 (5:42) Susan Miller, welcome to Fashion People. Thank you so much. I'm so excited. I love what you've Speaker 3 (5:49) created. Thank Speaker 2 (5:51) you. It's funny. I feel like you are. Well, first of all, what did you have for breakfast this morning? Speaker 3 (5:58) Actually, I had andioplay, yogurt. And I didn't have any coffee. Speaker 2 (6:04) Not yet. I will later. Tell me what dress you're wearing. You're wearing, it's like a digital. Speaker 3 (6:12) A Speaker 2 (6:12) dulce Speaker 3 (6:12) gabbana of my favorite. My Speaker 2 (6:15) favorite Speaker 3 (6:16) gabbana. When Speaker 2 (6:17) he goes into all black or goes a Speaker 3 (6:19) little off the shelf, that's not me. I like his flowers. Yeah. And I have a lot of his dress. You Speaker 2 (6:27) look gorgeous. It looks so good. It's like for the listeners, it's like a digital print, almost floral. It's like that traditional Dolce floral. It's gorgeous. It looks really good. Susan, I don't think that there is a, I think that people are going to freak out that you're on this podcast. Speaker 3 (6:51) Thank you. You're such Speaker 2 (6:53) a legend. Speaker 3 (6:54) Oh, just a hardworking little person here in my apartment. Like Chrissy says, and you know my daughter, Mommy, you don't get out enough. But when you're writing all the time, and Astrology Zone, my website, I write between 35,000 and 40,000 words a month divided by 12 signs. Speaker 2 (7:19) Susan, how did you get into astrology? What was your life? Did you grow up in New York City? Speaker 3 (7:24) Oh yeah, I did. I was born in Lenitzel Hospital. My father had an Italian specialty grocery store that was started by my grandfather at the turn of the century when grandpa came over from Sicily. My father, you know, we were right over the store. Speaker 2 (7:42) That's how I became a good cook. Speaker 3 (7:44) I would just look at the recipe and run downstairs and get everything I needed. Speaker 3 (7:50) The astrology came from the German side of my family. My mom knew astrology, was actually quite a scholar. She did not read for... people outside the family. But she just kept studying astrology. And she did a correspondence class before I was born with her sister. She did not want to study astrology, but my mother was very good with math. And her sister, my aunt Harriet, talked her into it, started to cry and said, if you don't... work with me. I can't do charas. And so my mother looked to her sister and said, okay, I'll study it, but I don't think it works. And then when she started studying, it realized, whoa, this does work. She studied for eight years and then continued to study after she got done with the correspondence class that was based in California, but we were always in New York. Speaker 3 (8:52) And then she finally got married and she was dating my father for 10 years and had me right away. Speaker 3 (9:04) Like the first day I was born, the nurse said, we can't bring your baby girl to you. There's something very wrong with her, but we're trying to figure it out. And we'll give you the baby Speaker 2 (9:14) after we have a conference. And that Speaker 3 (9:17) must have been hard on my mother. I have something so rare that she thinks it might be tied to the nausea medicine they gave her. Speaker 2 (9:29) Because Speaker 3 (9:30) they said something went wrong in her fifth month. It's my circulatory system, but it's not hemophilia. It acts like it, but it's not that. It causes internal bleeding. My veins turn to tissue paper and vanish under pressure. They just disappear. And it's terrible for surgery because under pressure could be an operation or... When I was little, it was being happy for Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or my birthday. I would get an attack once a year, pretty much, and it would last eight weeks. And I couldn't move not even an inch in the bed. And no doctor understood it and couldn't come to the house. So when I was well, I looked perfect. But when I was sick, I was really sick. Speaker 2 (10:21) And Speaker 3 (10:21) no one would believe me. So I just... When I was 14, they went in, and I was in the hospital 11 months. And they had to paralyze me from the knee down because they were tourniqueting me so tightly. They're trying to save me and the leg, which they did. I had the chief of staff for the Hospital for Joint Diseases. It's now part of NYU Langone. And I had the best. I had a very famous doctor, and I loved him. He's no longer. with us. He died a few years ago, but he was great. Speaker 3 (11:02) They had to rehabilitate the leg, so I never attended high school. I did homeschool, both in the hospital and in the recovery, two years at home. So I went from junior high to college. I went to NYU. I had to be near the hospital, so Speaker 2 (11:20) NYU was perfect. Speaker 3 (11:22) And I majored in business. But I was still wearing the brace on my leg, getting close to college. And I just wanted to know if I'd look. look like everybody else. Would I walk naturally without crutches, without the big leg raise? And I kept begging my mother to teach me and she kept saying, no. Speaker 2 (11:44) And I'm like, I don't get it. Why are you saying no? Speaker 3 (11:47) And she said, because you'll study for a year and you'll think you know what you're doing and you'll read for your friends. I'm like, Do you see any friends coming here? They're sick of me being sick. I don't have any friends. I'm not in school. And it was okay. I was the kind of kid that liked to read, liked to be, you know, quietly by myself. So it was okay. I mean, it wasn't a bad thing. But she just wouldn't teach me. So one day I wrote to Horoscope Magazine. They had a section where they would analyze a case of maybe four people. And they never used people's names. You just had your birth info, and I knew what time I was born, which is very, very important in astrology, right to the minute. Speaker 2 (12:34) And I sent the letter in, and I never heard anything. Speaker 3 (12:39) I'm like, okay, they're not answering me. But then one day, my mother walked into the living room and said, Speaker 2 (12:46) Did you write to Horoscope magazine? How does Speaker 3 (12:49) she know? This was a secret. My sister mailed the letter. How did she find out? And she said, I think you're in the latest issue. This is your time of birth. This is your problem. This has to be you. I said, yes. Well, what did they say? And you know, when you ask an astrologer any question, she has to be like, or he has to be like a detective. You just don't look at the one area. You look at great family support, lives in a big city, close to facilities. Look at the dignity of the doctor, of the attitude of the patient. And health is three parts in astrology. You have the first house, vitality and how you feel. The sixth house is what you do to stay well or