Veronica Sheaffer is the progenitor of a multivalent fashion identity wherein garment is a catalyst for fantasy, and those fantasies are projected pathways into living beautifully. Sheaffer’s fashion label is situated like a pearl, like an opal, like a glittering opulent costume jewelry brooch among those designers at the forefront of diaphanous fantasia that are reviving and renewing New Romantic sensibilities for a third/fourth-wave pick-your-own-adventure feminist femininity. Along with the likes of Molly Goddard, Noir Kei Ninomiya, Sandy Liang, the Tokyo brand microwave, and Simone Rocha, Sheaffer anticipated the recent turn among TikTok fashion influencers of the past couple of years toward so-called ‘coquette style’ and quite a few ancillary sub-categories (dark coquette, diet coke-ette, dollette, balletcore, nymphet, winter fairy coquette, gloomy coquette, and a kind of romantic cottagecore that’s being dubbed farmer’s daughter coquette, to list a few). This coquettishness generally refers to a retooling of historical signs of femininity in dress—bows, ruffles, corsets, lingerie as outerwear, frills, tulle, and Ren Fair princess/white witch vibes—into genres of streetwear, formal, utilitarian, and athleisure as an expanded field surrounding the longstanding Harajuku Lolita pseudo-cosplay fashions in Japan from the 1970s onward.

Distinguishing herself from this burgeoning group of aesthetes and the trends they’ve set loose, Sheaffer has spent fruitful years articulating visions of party grrrl eveningwear, bridal, custom couture, and successive seasons of smartly designed separates. Across all of these territories, she frequently combines and remixes historical silhouettes, structures, ornamental details, and leitmotifs into exaggerated references to Tudor, Victoriana, miniskirt advents, and pop-punk pastiches traded between Parisian and Japanese fashion houses at the close of the twentieth century. As with mindfully paced cinema or immaculately crafted stand-up comedy sets, one feels not only inspired and dazzled by Sheaffer’s point of view, but also reassured and cared for—her literacy and honed instincts are sensitively applied to structured bustiers, flared It-Girl shift dresses, and confectionary piles of tulle.

There’s a distinct tonal difference in what Sheaffer produces in contrast to a diabetic coma sweetness of much of what conspired to produce coquette culture as we are currently immersed in it: whereas so much of the reappropriation of anachronistic projected notions of girlishness indulge in a neapolitan parfait of layered romance, fantasy, happy endings, fairytale, doll-baby sugar, the Veronica Sheaffer label has always demonstrated a celebration of a kind of rough and ready rocker chick’s take on high femme, in the order of early Madonna, life-as-art performance artist Colette Lumiere, early Cyndi Lauper, and, well, later Cyndi Lauper too. Add to that mood board the Rei Kawakubo ‘biker ballerina’ juxtaposition and Britney Spears’ lolita take on the schoolgirl in “Hit Me Baby,” and you’ll have some context for the naughty-as-nice, sex positive playfulness and irreverence that Sheaffer sifts into a meringue of deconstructed historical costume replete with ruffles, bows, and punky Valentine’s Day/gal-entine’s day send ups.

RUSCHWOMAN sees Sheaffer as the 21st century Jeanne Lanvin, for the inventive ways they both deal with embellishment, redefine the form and functions of gender as it waltzes out of binary restrictions, and in the ways that both designers allowed motherhood to further enrich and complicate their perspectives on dress up. As her responses below articulate, Sheaffer has found inspiration and transformation in the tethered bond between child and parent—as with the familial structure alluded to in even Lanvin’s house logo, there are clear virtues of curiosity, wonderment, and the radical potential of make believe that have been smuggled into recent Veronica Sheaffer collections from her adventures in parenting.

RUSCHWOMAN is happy beyond happy to feature Veronica Sheaffer within her ever expanding constellation of question-posed creatives.




Veronica Sheaffer - Image by Nicolette Nunez




What are your beauty secrets?

Always, always wash the makeup off before bed! You have to drink a lot of water. Moisturize. Remember to apply lash serum (I’m always forgetting, and I have the wimpiest lashes). I have a fair complexion and I really feel like I need to do the self-tanner routine – I hate it, but it’s essential. When I’m dressed like a slob (like at school pickup), I smile A LOT – makes everything look nicer. And learn your angles, if you’re going to be on camera.



