You might spot freelance fashion writer Liana Satenstein on a run with her husband around Prospect Park. She loves a destination run, and when she worked at Vogue she would run from Brooklyn to the office each morning, but she’s taking things a little easier lately since she’s pregnant with her first child. If you don’t catch her on a run, she might be digging through the vintage racks at James Veloria or food shopping in Brighton Beach. We caught up with Liana to talk about working at Vogue, getting into fights at school, and spending time in Ukraine and Russia.
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on her morning routine
I used to love to get up early. When I was working full-time, I’d wake up at 5:45 and run the five and a half miles to work every day. But now that I work for myself, I get up at 7:00 or 7:30, have something to eat, and then I go running. When I get back, I try to do a 30-minute YouTube video of these floor exercises to strengthen my abs. I can’t do regular crunches anymore, since I’m pregnant, but there are specific exercises for pregnant women. Your abs can separate when you’re pregnant and these exercises help prevent that. Then I get in the shower. I do a hot shower and end with 30 seconds to a minute of cold water.
on her childhood in massachusetts
I grew up in a tiny town on the border of New Hampshire — I can actually run from there to New Hampshire, which sounds impressive, but it's not. It’s literally like a mile away.
I was a standard conservative Jew basically. I grew up not eating pork and not mixing milk and meat. My dad and I would go to the synagogue in the next town over. It was small, and there wasn’t much of a community — in the town, I didn't grow up in a Jewish community at all. You talk to Jewish people from New York, and a lot of them come from close-knit communities, and everyone knows each other from somewhere. I never really had that experience. I definitely always felt different growing up.
But I stayed with my grandmother in the summers, and she sent me to a religious Jewish day camp, and I actually really loved that. It somehow grounded me.
However, at home, I was a bad kid, a troublemaker. I think I gave my father a lot of gray hairs. I was really trying to fit in and so I did some stupid stuff — I failed a lot of classes my first year in high school. I also skipped class, and I got suspended for fighting.
I knew I wanted to leave and live in New York someday. Eventually, I realized I was never going to make it to New York if I didn’t do something. I was never going to have the kind of life I wanted if I didn’t get my shit together. I remember being in my friend's basement and we were all really drunk and one of them threw up in this big popcorn tin. And I remember being drunk and sitting there and thinking, this is so stupid. I don't know if that was the moment when it clicked for me, but I think about it.
And there was also this weird dichotomy where, in my secular life, I was doing all of this stuff that wasn’t kosher back home — no pun intended — and then every summer, at camp, I was doing all these really amazing things and keeping these amazing traditions alive. Something just didn't feel in sync. I think that definitely helped me turn things around. I met this older girl at camp who wasn’t religious and then she became religious. I didn't really know her that well, but I remember driving with her in the front seat of her car and she had a Sublime CD. And I just thought she was so cool. Then she explained her background, which wasn’t religious but then she decided to adopt more Jewish traditions. I never became religious to that extent, but I do think those moments were pivotal for me.
“In my small town there really wasn’t a lot of fashion. But my mom is very beautiful and has incredible taste. She’s an antique dealer, so she bought a lot of her clothes from whatever flea market we were going to, or she’d shop at consignment stores or Marshalls and TJ Maxx. She never shopped full price, but she’d always find incredible pieces. She taught me about how to figure out whether something is high-quality. I think that’s part of where my interest in fashion comes from — trying to figure out my mother and also emulate her at the same time.”
on deciding to go to ukraine
It's actually a miracle that I'm here today. My grandmother escaped Ukraine in the 1920s. I believe she was under ten, as no one knows her actual birth date. She grew up in a village outside of Kyiv and one day, the neighbors came to the house and broke down the door. Her father was holding it shut and she had to run outside with her mother. They had to leave the baby in the house because it was so sudden. They hid in the woods for the night. When they came back in the morning, her father was dead. The baby's crib was knocked over and the baby was crying.
My grandmother never explained exactly what happened while en route escaping through Poland, but perhaps there is good reason for that. I recently read The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer, who wrote about Jews in the Eastern European villages. Raping, pillaging. In the book, there’s a harrowing description of how people cut open the stomachs of women and sewed animals into them. Singer also described the towns after the pogroms, and the people who survived would walk around without fingers or noses. Luckily, my grandmother made it to America.
