The Tale of Kathryn Eisman

Kathryn Eisman has had an extraordinary career in media: she’s a two-time Emmy ® nominated television journalist, TV host, columnist and international best selling author of ‘How To Tell A Man By His Shoes’ and ‘How To Tell A Woman By Her Handbag'...

“My mother always encouraged me to dream big dreams. I hope I can do the same for my child,” says the glamorous and ambitious Eisman, who is visiting Sydney from LA with her two-year-old daughter Capri and advertising guru entrepreneur husband Siimon Reynolds. Dressed in a chic white Zimmermann dress, she’s just as stylish in person as she is on TV. But then, you’d expect nothing less given she’s spent over a decade working in fashion and was interviewing celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker at the age of 21. When she first moved to New York in her early 20s, Eisman was a bestselling author while also pursuing a career as a TV presenter, interviewing everyone from President Clinton to SJP. Her career has since taken her from New York to Sydney to LA, where she’s now based. These days, while Eisman is busier than ever – she’s now working on her third book and contributing to The Seven Network’s The Morning Show – it’s about using her time wisely. “Now, if I’m not with my daughter then I had better be doing something productive. The entertainment industry can be all encompassing if you let it be. So from day one I have a very clear delineation between work and family time. I never book anything work related on weekends and rarely accept an invitation to an event if it’s after business hours, if it’s not something we can enjoy as a family. Time with my family is my most sacred possession,” she says. We caught up with Eisman to find out more about her career in fashion and how motherhood has changed everything… Photography: Trish Lee

Kathryn wears Zimmermann dress, $450

When I had Capri I literally and emotionally grew another heart…

I experience her happiness more deeply than my own, her pains more acutely too. It’s a wonderful gift and responsibility to care so deeply for another human. Motherhood has shown me true, pure love and just how amazing humans are.

I really believe the point of life is to make mistakes and learn from them…

I am so grateful that my parents encouraged me to follow my dreams and not to live too cautiously. I’m glad that I that moved to New York at the age of 21 on a book tour to promote my first bestselling book How To Tell A Man By His Shoes with a single suitcase, not knowing a soul or even where I’d spend the first night. I’ve learn that the best things in my life can be born from the worst things, so I might tell myself not to worry if things go wrong because you often don’t know what’s ‘good’ and what’s ‘bad’ until the fullness of time.

Like a lot of marriages, ours went to an even deeper level after we had Capri…

In part because we get to share the joys of watching a person we’ve co-created unfold each day, in part because we’ve never needed each other more just to get through the day (or night!). As any mother knows, raising a child is emotionally and physically demanding, so when your partner is really there for you, you end up appreciating, respecting and loving them on a whole new level. I also think it’s important to keep the fun and spark alive in a relationship by honouring who you were as a couple before you became parents. ‘Date night’ sounds like such a naff cliché, but having them is important.

When I was nine months pregnant with Capri, I was offered the role of head the fashion and lifestyle coverage for E! News…

Understandably, my family thought I was a little crazy for accepting such a demanding position at the same time as I was about to become a mother for the first time! But I knew myself well enough to know that I would thrive with the structure a job like that provided. They held the position for me and seven weeks after Capri was born I started full time. It was a very exciting and challenging time, concurrently undertaking an intense professional role and motherhood. Let’s just say that there wasn’t much time to wash my hair, but it made me cherish my 4.5 hours a day and weekends with Capri all the more.

I’ve always had a love of communicating, be it on TV or via my books or columns…

It all started for me oddly enough through modelling. A few days after I finished high school at the age of 17, I walked into Chic Model Management with a photo of me in a bikini that some Club Med photographer had taken while doing aqua aerobics of all things! That same afternoon I was sent out on a casting trying on lingerie for Formfit and booked the job. While I was modelling I studied communications majoring in Journalism at UTS. During my semester breaks, I worked at Fox News in New York and wrote my first book, How to Tell a Man by His Shoes. A few days after graduating from university I headed to New York for a small book tour. I ended up being booked on Good Morning America and the TODAY show in New York. Viewers rang in and said they wanted to see more of me. A few months later they created a position for me as their Feature/Lifestyle reporter. I was 21. It was a crash course in serious journalism – pitching, producing, writing and interviewing everyone from President Clinton to Sarah Jessica Parker and crossing live from Rockefeller Centre.

