The Taste Report™: Chloe & Claire Lee

Talking with the coolest sisters in New York about shopping, access, and the importance of rewears and resale.

Welcome to The Taste Report™, an interview series exploring and explaining taste from people who have supremely good taste.

Technically, the first time I met Chloe and Claire Lee was via DM, as Chloe messaged asking if I’d be down to share a few recent purchases with Selleb, their app, which is best described as a place for “the coolest people on the internet” to share what they are actually are buying. I was a bit frazzled at the time so I wasn’t able to immediately reply, which put us in a back-and-forth that eventually resulted in my putting my purchases together to share.

Cut to a few months later, to

Ben Dietz

and I talking about Selleb and how Chloe and Claire might be some of the coolest sisters in NYC — which made them obvious choice for our debut podcast guests. The episode helped me get to know Chloe and Claire a lot better as people instead of others in the halls of Substack, coalescing their styles and sensibilities to reveal a timeless elegance with a contemporary edge. Classic “cool girls,” yes, but two who stand out because they’re doing something just a touch differently, hustling to make a dream happen without anyone seeing them sweat. I learned this firsthand in my DMing with Chloe, all of which was reiterated by Claire and I having gone to the same school (which we realized after the podcast).

Then I joined Selleb. The best way I can describe it is like Letterboxd but for your purchases, with the intimacy of early social sites like Path. Even for someone who doesn’t buy much of anything, it’s served as a fascinating exercise in thinking about goods as an autobiography: if any and ever purchase you made was to be shared, would you make said purchases? How does this ladder into larger taste and ideology? I initially tried to curate my purchases — but then I decided to take inspo from the “Selleb Sisters” and turn the hose on, to let it all hang out and post every photocopy and dog food purchase and movie rental and book bought on main. It’s been somewhat freeing, like actual retail therapy, both shaming and liberating. Who knew?

I was curious to know more about Chloe and Claire’s thoughts on taste and shopping given my own less-is-more ethos, to understand how Selleb informs their own purchases but how consumerism and anti — or alternative — consumerism is an expression of taste, of style, and values. In hyper-capitalism, how do purchases and the sharing of purchases flex one’s point of view? How do the things we bring into our lives tell the story of our lives? For nearly an hour and a half, Chloe and Claire and I went far beyond personal tastes and work to discuss juggling resale markets, the dangers of access to anything, the value in sharing a closet, living life as expressed through objects, and just how decidedly untasteful micro-financing is.

Claire and Chloe, Chloe and Claire

KRF: How do y'all define taste? It’s a point of view expressed with clothes, sure, but also art, books, anything that makes a life. How do you define it? And how would you define each other's taste? They’re clearly different but they work so well, as a duo.

CLAIRE: I see taste as a very ineffable thing that's hard to pin down, harder to describe. As humans, there's a lot of stimuli that we encounter every day and that we have been encountering since birth. And it's like…how do we sort through all the signal and the noise? What sticks? Everyone can look at the same piece of art or read the same sentence, but whether or not that makes an impression, or what someone gets out of it, is very different and entirely personal. There is that saying: No two people ever read the same book. I completely agree with this. It is that subjective processing layer where you find taste. It’s the pulp at the bottom of a glass of juice — the dense, textured residue left after everything else has passed through. What’s left behind is the part that stays with you. That is your taste.

CHLOE: A lot of how you grow up informs what you might like in the future too, like signals pointing back to the past, of this “Oh, I experienced this thing when I was younger” and “Oh, I really remember that” feeling which indicates an indelible mark from childhood. Those warm, fuzzy feelings shape your future preferences. I do think a lot of it is life experiences that shape/mold your taste. Then of course the gut instinct. What do I feel when I see something? How do I feel when someone puts something in front of me? It's kind of like this spectrum of preferences: I really like this for X, Y, Z reasons — or I don't. I'm not drawn to it at all! In a nutshell, I think taste is defined by past experiences + gut feelings.

