Q&A | Julia Leach

Photo by Chris Shipman.

I have been so grateful to get to know Julia Leach. Not only because we have a mutual love of old Elton John and Beachwood Canyon, but because she is the creative director and founder of Chance, one of the most interesting new brands I've seen in years. After spending over a decade working as the Creative Director of Kate Spade, Julia turned her own vision into a business based on the concept that the striped t-shirt is the paper clip of personal style: Everyone has one in their drawer and its style is simple and timeless. Amen to that. —LGM

If not in New York (or L.A. with her boyfriend) I would live in...California, on the coast, with a few horses in the barn and plenty of room to ride through meadows and along the beach.

My dream holiday would be to...I have so many dream holidays, it's hard to pick one. A road trip from Sicily up the Italian coast across the French Riviera down the coast of Spain through Barcelona to Malaga, ending in Casablanca. A week or two on the Greek island of Patmos. Horseback riding in Chile's Atacama Desert or along the coast of Portugal.

My current obsessions are... Eating minted sugar snap peas with sea salt at The Smile and New Orleans shrimp at the original Blue Ribbon; listening to The Dodos, The Silent Years, Band of Horses, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Califone and 1970's Paul McCartney; wearing 45rpm striped dungarees, Schiesser white ribbed boy shorts, Common Projects sandals and desert boots, fisherman's sweaters, white jeans all year and, well, striped t-shirts.

When I shop in New York I hit up...Top Hat, Project No. 8, VPL and Kiosk in NYC, MC&Co. in Williamsburg, and Saipua in Red Hook.

I channel my childhood self when I...am creating or organizing; there's always been a constant dialogue between left and right brain.

The fictional characters I most relate to are... Claudia (played by Monica Vitti) in L'Avventura, Mary Richards of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and the Pussycat from Edward Lear's The Owl and The Pussycat.

If I had to be outdoors all day I would...be around horses—riding, grooming; or walking for hours down a very long beach listening to music.

My favorite qualities in a woman are...creativity and honesty.

My dream car is a...1966 Jaguar E-Type and my dream truck is a black 1979 Ford F150 Ranger XLT (which I own).

My celebrity crush is...predictable but true, Steve McQueen.

My friends and I like to...disappear to Palm Springs for long weekends and keep up the tradition of swapping mix tapes.

If I could go back in time to one decade it would be...California in the 1960s.

As a teenager I was totally into...Norma Kamali sweatshirts, jean jackets, Häagen-Dazs "flavor" t-shirts, clogs, L.L. Bean, Esprit (especially the direct mail catalogs), Supertramp, ELO, The English Beat, David Bowie, Stand By Me, Timothy Hutton, Mariel Hemingway and Interview Magazine.

I tend to splurge on...art, flowers, books, shoes and gifts for my friends.

A love of adventure and a stack of old Levi's 501s...is what makes me have Tomboy Style.