GENES #8 - Lauren Sundstrom
An interview with local style influencer, Lauren Sundstrom about her story, her favorite pants, TikTok, and Vancouver's "fashion" scene.
This is the 8th installment in my series called GENEs where I interview people and unravel the stories behind them, and their favorite things.
To check out the previous interviews covering a range of clothing with gorgeous stories, see the link here.
To ensure you don’t miss an interview, consider subscribing now.
If you’ve been keeping up with this project thus far, you will have noticed that each person I have interviewed has been someone I have had an established relationship with. In the introduction to the last GENEs interview, I mentioned that and expected it to continue as I am leaning on the people I have met while taking photos, and have formed a continuing relationship with.
This article is going to break that trend, already.
Although I have taken Lauren’s photo before, it was early on in the SoEV project, and I did not have the opportunity to keep in touch with her afterward. But, being a Vancouver local, our paths were likely to cross again, and it happened quite serendipitously.
At the end of every GENEs interview, I ask the interviewee for two recommendations for people who they’d like to see featured in this project. Most people take a few days to think about it, but when I interviewed Lydia, they immediately said Lauren Sundstrom!
I’ve been writing the names down on my “list of potential interviews”, but that list is getting quite long, and the windows of time for me to do these interviews are quite small. So, I figured I’d add it to the list and get to it eventually, hopefully.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, during my lunch break, I was catching up on missed notifications, writing some emails, and was preparing to post a story on Instagram when suddenly, an unexpectedly large number of people started following SoEV.
I’ve had “influxes” of followers before, usually from when I am featured on a local news station or website, or on the rare occasion, I hit an undiscovered pocket of people if someone reposts a photo and their small, but dedicated following takes interest in SoEV. These have never really given me more than 100 or so followers at a time. On this particular day though, every time I would refresh my screen, another 5-10 followers were popping up, and I had NO IDEA where they were coming from. I hadn’t done any recent interviews, I couldn’t see anyone had shared anything on Instagram…I thought maybe the Instagram algorithm was finally giving me some love…
As the day went on, the new followers kept pouring in, which felt really strange. I try not to think too much about Instagram during the day, but my curiosity of network effects and the algorithm kept me fascinated.
At this point I felt I had kind of reached a saturation point with who would be interested in this project, but all of a sudden, there was this new section of people who had never visited the page before and decided to follow.
So, I couldn’t help myself and I posted a story to see where everyone was coming from, and immediately, I got my answer.
Overwhelmingly, people kept messaging me… Lauren Sundstrom’s Tik Tok! So I clicked through and went to see the video, assuming she mentioned me in the video or something. Turned out, it was just a comment from one of her followers, on her video. My mind was blown, TikTok is a whole ‘nother beast I’ve yet to figure out.
I immediately messaged her on Instagram mentioning how full circle of a moment this was, given that Lydia had just mentioned Lauren to me, and asked if she’d like to do a GENEs interview. She immediately said yes, and I took the first opportunity I could to meet up with her at Hunneybee in Chinatown and chat!
An Introduction to Lauren
Since the “micro-viral moment” , I had started to do a bit of research on Lauren Sundstrom, what her background was, what types of things she publishes, and what her content is all about. Briefly, Lauren is a trans woman, sustainable fashion advocate, style icon, model, freelance writer, amongst other things! I knew this would be an exciting interview and I had a feeling she’d bring an item that told a great story.
Knowing this, I took the opportunity over some warm drinks on a sunny patio to explore some of her thoughts and perspectives on how she ended up being a social media professional, what she is feeling as a trans woman in todays social and political climate, and her perspectives on style and fashion in this city.
Before I go any further, I will say, if you are not familiar with her full story, I strongly recommend watching this video. I will not go into too much depth of her background in this article, as I believe it is way more powerful to go and watch that video as she covers her own journey, but also the current challenges for people today who are wanting to transition, transitioning, or transitioned. You can also read her piece in Teen Vogue where she talks about when she felt empowered to come out as trans publicly and all that was involved during that time in her life.
Since I had never had a conversation with Lauren prior, I was not totally sure where our conversation would go, but knowing that as a content creator focused on clothing and trans rights, we’d get along great.
I started the conversation simply by asking a bit about her professional history, what school(s) she went to, and how she ended up working as a social media influencer full time.
Full Time Social Media
…I use the term journalist very loosely. My qualifications and my background is in journalism, but my first job out of school was with Daily Hive, which at the time was Van City buzz. I was a staff writer there and I met a friend who told me “Hey, I think you've got potential for growing your social media.” She was in the midst of doing that herself, now she's a Facebook ads whiz she's amazing at it. She gave me some tips and I started trying to grow it somewhat in earnest.
I wasn't out as trans at that time. Obviously, I had transitioned, but I wasn't out as trans. I was just trying to… I don't know…show a different side to my personality that didn't necessarily have anything to do with that. Also, I was scared to broadcast beyond small circles of people that I was trans. Then in 2018, I decided to come out. There were a bunch of circumstances that led to me coming out at that point, to a broader group of people on my social media. I think I had maybe 12,000 followers at that time and I decided to come out to them, and it was well-received.
