Job Head of the fashion p.r. firm People’s Revolution, star of Bravo’s reality show “Kell on Earth,” author of the best-selling biz guide “If You Have To Cry, Go Outside” and single mom.
Known for her hard-driving approach, the Syracuse-born diva embodies a particular brand of straight talk. Her wish for readers of her book, she writes: to “go balls out and follow your dreams.”
Dressed in one of her signature all-black ensembles — size 8 DKNY swing sweater, HUE leggings and $800 Stella McCartney zebra-striped boots — the foul-mouthed fashionista has a disheveled, witchy appearance that’s more rocker than publicist. It’s a look she calls “Amish psycho killer.”
Décor Cutrone moved into a building on Grand Street in in SoHo 2001, when she was pregnant with her daughter Ava, and she’s gradually spread herself across four stories. She uses one as her home, two for work and sublets the fourth.
A rickety elevator opens onto a heavy iron door on three, which leads into the communal office she calls a “Temple of Now,” presumably a reference to her team’s constant, hyperkinetic activity. Samples, collections and papers are piled everywhere, and a half-dozen 20-somethings zoom around prepping for a Nylon Magazine Young Hollywood shindig, as a film crew wedges itself between and behind them to capture the madness.
Desk A giant rectangular white laminate table she shares with her entire staff. She presides over the head, and employees line both sides. “I had this built by two Korean architects. I paid way too much money,” she says with a shrug.
Detritus If she wasn’t tied up with her reality show, Cutrone could qualify for A&E’s new program “Hoarders.” She has collections of all sorts — statues of deities, ethnically diverse dolls, bejeweled kaleidoscopes, idiosyncratic gifts from fans and clients’ products (including vibrators and condoms) — sprinkled throughout.
The power publicist also seems to collect people. A 28-year-old New York version of Kato Kaelin lives with her. “He’s not my lover,” she notes, “but he is a jujitsu expert.” Patty Pao, a Harvard MBA she met on a plane, now runs a consulting business out of the space. “She’s so smart. I wanted her brain in residence.”
Work style Interestingly, Cutrone is big on old-school thank-you notes. She has cards imprinted with jesters, jugglers and other whimsical characters, and says she routinely breaks out a feather pen and hot wax to express gratitude.
Commute Cutrone’s morning commute involves riding an elevator from one floor to the next, but to get to meetings she hops on her bike. Though she refuses to incorporate anything beyond black and white into her wardrobe (“I look like I’m trying to do too much if I’m in color”), she rides a turquoise Trek with a white basket around town. In fact, she loves it so much she bought bikes for everyone in her office. Biking, she says, is “an irresistible mix of connecting to the Earth, plus danger, plus terrorism.”
Routine While Cutrone is short on details about her work hours and daily habits, her book describes working “every breathing moment” to get to where she is, and she gives no appearance of having slowed down.
In addition to starring in her show and running her business — which involves regular visits to an LA office — Cutrone travels around the country to promote herself and her book. She speaks at colleges — “for free,” she notes with some annoyance.
What’s next Cutrone’s working on a deal for a scripted show. She plans to announce details next week.