THE INSIDER: CHER COULTER

Even if you're not familiar with Cher Coulter's face (peep her recent NYLON TV spot here) you're definitely familiar with the Brit celeb stylist's brand of ingenious casual cool. Her influence is seen far and wide on the paparazzi radar with clients such as Kate Bosworth, Sienna Miller, Katie Holmes, and Scarlett Johansson. And after a stint designing for JewelMint, Coulter continues to forge her way into the fashion world, collaborating on a line with denim heavy-hitters AG Jeans. The results--from boho printed shorts to a punky bleached denim vest--are definite denim must-haves. We caught up with Coulter, outfitted all in black with a knockout chunky gold lion's head belt, as she feted her line at Scoop NYC's Meatpacking District outpost alongside Elizabeth Olsen and Liberty Ross. In between greeting well-wishers and fielding the Fashion Week pack, Coulter gave us the skinny on her collection, her style must-haves, and what's on deck for fall '13.

How did you first get involved with AG? I had always talked to my agent and said, "I want to design, I want to design!" After the JewelMint thing, which I loved, suddenly he figured it all out. They were looking for someone, he suggested me, and that's how it happened. I knew of the brand before, so I knew it was a good fit --really good. To work with a brand that has such good quality is really important, because otherwise what are you doing, really? You're just copying something that's already trite.

And what would you say your inspirations were for the collection? There was always supposed to be four different personalities. As a "celebrity stylist"--honestly, I hate calling myself that! I think of myself as more of a fashion lover than a celebrity whatever, but—I just always thought when you do this job you say, "Okay you look really great in white," and you're always thinking about everybody else and what they like, but you put in your little bit of magic. So it really goes across the board of different types of girls. You know, are you a model-off-duty type girl who likes to scribble on her denim and add patches, like an Abbey Lee Kershaw? Or are you more a Jane Birkin who speaks French and likes A.P.C? That's what I loved about the project, because I could just dip into all different things.

Which style do you relate the most to? Well, I think I'm more the scruffy kind of denim jacket with the hummingbird and tears, and when I've shown that to people, that's the one that everyone loves. But yeah, I relate more to her because she's a bit more laid back even though I'm not!

What's your pick for a must-have classic piece? A denim jacket. If you had an A.P.C blue denim jacket and let it weather and weather and do its own thing, and the elbows have elbow marks and you throw a patch on and take it off, and just use it as a canvas, it's a really good thing to have. Because I think the shape of the fit always plays. One that's a no-brainer is a skinny; you know I have, like, six black skinny jeans!