I did an op-ed in Teen Vogue about the coming out process. It was great. I was working for Lush Cosmetics at the time and they were doing this trans rights or human rights campaign that made me realize... if the company that I work for is actively supporting people like me, why am I not putting myself out there? Even though things seem to be slipping, socially lately, I have zero regrets about it because I think that being able to speak candidly and openly about my experience has been valuable for lots of people and has also, frankly, been valuable for my social media presence, which really is just a bonus. But then fast forward to 2021, I think on Instagram, I was hovering around 25,000 followers or something. And then I decided to start messing around with TikTok.
I just got really lucky and a video went viral. I went from having, I don't know, 700 followers on TikTok to 25,000 in maybe the span of a week or two. And then my TikTok growth has just gone from there. I'm at like, 156,000 on there, and a good chunk of people are in Vancouver, which is really cool. TikTok's algorithm is so dialed in that they really do reach those local folks. Things have just really taken off with both TikTok and Instagram and in 2022, I started doing social media full-time for my job, and that was it.
It's pretty wild how that happens. I don't think I ever expected to be able to do that. Tiktok was really what allowed me to do it, and then Instagram growth followed once I actually had the time to be able to dedicate to it. So, yeah, it's just wild.
Being Trans Today
After she finished this background introduction, my mind raced in four different directions at once. I wanted to follow up with what she meant by “we are slipping”, but also was extremely curious about doing social media full time, her opinions on Vancouver fashion, and of course, we needed to get to the GENEs part too…
I started by expressing my shared concern about where we are headed in terms of the general “conservatism” storming back into the picture after a decade of what felt like good progress. Personally, I never understood why it should be anyone’s business what one does with their own body, but here we are. She agreed:
Exactly. I just never imagined that this would be a conversation that the entire public would weigh in on in the ways that they have because this isn't anything new. People have been using puberty blockers as a means to allow trans kids an opportunity to grow up a little bit and make decisions about the type of gender-affirming care they want to seek since the late '80s, and people don't know that. Not only that, but people have been seeking out gender-affirming care in general since the 1920s. This is over 100 years of this at this point. Now people have decided that it's this brand new thing that children are falling “victim” to?
The gender spectrum has existed for as long as humans have existed, as long as societies have existed.
The influence of it on how we express ourselves, our identities, all of that can't be underestimated. When it comes to gender, people want it to be purely biological rather than this mixture of biology and sociology and whatever else. Ultimately, for me, if we're going to be really prescriptive about gender roles, the gender role that fit me best was that of a woman, not in a traditional 1950s housewife way, but just in this just feels like a more comfortable fit for me. That's where I slid in. I'm sure that there's some biological component to it that we don't quite understand at this point. But for now, it's enough for me to just be like, I know who I am, and I know what I needed to do, and that should be enough for other people as well.
We talked on these issues a little while longer, and while I naively started the conversation out optimistic of the path forward for Millenials and Gen Z when it comes to developing more a more open minded, accepting, and ultimately free society; she made some really poignant points about what she sees happening online, the rising hate fueled by the far-right and the trolls on her social media. It inspired me to continue doing the work I do with young people to, at the very least, have a positive influence in the small circle of Gen Z I teach and have discussions with on a daily basis.
After what I felt was a quite heavy start to our conversation, we shifted to the story of her pants.
Her Mom’s Escada Pants
These were my mom's in the late '70s. They're Escada. She has kept them for many years and finally passed them along to me. I love wearing them because there was that moment a few years ago where everybody was wearing leather pants, but it wasn't anything like this. Everybody was wearing the black leather pant, from Aritzia, which was garbage leather. Everybody looked the same. It was like a black flair style, and these are completely the opposite in every single way. I just love them.
Not only do I love how different they are, but I also love to think back to when my mom had these when she was 25 to 30-ish, so not far off from my current age. I wonder where she wore them. What kinds of conversations she had wearing these pants. I love that they were hers and that she had this really cool sense of style and then just loved them so much that she kept them all these years, knowing that at some point she wouldn't fit into them anymore and just not knowing why she was keeping them. Especially after she had two kids, both assigned male at birth, it seemed even less relevant to keep them.
Then I transitioned, and then she was able to give them to me. There's a matching wool blazer that goes with it, with the leather piping that's this color as well. But it was just a bit too warm to wear that, so I left that one at home.
The pants are the star of the show. She got them when they were brand new. They were expensive, and she's just kept them all these years.
I admired the quality leather, rivets and zippers that are truly unlike anything I’ve seen before. I commented that the majority of the vintage pieces I’ve interviewed people about up to this point have an unknown past until the point in which the new owner obtained them, but in this case, the full history is even more vital in the gravity of the pants.
That's why I love vintage so much. Most of what I have right now is second-hand, and most of my clothing really is second-hand. A big part of my social media, too, is that I don't ever advertise or buy from fast fashion.
