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Pull up a seat at our table, where badass women from all walks of life—fashion, beauty, design, music, philanthropy, art, and more—come together to share honest stories, serve truths, and dig into the realities of modern womanhood.
Johanna Almstea...: Hello everyone. I am menu planning for my next guest. And I just saw at the local seafood place that gets great, great fresh fish by me. They had some fresh jumbo lump crab meat and it made me want to do a Crab Louie salad. So fresh crab meat over really nice lettuce. And then you do some avocados and tomato, some hard-boiled egg, and you make kind of a mayoey based sort of almost like a thousand island dressing. It's kind of old school, but I love it, and that crab meat is just calling for something delicious.
And then for dinner, I think I'm going to do braised chicken thighs with lemon and olives. I'm going to serve that with a little bit of jasmine rice on the side and some sauteed broccolini. So broccolini with a little bit garlic and oil, salt and pepper. And I think with that I'm just open kind of a light Pinot noir, maybe like an Oregon Pinot noir, something easy, drinkable, not too heavy for the food. And for vibes for music, I'm thinking some kind of strong female voices, like maybe some Nina Simone, some Édith Piaf, some Aimee Mann. My next guest is so vivacious, she's so funny, she's so smart, she's so driven, and I can't wait for you guys to get to meet her. So let's dig in.
Hello everyone and welcome to Eat My Words. I'm so happy for this conversation today. My guest today is a former fashion and beauty executive turned renowned journalist. She's the creator of writing and black and white, a newsletter and online platform that explores fashion and beauty through the lens of aging where she challenges conventional narratives about growing older. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and in campaigns for major fashion and beauty brands around the world. She also just published, I have it right here, Clothes Minded, Clothes Minded: Fashionable Essays About Finding Yourself, a collection of essays on style, identity, and self-discovery in which she brings sharp insight and personal perspective to the motives behind why we choose to wear what we do. She is also a wife. She's a mother to twin sons Mac and Cam, which are a palindrome.
Christine Morri...: Palindromic, you had that on this episode.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, palindromic. CrossFit enthusiast, someone who lives with epilepsy, a dog mom, a member of the board, and a friend to many, Christine Morrison, welcome to Eat My Words.
Christine Morri...: What an intro. Thank you so much.
Johanna Almstea...: Thank you for being here. I know it's a really, really busy time for you because you are on the heels of your big book launch, so I appreciate you taking the time to be here with us. So I like to tell people how we know each other, and I think this is sort of funny because we were introduced by a mutual friend, someone I met in town, old friend of yours. And then once we started talking, we realized that our circles have sort of overlapped in several places from our careers and the fashion industry. And most notably, we shared the same boss who shall remain nameless, who was comically terrifying and really could have been the villain of any movie about the craziness of the fashion industry.
Christine Morri...: Right.
Johanna Almstea...: I mean, people, if they really wanted to, they could probably try to figure that out, but we won't say who it is. We worked for her at different companies, but I think we're probably equally traumatized by doing so, so nonetheless.
Christine Morri...: Anybody that's worked in fashion has had somebody like her.
Johanna Almstea...: Yep.
Christine Morri...: And what I always say is when I wrote the book, the key is never selling anybody out because actually an agent told me that. She said, "You never want to be the person that makes somebody else the bad guy because you need to know what your role in something is." And I really looked hard in that chapter of what was she going through. And it was a really interesting lens to go and look at this because what I ultimately decided was, I mean, she was one of the only females in the C-suite, and, I mean, maybe that a little bit possibly lent to her aggressive behavior or just her attitude in general.
Johanna Almstea...: I thought you were actually quite-
Christine Morri...: Kind?
Johanna Almstea...: ... kind. I did, I did. I was impressed. I was impressed at that chapter. I was like, "Maybe this isn't her."
Christine Morri...: That's what others said as well. But also you do want to have a little mystery in it.
Johanna Almstea...: Mystery is good.
Christine Morri...: Mystery is good. So that not everybody can be like, "Oh, so-and-so."
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: But she wasn't the only badly behaved person because-
Johanna Almstea...: No, God no.
Christine Morri...: ... fashion especially in that era will do that.
Johanna Almstea...: I think the era back then, I always say now the industry is a kinder, gentler version of itself than when we were coming.
Christine Morri...: And not always even.
Johanna Almstea...: I mean, it's still not. I wouldn't say it's warm and fuzzy, but I definitely feel like it's a little different than it was.
Christine Morri...: Definitely.
Johanna Almstea...: So that's funny. That's a little fun fact. But that we shared the same boss, and I'm not sure if she ever threw anything at you, but she definitely threw things at me.
Christine Morri...: Wow. Was more ignoring me than anything.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, the ignoring was definitely part of it, but she actively threw it, a report that I had been working on because she didn't like the font.
Christine Morri...: Oh, that's set on brand right there.
Johanna Almstea...: It was like 11:00 at night on a Friday night.
Christine Morri...: Oh no. We weren't listening to that 11:00 on a Friday.
Johanna Almstea...: But she was like, "I hate this. I hate this," and threw it at me. I was like, "Oh, okay. Cool."
Christine Morri...: Just off topic. Naomi Campbell, was she sued for throwing a phone at someone?
Johanna Almstea...: Yes, she was.
Christine Morri...: Okay.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes, I believe. Didn't it hit someone in the face, I think?
Christine Morri...: Uh-huh. I think so. Okay.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Yeah.
Christine Morri...: With time.
Johanna Almstea...: I won't say which company it was that I worked at, but I definitely also had pencils thrown at me a couple of times.
Christine Morri...: Oh.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: You did get probably some great clothes, I will say. I do love [inaudible 00:06:24].
Johanna Almstea...: I got some great clothes and the pencils were actually the chicest pencils ever because they were branded.
Christine Morri...: Oh, I'm sure they were. I'm sure they were. Our were just black because nothing could be not black, concrete floors, white walls black. You have to read the book to know I worked at this company.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. We won't even say it here. Never.
Christine Morri...: Never.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. I love this quote. You quoted Virginia Woolf in your book saying-
Christine Morri...: I did.
Johanna Almstea...: "... Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world's view of us," which I was kind of like, "Virginia Woolf was thinking about that?"
Christine Morri...: I know.
Johanna Almstea...: We think of her as so heady and so deep. And I was like, "Well, she cared about clothes too," which I kind of loved. Because I think those of us who worked in the industry probably always thought that way. Okay, so let's back up a little bit. I always like to ask this question. Where would you say your journey began?
Christine Morri...: Oh my God, I wasn't ready for that. Well, I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. And if you were to ask my third grade teacher, I told her I was going to be a writer. So voila.
Johanna Almstea...: There you go.
Christine Morri...: I'm a very much a late bloomer, but it only took me 48 more years after third grade to get the book out. But I did go to journalism school at Chapel Hill when I was 18. But I mean, it took a long way to get here. I went into advertising and I did that and I worked in agencies in Chicago, and I was dying to move to New York. And when I moved to New York, I got into beauty and I was really eager to... Of course, I always wanted the next thing. I was in beauty. I really wanted to get into fashion. I got into fashion, which was great, but I was never 100% happy because then I fell in love, like marriage love, and I was at the ripe age of 40. So again, late bloomer.
Johanna Almstea...: Also, very common in the fashion industry, a lot of women were late bloomers from perspective of marriage and kids and things because everyone was so career focused-
Christine Morri...: Absolutely.
Johanna Almstea...: ... and because our industry is not particularly conducive to being a wife or a mother.
Christine Morri...: No. In fact, very few people had children and one person did have a child, and I swear we all... At the office at Calvin, the girl walked in with the baby and we all were like, "Ugh." And we walked in to our office and shut the doors.
Johanna Almstea...: No, it was like a leper. Yeah.
Christine Morri...: I couldn't believe it. I almost was like, "Why would you bring that baby here? Now, as a mother, I can't imagine feeling that way about someone with their child, but I was... Anyway.
Johanna Almstea...: I remember actually there was a woman, I'm not going to say which company it was that I worked at this time, but there were more mothers, but I wouldn't say it was pro mothers. And there was a new executive that had come, and clearly, she had been at a place which was a little bit more family friendly than where we were. And she was also a single mom who shared custody with her ex partner. So she would have her babysitter drop her child off. I think they had a Wednesday night pizza night or something, the babysitter would bring the child in.
And she was probably four at the time, and I'll never forget. So our offices, all the executive offices were around, they had the windows and then the center pool was all the... They weren't really cubicles, but there was sort of a loop that you walked around. And this child starts running around the halls. And it was like, let's say it was like 6:00 PM probably. It was the end of the workday, but at that place, that was not the end of the workday, but it would've been normal. So it wasn't the middle of the workday. And this child was skipping around the perimeter of the offices at the top of her lung singing, "Don't take no for an answer, don't take over an answer." And people were like, "What the fuck is happening?"
Christine Morri...: That is so good.
Johanna Almstea...: "What is this small person doing in here?"
Christine Morri...: And you wonder where she got that if maybe the mother.
Johanna Almstea...: Well, the fact that that was her choice of words was so hilarious.
Christine Morri...: It's so good. Okay. That's so good.
Johanna Almstea...: People were literally just gobsmacked and they were just slamming their doors. Nobody knew what to do. I thought it was hilarious. I was like, "What is happening?" And it was like someone had let a giraffe loose in the office. Nobody knew what to do.
Christine Morri...: It was a zoo.
Johanna Almstea...: It was literally a zoo. Anyway, I was like, clearly she hasn't gotten the point that we're not so family friendly around there.