What’s the matter?

What ISN’T the matter right now?? It’s taking a lot of extra work to find positivity lately, for me. My biggest complaint is that I can’t just buy a cabin in the woods, throw my phone in a lake and craft all day long.



What is your greatest extravagance?

I live very lean—I try to be really conscious of my spending overall- but if a trip presents itself, the credit card is OUT. I don’t spend much money on material things, but I tend not to hold back on restaurants or hotels. Like, I don’t want to stay somewhere that isn’t at least as pretty as my home.



My home on the day I answered these questions.



What is your most treasured possession?

Portraits of, and with, my child over the years. I feel so deeply fortunate that anyone would take the time to make those for us. Namely, Nicolette Nunez and Jessica Eileen Drogosz – both such talented photographers who have captured those moments for me, forever. Just wow.



Mother Daughter Portrait by Jessica Eileen Drogosz



Do you keep a diary?

This is so funny – I *started* one earlier this year. I was so full of optimism, and then I felt like “Shit, writing all of this positivity down is going to curse my good luck. I’m throwing it away.”



What or who is the greatest love of your life?

My child, forever and always. The second I laid eyes on them, it’s like I could feel my heart physically changing shape.



Children's Portrait by Nicolette Nunez



When and where were you happiest?

I’m starting to acknowledge that I’m an unsatisfied person at my core – I always feel like I can do more, something can be better, *I* can be better – and so, I think, it’s easier for me to focus on and feel my UNhappiness. Which I don’t like! I CAN BE BETTER AT THAT! But I can easily recall pockets in my life when I was laughing a lot – those have really stayed with me – and they’re peppered throughout, thank goodness. I’ve never felt like life was easy or HAPPY, necessarily, but I have really enjoyed those happy moments. Usually, they were with my family. I’m so lucky to be so in love with my family, and to feel so loved in return.



What was your first job?

I was a book page for the NY Public Library – at the main branch on Fifth Ave. There’s a whole labyrinth underneath Bryant Park, and I worked down there, can you believe it? I was a student at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the time, and I was living at The Webster – a home for working women. They kicked all the students out just a couple of months after I moved in – I mean, we were coming home at all hours, and you’d have to ring the bell to get back in after curfew. They said we had to have full-time jobs, and obviously my book page job wasn’t cutting it. The apartment I moved into with friends was a former brothel. It was a wild time!



Which living person do you most admire?

At a time in life when most people settle in and become more stubborn, my mom has made the concerted effort to grow and learn and evolve, and there is nothing more admirable than that.



If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Ugh, being a person is so hard, but I can’t stand the idea of being some poor animal or tree or something at the mercy of a person. So I’d have to be a person.



What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Chastity. Ohmigod, go live a life already. Of course, sex makes everyone crazy. If you feel calmness in a life of chastity, then I respect it.



Image by Alexa Viscius



Do you cook? If no, how do you feed yourself? If yes, do you have a signature recipe?

I’ve started cooking a lot more over the last couple of years. My current fave is roasting smashed potatoes with strips of bacon on top – some rosemary, salt and pepper, whatever – and then making lyonnaise salads with that. The bacon cooks perfectly, the potatoes are so flavorful and buttery, and really all you need is some homemade dijonnaise and a poached egg. Greens. It’s so delish.



What did you have for breakfast?

I was kind of down, so I stopped at Starbucks on my way home from the school run and got a medium shaken espresso. Have you had one? It’s so sugary and delightful.



How do you usually sleep?

I have a down-filled mattress cover and a big down comforter, down pillows – I sweat like a hog, but I’m alone, so I don’t care. I have four pillows – I hug one and push another one up against me. It feels heavenly. I almost always fall asleep immediately.



Veronica Sheaffer Runway - Image by Bekah Wriedt



What questions are you asking yourself?

What am I doing with my life? Will I be single forever? Do I want to be single forever? Will I ever trust a lover enough to introduce them to my child? Am I wasting away or are the hard times making me stronger? Should I stop getting Botox and allow myself to age completely? You know. The basics.



Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

“It doesn’t matter.” I mean, it always, ALWAYS matters to me, my god. That’s me trying to convince myself to not be so concerned with the questions above, but the feelings run deep. I can’t help it.



Which talent would you most like to have?

I skipped over this one the first go around and kept coming back to it at a loss. I’d like to be better at business, finances, etc. I’m so thankful for the talents I do have, that I don’t spend a lot of time wishing for something else. I would like to be better at hustling/networking, though.



Veronica Sheaffer SS21 - Image by Jake Joiner



What do you consider your greatest achievement?

I am happy with the mother I have become. I’m more intentional in that than in anything else I do. I’ve found an almost effortless humility in that relationship – my failings never hold me back, and I find apologies so easy to give – I feel deeply fortunate for the opportunity.



Describe your work space. What qualities do you need in your environment to do what you do?

I fully converted my dining room into a work room during lockdowns, and it’s so nice to be able to get in there whenever I feel inspired, or when my kid is home, and I have a deadline - I don’t have to leave to work. It’s mostly pretty (I painted a graphic mural along the top of the room), but it doesn’t get enough natural light – that’s a struggle for me. And I think it’s made me too isolated. I need to get back into the world, so it might be time for a change.



Veronica Sheaffer Studio



Describe your dream date.

I started thinking about deep connection, but if it’s just a “dream date”…a convertible ride with a smart, funny hunk and smooching on the beach sounds pretty alright, you know what I mean?



Where would you most like to live?

I wonder about this all of the time.



Which living person do you most despise?

Mitch McConnell.



What do you most value in your friends?

Compassion.



What do you most enjoy wearing?

A cocktail dress I’ve made for the occasion.



Veronica Sheaffer in Studio



Who are your favorite writers?

Theodore Dreiser is maybe my favorite novelist – I read “An American Tragedy” in particular over and over. When I was younger, I was crazy about Fitzgerald, but as I get older and more thoughtful, I’m drawn to his subjects less and less. Jane Austen, however, is a forever favorite. Oh and Daphne du Maurier. I love escaping to another time, guys, what can I say?



Do you have a favorite film?

When Harry Met Sally, which is funny, because I hate when men won’t leave me alone, but I’m so drawn to the idea of falling in love with someone over time. And it’s just so perfectly written. I delight in every single minute of that movie.



Is there an album or piece of music you listen to the most?

Stop Making Sense is one of those albums that has been so present all through my life that it’s almost a soundtrack for my whole family. Paul Simon’s Graceland is one that seems to pop up during important life moments for me. I will tend to fixate on something for a year and then kind of move on from it, but those are ever present.



What are you reading right now?

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. A giant, silly novel from the 1700s.



Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Sisyphus. LOL. I mean, not the tyranny part, but I do feel like I’m always pushing a goddamn boulder up a hill.



Veronica Sheaffer Bridal Studio



Is there anything you regret not doing?

Maybe I should have studied acting a bit longer. Maybe I could have built a different career in that. But also, what the hell? I’ve always been doing a lot and learning so much. It hasn’t been an average, boring life.



Favorite drink?

Water with ice. For months after, I would long for the water they gave me in the hospital after giving birth…it was so cold with ice shavings…the only pleasant part of that experience, but they did that part very right.



Favorite smell?

Lilacs. And also getting into an old car that kind of reeks of old cigarettes and sweat on a hot, sunny day. Those two together? Perfection.



Favorite color?

A pale, peachy blush.



Favorite time of day?

Midnight.



Veronica Sheaffer SS25 Collection - Image by Danielle Simone



Where do you dance?

In Chicago: Podlasie, The Clipper, The Whistler…but mostly my kitchen. I like the music in there best.



Do you have anything going on or coming up you want to plug?
Where can people find you? Website address? Instagram handle?

veronicasheaffer.com | @veronicasheaffer | I’d include my email, but the BOTS. People can email me through the website, though, if they’ve got something they’d like to discuss further. I’m always looking for a project that is outside the norm for me, so I’d love to put that worm in your collective ears.



Mother Daughter Portrait by Jessica Eileen Drogosz