Kathryn Eisman is a two-time Emmy nominated journalist, two-time bestselling author, and founder of luxury fashion sock line, HighHeelJunglesocks 

She’s currently the fashion reporter for Fox LA’s Good Day LA  (she lives in Los Angeles) and entertainment correspondent on Sunrise and The Morning Show, and has also worked as a journalist with E!, NBC in the US and Foxtel here in Oz.

We met when I was Editor-in-Chief of Cleo magazine and Kathryn proposed a hilarious but very helpful dating column, which I immediately picked up. Her website kathryneisman.com was created because she felt there “are so many websites but not that many which catered for women as a whole. Mum’s sites are popular, and career sites, but nothing as a whole.

Starting a designer sock line

"I started making intricate socks and wearing them with heels for all my celebrity interviews because they made me happy and made heels look so much more exciting. Almost every celebrity I was interviewing would literally start freaking out over my socks and ask where they could get them. When I told them I made them, they would beg for a pair! Everyone from Zoe Saldana to Gina Rodrigues (who started chanting for me to give them to her and put them on mid-interview) to Zoey Kravitz, Lupita N'Yongo, Isla Fisher, Constance Wu, Debra Messing, Lucy Hale. Even the men I'd interview from Jon Hamm to Colin Farrel to Jude Law would admire them. I have literally given people the socks off my feet, so I started to think that maybe there was a market for these! I launched High Heel Jungle Socks a few weeks before I had my second baby. And look, it wasn't great timing but there’s no perfect time to do it."

 

Working with kids. And celebrities.

“When I had [my first child] Capri I started a new job at E! News six weeks after I had her, it was a very all-consuming position. A lot of baby and work and not much Kathryn. Right now I don’t have to go into an office every day. Instead, I’m on location doing interviews - over the past week I've interviewed Christina Applegate, James Marsden, Zach Galifianakis, Danny Devito a and Zoe Saldana. Or I'm running around meeting buyers or in the design studio working on our next collection.

Because I have my own businesses, I can bring Monet (one year old) with me some of the time. I always viewed work as privileged and feel as grateful today for my position be it as a TV reporter or a designer or writer as I was when I first started out when I was 19. That said, little kids are only little for a little bit of time, and it's my role as Mum that has the most profound meaning to me. Like all Mums, I am obsessed with my two girls both of whom have huge personalities and the biggest hearts and are so quick to smile or break into a dance move, just like their mother! I have to be organized so that I don't waste time being away from the people I love most. Some days you feel like a champ juggling all these balls, some days you don't.  

kathryneisman.com

“Just because you’ve brought a child into the world - doesn’t mean you cease to exist as an individual. Doesn't mean we stop being creative, women need to create ... for goodness sakes we created life! I made a space that accepted women in their totality. And in this "insta world" that we live in where we’re inundated with a false sense of reality - I felt that it was more important than ever to have a site that was aspirational but rooted in truth. Yes, even the most successful seemingly "perfect" lives are filled with shortcomings. No one gets to escape being human, and that's actually a really beautiful thing. How about we empower and inspire women by talking about our achievements honestly so that women leave www.KathrynEisman.com feeling empowered rather than inferior, which is what we get from social media.”

 

Health philosophy

“I started my career as a model and that often involves food deprivation but that just didn’t work for me as I got older. If you tell me I can’t eat something or do something, that’s the thing I want to do most. About nine years ago I decided I would completely change my thinking about health.

“I decided I was going to be able to eat whatever I wanted and I would stay the same shape.”

The minute I decided this, I stopped craving bad foods and overeating. I ushered in a return to a healthy, balanced relationship with food and honestly never had to worry about gaining weight. I stopped overindulging and could eat whatever I wanted, and didn’t feel deprived knowing I could always have dessert. It’s like being a young child who eats til their full but doesn’t overeat. I don’t do fad diets. My whole thinking really shifted. I would leave a bit of room to fit dessert in and my body just self-regulated with this mental shift.”