KRF: I feel like we’re hitting on a big conversation that keeps happening, especially with Gen Z, that there's an inter-generational cohort — and maybe you know them, maybe you don’t — who feel like they’re trying to export or expedite the history and lived experience and education you’re talking about. No, you don't have to have a lot of experience or a lot of education to have good taste but, oftentimes, having a lived experience does help, whether that is through education or work or all the above. How do yous see this fitting in with Gen Z? You both have such defined viewpoints — and that can feel rare, because technology and being in your twenties is a fuzzy space. People have a lot of trouble there. Why is it so challenging?

CHLOE: I feel like Gen Z wants to feel like they're a part of something. They don't want to be alone, on their own, like “Oh, I’m standing out for this.” It's very scary to just be your individual self. There is this desire to have people side with you. This goes back to our podcast conversation, to all the -cores, of identifying as this specific -core or type or whatever. You hold on to niche domains or have a penchant for this specific style that eventually becomes how you identify yourself or your taste vertical. Gen Zers like feeling as though they're a part of a certain group.

KRF: That gets to the TikTok of it all, which can inspire a crisis of who one is and how they access themselves as they want to be a part of something. You post your outfit — and everybody's like, “You look like dog shit.” Well…that makes you feel terrible, right?

CHLOE: And then you’re like, “I’m never gonna wear that again.”

KRF: “I’m only gonna wear blue jeans and a white shirt.”

CLAIRE: Everyone's saying this, but algorithms and the things that we watch lead us sort of down the same tunnel, to feathers of the same flock. It's very hard to come up with a unique perspective because we're all getting fed a lot of the same stimuli and being told what to think. It’s flattening our culture by reducing rich subcultures into a single, familiar mainstream. We can, of course, go outside of the sort of lowest common denominator of Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram and other social media we're all getting fed. That’s the whole touch grass movement, actually getting outside physically or reading a book or seeing something that's outside of an algorithmic feed — which is helpful in terms of seeing and experiencing different world views. Fancy that!

KRF: I feel like you both do that well, at least as far as defining yourselves in relationship to each other. How do you describe each other’s taste then? For example, Chloe, your recent Pucci haul said a lot. You don’t see a lot of people in the Pucci space — and that says something.

CHLOE: We actually share our closet: what is mine is also rightfully Claire’s…but the ways in which we style pieces are so different. Every time I see [Claire] walk out in an outfit that I picked out or bought, I'm like, “Oh wow, that’s all she’s gonna do with that piece?” You know what I mean? I see Claire being the girl who likes/takes simple items and adds only a slight twist – nothing crazy or overly risky. You like simplicity, you like symmetry, and you don't really take risks with fashion necessarily. You agree with that?

CLAIRE: I agree with that. Because I think you definitely over-index on being creative and quirky, as opposed to something that makes you feel confident. Maybe quirky makes you feel confident. But for me, if I wear something too colorful or outlandish, I don’t feel extremely confident walking out the door. So I'm not gonna wear it. But you take more risks, and you're willing to push the boundaries — like you will take this crazy Alexander McQueen jacket that you thrifted in LA — and you’ll pair it with something really random like a gold mesh scarf and tie it around the waist. You'll do all sorts of wacky stuff. I, personally, don't feel very comfortable with that sort of experimentation: I will just go with the tried and true, classic silhouettes, things I will feel confident in.

CHLOE: You're also very tried and true in the brands that you buy. You're not really an early adopter when it comes to brands. Typically, I’m the one introducing you to a new brand, let’s be real. Or you’ll come across a brand (that has been around for a while and is kind of basic) and be like “Found this new thing!”

CLAIRE: Drag my ass.

KRF: Sisterly love!

CLAIRE: I guess my taste is just not as refined!

Everyone laughs.

CLAIRE: Chloe’s definitely the first to find out about anything. If I find something before you, you will be shocked — and you will even be upset about it, low key. This “me-before-you,” when I accidentally stumble upon a niche brand first for whatever reason — happens very infrequently. I give credit where credit is due: You’re usually always ahead of the curve.

Chloe and Claire

KRF: But obviously that has to influence each other’s taste since you do share the same things. Chloe, you're the ones who bring things to the table but, Claire, you do too. How does that create a shared taste and a shared vocabulary? I think you two are sort of building that — and, to me, it comes across as an expression with things like Selleb. Do you agree?

