The Style and Class of Emily Oberg

November 08, 2021

From an outside point of view, Emily Oberg lives a close to perfect life. Through a virtual screen, playing tennis in Tuscany, then flying to France for dinner, then getting holistic lymphatic drainage massages in LA, all while donned in Celine seems to be the average routine of the mogul. And for the average person, it's easy to get wrapped up in a lens of toxic and unrealistic lifestyle standards — but for Emily, those attributes that make up her image are the least of her worries. Upon meeting Emily, it's apparent that her needs and go deeper than what's perceived through the blind eye. She wants to lead a life full of beautiful moments and imagery, but only if that is reflected in the health and wellness of the physical world and its people.

Her care for the climate and wellness of others actually goes so deep, that her composition of multidisciplinary works all surrounds her mix of sustainability and health, all in a contemporary taste. Her brand, Sporty and Rich, and its offspring, 'Sporty and Rich Wellness Club' have been emblematic of that statement. In this wellness club, she spreads the knowledge of trusted and qualified experts to the public for free, along with playlists, mood boards, and newsletters to a community of health cognizant folks.

Interview by Tiana Randall
Photos courtesy of Sporty and Rich

And she's honest about her sustainability, she doesn't paint eco-friendly and green consciousness labeling across her brand— because she doesn't have to. The entrepreneur is honest about her practices and what she's able to do and what she can improve on since starting as a sustainable company, instead of converting over to one.

Sporty and Rich was born in 2014, and opened as a reference of inspiration for life through a collection of images from past and present that depict a life surrounded by beauty. Most famously, Emily appreciates imagery of Princess Diana and her style, French cashmere sweaters, tennis culture, vintage cars, and archived magazine spreads. It quickly grew into a print magazine, and now its contemporary form as a lifestyle and clothing brand. One thing Oberg does well is keep it simple. Her designs emphasize longevity over momentary relevance and play on classic styles and silhouettes that have been loved since the beginning of time and have stuck. With an ethos of, ‘Be nice, drink water, be good to the planet, take care of yourself and live a life of pleasure.’ it is imperative that Emily's legacy sticks around for the health and wellness of fashion.

We caught up with the owner of the brand to discuss the future and ethics of Sporty and Rich.

You've always been really big on physical health, but how do you maintain mental health? Because I think that's equally as important. What are your routines and how do you check in with yourself?

I'm a big proponent of therapy, I think everyone should have a therapist. I feel like everyone in New York does have a therapist — or multiple. I think therapy is really good just because having an outside perspective on your problems and just talking through things really helps. I also read a lot of books on positivity and how to navigate our society and I think those really help too. I feel like you kind of have to study how to be happy now, because it's so hard with everything that we have, like social media and pressure and comparing yourself career-wise or within your personal life. You have to really dedicate yourself to it. It's like working out. Your body's not going to improve if you don't go to the gym, just like your mind and your mental state won't improve if you don't really dedicate time to it. So I feel like books, therapy, definitely podcasts [help]. And just unplugging. I used to work a lot when I lived in New York. There's a lot of burning out and I feel like people kind of crave and romanticize that kind of life. I know that's the fashion way.

It's very American.

Yeah, definitely. But I think that's why it's nice to also have a Paris team because there's more balance and we don't work in this crazy way. It's never yelling at anyone or texting in the evening or on weekends. We don't do that. I'm the boss, so I can set that company culture so it's not that way, because I've had jobs like that and it's a nightmare. So it's all of those things. But I don't think a lot of people think it's that important, so they don't do it. But, to me, it's probably the most important thing you can do.

You mentioned reading books, what's the last book you read?

There's one called "The Mastery of Self." It was a series there's one about the mastery of love too. They all kind of talk about how to preserve your sense of self in the world and not letting certain situations or tragedy change who you are. They're about maintaining your happiness.

We have one thing in common, that I know of. I'm the biggest Sade fan of all time. So what is your favorite Sade song?

Probably "Paradise." I love that one.

Mine is "Maureen." I feel like it's really underrated. When it comes to Sporty and Rich, how do you cultivate your community? What made you want to start the newsletter?

I definitely think people like interacting. But it's hard; you can't respond to every DM or every comment or message, so I feel like the newsletter was a way for me to interact. I saw what people were wanting and what products they were using. Like, 'What do you like or where you buy this?' So I incorporated that with a journal diary entry, because people liked when I wrote for the Wellness Club, [though] I don't really write for it as much anymore. That's also why I also started the newsletter and I really like to write. It's a way I can communicate with everyone at once.

