Pilar Guzman's On Point Advice For Young Creatives

Conde Nast's travel editor-in-chief Pilar Guzman has a dream job, drool-worthy IG, and that ever-elusive quality of "taste." In an interview with NYMag, Pilar Guzman shares amazing advice for young creatives in regard to acquiring taste and how it has absolutely zero to do with money. Grab a pen and paper (or, uhm, type a note in your phone?), because you're going to want to jot down her words.

Guzman credits her father, an art director and production designer, for her exceptional eye for class and style. She shared, "I was lucky enough to trail my father ... We waded through everything from bins in junk stores to high-end antique stores all over the world. He was a lover of design and antiques and fashion and graphic design and art, and finding the diamond in the rough at the junk store. I think I really got an education from trailing him my whole life." #BestDadEver

Regardless of your dad's career path, Guzman breaks down specific ways to develop your own style and taste. Best part? They're all practically free.

1. Be Curious

Guzman explained that developing your artistic eye is "about being open to different influences: vintage, new, digital, print, movies, music, all of that kind of stuff. When you’re young, it’s about observing. It’s about having well-rounded mentors — people whom you look to for cues. Some of it is studying. It’s not about money." I'm taking this as a glorious reason to binge-watch Netflix.

2. Take 15 Minute Museum Visits

Guzman has memberships to every big museum, and said her new habit is "to literally go for 15 minutes." She squeaks in visits between meetings "just so the eyes see something new." Guzman reasoned, "Give yourself permission to not have everything be such an event — otherwise, you won’t have gotten to the Basquiat exhibit, or whatever it is." Let that one about not needing things to be such an event resonate, y'all. It's gold.

3. Read Outside Your Comfort Zone

Always go for a certain section of the paper? Guzman challenges all of us not to pigeon-hole ourselves into a knowledge comfort zone, saying, "Read about business even if you’re a culture or arts writer. I feel like I didn’t read enough about business in the younger part of my life. And [don't] self-stereotype." I'll just be scribbling "learn about space" in my planner now, thank you very much.

Image Credit: Pilar Guzman/Instagram; Giphy