Christine Morri...: Not family friendly. Yeah, never family friendly. So it's so funny, I say this to people all the time is like, "Had I actually made plans to be where I am today doing what I'm doing, you make plans, God laughs, that whole thing?" Things happened for a reason in the time and frame that they were supposed to unfold. I never would've dreamt I would be where I am. It's everything I wanted, but I didn't know I could have or would be able to achieve. And when I met my husband, I was so happy to have him and we were so in love. But again, I had been dating for so long.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. You met him when you were 40, or you met him right...
Christine Morri...: I met him when I was 36-
Johanna Almstea...: 36.
Christine Morri...: ... but it had been a tough seven years of New York dating and then all of twenties in Chicago. And then the seven years of New York dating is like a hundred years of dating.
Johanna Almstea...: It'll age you real fast.
Christine Morri...: For everyone who's ever dated in New York City, God, I mean... Well, I do have something in the book about going on Jdate. I'm not Jewish. So that's the irony here.
Johanna Almstea...: That gives you a clue, guys. She was desperate.
Christine Morri...: It was an interesting time, but this was pre-dating apps, really.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: And it was hard. So when I met him, we weren't even sure we were going to have children. And then we come back from our wedding and having multiples. And so, again.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. Because people who haven't read the book, she got pregnant naturally with twins at the age of-
Christine Morri...: 40.
Johanna Almstea...: ... 40. You were 40.
Christine Morri...: That was fact from the cleaners is what I like to say. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: That's so crazy.
Christine Morri...: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: So then you went from being high power-
Christine Morri...: That's [inaudible 00:12:24] funny.
Johanna Almstea...: ... crazy fashion executive. Right. You were at first found out you were going to have three babies, and then that turned into two babies, right-
Christine Morri...: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: ... which must've been intense.
Christine Morri...: It was an intense time, but you rise to the occasion and you figure life out. And then just leaving New York City and deciding what to do next as a career. And my husband's saying to me, "Now's your chance to write." And again, I couldn't have scripted this any better, but I would never have imagined I would've gotten here. I mean, even though that third-grader, that 8-year-old was like, "Yeah, I'm going to be a writer."
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, I mean, what was extraordinary when I was reading your book was how quickly your life changed. Really, you were going from crazy, high-powered executive who's traveling all the time, and I know that world, man.
Christine Morri...: That world.
Johanna Almstea...: Mine was a little more gradual, but you literally went from craziness on a plane or on a bus or on a train or somewhere, traveling all the time, working all the time, in heels all the time, dressed to the nines all the time, events all the time to literally married mother of two like overnight almost.
Christine Morri...: Engaged, moved to Boston, got married, got knocked up, moved to the South 18 months.
Johanna Almstea...: All in 18 months.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. And when people were like, "What was going on there?" I'm like a sheer identity crisis. And that's where the funny part is about how do you show up every day, what do you put on, who am I? I mean, to your point, I was putting on Calvin clothes, five inch heels, going to a job that I felt was who I was to leave a city, to leave a career, to decide maybe I'll write, I'm going to get married. It's all exciting. But even a stressor that's positive is still a stressor and you really have to figure... And 40 is very young. 40, 41, you could be anything. At that point I was like, "Well, maybe I'll be a scientist. I don't know."
Johanna Almstea...: I'm going to be an astronaut now.
Christine Morri...: What color is my parachute? I don't know. I knew I wanted to be a writer, but it's also a catch-22. I didn't have a portfolio, so you cannot get any kind of writing assignments. You can't get any writing assignments without a portfolio.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: So a lot of people from Calvin, like Calvin actually, they were very nice to me. They let me do a few writing pieces because they launched e-commerce just as I left in '08-ish, '09. And then people would leave Calvin and go to Juicy or French Connection and Tory and places like that and give me-
Johanna Almstea...: Copywriting jobs.
Christine Morri...: ... things to write, writing assignments, brand books and things like that, which is great. And then I really had to stop for a little while. The first couple of years of motherhood, I was like, "This is what I really want to do." I was crazy for them and it was exhausting.
Johanna Almstea...: You had two.
Christine Morri...: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: There were two of them.
Christine Morri...: And then there were two. And they gave me things like mono and double carpal tunnel operations and stuff that-
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God.
Christine Morri...: I know. It's like all the burping, the double burping like [inaudible 00:15:28].
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, double burping. It's like, I mean, come on.
Christine Morri...: Think about things like that.
Johanna Almstea...: So nuts.
Christine Morri...: So nuts. But then I got back into it and I worked for free. I wrote for free for a couple of years, but it was really like if I didn't have a dedication or a drive at that point, it would have been easy just to slip. And I don't mean just because motherhood is the noblest of jobs but to not pursue anything outside of the house. But I knew what I wanted and I waited until probably let's say pre-K, kindergarten, something like that, to really write and get involved with editorial. And that's when I found the fine line, which was the first thing that I really dug into. The fine line was a woman in her sixties. She felt like this is before get in the groove or any of these women that are considered pro-agers. She was one of the first people in 2016 that was like, "You know what? Women of our generation do not need or like or relate to Redbook and Good Housekeeping."
Johanna Almstea...: Right. They're so outdated. Yeah.
Christine Morri...: So outdated. We're wealthier, more stylish, healthier, more into fitness, have an enormous purchasing power.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: And she's like, "We need to be talking to them."
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: Now the problem was I went to write for her because it was at the forefront. She did not figure out how to monetize that. And so it closed after a year and a half, two years, but it was the best and it was paid. And I really brought in all of that information at the turn of the century, 2000 when I worked on Olay, all that traveling around the world and talking to women about how they felt about themselves and how they felt about aging and all the information that I knew that in my heart we needed to shift and stop talking about fighting it and really lean into it, I was able to write about it. And when it closed, I was like, "This is the beginning and this is not over."
Johanna Almstea...: It just was too early probably. So let's back up. For people who don't know, you were working in the beauty industry on the advertising side, and so a lot of your work was talking to women, like focus groups, and talking to women about how they feel about their bodies and how they feel about their skin, how they feel on behalf of your clients, your beauty clients, right?
Christine Morri...: Right. It was called Upstream. It was a development group, and we would talk so that we could then go to P&G and their R&D and their product development people. And out of that came Total Effects, Regenerist, those lines. It was so cool.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, it's amazing. So you had this wealth of knowledge and you were sort of part of the machine of the like, "Okay, we're going to fight it. We're going to make you..."
Christine Morri...: Oh yeah, we were the seven signs of aging and the whole thing.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. All that stuff. And then on the backend we were like, "Oh, wait a minute. Maybe we can actually stop fighting it and maybe we can just embrace it." And that feels like what's happening now a little bit more at least.
Christine Morri...: Right.
Johanna Almstea...: Or trying.
Christine Morri...: Because when I was going through the Olay stuff, I mean, I was 31.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: So what did I know?
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: I thought I had a wrinkle.
Johanna Almstea...: You're like, "Oh my God, I have a wrinkle."
Christine Morri...: And I say that in that one chapter where I was already starting to get some preventative Botox and the people from P&G are like, "What is wrong with you?" And I said, "Mark my words, everybody's going to be doing this." And they're like, "You New Yorkers."
Johanna Almstea...: Crazy New Yorkers.
Christine Morri...: Cut to...
Johanna Almstea...: Right. Cut to Botox parties at nail salons now.
Christine Morri...: ... people having [inaudible 00:18:52]. I mean, right.
Johanna Almstea...: Don't even get me started about that.
Christine Morri...: So then when it was the fine line, I was 46 and I was like, "Wait a minute, this is crazy." At the time, I knew there was actually, it's funny, women that met me when I was 41 and I had just had the babies and then again where they would see me from preschool or something like eight years later, they said, "You seem younger." And I said, "I sleep."
Johanna Almstea...: Right. Right. Right.
Christine Morri...: I said I sleep, I drink way more water, well, we'll get into that, way more water, and I had started to CrossFit. At the time, I had been to CrossFit for four years. And with CrossFit came Paleo and amazing nutrition. And I said, "This is what it takes to age." And I was on a soapbox. I mean, I was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Use all the serums, hydrate, et cetera, but this is what it takes." And this is whatever, before longevity and sleep studies and-
Johanna Almstea...: All the things.
Christine Morri...: ... all the things.
Johanna Almstea...: When you were younger, when you were telling your fourth grade teacher that you were going to be a writer, did you have a picture in your mind of what having it all would mean for you?
Christine Morri...: Yeah. I mean, I thought I was going to be a novelist and I was going to be sitting, chomping away a typewriter.
Johanna Almstea...: In the cabin, in the woods.
Christine Morri...: Yeah, [inaudible 00:20:16] off, cabin in the woods. I didn't think I was going to be making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese, going over to the desk over in the corner, petting my dog on the way. Oh, wait a minute guys, I'm going to go write a chapter about how high heels are not important anymore.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: Or the importance of CrossFit communities for women and all that stuff.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: I thought it was isolating and it had to be a really big thing. What I realized that when I got to New York, one of the things I did was I took writing classes at Parsons, at NYU because I knew, one of the things I did know was to break into women's magazines, the personal essay was the big thing. It was Marie Claire, even Glamour, some of those. You could be just anybody off the street and if you had a decent essay, you could get in. You didn't have to be on the masthead.
And so I took a bunch of classes and, I mean, one of them was literally breaking into women's magazines. They would have editors come and say, "Here's what your pitch needs to say." But one of the big things that came out of it was vulnerability is going to be key here. Every girl is going to write about what shoe to buy and all of that, but you have to be a storyteller and you have to get a little deep and you have to be a little vulnerable and show your heart a little bit more than that. And that's where I think it started to tap into some of the essays that I wrote early on that I didn't know what I was going to do with. Chapter two I wrote in 1998 as just a cathartic moment in life. And then I wrote another one about the Jdate stuff, that was in 2003, and the AJ stuff was 2002. And I mean, I wrote journals, which formed into essays.
Johanna Almstea...: That's so cool. That's so cool that it's been brewing for this long.