You also used to do a print magazine, are you still doing that now? How are you incorporating the digital aspects into the print?

I stopped the magazine a few years ago but I've been working on a book.

Like a coffee table book?

Yeah. I'm hoping for January, but that'll only be print.

What will that entail?

It's a health and wellness coffee table book with photos to go along with that and chapters on skin, digestion, working out, and all of the things that I love.

I think you have a guide on how to improve your gut — you're really big on that, right? Can you give me some tips?

What you're not getting through food, you need to get through vitamins. For gut, everyone's different, but a big problem is raw vegetables are really hard to digest and really, really hard on your stomach. Personally, I find in a lot of people that I've talked to, it's better if it's cooked. So I would avoid raw as much as you can.

I thought it was the opposite because I thought when you cook vegetables that it cooks all the nutrients out of it?

So that's if you over cook it to a certain point. A quick steam or roasting vegetables is really good. But raw, it's just hard because plants naturally have these chemicals that they use as a defense mechanism for animals. So when animals eat them, they're going to get sick. Kale is the worst one. When I eat kale, my stomach kills me.

What would you say are three easy ways to check in with your gut? Because I know it does affect your mental health as well.

Totally. I would say make sure you're going to the bathroom at least once a day. That's number one. Then I would say that most skin issues are directly related to the gut, so I feel like those are two defining factors for sure. Also with depression, obviously that's a chemical imbalance for some people, or situational, but I feel like a lot of depression is caused because people are not eating well or they are drinking too much.

I should look into that. I know there's certain cleanses you can do as well.

I've done a few — bone broth is amazing and even taking probiotics.

So you have a lot of these philosophies on life. What are they and how do they directly impact Sporty and Rich?

I would say the most important thing for me is to just focus on your happiness and overall quality of life and lifestyle. For Sporty and Rich, I kind of manifested that lifestyle for myself. It started as a mood board; I posted photos of things that I loved, or my dream life, or places I wanted to go. And for me, balance is a big part of it. I don't work crazy —I feel like when I say that people think I'm not a hard worker, but it just means that I'm not slaving away and I'm not trying to get to a place to prove anything to myself or other people. I'm just doing it because it makes me happy and I'll do it for as long as it makes me feel that way. I feel that everything you do has to bring you some joy in your life, otherwise there's no point in doing it. There are a lot of people who do things because it makes them a lot of money or because they think that's what people want them to do, but that's not a successful life to me.

Yeah, and a lot of those people are usually very soulless and have nothing to talk about except for work. So when it comes to your Wellness Club and having that print on the Sporty and Rich sweatshirts, where did that inspiration come from? Because I know you're into the 80s and the 90s and Princess Diana.

I think for a while I was trying to figure out what Sporty and Rich was and what the bigger story or bigger picture could be, besides just making clothes. It was a time where I was really starting to get into health and wellness and I thought it should be based around health. There aren't any brands really pushing health in that way, unless it's more blatant like Lululemon or something. But that feels kind of lame or for moms in a way. There wasn't really a brand pushing health for young, cool people who like all the things that we like, you know? So I feel like it's just my way of combining my two passions and promoting something positive that everyone can benefit from.

And will that show in the physical realm, like are you going to start doing Sporty and Rich yoga classes or tennis? I think that'd be so fun.

I really want to open a Sporty and Rich Country Club in LA with tennis courts and gyms and all of that. But that's my end goal — we'll see.

I just finished doing a row of traveling and I feel so lost within myself, so I'm trying to regroup little pieces of myself. You travel a lot as well, so how do you check in with yourself while you're traveling, whether that's bringing your favorite toner or products?

For work I do travel quite a bit. I always like to listen to positivity podcasts and always remind myself of certain things. I feel like sometimes we get in the mode of, 'Oh, this is annoying.' But I remember when I dreamed to be able to do this. I'm so happy and grateful for it. So just stuff like that, but there's nothing physical. I feel like I could travel with a toothbrush and be fine. I'm super low maintenance.

How can we make our everyday a little bit more sustainable — because I know that Sporty and Rich is very sustainable. You guys work within your own factory and you talk about that on Instagram a lot.

