For Lauren Kulchinsky Levison, fashion is cinema. She speaks of this world of fashion in fascinating ways – through film metaphors, references to Broadway productions, old magazines, and as a New Yorker with nostalgia for the city’s days of yore. And with good reason—not everyone growing up watched their parents get ready for a night out at Studio 54 or saw Diana Ross and Depeche Mode as their first concerts.

Coming from a family of fourth-generation jewelers, she sought to carve her own path separate from the family business. And although she’s had several career paths in her life, like as a dancer in show business or working in film and television, they have all been grounded in fashion and tied back to that legacy business. She’s worked on major films, and most famously, styled all the fine jewelry on HBO’s classic “The Sopranos”.

Today, the evolution of her family’s trade is the jewelry store Mayfair Rocks in East Hampton, a place that has always celebrated good design and been an early career supporter of CFDA members Lisa Perry and Irene Neuwirth. It’s only natural that Levison has become a Friend of the CFDA, a further step for her advocacy for the American fashion industry and our designers.

“I’m Lego. I put people together,” Levison said when I asked her to define her job right now. “That’s my favorite thing. That’s been my favorite career as I’ve met so many people in my life. That’s my gift.”

Tell us a little about your journey to get that got you to where you are today.

I wasn’t a book person who went off to college and all that stuff. I was a big city, big lights kind of person. I started as a dancer. I ended up working on a Dick Wolf’s show called New York Undercover. I started seeing that there was a lack of fine jewelry in every television show I worked on. So I started bringing jewelry for the set, for the crew and cast. I ended up being probably the first-ever jewelry stylist for TV. 

I wanted to be on stage all the time. The first concert I ever went to was Diana Ross at Westbury Music Fair where she changed like 30 times in front of me, and my first rock and roll show was Depeche Mode. Iconic. And people were throwing their panties. I had no idea what was going on. Right after that, I got to see Patti LuPone in Evita, Dreamgirls and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I remember looking at my dad and saying, I can do this. These are pivotal points which took me to where I went—and that was fashion. It wasn’t just the stage. It was their fashion. It made me feel.

Ending up in the film industry was a happy accident. I did all the fine jewelry for “The Sopranos”. It was a huge moment to be a part of up, because it was probably the first time people could relate to an anti-hero and want to root for him. It shifted culture.

My biggest takeway from it all is to walk through every door that opens. If you decide to sit down at the table, that’s your choice, but you should walk through every door that opens. Anything that was an opportunity, I tried to at least take a peek at.

What’s your favorite part of American fashion?

I love that it’s cinematic. I dress that way. When I get ready in the morning, I ask, who am I gonna be? What am I gonna be? Who am I seeing? And it’s not that I change, but it’s what I need people to perceive me as that needs to change. The clothes make people see who you want them to see. And that’s what I find so amazing. I find that that’s how I’ve always looked at fashion.

I think that American fashion does that the best, because you can really be anybody in American fashion. You’re not stuck in this old historical trope of you need to be this by this time or can’t break in unless you’re this or that. There’s no classism in American fashion. Americans try to put classism into their fashion, and it’s funny, because it’s satirical when they do. It’s satire when they do, and that’s what I love about American fashion. To me, New York is the kids. Not actually “kids,” but the amazing emerging talent, the next generation.

When I was a young, New York was the fashion mecca. In the 1970s, it was fashion. And the greatest thing ever is sitting outside and watching people walk by. You never saw two ladies look the same. We always defined style, because there’s an inner language to it. You’re having a bad day? You go in the subway and you will feel like a million bucks. Everyone’s going to compliment on how you look—your hair, your makeup, and oh, my God, that outfit is fabulous. I walk out and I feel like supermodel.

Why did you decide to join the Friends of the CFDA?

Because I love what Casey [Kohlberg] and I just did, sponsoring a table at the Save Venice gala and inviting emerging talent to join us. If everyone has a cause that they are excited about, and yours happens to be fashion, we need to get the kids out into the wild. We either wear them, we take them as our dates to events, we get them a table, whatever it is. I have never had a better time at something I attend year after year that this time around. The talent is there, it’s our job to bring them in.

I think everybody who’s part of Friends of this CFDA is more than capable than chipping in. You don’t have to buy your own table. I’m not telling everyone to do with their money, but we can all chip in and buy a table or split a table, bring one of them, bring a couple of them, or wear their clothes. There’s so many ways to support. I don’t like getting involved unless my hands are fully in it.