Christine Morri...: It's been brewing.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. That's so funny. So I wanted to think about this a little bit through your lens and then because April, you could says in your book, when she stopped working specifically for a brand, she always wore what she... For people who are not in the fashion industry, most of the time when you work for a brand, you're expected to wear the brand and it sort of embodied the brand when you're out in the world and sort of takes over your personal style and it kind of takes over your wardrobe. I found most places I still dress the same as I did during the week on the weekends because I just couldn't figure it out anymore. So it was funny because she says in the book like she kind of stopped working in the fashion industry and went to work in tech and was like, "Who am I? And what do I wear? How do I get dressed?"
And I thought it was so interesting in your book where you talked about sort of actual physical pieces that really changed the way you could operate in the world. I always ask the question like, "What do you wear when you're going to take on the world?" because I believe clothing has that power, and I just wonder if the regular consumer feels that way too. Have you found when you're out there talking to people about this who are not fashion industry people, do they feel that same power of a piece or a part of their wardrobe?
Christine Morri...: It's really fun to hear this, but, well, there's been a couple of different circumstances there. One was I did a podcast with someone, it was for writers, and the first thing the woman said to me was, "I grew up in the middle of nowhere. I didn't shop, I didn't look at women's magazines. I wasn't into that. I wasn't into fashion, but this spoke to me because even though I wasn't into clothes, what I wore did make a difference." And I thought, "Yes, that's perfect because there's a universal approach to everyone has to get dressed and no matter if it's jeans and a T-shirt, it's how it makes you feel." It's what jeans, what T-shirt, whatever. And then there are people that didn't work in fashion, but that clothing has meant something to figure out who they are and that's where people that are really into trends and that they say, "Oh, I tried that on and I realize that's not who I am."
So they're using that same language. We, I think having worked on brands and things, when you do become sort of the ambassador for them and you do embody that brand, I think it can be really hard. If you're working for a brand that isn't sort of in your DNA, it does feel not as authentic, especially if it does carry over into your weekend. Working at Calvin was I felt like coming home to me because I felt even though it was a little stringent, that was sort of the way that I loved. I wasn't a real big trendy person, although I did... I say going out shirt a little too many times, my editor and I had to actually take out some of references. You know how you can count how many times you say something in a book? I was like, "I can't say going out shirt again. I can't."
Johanna Almstea...: The going out shirt, the going out shirt.
Christine Morri...: The going out shirt. And I know that it's back and I'm like, "I cannot hear that phrase," but that was the only trendy thing I did. But otherwise, I was super into the look, with the exception of the shoes. I did not love running in heels and all that. I learned to do it and it really, to your point why I did it, aside from being in an elevator with an accessories designer who was looking down, wanting to make sure it was a pair of their shoes. Whenever I say the Manolos, I say I did never cheat on the accessory designer that feeds you, but it was to get a sense of power as a 5'1" height person to be seen a little. There was a method to the madness there.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think we've all done it. I think women who are in traditionally male dominated fields have been doing it forever, right? I have a friend, she's a tiny little... She's a litigator I think. I mean, she's a really high-powered lawyer and she's got to be maybe five feet and she's like, "Doesn't matter if my back is broken, when I walk into the courtroom, I am wearing a heel because it gives me power." And I'm like, "Yep."
Christine Morri...: Yeah. And I think I mentioned that in that one chapter is about how on the cover of Time, they were putting the people on the cover of Time also in heels just to connote the power that it... I mean, yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: I haven't read Michelle Obama's latest book, but it really spoke to me. It talks a lot about what she wore and what she felt like she had to wear. But it's funny because I love hearing her stories when you go and watch her on shows talking about she's wearing a flat or she's wearing her hair curly or whatever about how she's just now she is who she is. And I loved when I was finally able to just let it go and it was around the time the ballet flat came back or the loafer was out and I was like, "Yes, perfect."
Johanna Almstea...: Yes. Yeah, it definitely took me a little while after I left being in-house at a brand to kind of remember myself and remember my own style because I had worked for such a mishmash of brands, beautiful brands that none of them actually ever really felt like me completely. So it's been interesting to kind of like, "What is me?"
Christine Morri...: You know what's funny also, we used to call it a little bit the golden handcuffs, but when they gave you the clothing allowance because you really can't say no to that.
Johanna Almstea...: Well, I mean, most places I didn't have a choice. Also, it was a little bit different because I was the PR person, so I couldn't not wear it.
Christine Morri...: Oh, you could not wear it. Yeah. I was happy to get the clothing allowance, but I also just liked to borrow stuff.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes.
Christine Morri...: I was a big borrower.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes.
Christine Morri...: As you read, that was also riddled with issues with what size you had to be.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes. Which adds a whole other layer.
Christine Morri...: A whole other-
Johanna Almstea...: For people who don't know-
Christine Morri...: ... layer and complexity.
Johanna Almstea...: ... when she's saying that she wants to borrow something, it usually means you're borrowing it from the PR closet, which the PR closet generally only has things that are a size. If they're at a high-end design house, they're usually runway samples, which are basically a zero to two. Maybe they might have a four.
Christine Morri...: But remember I wrote at that one point, that was the time that Nicole Miller had brought out the double zero, and I was like, "Oh, thanks a lot."
Johanna Almstea...: We need that.
Christine Morri...: Perfect. I already don't eat.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: I would drink a venti sugar-free vanilla soy latte all day from 7:00 to 7:00.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God. Oh my God.
Christine Morri...: [inaudible 00:28:46].
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: And then I would eat a big meal on the way home. I would pick it up, take it home, eat it, pass out, do it all again.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, your poor body. Your poor body.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. So that's why I was very happy to meet who is now my husband. I met him a week after he did his first Ironman and, I mean, he was as fit and as healthy as you could get, and so we ate really well.
Johanna Almstea...: He was probably also like, "What are you doing to your body?"
Christine Morri...: And he would be like, "What are you talking about lattes all day? I mean, no, where's the food?" And weekends were like, we would go to the gym.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, wow.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. That's where the boxing person came into my life.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. Right.
Christine Morri...: She's like, "We need to do something with you." I can't even imagine being that girl now.
Johanna Almstea...: No, isn't it wild?
Christine Morri...: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: I feel like also it would be like every fitness trend that would come through. Do remember Tae Bo? Like I was just thinking about this the other day.
Christine Morri...: Oh my God. Did you ever do a slide?
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: I would do a slide class and then I would take another class.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. It was all so extreme. In our world, it would be working until 10:00, 11:00 at night, then going out to a dinner or an event or whatever, drinking, smoking, whatever. Sometimes waking up and just going right back to the office at 6:00 or sometimes waking up and going to a 6:00 AM Tae Bo class.
Christine Morri...: I used to know when people would be like they'd stay out late, they'd run home, shower and then go get a blowout.
Johanna Almstea...: Yep. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Christine Morri...: I used to be like, "Oh my God, did you..." Because then they could just change. I mean, the amount of stamina, this is where I go back to like, what?
Johanna Almstea...: I know. It's crazy.
Christine Morri...: I don't know. I am in bed at 9:00, 9:30 now, and I drink one drink a year for in a decade and I'm not interested in it. I know that you're going to maybe ask me during the lightning round.
Johanna Almstea...: You don't have to drink alcohol.
Christine Morri...: I love you lightning round.
Johanna Almstea...: You're allowed to drink anything you want.
Christine Morri...: And it's not that I'm going to tell you it's poison, but when I started to see that it was tied to so much stuff and also it was really helpful to go through menopause and not do it. That was my main thing.
Johanna Almstea...: Really?
Christine Morri...: Yeah, it really helps with hot flashes and things like that, better quality sleep.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes, for sure.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. I wasn't really into... We're not very social because we go to bed. We had really little kids, so I was like, "We don't go out." And so then I was like, "I'm not going to drink this year." And then four years went by, I'm like, "Oh, I guess I don't drink."
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, I actually don't drink.
Christine Morri...: I don't drink. People are like, "What about dinner parties?" I'm like, "Have you met me? We don't go to dinner parties."
Johanna Almstea...: No?
Christine Morri...: You will die because you're Mrs. dinner party.
Johanna Almstea...: I love dinner parties.
Christine Morri...: I know you do.
Johanna Almstea...: I get really, really sad when I can't have dinner parties or get invited to dinner parties. Dinner parties are my religion.
Christine Morri...: And the source of this podcast, which I just think is such a sweet thing, and I love the community of women that you are pulling together here and that you are so close with that you... I mean, it's just awesome.
Johanna Almstea...: Thank you.
Christine Morri...: I'm not a very social person outside of when I go to the meetings for the board, I get my fix.
Johanna Almstea...: You're like, "I'm all in. I'm all in."
Christine Morri...: I'm all in. Or I go see my friend in New York and then I'll go see a bunch of people and then I got to come home for six months.
Johanna Almstea...: If you're home for six months, you're doing CrossFit and you're staying home in your house.
Christine Morri...: CrossFit, dog stuff, husband.
Johanna Almstea...: Chill.
Christine Morri...: I make dinner every night. So that's my dinner party.
Johanna Almstea...: That's your dinner party
Christine Morri...: It's every night.
Johanna Almstea...: My built-in dinner party.
Christine Morri...: I don't know if you've gotten to this part, but I did get a new garment when I got to Atlanta as I get really into motherhood and it's the apron and the Crock-Pot. I mean, I'm a real [inaudible 00:32:40].
Johanna Almstea...: What do you like to cook?
Christine Morri...: Well, this is what's good is I do Half Baked Harvest. It's usually stick a big protein in there with a bunch of vegetables and then different spices or sauces or whatever, turn on that Crock-Pot and then go to the gym.
Johanna Almstea...: God, you're so good. Maybe I go to the gym more if I was having fewer dinner parties.