CHLOE: That's funny because in addition to a shared closet, we also share some social media accounts too. We share a beli account! We eat at the same restaurants and we rate them together, despite our often differing opinions and tastes. In more ways than one. We argue, question, and test each other but eventually come to a mutual ranking that we can both live with. I do think that the beauty of our relationship is that we synthesize information with different sets of tools and from different POVs. We are from the same gene pool and a shared upbringing, but our preferences and strengths are different. I was good in math and science; Claire was good in history and English. I played the violin; she played the cello lol. We also don't really read the same news sources or books. We subscribe to different newsletters, we follow different Instagram accounts. There's not that much overlap. And despite sharing public business accounts like TikTok and beli — we're actually on our own for news and cultural consumption. And dare we say it? We are also not always politically aligned either. So when we do come together, we bring different ideas to the table, or we're like, “Oh, did you see this?” Nine times out of ten, the other hasn’t. These differences have to be reconciled or at least dealt with at the end of the day, and Selleb is a product of these sisterly disagreements & discrepancies. Let’s just say that we are not in the same echo chamber, which I think is a good thing.

CLAIRE: I also think our dynamic is very much breadth versus depth. This is always how it's been and I think it actually does filter into the way that we gravitate toward different items in any category. If you come up with a brand, I'll be like, “Oh!” and then I find ten more things from that brand that are worthy of your attention versus you with a wide swath of knowledge across culture that you distill for me.

KRF: You get both sides of the coin. Chloe may be floating at times in a too large of a pool but Claire helps to buoy that, while Chloe tugs back in different directions. Which all creates a shared vocabulary that you both deepen, finding parallels.

CLAIRE: Yes. It’s always a question of meeting halfway.

KRF: They are, especially when making decisions at, like, work and life which yours overlap with a lot. I mean, running Selleb means “shopping” is a big part of your life. How does taste crossover with “buying things” and gathering items? I’m curious because what you do and don’t buy and where and how you buy says a lot about world view and taste. I mean, I can get 75 paper towels delivered to me by tomorrow from Amazon. But do I need that? Do I even use paper towels? No and no — and that is a reflection of my life and lifestyle, semi-shade to the Amazon users. What’s your philosophy there?

CHLOE: I think another way to describe taste is really: what you’ve acquired over a lifetime, the amalgamation of your decisions on what you bought and experienced which also define what you value and who you are as a person. Those are lots of different inputs and data points that create this holistic picture of yourself. Complicating this equation, as you rightly point out, is WHERE and HOW you are buying these things. Amazon shade is real, and so many Millennials and Gen Zers are anti-Jeff for the very reason that you’ve mentioned. A small box of paper clips will come in a big box with bubble wrap. They will happily ship you 75 Bounty rolls the same day in 5 boxes. Their carbon footprint is crazy and because of this, some of our users will not buy anything from Amazon. Instead, they’ll get a subscription at Target. But some users are now anti-Target because the company has recently rolled back DEI measures and LGBTQ+ merchandising. Things are changing every day, and it’s hard to keep track. Companies that are good turn bad overnight and vice versa. That said, every consumer has the agency to shop as they see fit and use their shopping power as a referendum on a company’s leadership and decisions.

What is our philosophy? For that we have to really go back to our company roots, our humble beginnings of Selleb 1.0 as a resale auction platform. We started as a company to recycle influencer and celebrity clothes. Prior to that we were power sellers on Poshmark. We started with secondhand at front and center and because a lot of our current users are spillovers from Selleb 1.0, they are huge fans of TRR, Poshmark, eBay, and Vestiaire. Of course secondhand is environmentally more friendly but it is also cost-friendly. From what we are seeing, our users love good deals and are therefore savvy hunters in the secondhand market. We just had a collaboration with TRR to highlight all the standout purchases from their website by our users. For me, as a shopper, I won’t buy anything unless I’m getting a deal on it, which is why I rarely buy things full price. Even then, with the trend cycle or something from a drop format or with a lot of hype around it, I most likely won't buy it because, even with an allure, it's just not a good deal in my book. A lot of my own personal purchases are around getting a good deal, of cost per wear, and whether I can resell and recoup some costs. Obviously, nice items are expensive, so in the back of my head, I'm like, “Okay…I know this will probably stay at market value or I'll be able to resell it for a good price.” So our philosophy with shopping: Try to buy things that will endure the test of time or something that can be recycled.

