Should We Still Care About Fashion? w/ Robin Givhan
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pulitzer Prize–winning fashion critic Robin Givhan joins Sam to talk style, luxury, and legacy. Sam also asks the eternal question: which jeans should he wear—skinny, baggy, barrel, or wide leg?
Robin offers sharp fashion advice and dives into her new book, Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh. They unpack the rebellious influence of Virgil Abloh—the late visionary behind Off-White and the first Black designer to lead Louis Vuitton—and how he blurred the line between streetwear and high fashion.
She also breaks down the biggest challenges in fashion today, from TikTok microtrends to whether “high fashion” still matters.
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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey listeners, it is the season of giving. |
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| 0:15.3 | I don't know when it will happen, but I do long for the day when the stranglehold that the long tail of the |
| 0:23.4 | Balenciaga Triple S is broken. |
| 0:27.0 | We got to get these ugly tennis shoes out of here. |
| 0:33.5 | Hey, y'all, it's the Sam Sanders show from KCRW, where we ask big questions and offer hot takes on the pop culture we love. |
| 0:42.5 | Thank you, as always, for listening. |
| 0:45.1 | This week, I get some fashion advice from one of my favorite fashion critics, Robin Gavon. |
| 0:51.1 | What's troubling you, Sam? I'm here. Talk to me. |
| 0:54.0 | Honestly, I'm so glad. I know what you're saying right now. Sam, you're not that fashionable. |
| 0:59.9 | I know. I acknowledge that. But Robin Gavon is actually the first ever fashion critic to win a Pulitzer Prize. |
| 1:08.4 | She is really good at her job. She's also out with a new book on a rebellious designer who made a big impact. |
| 1:15.3 | This book is called Make It Oars, Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Ablo. |
| 1:21.4 | Virgil Ablo is very important in the world of fashion because before Farrell took over Paris with his cowboy couture, before Tel-Far |
| 1:30.1 | became the latest it bag, Virgil Ablo dominated luxury fashion. He became the first black |
| 1:37.4 | designer to ever lead a French fashion house in 2018 at Louis Vuitton. But Virgil tragically died from a rare form of cancer just four years ago. |
| 1:48.4 | Nevertheless, in that short time, Virgil changed how high fashion works and who high fashion belongs to, even if his disruptive rules could be very controversial. |
| 2:00.0 | All right, I think you'll love this chat with Robin Gavon. |
| 2:02.7 | Let's get into it. |
| 2:07.4 | This guy was the first black creative director for Louis Vuitton. |
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