Christine Morri...: Or go walk the dog or something. When I don't do something like that, my whole crowd is like, "What's for dinner? Where's dinner?" I've got them trained to want that dinner and it really helped because knock on wood, I've got kids that love vegetables.
Johanna Almstea...: There you go.
Christine Morri...: And all the vegetables.
Johanna Almstea...: That's good.
Christine Morri...: Like a medley of vegetables. They're not just like chicken tenders eating kids-
Johanna Almstea...: That's good.
Christine Morri...: ... which thank God. And even if eight years ago if it was annoying for eight years, it's been worth it.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, totally. My kids are so funny. They'll come home from a play date and I'll be like, "What did you guys have for dinner?" And they're like, "Kid food." They're like, "Oh my God, dinner was so good, Mom." I'm like, "Okay, what did you have?" They're like, "Kid food." I'm like, "What's kid food?" They're like, "Frozen chicken nuggets-"
Christine Morri...: Mac and cheese.
Johanna Almstea...: "... mac and cheese and a frozen pizza." And I was like, "Okay, cool."
Christine Morri...: I won't even do a frozen pizza.
Johanna Almstea...: No, we don't have any of that in our house. And so they think it's so exotic and so fun when they get to have it at somebody else's house.
Christine Morri...: Excited. It's so good. My kids, when they come home from people's houses, they're like, "Man, their house is messy, or their cars are so dirty."
Johanna Almstea...: Oh geez. Yeah, the kids get judgy.
Christine Morri...: When they're real little, I'm like, "Don't say that in front of the moms."
Johanna Almstea...: Please don't. Moms are trying hard out there.
Christine Morri...: They're trying so hard. They know there's a box of goldfish on the floor that's been [inaudible 00:34:25].
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, they just haven't gotten there yet.
Christine Morri...: They go, "But you wouldn't do that." And I'm like, "Yes, I know, sweetheart. I know."
Johanna Almstea...: I know.
Christine Morri...: "I will be vacuuming while you're napping in the chair." No.
Johanna Almstea...: You're like, "Hold on, let me just vacuum around."
Christine Morri...: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: We had a funny thing where this was during COVID, there was a little pod of families that the kids actually did a homeschool pod together.
Christine Morri...: So nice.
Johanna Almstea...: And so the families, we were the only people we socialized with and we were like fiending for social interaction. I can't remember what it was, but it was some sort of event. I don't know. But we threw a dinner and it was still warm enough, I guess the kids were swimming and so it was like whatever. I don't even remember what we made, but we made adult food, like normal food. I probably made some sort of pasta that I thought was kid-friendly. And so this one family who we didn't really know that well comes in and they're like, "Oh, our kids won't eat that." And I was like, "Oh, okay." And then they brought those microwave, whatever, cup of mac and cheese, and I was like, "I don't have a microwave."
Christine Morri...: Okay, I have two microwaves, but that's because it's Atlanta. You just have multiple microwaves, an air fryer, the whole thing.
Johanna Almstea...: Why do you have multiple microwaves in Atlanta?
Christine Morri...: You have two shelves. You have to have a top microwave in... Because if you're making two hot chocolates, you have twins, you have to make them at the same time. I don't know.
Johanna Almstea...: Is it a twin thing or an Atlanta thing?
Christine Morri...: It must be a twin thing. I needed to have everything ready at the same-
Johanna Almstea...: Can you not put two cups in one microwave?
Christine Morri...: I don't know. Don't know. I needed a second microwave. My husband's like, "Sure." But now I have an air fryer. I don't know. But I have a lot of gadgets. My friend-
Johanna Almstea...: You got a lot of things.
Christine Morri...: ... from New York is like, "You have so much gear, kitchen gear."
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. You've got a lot of stuff.
Christine Morri...: I'm like, "Well, that's because I'm not a Jennie's Kitchen person, babe."
Johanna Almstea...: Well, also I feel like when you move to places outside of New York City and you have homes that are big-
Christine Morri...: [inaudible 00:36:18].
Johanna Almstea...: ... you're like, "Must fill it with many microwaves."
Christine Morri...: I have a pantry that's filled with gear.
Johanna Almstea...: I try to avoid the single use items. Actually, we just renovated-
Christine Morri...: It's so smart.
Johanna Almstea...: ... my kitchen and we don't have a microwave, but I think I'm going to get one because there are times when I-
Christine Morri...: How do you reheat a cup of coffee?
Johanna Almstea...: I don't reheat coffee. I drink one coffee a day and I drink it while it's hot at 6:00 in the morning, 6:01.
Christine Morri...: Oh, you're very smart. But before I go to bed, I am notorious for a decaf hot tea that 50% of the time my husband, when he gets up in the morning, he's like, "Here's your tea from last night." I forget and I go to bed.
Johanna Almstea...: But do you reheat that the next day?
Christine Morri...: No.
Johanna Almstea...: No.
Christine Morri...: That I throw away.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Christine Morri...: But I do like a decaf hot tea. I know that they strain out and there's chemicals from straining out the caffeine.
Johanna Almstea...: I know.
Christine Morri...: But I can't have the caffeine, but there's a ritual to the decaf hot tea. I put it by my bedside and I drink half of it while I go to bed when I take my progesterone. I don't know. It's a thing I really [inaudible 00:37:19].
Johanna Almstea...: Why don't you just boil water in a teapot?
Christine Morri...: Oh, I don't have a teapot. That's the one thing I don't have. I don't want it sitting on top of my stove. I don't want it sitting out. I know. Weird. I used to have a teapot. Because it's easier, water, microwave.
Johanna Almstea...: It's easier to have two microwaves than to have a goddamn teapot. Come on.
Christine Morri...: Two minutes in my microwave and I have a hot tea.
Johanna Almstea...: I don't know. Microwave tea doesn't do it for me.
Christine Morri...: Or a hot cup of hot chocolate for my kids.
Johanna Almstea...: Microwave tea does not do it for me. It doesn't feel right. It feels dirty to me.
Christine Morri...: Anything not to drink water.
Johanna Almstea...: Got you. The one thing I have to say is my kids are actually getting big enough that they want to make their own meals and stuff. I'm more comfortable with them using the microwave than I am. We have a crazy industrial stove and whatever-
Christine Morri...: Oh, I bet you do being a cook you are.
Johanna Almstea...: ... because my husband's like a real... Yeah. We're crazy cook people. He could talk to you about the BTUs for a really long time. There's lots of BTUs happening on that. So I'm more comfortable with them using a microwave because they can just heat something up or cook it. So I do think that's a little bit better. But anyway, we have totally digressed from this-
Christine Morri...: Oh, I'm sorry. Your producer's probably like, "Hi."
Johanna Almstea...: "Get on track. Get on track, people." Okay. Let's talk about major moments because you've had a lot and you took big swings. I feel like having read your book, again, everyone should read the book so they can understand this, but you moved from Chicago to New York and you moved from New York to Boston and you threw your hat in the ring to try to get in the fashion industry. And I'm sure there are several of them, but are there major moments in your life where you look back and you think like, "Man, if I had not done that, where would my life be"?
Christine Morri...: Yes, significant. There are probably two significant ones, and the one is moving from Chicago to New York. I moved alone. Did I know anyone? No.
Johanna Almstea...: You had a job though, right? That you had gotten the job-
Christine Morri...: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: ... before they moved you, right?
Christine Morri...: They did move me and I wouldn't go without the job. That was my one stipulation. I did move to Chicago without a job from college, but I knew I was moving into an apartment with a girl that I did know from Carolina. I mean, it was really cheap, and I shared a bedroom. I had a single bed. So I had that, but no job, but I knew my rent was like $300 even if I waited tables, which I ended up doing for a while anyway. But moving to New York solo I thought was a significant moment in time and it completely changed the trajectory of my life. And it was a little bit of a swing, but at the same time I was like I believed in myself and I knew what I wanted that I was like, "Just show up. It'll happen."
Johanna Almstea...: That's pretty major. How old were you when you did that?
Christine Morri...: 29.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of belief in yourself.
Christine Morri...: [inaudible 00:39:58].
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. You got to be a little delusional, right?
Johanna Almstea...: Of course.
Christine Morri...: It helps. Because if I was really practical, that probably wasn't the best move. That first apartment when I first got there was probably too expensive. I mean, it's not New York prices now, but it was too expensive for me then. But I felt like I would grow into it. And I stayed at that apartment for a long, long time, but I really knew what I wanted and that was the first thing.
And the second thing was, this was a biggie, and this always oddly is tied to money and a career move. But when I did not take the job, when my agency merged, I was working on John Frieda, Bioré and Jergens and my agency merged with another one and the creative director was like, "Do you mind working on an account about a product where women touch themselves?" And I was like, "Whoa," which it was o.b. tampons. Yeah. And I was like, first of all he as a British person and I'd already dealt with a British boss. That was really awful to me. After my father passed, I had PTSD at that moment and I also was like, this is my chance, right this second to walk away from the [inaudible 00:41:11] agencies and to say, "I got to get into fashion and I'm never going to do it if I don't try right this second."
But I didn't have money saved and I didn't work for over a year, so I cashed out a 401(k). I built up a ton of credit card debt and people outside of my little apartment were like, "What are you doing?" I mean, I didn't have a boyfriend. I wasn't being supported by any. There was nothing but just me. But I was like, "No, I'm doing this." And I worked pro bono. But I was like, "No." I dug in and I got that Calvin job. I mean, it took a year-ish.
Johanna Almstea...: What do you attribute that drive to, that determination to?
Christine Morri...: I'm stubborn.
Johanna Almstea...: It'll take you a long way that stubbornness, I'm telling you.