I was always interested in where I came from. Perhaps that was because I had no Jewish community around me, so I was always wondering. By the time I was 17, I’d gotten my act together in school and I was doing well in Spanish class. These people from the Rotary Youth Exchange came to that class and they said, if you guys want, you can study anywhere in the world, you just have to pay for your plane ticket. And I was like, of course, I'm going to take this opportunity and blow this popsicle stand. And I picked Ukraine. I thought, I’m going to go find my roots and figure out who I am. But, of course, this is 100 years later, and they didn’t put me in Western Ukraine, where my mother’s family is actually from, because the organizers claimed they were worried. Instead, they placed me in a town in Crimea, which is more diverse, and I studied there for a year.
on her time in crimea
While studying there, I lived with a family in Alushta, Crimea. Although this was Ukraine at the time, the people spoke Russian, not Ukrainian. I didn’t speak it at the time, but I learned. The family I lived with had a daughter close to my age, she was like my sister. She was the most popular girl in school, and she was always going out, so I’d go out with her. I love her. It was really fun and I had an incredible year. I discovered that I loved smoking cigarettes. I loved going out and drinking. I loved the Eastern European techno music. And I honestly loved speaking another language. I was living the best life as a teen. I really was.
It was 2006 and 2007. There wasn’t a lot of money and people were using internet cafés because they didn’t have computers in their home. I would see men looking at porn in the internet cafés because they couldn’t do it at home. I remember the first night I was in Crimea, I went walking with my sister and there was a motorcycle accident on the boardwalk and the guy had hit a grandmother who was lying there, dead. No tarp over her body, nothing. It was a different world. It was more raw and lawless.
My sister is in Tennessee now. She actually had to flee Ukraine with her two kids and her husband still fighting. I have a few friends who are in that situation and are either alone or raising children without their husbands who cannot leave Ukraine. They are resilient women.
“I always liked writing and drawing. I had a big imagination. I would write short stories and poems, like angsty teenager stuff. And my whole childhood room is filled with fashion drawings on the wall, photos of Madonna that I drew, and weird photos of Versace models from ad campaigns. I started buying magazines when I was 16 after I started bussing tables at the local pizza place. I’d buy Vogue, W, whatever I could get at Barnes and Noble. Eventually, I started getting into foreign fashion magazines, but those were really expensive.”
on studying abroad in st. petersburg
In college, I majored in Russian studies with a minor in journalism and a minor in European studies and I studied abroad in St. Petersburg for a year through school. I studied at this school called Smolny, which was the only liberal arts school in Russia — I think they’ve closed it down now.
I was just interested in Russia and the Russian language. I felt connected to it in some way — maybe because I felt like I fit in more when I was in Ukraine and in Russia. People there would be like, oh, are you Armenian? Are you Georgian? I liked being mistaken for something, whereas in my town I felt like I stood out in an ugly way. I wasn't into the literature or anything. I wasn't even really into the history. I just liked being in the mix.
I’ve always thought Slavic women were incredible-looking. And they always took very good care of themselves whether they had money or not. They were always well-manicured, wearing head-to-toe animal prints. I was interested in how this aesthetic developed. The Soviet Union was so closed off, there were only certain clothes people could wear. Everything was manufactured by the state or homemade. When the Soviet Union disintegrated, they started to get colorful pieces and new things and it was a way for people to flex their wealth.
on moving to new york city
I moved to the city during my last year of college. I found a really cheap apartment and I ended up staying there for four and a half years. It was in Briarwood, in Queens, kind of next to the airport. I loved it a lot. Then I moved to Harlem for a year where I lived with five Italian women. I liked it but the pipes were so loud in the winter that I couldn’t sleep for like six months. It was horrifying for me. I think I was actually starting to go insane from sleep deprivation. So, I moved to Bushwick, kind of on a whim. I had a windowless room.
on getting started in fashion
I knew I wanted to work in media — you know, I watched The Devil Wears Prada, I read 90s Vogue, I read Plum Sykes. I had this idea of what it would be like and that’s what I wanted to do, even though it was the beginning of the web and things were changing. While I was in St. Petersburg, I started writing a few things for a modeling agency and I had a blog where I would track people's street style. Then when I got back, I graduated and then I did two internships, one at Women's Wear Daily and one at Marie Claire. I wasn't necessarily good at anything. I was keeping track of samples at Women's Wear Daily, and you can’t even imagine how bad I was at that. And then for Marie Claire, I was working on building the articles for their website. But they also let me work on my own stuff there, so I did a piece on Ukrainian designers to watch out for. I had never even been to Kyiv, but I found stuff about their fashion week online and wrote about the designers, and then I kept in touch with the organizers. That’s how I got hooked into the fashion scene in Ukraine.
After that, I applied everywhere but I just couldn’t get a job. But I kept in touch with the people I’d interned for, and I took stupid jobs in the meantime. I was doing sales for this Hasidic guy — I found that off Craigslist. I worked at a restaurant for a while as a hostess, I did English tutoring for Russian speakers, and I was babysitting. I also freelanced as much as I could. I did a piece on Orthodox style in Crown Heights for Fashionista. I did a story for Elle on women graffiti artists. I think that story is still up and it's badly written. It was too wordy. I buried the lede. Shout out to Leah Chernikoff who probably went through hell editing it. I went to Ukraine at one point and covered Kyiv Fashion Fashion Days for Women’s Wear Daily. I took vacation time and paid for my own ticket. I got fired soon after!
