Jeanne Beker Set the Standard for Fashion TV Journalism

It’s always depressing, and I have to do everything while still on camera! I don’t have a makeup artist, hairdresser, or stylist that is in every TV presenter these days. I didn’t even have a farm producer until later years. Me and the cameraman. We had no driver in the early years, so we were in Paris in the pouring rain, trying to park a taxi. There was a cameraman carrying all the equipment, and there I was with the tripod in stilettos, as I refused to be much shorter than the models.

It also doesn’t just cover two or three movies a day — it covers 8 movies a day, and then injects stories between movies. Maybe something happened in a museum or gallery, and it was late in the evening covering the parties.

You also wore a lot of Canadian designers to the show, which I love.

I want to be a cheerleader for designers in this country who are as talented as their European or American counterparts, but don’t have the finances to blow their horns as loudly. I have clothing deals with various Canadian designers, who need their sales to be displayed on that platform. I wore Lida Baday, Wesley and Winsa, Zapata, Danier, Jeffery Caoc’s Misura, Teenflo (now Judith and Charles), Sunny Choi, and Wayne Clark. I got the Order of Canada for promoting Canadian design, and that show has a lot to do with it.

What are you wearing these days? Your 70’s style is still great!

Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot of pieces by Irish designer Louise Kennedy. I find them absolutely unique. I love what Greta Constantine does, and I also love the Canadian label Smythe. I love their jackets, and the beautiful tailoring. These are classic pieces with a certain quality and sophisticated sensitivity to them.