Christine Morri...: I'm not a big astrology person, but I'm a Taurus. People have told me, "Man, you're Taurus. Loyal and stubborn." And those are two of my best and worst qualities. And it is. When I know something I want, I will do it. This book is a proof of it. It took me to 56 and it's 28 years ago I wrote the first essay. I'm going to publish this book.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. Right.
Christine Morri...: I don't care that two and a half years go by and an agent is like, "Love the work. Not going to publish it, but love it."
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: I don't know. Dig in. Because I do believe if you believe in yourself enough, eventually you really know what you deserve and you just fight for it and people around you will try to help you. I have had a lot of really wonderful people that I have helped. Not a tit-for-tat situation but lovingly.
Johanna Almstea...: And authentically, genuinely.
Christine Morri...: I do believe in boomerang karma. I really try not to be a total asshole to people because I do believe you get back what you put out there.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. What is an achievement of all the ones you've had thus far, what is one you're most proud of?
Christine Morri...: Oh, motherhood. It's been the best. I mean, it's really hard. We all know this. It's really hard to raise people in this era. But to raise really kind boys in a world that we're surrounded by... Not just the world that we live in, it's just dumpster fire. But in a community filled with a lot of privilege to have them be really kind and giving and emotional intelligence is really high. And for instance, they're Boy Scouts, which feels so like 1970s, but they just did their... One of them just did his Eagle Project last weekend and it was building a little library for our church. And to see the teen boys come and go and build this last weekend, it was like all I could do, not to stand in and cry. It was just a moment of we're doing a good thing here and we need to because we need them to change what's happening here in world.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. I had this moment when we were going to something of my kids' sports games, I can't remember what it was, and we got there early or the game had gone over and it was the boys' soccer team. And I don't really go to boys sports events because I don't have boys. And there was this whole crew of their friends who were dudes and it seemed like they were the football guys. They seemed kind of football-y. And they were sitting on the sidelines. I'm going to cry just thinking about it. It made me so emotional. This kid makes this incredible pass, and then another one makes an incredible, gets it and heads it and then does something else, and then they make a goal.
And these boys, these high school boys who were 15, 16 years old lost their minds on their friends. They're jumping, they're screaming, they're hugging. They're running down to the field to hug their friends. I knew none of them. I have zero, zero skin in that game. I started bawling. I started bawling.
Christine Morri...: Oh, love that. I love it.
Johanna Almstea...: My friend is like, "What is wrong with you?" And I was like, "In the world that we are seeing so much toxic masculinity and so many awful men in the world," I was like, "this gives me hope." This moment right here where they were so vulnerable and they were so emotional and they were so positive. And I just was like, "Okay, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay."
Christine Morri...: I love that moment so much. And I am seeing a lot of that with boys of this generation, and I'm loving it. And I really attribute it to these mothers that are saying to their sons, "It's okay to be emotional. It's okay to come talk to me about things that don't feel good or not right, or that you're sad or you can cry or love on each other, support each other. Be good people." Yes. I mean, if there's nothing else we've got coming from how bad it is that maybe-
Johanna Almstea...: Maybe the pendulum is swinging in the other direction-
Christine Morri...: Maybe it's swinging.
Johanna Almstea...: ... because people are watching it.
Christine Morri...: We go to a private school here and there's a chapel day and they have to wear a tie and everything, but at the end of the year, the entire K through 12 sits in this auditorium and the parents can go and they sing, Rise and Shine.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God.
Christine Morri...: There's a gesture on the whole thing. It's booming because every kid is screaming, and the seniors who've been doing it for 13 years are screaming it because it's the last time they will sing it. I sob. And I'm thinking to myself, "They're 18 and not too proud to be singing a song about-"
Johanna Almstea...: Is that Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory, Glory, that one?
Christine Morri...: Yep, that song.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God. I love that.
Christine Morri...: Because they are so happy and proud to be who they are, where they are, where they're from, and then be leaving to go off to do something great.
Johanna Almstea...: That's amazing.
Christine Morri...: Anyway.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. I'm sure that we are not their general content that they consume, but if your boys would listen to this podcast ever, what do you want them to know about this time that you've been raising them, that you basically had emotional whiplash when you left your job, became a mother, continued to follow your dreams being a writer during this whole time? What do you want them to know about this time and what it's meant to be their mother while you're still chasing your dreams?
Christine Morri...: Oh, God. That they give me so much... I'm a mess. I'm going to cry. That they give me so much courage to keep trying because whenever I would try and write, I kind of want to make them proud, and it gave me courage to keep going. Sometimes they would ask me after school like, "How many words did you write today?" And just having them be part of that. And sometimes I'd be like, "Negative 300, I cut something." And they were like, "That's not the right direction," or whatever. Or I'd be like, "2,000," and they'd go, "That's great." And I kept thinking at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many books sell, really. I want the people who do read it to feel seen and encouraged and reflect on their journey. I love all that, but it was to make them be like, "Look what my mama can do."
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, that's huge. I love that. So what are some sacrifices that you've made? Because you've made some, we all do, right? I think great success and motherhood don't really come without them.
Christine Morri...: Yeah, exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: What are some sacrifices?
Christine Morri...: There's a lot of days. Do you ever feel like there's a lot of days that you have so many great ideas and you make a list of them and you're like, "I'm not getting to eight of those 10"?
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, yeah.
Christine Morri...: And I put them off and put up, and then I'm like, "Well, I'm not going to have..." This is a good example. I'm not going to have the crazy great successful Substack that I maybe thought I was going to. It's also like, what do you measure success as? But I started a Substack in November of 2022, and I had every intention of being really consistent. I mean, it is a low priority at the end of the day. I would much rather go to the movie theater and watch a four-hour director's cut of Lord of the Rings than write the Substack I was supposed to... And I had to watch it Friday night and the movie theater.
And then Sunday, the second episode, we're watching the four-hour director cuts, then write the cuff links at the Substack I've been told I was going to write. And it doesn't matter because A, no one's really asking for it. But that's the kind of thing, it's like, could I be further along? Probably. Could I have pitched myself to a bunch more editorial spots? Probably. What it did do is it really made me hone in on what was the most important task, what did I really want? Motherhood always number one. And then last year, in the past 18 months, four years, it's been the book.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. It makes you focus else.
Christine Morri...: It made me focus.
Johanna Almstea...: Because you still want to make dinner, right? You still want to make dinner for your kids, and they're still eating vegetables.
Christine Morri...: CrossFit, dinner.
Johanna Almstea...: Those are your two things, non-negotiables.
Christine Morri...: CrossFit and dinner. Yep.
Johanna Almstea...: Well, it's funny. I was going to ask you how you nourish yourself. So that sounds like the answer is CrossFit and dinner.
Christine Morri...: CrossFit and dinner. And she doesn't get walked very often, but she doesn't care. But my dog, just loving on her. She sleeps in our bed. I mean, I love that dog. She's in my acknowledgments. She put her head-
Johanna Almstea...: [inaudible 00:51:06].
Christine Morri...: ... in my lap as I...
Johanna Almstea...: What kind of dog is she?
Christine Morri...: She's 12 years old. She's an Australian Labradoodle and her name is Montauk.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh yes, I saw that. Montauk. I remember that.
Christine Morri...: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: My dogs are sitting at the floor right now.
Christine Morri...: Oh, you have multiple dogs?
Johanna Almstea...: I have two. Yeah.
Christine Morri...: We're trying to figure out what do we do about...
Johanna Almstea...: Get a second one now. I'm telling you.
Christine Morri...: Because I am going to have to be sedated when something happens to this one.
Johanna Almstea...: You're going to have to go to the loony bin. Yeah.
Christine Morri...: Oh, yeah. I mean, to the point of people have seen me with my dog and they're like, "If you could breastfeed her, you would."
Johanna Almstea...: I mean, I feel that way about one of mine. If I could make out with him, I would. I would just a hundred percent make out with him.
Christine Morri...: She's the best listener in the house too.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Yeah. I think you might need to get another one soon, because you got to have an overlap.
Christine Morri...: My fear though is the overlap of having a puppy and starting the fall, we're going to start going on college tours. So maybe I wait until after some of the college tours.
Johanna Almstea...: Maybe.
Christine Morri...: Can't believe I'm at college tours, but anyway. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, maybe. Okay. What is something you once believed about yourself that you've since outgrown?
Christine Morri...: Oh, this is a hard one, but I will say that I like to say, and I've said this a lot and I keep saying it in the book, in the book, but I was such a raging perfectionist that I say even my blood type was A plus. But I really think it's okay when it's not perfect, and I never thought I would let myself off the hook.
Johanna Almstea...: That feels very familiar to me. Yes.
Christine Morri...: I bet it does. And not just fashion, but you don't go into the-
Johanna Almstea...: Luxury.
Christine Morri...: ... workload and striving and the hours that we did without having a little bit of that crazy in there. They pick us because of it.
Johanna Almstea...: I mean, that's why we're good at it, right? I mean, that's why you're good at it. There's a reason why.
Christine Morri...: It is.
Johanna Almstea...: It's the same thing of I'll be sitting on our couch trying to watch TV and it's in a bookshelf, and I can't focus unless the bookshelf is exactly arranged the way it needs to be arranged. And my husband-
Christine Morri...: Oh my God.
Johanna Almstea...: ... will be like, "What is wrong with you?" And I'm like, I'll just be getting up and moving stuff in the... We'll be the middle of watching a movie, and he's like, "What are you doing?" And I'm like, I make it sound like we actually watch movies.
Christine Morri...: I'm like, "How you not see that?"
Johanna Almstea...: I was like, "How can you relax when that book is next to that book? That makes no sense."
Christine Morri...: It drives me crazy.
Johanna Almstea...: And he's like, "You're a fucking lunatic."