I think that the way we live our daily lives is a big part of it. So eating — if you're going to eat meat, there's a sustainable way to do it. I eat from local farms in California. It's about knowing where your products are coming from,I feel like [that] is really important and supporting businesses who operate in like a sustainable way too. But that's with any products that you have — skincare, your clothes, your food, but especially food, because I feel like that's the thing we consume the most. Making sure that wherever you're buying it — it's ethically sourced and it's all humanely raised. I think doing little things, like just unplugging appliances when you're not using it, not leaving the water running, or not using all of the lights in your house. Just little things that we do all the time, but it adds up and I don't think people realize that it's the small things that will make a big difference over time.

For people who want to make their own brands or their own Sporty and Rich, what would you say would be the biggest sustainability practice that they should look into?

Well, even though we try to have sustainability efforts, I think if you really care about sustainability, you're not going to start a brand. I'm passionate about the environment, but it's not my number one passion because if it was, then I would be working with a charity or an organization that works to do that. So if you care about the environment, don't start a brand because you are producing things. No matter what, even if it's recycled, there's still energy going into making that. But I would say giving back to organizations that do work to protect the environment and then also just not making a ton of product and only making what you know will sell, so you don't have waste and leftover to have to deal with. We plant trees for all of our orders. That's such a small thing that literally any brand can do, but over time it adds up. We have hundreds of thousands of trees now and it's kind of amazing. And using recycled materials where you can in the packaging and the clothes and the tags, labels, and everything. Those things are super easy. So I feel like it's not even an option, I just feel like you have to do it.

With any brand there's always going to be critiques on it and on its' sustainability practices. So what is the biggest critique you get and how are you making change towards that?

I would say the fact that we still make some of our items in China and overseas because there's certain things that we just can't get made here. Like a water bottle, for example. There's not a lot of American factories that make products like that. So I think for me, it's slowly getting rid of those types of items and more so focusing on more quality items versus quantity and shifting away from little things that are made overseas. We do a lot in Europe now.

What is the future of Sporty and Rich? I saw you were coming out with jewelry, but what else are you looking at doing?

Definitely more outerwear, swimwear, more product categories in general, like coats, knitwear, stuff like that. Then the book, and then hopefully one day, my country club for young people.

I saw that you guys are expanding to SSENSE and other retailers. What is that like and what made you want to do that? Because I know you like having ownership over the brand.

Wholesale was kind of a natural progression for the business and my CEO, who's my business partner. He's really good at sales and he's had a few brands and he's done really well in the wholesale side of things. So when he came on, he took that initiative and really grew us in wholesale. And it's also like a good way for people to discover your brand. Like in Moscow, how are they going to know what Sporty and Rich is unless you're in a store there?

You guys ship internationally right?

Yeah, we ship everywhere. But we have a good amount of wholesale now and we make sure we work with the best stores and the best partners.

It's Emily Oberg's world. What are the rules? What does it look like? What's going on? What are some of the laws?

For rules, I would say no littering. I would say being nice to everyone. I would say drink four liters of water a day is a rule— well, it's a strong suggestion. Do only what brings you joy, without harming anyone else. Also, sleep a lot and only buy what you need. In my world, I think there would be no Instagram also. No social media — no internet would be great. I think in my world it would just be like the sixties, in some ways. But yeah, all of this stress and pressure from the internet, I feel like it's done so much harm more than good.

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After 30 years and over 100 cult fragrances, COMME DES GARÇONS PARFUMS 1994–2025 BY SIMONETT & BAER launches this month

December 17, 2024

“I have to add that the topic is, of course, an irrational one, because it's not art and it's not fashion. It has to do with scent, which is something in the air,” explains Dino Simonett, renowned art-book maker and designer/publisher of the new COMME des GARÇONS x SIMONETT & BAER book, which details 30 years of CDG perfumes.

“The moment you smell something is irrational,” he continues. “This book transports you and brings you to the idea behind the perfumes. People have gotten thousands of art catalogues from me, but this fucking perfume thing really drives people a little bit crazy, you know? Because everybody has this bottle; and that bottle smells like this on them; and this bottle I need; and all the memories and everything. I like it a lot that we made this.”

As fans and family of the world’s coolest brand prepared to gather at Dover Street Parfums Market in Paris to celebrate the launch of the book, our Editor-At-Large Paige Silveria shared some coffee and cigarettes with Simonett to discuss his wild trajectory, making books with Joseph Beuys and Tilda Swinton early on, and the importance of nonconformal thinking.

By Paige Silveria

This fucking perfume thing really drives people a little bit crazy.

Paige Silveria: Tell me about yourself. You make books.