I was the type of person who had an ASOS order coming every week and loved Zara, would replace my entire wardrobe every season with fast fashion pieces. Once I realized that vintage and second-hand clothing not only gives you something unique, but it's also just way better for the planet and for working conditions. You're not supporting really awful working conditions. I was sold on shopping vintage as much as I possibly can.
I asked what led her to that change of mindset. I know it is difficult for a lot of people, especially those of us who are interested in keeping up with trends and especially on a budget, to stray away from some of the more accessible pieces put out by the bigger brands.
She continued:
It was a slow build. I think I started buying vintage when I moved into East Van for the first time. In 2015, I moved to Hasting-Sunrise, and there was this really vintage shop that was also a coffee shop. And I found these jeans from Guess that were Mom jeans and in 2015, they were so perfect for the time. I found the jeans, and I wore them obsessively, and I felt so cool.
Nobody else had these jeans. I was hooked after that. Then it slowly built up until finally I realized that I had gone over too far to the fast fashion side of things.
Even though I shop mostly second-hand, and if not second-hand, an ethical company, I would be the first to admit I still overconsume. Certainly, it's part of my job to have a wide array of clothes, but it does encourage overconsumption as well. That's why I love something like what you're doing because it's like, choose a piece that you love, that you've had for many years. I love that encouragement of people to keep the pieces that they love for as long as possible.
Fashion in Vancouver
As we wrapped up our conversation about her pants and vintage shopping, I looked down at my notebook and had one last question. The question, which was one I was a bit hesitant to ask, was more of a call out than a question... In one of the videos of Lauren I had watched in preparation for this interview she mentions that Vancouver’s fashion and style scene is lacking. She also mentioned it in the TikTok in which she claimed that Vancouver’s fashion isn’t great, except in some areas of the city (which is why I was tagged in her comments).
It’s a statement that I unfortunately hear constantly. I am usually asked about it in interviews and it is probably what limits the reach of my projects as people tend not to look to “Vancouver” as a place for fashion inspiration. While I agree there is room to grow for Vancouver in general, as I have written about multiple times, and is the main focus of SoEV in general, places like Commercial Drive embrace a diverse group of people, and make people feel safe in terms of self-expression, with no “dress codes” on the streets or in the establishments, a focus on vintage clothing, and a wide range of activities bringing in all types of people, doing all types of things. While she agreed, she still stood by her statement.
I think it's a definite stereotype that I adhere to. I don't know. I just think that there is this sameness to how people present themselves here. There's an expected uniformity. I remember one time I made a video on TikTok, maybe two years ago, where I was talking about how the fashion in Vancouver is not great, but if you're one of those people who loves fashion, you'll know that you have to make a choice when you're going out between wearing an outfit that you won't get stared at in versus an outfit that you'll get stared at. I was like, I don't feel like getting stared at tonight, so here's my outfit. I was wearing something very, very toned down. Then that video went viral because people were like, yes, I get it.
Obviously, I'm speaking to something in the consciousness of people who enjoy style and fashion in Vancouver who don't feel like you can be fashionable here as people [in some neighborhoods] expect this level of uniformity. It's very relaxed, which isn’t a bad thing. But, sometimes I'll feel so self-conscious in the things that I… even though I love wearing these clothes, I just don't feel like it's always a hospitable environment in Vancouver. People want leggings and athleisure and Blundstones and whatever.
We continued to analyze the pockets of places in which Vancouver shows this “uniform” vs. places it doesn’t, why that might be, and what might change.
At the end of the day, we both agreed that we like where we see things going, especially in East Van as it continues to attract creatives and open-minded individuals who are willing to display some self expression through the way they dress.
Conclusions
We wrapped up our conversation to go take some photos before heading in our own ways for the rest of the afternoon. We continued to talk about clothes and she showed me the shirt she had found at Collective Will, that had holes in the collar made for a kilt pin. It’s a men’s shirt but she found and loved the flow and it paired very well with her leather pants and her vintage, second-hand, Coach purse.
I want to thank Lauren for taking the time and being so quick to respond and set up a date to come chat. I learned a lot from our conversation and was inspired in many avenues about the work that needs to be done as a trans ally, especially in my role as a high school teacher.
She also challenged me to push what I am doing on Instagram as well. In not so few words, she essentially told me writing is dead (maybe true, maybe not), but her perspective on video being the future, and me being so focused on strictly stills and writing, has definitely made me think about ways to integrate some video into these projects, more to come on that!
GENEs RECOS from Lauren
Local
Aly: Someone I think I’ve recently taken a photo of. “An incredibly cool person with a successful small business (NENA HANSEN) upcycling old men’s shirts.”
Reach
Roan Curtis: Also a local; she’s an actress and has great taste and good style.
Fantastic interview with an incredible woman! It's so interesting to read about the tough tension between fashion/style and sustainable consumption. Thank you for highlighting an empowered/ing trans voice in your work ❤️✊
Loved this! I discovered Lauren on TikTok a few months ago - her style and eye for vintage is always on point✨