Christine Morri...: My husband always says I would be so sad to live in that brain, to have your perspective on things, to always see what's wrong.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: I'm like, "Well, welcome to my world."
Johanna Almstea...: I know, and it's weird because I'm a very positive person, but it can come across as negative because-
Christine Morri...: I'm half full.
Johanna Almstea...: ... you find the thing that is out of place always or not quite right.
Christine Morri...: Oh, yeah. That is not made perfectly, the picture... Always. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. So now I'm so curious to ask this question because you've kind of very recently realized your dream of publishing your own book. What are you dreaming about now that you've done that? Because that was such a longstanding dream for you.
Christine Morri...: It was, but that's the problem with dreams. Just now, it gets bigger dreams. Well, there's two really big ones, and the first is, I don't know what brand I'll work for or if it's multiple brands, but one of the reasons I wanted to join the board is I thought that talking about aging and changing the narrative of growing older would be great if it came from an editorial perspective and from me, and I'm out there talking. But overall, I'm thinking what really needs to also happen is to come in at it from the brand perspective. Not at the campaign level but from the initiation of a brand's development and its reason for being and it's why. So getting involved in brands-
Johanna Almstea...: Early on.
Christine Morri...: .... early, early on.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: And I would like to do more of that because the more we just change the vernacular and the approach and it's going to take forever.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: And we may never get rid of that one path. That's fine. Because it's not just us, the forties and the fifties and the sixties that are talking, it's the women that are 20 and 30 that are super scared that are having the lower facelift at 32. There's a lot that are so afraid of getting older, not seeing all the merits.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: Because the people that are seeing the merits are like 45 to 55. We're like, "Okay, this is not great, but look at the wisdom and the knowledge and the freedom and the awesome."
Johanna Almstea...: Well, I think the difference too is that that age grew up with social media.
Christine Morri...: That's exactly-
Johanna Almstea...: Right? I think they're-
Christine Morri...: ... right.
Johanna Almstea...: ... seeing it all through that lens where we saw life through life's lens.
Christine Morri...: Totally.
Johanna Almstea...: And I think that that's what's fucking people up so bad. There's this influencer, I'm not going to say her name, but she was kind of one of the early, very successful New York fashion influencers. I mean, she's got to be 32 maybe, right, and she posted this whole thing about her. Actually, I was so conflicted about it because I was very appreciative of the fact that she shared it because she shared the lower bleph and the whatever else she did. She did a upper bleph, and I don't even know because I'm not a plastic surgery person. Not yet at least. Who knows? Never say never.
Christine Morri...: And you know what, to each is own.
Johanna Almstea...: To each their own.
Christine Morri...: I think your intent matters.
Johanna Almstea...: She was pushing a stroller. She has very, very, very young children. So I loved that she was being honest about it, and I loved that she was talking about it and she was sharing the experience and she wanted to be very transparent about it, whatever. But my best friend actually texted me, who's older than me. She texted me. She's like, "What is she, 12? What is happening? What is happening? Why are you getting face worked to that level?" That's really aging stuff. It's not like a rhinoplasty or something where it's sort of structural that's not going to change with age. Like you said, you got younger as your babies got older because you were looking better because you were healthier again. It's like when you're having anti-aging face work done when your babies are in a stroller still, that to me, it was like-
Christine Morri...: I think about that woman is unfortunately 40, 45, 50, she's going to go through a lot more of it because gravity has barely begun to set in for this stuff.
Johanna Almstea...: And she looked beautiful and she's very beautiful woman-
Christine Morri...: I'm sure she is.
Johanna Almstea...: ... and her work looks beautiful-
Christine Morri...: I'm sure [inaudible 00:57:54].
Johanna Almstea...: But I'm like, this is a real slippery slope because-
Christine Morri...: It's a slippery slope. So it's that. It's exactly that. And it's also the face masks for the eight-year-olds.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh God, yes. I saw you posted about that and I was like, "Yeah, trust me. I mean, I have a nine-year-old and it's real."
Christine Morri...: And it's real, and I don't have a daughter, so I can't... This is not coming from a place of judgment. It's what I was trying to say in that video, the point I was trying to make is they were saying the girls want to play and so forth. I'm like, "You know what? Go outside." There's a lot of ways to express your creativity.
Johanna Almstea...: Take a washcloth and cut holes in it and make it look like a face mask and put it on with water.
Christine Morri...: And there's ways to do this where you're not looking in the mirror. There's other ways to get... It's more about the lack of self-confidence and that we're tying what you feel like on the inside to what you look like on the outside. That's my biggest concern, that it's so much. And to your point, it's the social media and the whole thing. So working with brands is something I also feel like there's a couple of... My husband's going to be like, "What?" I do think I want to write another book. Who knows when? But I've always thought, "Would it be so great to write a book about female founders?" Because I think that there's so many amazing lessons from the women, and it doesn't just have to be fashion and beauty, but going back to ambition and grit and what it takes and all this. I mean, who knows?
I don't know. Maybe I do it, maybe I don't, but it's something I've been brewing. I think that's kind of a cool idea. And then Megan Papay from Freda Salvador, she said, "I know you can't write another non-fiction book, but you should take this style of book and write a Bridget Jones, Sex in the City kind of fiction book." And I was like, "That could be super..." She's like, "Because you've already written your story, but there's something here that you could make super fun. And there's a void in the market." I talked to someone else about that today. She's like, "There's a void in this kind of rom-com, Carrie Bradshaw character." And she's like, "You have the voice." And I was like, "Maybe."
Johanna Almstea...: It's so funny-
Christine Morri...: I don't know.
Johanna Almstea...: ... you said that because I was taking a writing class and I took it kind of to a lot of heavy stuff was happening, so I was writing all this heavy stuff, and every once in a while I would kind of reference my fashion life and my work life, whatever. And then people would like, "I want more of that." And so I was like, "I don't want to write. I don't want to be like vapid. I don't want to write about fashion. It's so stupid." And she was like as an exercise, my teacher was like, "Just write about it." She was like, "Just stop filtering yourself and just write a funny story, whatever." And people were dying for it. And it was so funny because I was like, I had been writing all this torturous, emotional-
Christine Morri...: I want to [inaudible 01:00:33] that.
Johanna Almstea...: ... stuff about my parents and whatever. And I was like, "Oh my God, they love The Devil Wears Prada." There's a reason why that movie is coming out with its second one. It's like they just love it.
Christine Morri...: Totally. Totally.
Johanna Almstea...: I was going to say about the founder thing. There's a book I haven't actually... I own it and I have not read it, and it's funny because I just found it when I was organizing my bookshelves the other day, is called Mother / Founder, and it's about women founders who are also mothers. It's quite beautiful. You should look at it. I have a couple friends who are in it, which is how I found out about it.
Christine Morri...: Okay. I want to see that.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, you should order it for yourself. Anyway.
Christine Morri...: Okay.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. So is there anything that you've said no to that you wish that you said yes to?
Christine Morri...: Probably not. It's good.
Johanna Almstea...: I feel like you seem to have a lot of very good balance in your everyday life, but what would be your idea of a complete perfect day off? You don't have to do anything. You don't have to be anywhere. What would you do?
Christine Morri...: I slightly have a hard time relaxing.
Johanna Almstea...: Shocker. Big shocker to the listeners, guys.
Christine Morri...: Always like I could do seven more projects. Yeah. Part of my catharsis is cleaning out my entire kitchen, every cabinet, every door, whatever. So that's not my perfect day though.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. What's your perfect day?
Christine Morri...: Sleeping in is a big part. I like to sleep in. I can't sleep past seven or eight these days, but if I could get to nine, that'd be amazing. And then having a massive great, beautiful cup of coffee, going to CrossFit for sure. My coach is one of my favorite people. And then coming back and then just running around with my family, my boys and my husband, either playing tennis or playing basketball out back or something like that. And then going out to lunch someplace we love and then watching a movie together and then laying in bed and reading a book. Taking a dog walk.
Johanna Almstea...: Sounds lovely.
Christine Morri...: Having a nice dinner, going to bed kind of early. I mean, really chill. Notice there's no other person in here other than my four sons.
Johanna Almstea...: There you go.
Christine Morri...: Maybe talk to my mom on the phone, which you see in that book. [inaudible 01:02:46].
Johanna Almstea...: I love when you call your mom.
Christine Morri...: Hi, Mom.
Johanna Almstea...: I love it.
Christine Morri...: She's my girl. I love that woman.
Johanna Almstea...: Where does she live?
Christine Morri...: Right outside of Wilmington, North Carolina.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. I love that. Yeah. Your calls to your mom are so sweet.
Christine Morri...: Really good.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. So we are at the very exciting time of the lightning round of questions. You're not allowed to overthink them. There's no right or wrong answer.
Christine Morri...: Okay.
Johanna Almstea...: Favorite comfort food?
Christine Morri...: Pizza.
Johanna Almstea...: Do you have anything on your pizza?
Christine Morri...: Well, I do love pepperoni pizza, but this is the crazy thing is I really don't care. I'll eat a veggie pizza or whatever. This is so funny. I didn't realize what a pizza fan I am, but we have Whole Foods pizza usually is our Friday night and it's really, really good. But when we were in Rome, we went and we learned how to make pizza. That was so fun. But I did the book event in New York a couple weeks ago. I couldn't eat all day. I was just so nervous. I, of course, just pounded coffee in Celsius. My favorite food is also caffeine. But I got dropped off at my hotel and I was going to go upstairs. It was like 11:15, and I thought, "You know what? I'm going to run across the street to the bodega and I got a slice," and it was the best thing I've ever eaten.
Johanna Almstea...: Nothing like a late night New York City slice of pizza.
Christine Morri...: And then you can roll it and it's just so good.
Johanna Almstea...: So good, so good. Okay. What's something you're really good at?