Dino Simonett: My books are my art. Each book might be a painting or sculpture. And you should not do the same sculpture all the time. When you hike somewhere, you never should go the same way back home — this is something my mother taught me when I was young. In the same way, it's boring to make the same stuff all the time. So I try to find a way to invent my own language.

PS: This book you’ve made is really beautiful.

DS: It’s hyperrealistic larger-than-life images of boxes and flacons in an endless row presented on paper the thickness of a children’s book.

PS: I loved how it said in the press release that you woke up one Sunday morning and the idea for the book suddenly came to you.

DS: The backstory is that Remo Hallauer [COO of COMME des GARÇONS International] is a true book lover. We met at the Offprint book fair in Paris. And one day, shortly after peak COVID, this email came from him asking if I’d think about a possible collaboration with one of the young stars here — and no hard feelings, but it didn’t work out. So then, as it is in life, which is the essential thing, you have to have an idea. And most of the time, they’re not good enough. You have to have another and another and then you go, Ah ha! Perfume.

PS: And you’d already been pretty familiar with their fragrances?

DS: I’ve known this stuff since the beginning. I wore the first perfume they created. It was part of my life all the time, and I thought, It's so funny. There’s a connection with how I make the books: like two, three books a year, all collaborations and each is different. Just like their perfumes. So I immediately texted Remo.

PS: And what perfect timing, with the 30-year anniversary.

DS: Yes, but this was two years ago or so. I hadn’t had the jubilee in mind. It might not look like much, but there was a lot of work to do.

PS: Many of the advertisements and images weren’t archived, physically or digitally, right? You had to search all over for a good portion of the material?

DS: Well we also had to wait for the official deal to go through in the beginning. Adrian Joffe [President of COMME des GARÇONS International and Dover Street Market International] wanted to do it but he didn’t have the mind space at the time; they were about to open the Dover Street Market here in Paris. So we were on our own for a bit, developing the project from zero. We looked all over the Internet and tried to create the chronology. I had a young guy helping me. He kept reminding me to be patient and to continue to work on growing the book. The door was open, but we had to wait in front of the next room. So we took little steps to prepare ourselves. And stuff slowly worked out.

PS: And thank God for the Internet.

DS: Yes, because as you mentioned, there was no archive. We thought surely they’d have something in the basement. But no, that didn’t exist. At one point they sent us a list of all the perfumes so we had a clear checklist to manage. I had to become an expert.

PS: There are so many, over 100?

DS: Yeah, and at one point the CDG team was activated. It was like a machine and in the spring suddenly a load of stuff was coming. First we had to grow the grapes, then make the wine and then the grappa. And at the end, it's a really strong grappa. And so things came together, and then one day Adrian said, “All is fine, but Rei [Kawakubo] must now also approve it. This is how the system works.” But nobody had told me! So Remo met with Rei to show her the book.

PS: That’s a bit of pressure!

DS: She could have said no and we’d have to throw everything in the garbage, two years of work. There was indeed a little bit of pressure. But it was fine. She liked the book. Then at the end of this summer we met again and they asked if they could have some of the finished copies on 20 November in Tokyo. I said, “I’m sorry, what?” He was thinking that the book was finished, you know? I told him we still needed a lot of material to finish it. Sometimes it's nice though to have this pressure. It's motivating and thrilling when you finally accomplish it all.

PS: Let’s go back. How did your upbringing inform who you are?

DS: It has to do with nonconformal thinking. Most people think the same. And we’re constantly pressured as well, by everything around us to conform. You have to really fight to keep your head and so I had this upbringing with this rather eccentric mother who was absolutely nonconformistic in every way. She was resolute. Why should we follow the path of the masses? It was never my thing. Voilà.

PS: How were you in school?

DS: I was not so good at school. I was only skateboarding at that time. I was on the Swiss National Team. I even was here in Paris at a European championship when I was 15 at the Trocadero. And my mother said, “You are not going to school anymore. You need an apprenticeship. It makes no sense to send you to school any longer.” I was independent and had my first salary at 16.

PS: What were you doing?

DS: I was a carpenter making tables, chairs, all that stuff. All my friends went to high school with like 16-week holidays, while I had only four. And so it was really, really tough shit for a 16 year old. But I learned two important things. The first one was discipline; seven o'clock each day it started and lasted nine hours. And the second thing was precision; you have to do things right. People always said to me that the apprenticeship was good as I’d really use it for the rest of my life. And I always thought that was such bullshit. But actually, it's kind of true. And so anyways, the moment I finished my apprenticeship, the very last day of the last test, I went on the Interrail for one month and never went back to a carpenter shop.

