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THE INTERESTING WOMAN

Don’t Call Her the Queen of Quiet Luxury: Liat Baruch on Worthiness, Luxury, & Celebrity Styling

by: Gabrielle Scout

“There is nothing effortless about what I do,” Liat Baruch tells me as we sit at South Beverly Grill in Beverly Hills, a restaurant that exudes the energy of an institution; bustling patrons wearing business casual, the dining area adorned with Scandinavian furniture, banquette seating, lower lighting despite it being noon, no dairy substitutes, valet, of course.  

Her eyes light up when she declares this as if she is stating the obvious while simultaneously pulling back the curtain on the exact world that feels so effortless to the outsider. She is the stylist, after all, who has been coined as the queen of quiet luxury – a term she is sick of because as she gracefully points out: “It’s been around way before me.” 

When I meet Liat for the first time, she walks in wearing a midi dress from her favorite Los Angeles vintage store, Scout, the Alaia fishnet flats (which she states aren’t the sexiest), and a buttoned up navy blue cropped cardigan from her capsule collection with Aqua, Bloomindales’ clothing line. She feels quiet luxury – and she feels understated, in the most confident and alluring of ways. She seems to have hit the balance: the stylish aura we are all chasing mixed with the romanticized je ne sais quoi of a quick morning where you throw something on.

But when I go to greet Liat by the hostess stand, she starts the conversation by asking about myself: about my recent travels, where I live, if I had been to South Beverly Grill before (I hadn’t). I wondered how many lunches and coffee dates she has attended with future clients – a vibe check, as she calls it – and how many of those meetups revolved around the woman or man she was about to excavate from a style perspective. I wondered how many meetings revolved around her. 

She has pointed out before, on the Who What Wear podcast with Hillary Kerr, that her job is to be unknown. When she styles a woman and that woman walks into a room, others are supposed to see the woman – not Liat’s work. In that behind-the-scenes way, Liat’s creativity as a stylist backs up the infamous saying: Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for life. 

Liat is in the business of teaching her clients to fish. 

Her cover blew up though in April of 2023 when images of Sofia Richie Grainge’s wedding started flooding our feeds – a viral and culturally iconic fashion moment that no one saw coming, that no one could have predicted. Having styled Sofia’s wedding weekend – and having been like a sister to her for years – suddenly the spotlight was on Liat.

The world was asking: Who was the woman who styled the wedding seen around the world?

We did not talk about the wedding because one quick Google search will tell you and show you all you need to know about that moment in time, but I did have one question for Liat around that moment – the moment that grew her Instagram following from seven thousand to over sixty thousand, the moment that put her on the map as the queen of quiet luxury, the moment where people didn’t just know Liat’s work but they started to know her.

“Did you like all of the buzz?” I asked her. “Or was it too much?”

“I liked it,” she confidently tells me. “I liked it because I worked for it.”

Liat has been styling for over 15 years, working with celebrities, styling red carpets, and overhauling wardrobes of women across Los Angeles: dressing Kristen Dunst in Chanel to receive her Hollywood star, Jon Chu for his Wicked and Crazy Rich Asians press tour, Katherine Power for a recent Avaline event, August Getty for his 30th birthday, Domantas Sabonis on his Tunnel looks.

Liat has been styling for over 15 years, working with celebrities, styling red carpets, and overhauling wardrobes of women across Los Angeles: dressing Kristen Dunst in Chanel to receive her Hollywood star, Jon Chu for his Wicked and Crazy Rich Asians press tour, Katherine Power for a recent Avaline event, August Getty for his 30th birthday, Domantas Sabonis on his Tunnel looks.

Her first fashion memory was when she was thirteen. She picked out a dress for her friend’s Bat Mitzvah from an LA store called Monkey Wear – a store of the times. 

“I’ll never forget it,” she said. “She loved it.” 

However, Liat did not grow up around fashion; that moment was not nurtured and primed for her as a child. She is the eldest of four children; her parents immigrated to America from Israel. Her fashion journey was paved herself; her interest and love for it implanted within rather than influenced from the outside. 

“I didn’t grow up with Vogue magazines around me,” she recalls. “I sought them out later. When I was young, young, I didn’t have that. But I guess you could say that I was always drawn to clothing and fashion – tasteful things, whether it was art or music. I was always drawn to the arts.”

We talk about indulgence – 

In a world of luxury, where is the line? “Too much of it you lose a little bit of context,” she says. “I like where I am because I have to work for it and I appreciate it when I have it.” She is in a constant state of cleaning out closets; getting rid of things. Being Carrie Bradshaw while also looking at 100 pairs of shoes and knowing you do not need them all. 

We talk about age appropriate dressing – 

“I think it’s subjective,” she says. But if you feel like your daughter would wear it? “It’s out,” she firmly says. “It’s not happening.” We agree that it is an energy – not trying so hard to be something you are not. 

We talk about elevation – 

I, about retiring my Doc Martens, her, about retiring her “cute little white t-shirt and vintage Levi’s” uniform. “The second you start actually internalizing that less is more and you actually believe that,” she states. “I think that’s when you elevate a little bit.” 

We talk about worthiness – 

Do women need to feel worthy to own and wear a luxury wardrobe? “To wear a two-thousand dollar sweater, you need to feel like you should be wearing a two-thousand dollar sweater. It needs to start with feeling worthy,” she affirms. “I think that that’s what exudes through the clothing.” She admits that can be difficult even for her – a woman surrounded by luxurious clothing; One would think sticker shock would become quite subdued.  

We talk about transformation – 

How clothing doesn’t just transform the woman wearing the garment but how clothing can transform the energy of a room. “I swear the second they switch it or just tailor something or customize or elevate a belt, they’ll see that everyone just reacts differently to you.” She says. “They just do.”

To work with Liat Baruch, you must have a minimum of a ten-thousand dollar shopping budget in addition to Liat’s styling rate. I note this down selfishly – reminding myself to add it to my future goals. She typically starts with an entire wardrobe reset. “And then we build a relationship,” she explains. “If it works then the one off events come.”

“What percentage of your clients are celebrities?” I ask her.

“I would say half,” she says.

“The key difference between working with men and women?” I ask her.

“It’s more of a job,” she says. “There’s a start and an end [with men]. They’re fun. They don’t care but they care.” Price resistance amongst men versus women is also a thing.

I ask her: “Is it better to be underdressed or overdressed?” – a question and proposition she claims she has never heard of. 

I tell her everyone says it is better to be overdressed than underdressed. 

“I completely disagree,” she boldly states. I celebrate internally. I have finally met my match, agreeing with every fiber in my body (and then curse the fact that I chose to wear both a broach and a statement earring – I should have chosen one!). “It’s too ‘try hard,’” she says. “I am more like – these terms that people coin are funny but – like French girl aesthetic… I am not a make-up girl, I don’t have a lot of jewelry…I am not big on that stuff.”

Quiet luxury, minimalistic, effortless – the end result of years and years of expertise, fine-tuning, endless inspiration, and styling.

With all of the styling, with all of the clothing, with all of Liat’s success, I ask her perhaps the most illuminating question of all: “What is Liat Baruch wearing in 10 years?”

“Probably what Liat’s wearing now,” she immediately answers – an answer I wasn’t prepared for. I smile because Liat Baruch is exactly who Liat Baruch is. 

And that part is effortless.

WRITTEN BY GABRIELLE SCOUT

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