Christine Morri...: Oh, I am a master folder. I do laundry. No one in my house can do laundry ever because I can professionally clipboard fold without the clipboard.
Johanna Almstea...: Whoa.
Christine Morri...: Oh, it's so good. My mother-in-law keeps a towel and a shirt in our lake house to the side. So she knows how to try to attempt to fold something because she's a little afraid.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God, I want that.
Christine Morri...: They can't replicate it. And with that said, I mean, the way I fold fitted sheets, Martha Stewart-
Johanna Almstea...: Got nothing on you.
Christine Morri...: Nothing.
Johanna Almstea...: We just had this conversation. One of my guests that just said that one of the things she's really bad at is folding blankets. She can't.
Christine Morri...: I mean, I re-fold and then the making the bed. When my cleaning lady comes, I love her, but I like the bouncing the [inaudible 01:05:04]. I mean, it's crisp.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. Hence, the [inaudible 01:05:09].
Christine Morri...: Not [inaudible 01:05:09], whatever.
Johanna Almstea...: No, not at all.
Christine Morri...: Not at all.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. What's something you're really bad at?
Christine Morri...: Oh, things with tools. I love that my husband knows all that stuff.
Johanna Almstea...: That's hot. That's very hot.
Christine Morri...: Oh my God. He was a Boy Scout. They're all Eagle Scouts and he knows how to tinker with stuff. I'm like, first of all, I don't have the energy or the time to figure out this. His garage has like a thousand... He's like, "Get the screwdriver." I'm like, "Which one? There's like a hundred of them." He's like, "You know the..." I'm like, "No, come and get it yourself."
Johanna Almstea...: Not my department.
Christine Morri...: No.
Johanna Almstea...: That's what I always say, not my department.
Christine Morri...: Nope.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. What's your favorite word?
Christine Morri...: You're going to be like what? Minimalism.
Johanna Almstea...: Minimalism. I mean, it's a great word when you say it like that, minimalism.
Christine Morri...: Exactly. The way it rolls off the tongue, it's really symmetrical. The way it sounds, the way it looks, and also what it means, love.
Johanna Almstea...: Is your house very minimalist? I don't think-
Christine Morri...: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: ... two microwaves is minimalist, by the way. Just saying.
Christine Morri...: No, but I didn't have a coffee table in my living room for five years, and people would be like.... No, you're right about that with the microwaves. But otherwise, I'm a very big minimalist.
Johanna Almstea...: Very big minimalist, except all your kitchen tools. Okay.
Christine Morri...: [inaudible 01:06:36].
Johanna Almstea...: What is your least favorite food?
Christine Morri...: Oh, anything like anchovies or eel or anything like that. When I was pregnant, he made me eat anchovies and I put a jar of mustard on top of the anchovies.
Johanna Almstea...: Who made you do that? Your doctor?
Christine Morri...: My husband.
Johanna Almstea...: Why did your husband do that? That's so mean to make a pregnant person eat anything that they don't want to eat.
Christine Morri...: I know, right? Brain food.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, fuck that. No way.
Christine Morri...: No. I was six months pregnant. He had them figured out they were going to go to Spanish preschool because he had read all these studies about how math and science was not being taught sufficiently in the country, and that was going to help brain development for math and science. And they did.
Johanna Almstea...: The anchovies?
Christine Morri...: We moved to Atlanta and they did.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. That's mean. I'm just saying.
Christine Morri...: No, the Spanish preschool, but the anchovies, yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Christine Morri...: Oh my God.
Johanna Almstea...: I had such an aversion to fish when I was pregnant.
Christine Morri...: It wasn't often, but I did do it.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, God. Maybe why.
Christine Morri...: Oh, it's disgusting.
Johanna Almstea...: That's why brilliant kids. Yeah. That's awful. Okay. Least favorite word.
Christine Morri...: The typical one you would think being in beauty is moist, but you know what, I would say like hate. Hate.
Johanna Almstea...: Hate. Okay. Yeah. So many people say moist on this podcast, by the way. It's hilarious. Okay.
Christine Morri...: I bet.
Johanna Almstea...: Best piece of advice you've ever received.
Christine Morri...: Oh, do it anyway.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, I love that one. Love that one. Do it scared. Do it frightened. Do it freaked out. Do it anyway.
Christine Morri...: Do it anyway. You don't know what you're doing yet? Do it anyway. And it has come up in every juncture. You don't have the money, you shouldn't... Do it anyway. You're scared about the book.
Johanna Almstea...: Do it anyway.
Christine Morri...: The whole thing. It really applies to everything. And I say that to my kids all the time. They're like, "I don't think I'm going to be good enough to try out for water polo." Do it anyway. My kids are on the water polo team now, but yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, I love that. Do it anyway. Okay. If your personality were a flavor, what would it be?
Christine Morri...: You 100% would guess what I'm going to say. Vanilla.
Johanna Almstea...: Vanilla.
Christine Morri...: Not out of boredom.
Johanna Almstea...: Reliability and consistency.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. Cleanliness, palate cleanser. Reliability, for sure. Consistency, for sure.
Johanna Almstea...: Visually calming, pleasing.
Christine Morri...: Absolutely.
Johanna Almstea...: Minimalist.
Christine Morri...: Minimalist. Totally. I'm rethinking this second microwave as we're talking though.
Johanna Almstea...: I'm just saying I'm going to call you out on it. So no sprinkles, no hot fudge, no nothing on this. It's vanilla.
Christine Morri...: Well, that's the thing. Variety, you could. And that's what I like about it, is if you want to jazz it up, you can. Can be fun but really likes to go to bed early, so why not?
Johanna Almstea...: Don't invite her to a dinner party, guys. Just so you know.
Christine Morri...: I'm doing the Irish goodbye if I'm going to a dinner party. Go to the bathroom. I one time heard Sarah Foster. She was at a girl's dinner, and not only did she say, "I'm going to go to the bathroom," she just left. I mean, that's not just Irish goodbye from a party, that's just like-
Johanna Almstea...: That's just like I got up from a dinner table and left. That's something.
Christine Morri...: "I was done with the conversation," is what she said.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God. I wonder if those people are still friends with her or if their feelings were hurt.
Christine Morri...: Well, her sister... What's her sister's name again?
Johanna Almstea...: Erin.
Christine Morri...: Erin was like, "No wonder my friends don't like you."
Johanna Almstea...: I mean, I would be a little bit...
Christine Morri...: It's a little miffing, I mean, [inaudible 01:10:07] that way.
Johanna Almstea...: Be a little bit miffed unless there was something physically wrong. I'm big into manners, so that is-
Christine Morri...: Well, me too. Me too.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. All right, so speaking of dinner parties, this is your last supper. What are you eating tonight?
Christine Morri...: Oh, okay. So the most decadent sushi rolls. Not even the ones that are good for you but yummy. But then carrot cake and coconut cake.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, okay.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. And then probably an orange Celsius. I really like them.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God, you and the Celsius. Orange Celsius with your coconut cake.
Christine Morri...: I know. Well, I was going to say, I'm not going to get indigestion, right, because I'm dying anyway.
Johanna Almstea...: Who cares? I mean, you can drink all the Celsius you want. Your heart could jump out of your body from all that.
Christine Morri...: Exactly. And it might, and then I'll just finish it off with a hot tea. Not even decaf.
Johanna Almstea...: No, you're just going to go-
Christine Morri...: The key though is both carrot and coconut cake after this.
Johanna Almstea...: But two separate cakes, right? A carrot cake-
Christine Morri...: Oh, totally.
Johanna Almstea...: ... and a coconut cake. Not like a carrot coconut cake. Okay.
Christine Morri...: No, God, no.
Johanna Almstea...: And the not healthy sushi rolls, what kind? Are we talking like shrimp tempura? Are we talking about what?
Christine Morri...: Not shrimp, but yeah, a tempura. But I do like yellowtail with any of them, the mixtures and a sauce, and they have the-
Johanna Almstea...: Mayoey.
Christine Morri...: ... spicy mayo-
Johanna Almstea...: Spicy.
Christine Morri...: ... and all that.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. The rice, you're going to blow right up. I mean, why not?
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. Have you ever had a moment in your life where you've had to eat your words?
Christine Morri...: Yes. The thing is I don't curse now. I really don't. But when I first started CrossFit 12 years ago, I mean, it was like all I could do. I mean, I was like, "Fuck this." I was constantly with the barbell because we would throw them down. It was just a great release. And I was surrounded by a group of women that I loved, and I still have them, but socks are knee-high socks because when you climb ropes and one socks says mother and the other one says fucker, they're awesome. But I would curse all the time, but I made a very big point never to curse in front of my little boys. But one day he was maybe six, I had one with me or maybe seven. I had gone really far and he had gotten some kind of upper braces, roof of his mouth expander.
And I had taken him out of school, he got the expander, and I was leaving the parking lot after getting him a milkshake to go get his brother. And someone almost hit me, and it was really scary. And I said, "Motherfucker." And I was like, "Oh my God." And I go, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." And he goes, "It's okay. It's okay." And I go, "Don't tell McEwen, don't tell him." And he goes, "I won't. I won't, I won't." McEwen gets in, he goes like, "Guess what? Mommy cursed and it was the big one." They talk about it to this day.
Johanna Almstea...: I'm sure.
Christine Morri...: It's been almost a decade.
Johanna Almstea...: I'm sure. I feel like it probably gave you some street cred with them.
Christine Morri...: And to be totally honest, it sort of opened the door a little.
Johanna Almstea...: I'm telling you, it's breaking the seal. Once you do, they sneak in more easily.
Christine Morri...: I've heard you say that.
Johanna Almstea...: It does.