PS: What’d you do after?

DS: I wrote a letter to this very super famous music guy, Claude Nobs who was organizing the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, telling him I’d like to work there that summer. I mentioned that I’d just finished my apprenticeship for carpentry. He phoned me back immediately after getting the letter. He said, “Oh you’re a carpenter? You can come right now.” He was renovating his apartment in Montreux. So I stayed and worked there alone while he was up at his chalet. I felt like Kevin McCallister from Home Alone in this completely furnished apartment. And then the festival started, and there was this guy from New York doing a large mural painting. It was Keith Haring. I had no idea who he was. We became friends. Then I met George Benson and Herbie Hancock. It started from nothing and then one thing comes, another thing comes, another thing comes. This is how I started, which is maybe not the natural way. But I was following my intuition and taking chances and putting myself out there.

PS: And you're going after what you have a passion for.

DS: I think that’s the best way to live one's life. It was like my own private art school. I met all the guys I was totally hot about. I met Joseph Beuys and told him I wanted to do an art project with him. I got his number and he told me to ask for his assistant. But I took everything for granted, what people said to me. So I had this phone number in Berlin. And I called the guy 20 times until this fucking meeting with Beuys finally happened. And we met and made a small collaboration art magazine called “Quer.” You just have to stick to the stuff.

PS: Wow. You don't still have one of those copies around, do you?

DS: I had one and I brought it to Remo at one of our meetings. Adrian saw it and immediately took it … I hope he gave it back to Remo. Adrian has a pile of my stuff that he wanted to see, so that’s good.

PS: Yeah, of any coffee table in the world for it to be displayed, his is probably in the top 10.

DS: So then I decided my dream was to be a film director. There was a film school in Berlin that I applied to. They only took about 18 people from 600. We waited all week to see this list on the wall for the final call back meeting. And my name wasn’t there. I was like, “Shit!” And then a week later, I received a letter saying I’d been accepted. Later the director told me it was clear enough with my application and the art magazine I’d sent that I’d be accepted. I don’t say this to brag. I say this to tell you that every young person that wants to go somewhere, all they have to do is fight. You have to get out of your house and your small town and your comfort zone and all that shit.

PS: I agree. So you’ve made films?

DS: I made a feature movie and went to the film festival. It was really amazing and everything, but I was not Tarantino, you know? So it’s the last semester and Tilda Swinton is supposed to teach a seminar. I really wanted to attend it. It would be the cherry on top of the cake. Then she postponed it once, then twice. The third time, I’m on the tube and there’s a woman in front of me with a newspaper that says that Tilda’s super mentor, Derek Jarman, had passed away. It’s the very Monday morning that her seminar is set to begin. And I thought, Oh shit. She’s not going to be there. But then she was there after all and it was a fantastic week. There were only five of us students and we all fell in love with her. And she fell in love with us. I’ve known her since.

PS: I can only imagine. How’d you make the transition into books?

DS: You have to find out what you're really good at. I had long discussions with this guru, an old guy who was a very diligent, very bright guy. I was really miserable, feeling directionless. He asked me why I wasn’t continuing with filmmaking. And I couldn't give him an answer. Then he said right into my face, “Probably it’s because you’re not good enough.” The message was one-hundred percent received. It was a relief; I'm not a bad person. This guy told me the truth, and I could accept it. And when you can do this, you can figure out what you actually want to do, what you’re actually good at. I started making books. I made one with another film director. And we visited Tilda at her hotel, bringing one to her as a present. As we’re knocking, I thought to myself, If I did another book focused on people in this business, it’d have to be her. And she opens the door, looks at the book and says, “Oh, I would like to have a book like this on me.”

PS: These situations seem unreal.

DS: I spent five years on her book, which was an enormous success. It included stills from all her films and launched it in different cities. Fantastic shit.

PS: And now you’ve just released this soon-to-be iconic CDG book.

DS: I've learned to be patient; things can take you years. This book with Adrian and Remo took two years and I didn’t even know if it was going to be approved! Follow your dreams as much as you can. It's not so important which dream it is exactly. If I see a step in front of me, I try to take each chance I get. This is what I wish for everybody, in whatever situation you find yourself, start to do something with nothing. This book started with just a simple idea. You can not find anything like this on the Internet, this compilation, this narrative. It’s something we had to bring together with enormous work. And here we are. I think in our digital, splattered times sometimes you have to make something which is real. That you can sit with and focus on in silence and really take time alone with it.