Vogue reached out to me on LinkedIn. I had “freelance fashion writer” in my bio. It was so funny because my roommate at the time, Sviatlana, was like, why don't you just write to someone at Vogue and ask for a job? And so, I did. I wrote to my now-former boss Chioma Nnadi. I don't think she ever saw this email — it’s actually still in my outbox and it’s very embarrassingly written. Two weeks later, someone from HR reached out via LinkedIn! That was it. I worked there for almost nine years. I loved everyone I worked with there. I still have the best friends from my time there and I loved my boss. But eventually, after a long time, I wanted to do my own thing and came to the conclusion, I’m done, I'll figure it out because I've always figured it out. I figured, worse comes to worst, I could start hostessing again, it's not such a big deal.
“When I first got to Russia, I went to a meet-and-greet for study abroad students. Everyone was talking about why they wanted to come to St. Petersburg. They were all like, I read this Dostoevsky book, or I’m really interested in Russian history. And I was thinking, I spent a year in Ukraine drinking and sitting on the back of motorcycles and going clubbing and going to this school with no doors on the toilet and bartering at secondhand markets. Dostoevsky? What the fuck are these people talking about? It was just so foreign to me.
I didn’t read Dostoevsky until this year. I didn’t start reading him until I interviewed Marc Jacobs for High Snobiety and we spoke about Notes from Underground, which I read. Then I read a short story of his and I’m going to pick up Crime and Punishment.”
on why she runs
I really have to go running every single morning. If I don't, I'm lethargic the whole entire day and I feel almost depressed. I started running when I was living in that windowless room in Bushwick. I was still suffering from sleep deprivation for different reasons. I was drinking too much and wasn’t being healthy. I started running one morning, and it had a domino effect. I moved and I was sleeping more, and I started running more and stopped drinking completely for a while. I’d be like, okay, I'm going to run to Brighton Beach today. I would get up and go on these destination runs all throughout the city. I ran back to Queens to visit my old roommate a couple of times, or I'd run into the city and meet a friend at Central Park. During COVID, I would run from Brooklyn across the bridge to Dimes Square to the corner store on East Broadway and I’d get an XL watermelon slushie. Right now, I can’t run that far, but I really believe in destination runs.
It's actually really funny to look at my running trajectory. When I started, I would wear old-ass spandex from G-d knows when. And I'd have one of those freebie backpacks that you get with a cheap drawstring closure that cuts into your shoulders and these old sneakers that I’d had forever. I'd shove money and a card into my bra. Now I wear basically all Nike — I wear their sneakers, leggings, and jacket — except for my Amazon sun hat with a retractable visor.
on what she listens to on a run
I used to listen to music and when I got bored, I would switch to the Nike Run Club app. They have really great podcasts with athlete’s stories. They have incredible people speaking on it — it could be a child soldier who escaped on foot or the first woman to ever win the Boston Marathon. That really helped me get my head straight and have a positive attitude.
I don’t really run with my phone anymore though. I used to be obsessive about logging my miles and I used to really feel like I had to listen to things, but now I don't. Now sometimes I run with my husband, and we just chat. And sometimes, I don't listen to anything and that's fine because then I can arrange my whole day in my head.
on what has changed during pregnancy
I’m pregnant. It has definitely been humanizing. I always thought I could defy physical limitations in a way. And I’m still running, I still push myself and go as hard as I can, but to be honest, I’m so much slower now. But I’m still doing it, and that’s all I care about. As long as I get up and go and do it, I’m happy.
I was trying to research doula stuff but honestly, I don’t think it is for me. I think it'll be fine and I’ll leave it at that. I'm a child of the 90s. My mom pushed me out and went back to work very quickly. And I was a formula baby, and that's fine. My grandmother was probably born in a potato field and her mother ate, like, one potato a month. So, I feel like, whatever happens, happens. Also, I like and trust my OB. She's this Russian woman who doesn't laugh at my jokes.
on the role of religion in her relationship
My husband and I started doing a light Shabbat. I always liked doing Shabbat but it's hard to observe if you didn’t grow up with it, coupled with not having someone else to do it with. We don't follow it exactly. Sometimes we might need to go to something that, unfortunately, involves a car or subway. We had to go to something last Friday night. But we try to observe it. Ultimately, I like that we’re together and we’re not on our phones.