CLAIRE: I see Selleb on two different axes: one is entertainment, the other is utility. Entertainment is probably more the fashion side of culture, etc, but the utility is like the toilet paper — and people do post the toilet paper. Should they be getting Cottonelle? Scott? Are they buying it from Amazon or CVS? Did they, you know, use a coupon? These are all questions in the background, and even something as mundane as toilet paper can say a lot about what we value and our shopping habits. Then there are appliances. Did you buy the one Wirecutter just posted? Did you get a good deal on Black Friday? Is it well-made so that you can resell it? All sorts of variables can go into it, which I find interesting. The review aspect of Selleb obviously gives you more context, especially if they've returned [an item]. It can advise others not to make the same mistake. We have this new scale right now on a five-point scale with emojis too, which is helpful. I really like that aspect of it.

But, as for the entertainment, in my personal shopping habits, I agree with Chloe’s take on cost per wear, but I would also add that as hardcore resale shoppers, we tend to fetishize friction with shopping. How hard is it to get something? If I’m like, “Oh, I can go to Zara and pick this up.”...number one: it's fast fashion. I tend not to buy things that I know will literally disintegrate after I put them in the washing machine. But also: it's easy. Anyone can get that. Maybe I’ll buy an item that is vetted and that I saw on someone’s Selleb but, for the most part, I'd say it's a hunt, where we haul ass to Woodbury or go on eBay to do a lot of searching and offering and messaging. There’s a thrill-seeking component that makes a purchase exciting and gives it that oomph and novelty. You can add a lot of description and a story around it too: those are the most interesting purchases. That's what I tend to over-index on as it relates to the entertainment side of purchases.

Claire and Chloe

KRF: There's a world where every purchase reflects values — and there’s a world where every purchase is a story you’re telling about yourself. Look: I love clothing and I have a huge closet but I find that, as I age, I’m less attracted to buying things as most things are too tied to trend cycles and “what anyone can have.” It’s not interesting. But going to a flea market? Finding a random item at some silly shop by the beach? Or eBay? Situations where I had to squeeze for the juice, that wasn’t within arm’s reach and was a part of a lived experience? That’s different.

I’m reading this book about Online Ceramics, remembering that brand emerging in LA and finding it silly but great. I have a few of their things but some items, like the Hereditary shirt, I missed out on. I should have gotten it then! Reading about it in the book, I bought it on eBay along with another shirt because, number one, they’re used and not new and, number two, they’re part of a story. They’re part of my personal history that take me to LA in 2015 or whatever, representing a relationship to place and media and time. That’s different from the shirt I’m wearing now, which is Uniqlo: I bought it one day because it was hot and I needed a lightweight shirt. That’s a utility purchase.

This is also different than curation, as anyone can make a mood board, which is beautiful: there’s a difference from living a history and participating in a culture versus just finding something aesthetically valuable. Do you think shopping for a lot of people is harmful to, say, taste or point of view? Even if most people wouldn’t admit this, most of us are gluttonous when it comes to taking stuff in.

CHLOE: I agree with you. I do think it’s harmful when access is so easy that you can just buy everything in one click. I have to set personal barriers, of sleeping on this for at least a couple of days. If I'm still dreaming about it, maybe I'll seriously consider it. But I do feel like because it's so easy to buy things on your phone it's just super easy to buy things off TikTok. You click without really thinking about it. That is where it can harm because you're not being really discerning or careful with your decisions. We think about this every day especially as it relates to Selleb’s role within the shopping journey. The whole thesis around our product is passive sharing, where you don’t feel like you’re being actively sold products, but getting to the source of truth of what someone actually thought about a product. Real people, real reviews.

CLAIRE: There's just so much abundance nowadays. There are so many websites, there are a lot of different ways you can go about shopping, every point in your social media journey you will probably encounter something that's really tempting. Even Instagram ads! I think a lot of people still buy off ads. I don't on principle — but I understand why people do. It's very targeted, personal. It’s tough because at every turn there’s a temptation to purchase.

Read on for thoughts on micro-financing, their ins-and-outs, and if Barbara Kruger would join Selleb. Speaking of, apply to join the app here.