How could he not end up at Condé Nast's 4 Times Square? "I think I was the only person in the history of my high school who wore Versace in their high-school picture -- a linen and silk Nehru-style jacket with big ol' buttons," says Teen Vogue senior editor Kimball Hastings.
As the magazine's style blogger, whose column greets sophisticated Marc by Marc Jacobs–worshipping tweens as they open Teen Vogue, Hastings, at 28, is walking in the shoes of other front-of-the-book tastemakers, such as André Leon Talley, Cholly Knickerbocker and W magazine's Suzie.
Upon graduating from Tulane, Hastings worked in the Web department of Harper's Bazaar before joining Vogue's little sister. In addition to writing his column -- in which he discusses models, fashion designers and society types -- and his corresponding online style blog, Hastings edits the "Girl of the Moment" and "People Watching" columns, and various fashion features. In terms of plucking out the next It Girls, Hastings says, "It's very instinctual for me."
Thanks to his impeccable fashion sense (for this photo, he styled himself), Teen Vogue's rising influence and his slew of boldfaced friends, Hastings has captured the attention of the society photographers and bloggers. At one point, he was No. 1 on the male section of Socialite Rank, and he's often seen at parties chatting it up with the Traina sisters and Bush cousins. But Hastings is averse to the term "dandy." "I don't like flamboyance," he says. After all, he did spend his early years on a farm upstate where his mother now raises miniature horses. Hastings describes his style as "country mouse meets city mouse" -- he's as much about L.L. Bean as he is about Balenciaga. Says the city mouse in him: "I recently took one of my interns to the Neue Galerie."
Alexis Swerdloff
Kimball wears a suit by Band of Outsiders. Grooming products: Garnier Fructis. Fragrance: Jean Paul Gaultier Fleur du Mâle.
