Catherine "Cate" Ashford

Cate Ashford lives in the West Village, NYC, and is Fashdes's Managing Editor — the one who turns the long brief into the short rule, the season into seven outfits, a chaotic Monday into a calm Wednesday email. She writes the practical-stylist guides Fashdes is known for: the weekday-to-weekend formula, the capsule that survives the cleanout, the dress code you can wear out of the box. Her register is friendly but exact; she'll write "we tapped" and follow it with a line you'll actually use. She thinks most fashion writing forgets the reader is getting dressed in the morning. She doesn't. This outfit formula has saved me more times than I can count.