“I’ve been trying to read as many different history books as possible on the same topic but by different authors. For me, it’s the best way to learn. Like, I’m sure if you talk to an American about 9/11 and they’ve never read a book about Afghanistan, they’re going to come at you with one perspective. But if you read Afghan historians, American historians, and Russian historians, that’s three different perspectives and it can help you form your own point of view. Then you’re not walking around with this stupid blanket statement idea about people. I think it helps you learn how to be sympathetic. Like, I am the person who I am. I grew up the way that I grew up, fine. But there are other people who are not me who live in a completely different situation and have completely different experiences. And I think you just have to try to understand.”
on her sense of style
People think of me as a noughties person, but I’m not. I’m a late 90s, pre-9/11 person. Because the fashion back then still blended into the street, but it was elevated. It's what I call everyday aspirational. My friend Mellány Sánchez says I want to know where you're going. And when I look at 90s Vogue or 2000s Vogue pre-911, that's what I think in my head. Where are you going? What I really like is looking at women living their lives. I think that’s how I developed my style — constantly looking at women. I look at a lot of what Russian women were wearing back in the day, what a lot of women in the late 90s were wearing. I was never good at following the runway at Vogue because I don't have the brain to imagine those clothes on the runway out in the real world.
And then you have to find what works for you. If you don't feel one hundred percent in your clothes, you somehow emanate that. People pick up on it if something's wearing you. So, I dress in what I feel good in. It took me a long time to figure out what silhouette works for me. My body isn't a model's body. Just because something looks good on Kendall Jenner doesn’t mean it’ll look good on me. So, I've had to work with that. Like, I have a plump ass and I have shorter legs, so I prefer to wear higher-waisted things and t-shirt shirts that are actually tailored. Like, this is a Uniqlo top that I bought — I don't ever shop there, but I had to go in there one day because my vintage Blumarine top smelled really bad. So, I walked in there and bought this top and then I got it tailored so it was shorter. And it looked so much better on me.
I don't really buy new clothes because the prices are exorbitant, and I like the quality of vintage. Don't get me wrong, I have kooky vintage pieces, but it's always the same silhouette.
on her beauty routine
After I shower, I get an ice cube and put it all over my face. Sometimes I gua sha, but not a lot. Honestly running is the best thing for me in terms of de-bloating and de-puffing my face. For lotion, I use Nuxe day cream and sometimes I use the oil. And then I use Nuxe sunscreen. I really love Nuxe. It’s a departure for me because I’ve always been a CVS girl. My friend Janelle Okwodu told me about it when we were working together at Vogue. Before that, I actually wasn’t moisturizing correctly. I was sometimes putting straight-up Vaseline or cocoa butter on my face, which locks moisture in but doesn’t penetrate.
My makeup is still very CVS except for two things: Dior lip oil and the Dior waterproof mascara. I have the lip oil in Mahogany. It’s incredible. My friend Yohana Lebasi recommended it and while I was buying that the woman at the store recommended waterproof Dior mascara, so I bought that. It does not run until the very end of day, which is great because usually my mascara is running by the middle of the day.
At CVS I like Covergirl. I use their concealer and they have a lip liner that I use as a blush. I draw it on. And I use Maybelline waterproof eyeliner.
on what she’s reading
I wrote this thing the other day about how when I was at Vogue, I didn't read for almost nine years. I didn't read a fiction book; I didn't read a history book. I was reading magazine articles. I think that hindered me in a way. I didn't put as much time as I would’ve liked into a lot of the pieces that I wrote there, unfortunately. That’s because it's how the industry moves. There’s no time. It's only this year that I’ve really started voraciously reading.
I've been liking Isaac Bashevis Singer. He’s a Yiddish writer. He's known for his short stories, but I like The Slave. It’s an incredible book about a Jewish man who was taken as a slave by a Polish family, and he falls in love with the non-Jewish Polish daughter. It’s about acceptance and rejection and fleeing and being in love, how far you'll go for someone, how far you'll go for faith, how your community rejects you on both sides.
And the Virginie Despentes. My friend Lauren Mechling told me to read her a few years ago and I immediately read everything. I love her. This is a badass writer. Real stream-of-consciousness, totally unforgiving. She doesn’t write for anyone, at least in her earlier writing, like Vernon Subutex 1. You can see that honesty and it’s brutal and it’s sick and I love it.
I also read a lot of history books. I’ve been obsessively reading about the history of Afghanistan for over a year now. I’ve been learning about how basically every single country has essentially tried to conquer Afghanistan and the unfortunate consequences of that. I did the same thing last year with Yugoslavia, learning about the Yugoslav Wars and seeing how that completely tore the region. The Fall of Yugoslavia by Misha Glenny — pick it up, read it.
liana’s favorite spots in new york city
I like James Veloria for vintage. Vostochny Bazaar in Brighton Beach is the best food shopping and they’re open until 12 am. My favorite Chinese restaurant is Mr. Wonton in Park Slope. I like to work at the Brooklyn Public Library sometimes. I like to take the Q train and look at the sunset when it’s above ground.