Christine Morri...: Then it wasn't like potty mouth, but if it slipped out, I wasn't like, "Oh, I'm the worst person in the world." I have a friend in New York who doesn't care and has said it forever, and she thought I was such a Pollyanna. Because she's like, "What do they hear me come to their house?" I'm like, "Do not talk like that in my house."
Johanna Almstea...: I mean, I have some friends who... I mean, we had babies. I had a two and a half year old and a newborn or something, little tiny babies, and we were super, super disciplined about it. And our kids were a few years older and they came to our house for brunch one day, and the mother and father were just dropping F-bombs left and right, and it was just part of their daily vernacular. My husband and I, were looking each other like, "Our little two-year-old." I was like, "My God."
Christine Morri...: You're like, "No, no, no, no." Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Christine Morri...: I know. No. No, no, no, no. Yeah, I was pretty proud of myself for a really long time.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. But it is true. Once you open the door, things slip out more easily. Okay. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, you don't have to worry about nutrition, you don't have to worry about longevity, it's just what would you eat every day, all day?
Christine Morri...: I'm going to go with maybe pizza.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, it's good.
Christine Morri...: I can [inaudible 01:14:36] eat that.
Johanna Almstea...: I can probably do that too. Where's your happy place?
Christine Morri...: Well, of course, anywhere my family is. No.
Johanna Almstea...: You're allowed. You're allowed.
Christine Morri...: Together. However, the Hamptons, but I would want to be together. I met my husband at the talk house in Amagansett, which is like, you don't meet people to marry there. But I had a share in Montauk for a while, which is why my dog is named Montauk, and we got married in East Hampton. So it just has a really special place in my heart. And I try to go every summer to stay with the woman who has a potty mouth in her house in Sag Harbor, but I usually go alone and spend several days with her. Sometimes my husband comes with me and we meet up with the friend who we used to live in his house in East Hampton. I've been to Montauk with my boys before when they were little, but I think we're going to try to do it before they graduate from high school and do a week or something. But they know how special it is.
Johanna Almstea...: It is a very special place. I love it. What did you have for dinner last night?
Christine Morri...: Half of the tuna fish wrap from Whole Foods, like pre-made and some Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I ate it all standing up. This is really gross. My son is sick and I had to go to a college admissions meeting at school. So between taking care of him, going to pick up the other one from track practice and then going to the admissions meeting.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, it happens. I eat many meals standing up. It's not great.
Christine Morri...: It's not good for you. And also I forgot I ate it, so then I ate the ice cream. I was like, "Oh yeah, I've eaten."
Johanna Almstea...: Right, right.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. It's not good.
Johanna Almstea...: I think I know the answer to this because you talk about it in your book, but what do you wear when you feel like you need to take on the world?
Christine Morri...: A white shirt, which in the book, definitely call a superhero cape. I own dozens of white shirts. It is a palette cleanser. You feel strong in them, the variety that you can wear, it's my favorite thing, and it's just so collar up, the whole thing. It just feels so powerful. I do love it. And also I love it, you can wear it with ripped up vintage Levi's and wear the best trouser tuxedo pants.
Johanna Almstea...: Right, right. I love it. Okay. Most memorable meal you've ever had?
Christine Morri...: Can it be a negative?
Johanna Almstea...: Sure. Just memorable. Doesn't have to be a good one.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. We went to Africa for my honeymoon, and my husband's like, "We are going to one of the most exclusive restaurants, et cetera." Everything was like a foam or a jelly. I was like spitting food in my napkin and it was so many courses. And I was like, at the end I go, "I hope this was not expensive because I'm starving." And it was awful. We're not foodies. Okay. We got it. Got it.
Johanna Almstea...: Got it. Got it. Nope. Go back to the Crock-Pot. Forget it.
Christine Morri...: I'm a simple girl, but it was a really neat experience. So yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Memorable. You have a memory from it.
Christine Morri...: Memorable.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. Go-to coping mechanism on a bad day if things are going wrong, things are going haywire, kid's sick, you're missing a deadline, work is crazy, your client is mad or whatever, what do you do?
Christine Morri...: Well, if it's in the morning and trying to head off at the past, I do think going to work out and lift weights. There's something really wonderful about... And I say CrossFit, but it's one-on-one with my coach and it's CrossFit things, but I really think there's something great about the barbell. And also I do things like I swing on the rings and it's really fun. It feels really young and adventurous. So doing that, it really takes you out of your head because you do have to focus on what you're doing. So that would be like if I was starting the day and I was already mad and I knew I was having a garbage terrible time, that clears your head and gets you on the right path.
If it was the middle of the day, I would say turn off everything for five minutes. Go make a cup of tea and just sit and pet my dog and just take breather. And because actually it's usually someone else's crisis, not mine, if I have a deadline, I mean, even if I'm late, it's manageable. People are so understanding. Stuff with the book, it was so self-imposed. And for me it's like, you know what, then I'll stay up tonight and do it, or something like that. But if it's someone screaming at you, they've got the problem.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. Right. Okay. Dream dinner party guest list, dead or alive, everyone will come.
Christine Morri...: Are they leaving by 9:00?
Johanna Almstea...: Sure. It can be a 5:00 PM dinner party. Oh my God. That's right. You're like, "There is no dream dinner party because I don't like dinner parties."
Christine Morri...: No dream dinner party. No, but I would like to have them over. I've thought about this because I was thinking like, "Who are some really powerful women in fashion that I would love to learn from?" Like Coco Chanel stood out for her time. Lauren Hutton, would love that. And then my grandmother, the one in the book, I don't say her name I don't think, but the one... She was a single mother and she let me wear the big cocktail ring with the Band-Aids, and she wore the Estée perfume and always had on a lipstick, but she was just a dream. I would love to have her. And then of course, my own mother. Just generations of strong women with style and just to talk about what it was like and how to move forward as being a woman in all the iterations.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, I love that. Okay. What is one thing you know for sure right now in this moment? You don't have to have known it yesterday, you don't need to know it tomorrow. What feels true to you right now?
Christine Morri...: That being vulnerable is the best thing that we can do for ourselves?
Johanna Almstea...: Ooh, I love that one.
Christine Morri...: Yeah. It started with a little bit with writing and then obviously with the book and everything, but I spoke on a stage in front of the board. There was just like 52 people there, and they asked me to read something and I cried the whole time. I mean, not like teary, sobbed.
Johanna Almstea...: Sobbing, okay.
Christine Morri...: Sobbing. Barely could get really... I mean, it was like ugly cry.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Christine Morri...: And at the end I was like, "God, I'm embarrassed." And then they were like, "You cracked that room wide open." And I had conversations I maybe would not have had. And then I came home and I told my kids about it, and we started talking about what being vulnerable means and what it means to be... You show a different part of who you are and being honest. And I was like, "There's not enough honesty and vulnerability and exposing because everybody wants everybody to think they've got it right or it's all perfect." And if we could just be more honest and vulnerable with one another, maybe we could all get along more. But just in general, you'll get further in life, I think.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. And it's such a double-edged sword because it's during a time when things feel so fraught and so aggressive, it's hard to stay vulnerable.
Christine Morri...: You just want to protect. I know that. But sometimes you can build... I don't want to put up walls because I don't want to stop feeling because life is hard.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Christine Morri...: And I don't want to shut down because life is hard. I think if we can work through it, maybe we'll get to the other side. I mean, maybe I am a Pollyanna. I mean, I don't know. [inaudible 01:22:48] will love that. It's
Johanna Almstea...: Not the worst thing in the world. I'll tell you that much right now. Okay. Can you please tell the nice people who are listening where they can find you, your social handles and where they can find more of your work and where they can buy the book?
Christine Morri...: Well, I am writing in black and white on Instagram, Substack, and that's also my website. Basically writing in black and white is cutting through the gray areas of fashion and beauty and wellness through the lens of aging. And the book is called Clothes Minded: Fashionable Essays About Finding Yourself. You can buy it currently on Amazon. And I know a lot of people are not crazy about that is currently in the process of being produced by a wholesaler, so I can get it on Bookshop.org and in some retail stores.
Johanna Almstea...: Amazing.
Christine Morri...: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Amazing. Well, thank you so much. This has been such a delight. Thank you for taking time out of what I know is very busy. I'm sure you've got dinner to make soon, don't you?
Christine Morri...: There's something in the Crock-Pot.
Johanna Almstea...: I know that life is full and you have a sick kid at home, so I really appreciate you taking the time with me and for being so vulnerable and sharing your story with us. It's been a really, really, really lovely couple of hours with you.
Christine Morri...: Thank you for having me.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my gosh, that was hilarious. We went on so many tangents. I think we found our way back, but I hope you guys enjoyed that. I hope you were inspired to keep working on your dreams. I mean, she dreamt of that book for something like 20 years. So I hope that you laughed a little bit, hope you learned something. I hope you thought about what you're dreaming of or realized if you're not dreaming of something that maybe you can be. And as always, we thank you so much for tuning in. We are so excited to have you here and so grateful that you continue to come here to listen to our stories. If you're not doing so already, please follow us on Instagram and TikTok. We actually just moved TikTok handles, so we're still on Instagram, we're @eatmywordsthepodcast and on TikTok, we're @eatmywordsthepodcast, all one word. No underscore. We used to be at underscore.
So now the new one is Eat My Words podcast on TikTok, all one word. Please follow us there if you're not already. And if you know somebody who you think might be inspired by this episode or might just need a laugh, please send it to them. You can copy it from your media player and you can paste it into social media. You can send it over DM, you can send it over text, you can send it over email. You could put it in your own Instagram stories or your own Instagram posts. We really, really appreciate any and all sharing of this episode as you possibly can because we are growing big for 2026. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and I will catch you on the next one.
This podcast has been created and directed by me, Johanna Almstead. Our producer is Sophy Drouin. Our audio editor is Isabel Robertson, and our brand manager is Neela Bhujna.