After nearly six years in New York, I really missed my family and friends and the Sydney relaxed lifestyle…

I moved back home to Sydney where I was the face of Arena TV and hosted and produced their flagship daily entertainment show Xclusive. In many ways it was like a chance to feel young again as I’d live a very grown up, independent life working in news from the age of 21. I started writing a monthly relationship column for CLEO magazine. It was heavenly working back home and being surrounded by family. I also wrote my second book How To Tell A Woman By Her Handbag. After a year and a bit, I felt I had unfinished business in the US. This time Siimon and I moved to LA together on an adventure. I started hosting shows for The Style Network and Yahoo! and contributing to The Today Show on NBC. I then accepted the position at E! News, overseeing all fashion and lifestyle content (seen in 160 countries with an audience of 17 million viewers). Tyra Banks then asked me to help launch her and Chrissy Teigan’s nationally syndicated ABC Show, FABLife.

What I’ve kept under the radar is that for the past few years I’ve been coaching women in a program I designed called Trifecta…

The basic principle being that in order for a woman to feel truly happy, she needs to have the three pillars of her life at a high level; relationships, career and health/beauty. For everyone those three things can mean different things. I work with a handful of clients to enhance every aspect of their lives, especially mothers who have so little time to think about their own happiness. The life transforming results we see has given me more satisfaction that almost anything else I’ve ever done (for bookings, email assistant@kathryneisman.com).

I still remember the first pair of Italian leather shoes my grandparents bought me…

I think I slept with them on! Fashion is in my blood. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents were in fashion. My grandmother, Anna, who recently passed away at 94, is still the most stylish woman I’ve ever met. She brought many of the first luxury European brands to Australia and built some of the first cosmopolitan arcades. She lived by the motto of dressing each day as if you were going to meet the most important person.

At first, the most challenging part of motherhood was the sleep deprivation…

I remember my body aching and feeling it was unnatural having to wake every few hours to feed. Next it was all the extra equipment I needed (or didn’t need) that I’d schlep around. Now it’s travelling which we love, but isn’t as easy with a child. We recently flew back from Sydney to LA and Capri slept all of 45 minutes on the plane. Keeping a toddler entertained for 13 hours isn’t easy!

I’ve recently started exfoliating every day and I’ve noticed my skin looks brighter and fresher because of it…

I also love these products: LANCER Skincare ‘The Method – Polish’ Exfoliator is a great manual way of buffing off dead skin cells. Tea tree oil is great for breakouts. Circ-Cell Skincare Dew Hydrating pH Perfector makes skin feel dewy and plump. Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Gentle Exfoliating Treatment smells amazing and really works. iS Clinical Active Serum is like magic.

Starting a full time job seven weeks after having a child will help you lose the baby weight pretty quickly because you don’t have time to eat…

I’ve always loved exercise and was very sporty growing up, but when I fell pregnant with Capri I couldn’t exercise because I had severe nausea for the first few months and painful hip issues for the rest. Then I started my job and didn’t have the will to wake up at 4am to get a work out in. It had been nearly three years since I worked out and I missed that endorphin high. So at the beginning of this year I made some big changes in my schedule and now work out 4-5 days a week. I do Pilates on a reformer 2-3 times a week, boxing and spin on the other days.

I am the world’s worst dieter and could never stick to a strict plan…

Instead, I listen to my body and allow myself to eat whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it. I believe that having a healthy body really starts in the mind. When I changed to this way of thinking about seven years ago, I found any excess weight just fell off me and I got into the best shape of my life without trying. I think when you start trying to deprive yourself you end up overeating or binging out of rebellion or deprivation. I naturally gravitate to healthy food, I don’t eat a tone of meat, love vegetables and raw fish but I also love cheese and carbs and have a piece of chocolate every single day!

Kathryn in a flash:

Coffee or tea: Coffee in the am, tea in the afternoon. Typical breakfast: Iced coffee, organic fig yogurt and fruit. On your bedside table you’ll find: The diary we’ve created to jot down Capri’s milestones (with moderate success!) and about five books I’m reading concurrently! Exercise of choice: Pilates and boxing. Book you’re currently reading: Thrive by Arianna Huffington. Heels or flats: Flats with Capri. Heels with my hubby. Pram: Bugaboo Baby bag: Skip Hop Quilted Black Backpack. Tidy or messy: Messy, but trying to be tidy! Dream travel destination: Capri. We fell in love with the island and hope having a daughter named after it will increase our chances of visiting regularly! Shot on location at The Langham Sydney hotel. For more information, go to www.langhamhotels.com