 

Workout routine  

"I waited until three months after I had the baby to get back into it. I just didn't feel ready to seat and put my body under pressure any sooner.  I discover pilates after my first child, I love that nit’s resistance as well as stretching, and there can be a cardio component to it too (oh and that I get to exercise laying down!) ha. I do it twice a week every week at Claudia Martin Studio in West Hollywood. More recently I started doing Fit Body Boot Camp in Hollywood which is the most incredible high intensity 30-minute circuit training class. You sweat it out for 30 minutes and just when you think you can't do anymore, you don't have to. It's over... perfect.

Some people are creatures of habit, I am not one of them. I like to mix things up. I also think any exercise that requires concentration and gets you out of your head becomes a form of meditation. That way I feel like I’ve had that mind/body recharge.”

Everyday eats

When I was nursing I have an Oat milk latte with a single shot of caffeine and a Boobie Bikkie - this amazing lactation expert Pinkie McKay makes cookies that have ingredients to help increase milk production, so I’ll have one of those for breakfast. It satisfies my sweet tooth.

Lunch is something like sushi, I’ll have six pieces of nigiri and a cut, spiced tuna roll. We love healthy eating so four nights a week I’ll cook and then we’ll go out the other nights.  I have chocolate for dessert every single night. Sometimes vanilla ice cream with Ice chocolate topping. It's not a good habit, but it makes me happy. Tonight, for example, we’re having chicken schnitzel and a yummy salad with goats cheese and cranberries. I love the ritual of the family coming together each night and talking about our days, little  If we go about it’s usually to Ceconni’s or Soho House.

 

Juice fix

“I’m a big advocate for smoothies or a great juice when you feel run down. My dad would make me a fresh juice every morning and he’s a paediatrician, so I totally trust him with my health!  I go to Kreation and get some highly complex smoothie with super greens, it tastes like dessert but it’s actually healthy.”

Mindfulness

“I’m really into breathwork. I really feel that the way we breathe is the most undervalued tool we have for changing our physiological and psychological state. When you look at people like marines they focus on breathwork. Sometimes it’s as simple as going onto the balcony with my husband and doing 10 deep breaths in and 10 out. It releases the stresses and anxieties of the day and promotes a harmonious and relaxed state. It takes 30 seconds and anyone can do it.

I also love a deep almost painful massage! Haha.  It’s the only thing in the world that’s so good it feels like it should be bad for you! Another thing is making eye contact. We spend so much time with our eyes cast down looking at our phones. I try to balance that by not looking down as much.  I’m looking up and looking into the eyes of my husband and my kids and people when I meet them and actually seeing the soul standing in front of me. It's a pretty cool exercise to actually look yourself in the mirror and look into your eyes- to really see and acknowledge yourself rather than view and judge yourself.  

Hot-towel skin trick

“Because of my work I used to be sent so many different things, and I tried everything! So my skin suffered. I switched to just using Obagi and also Innovative skin care which has really helped.

My biggest tip is to use a fresh hot face towel to take my makeup off. I have to wear makeup for television every day which is thick. The issue most women face is not cleansing enough. What I thought was taking my makeup off, was not! The hot towel really cleared up my skin - it’s been transformative.”

 

Top hair in two minutes

“I let it air dry unless I’m on camera, and use hot rollers. I put them in for two minutes and it looks like I’ve had a blowout.”

Planet health

“LA is the leader in sustainable green technology, I was just down at Paradise Cove . and they were serving their drinks out of pasta straws)! I think legislation forces innovation. I never use plastic straws, we have glass straws at home that we wash and reuse them. We have alkaline water in large bottles dropped off to our home and then taken away and refilled. It eliminated the wastage that comes from single-use plastic bottles. If we could all just stop using single-use plastic, we could transform the globe."

Superpower

“My superpower would have to be that, I can with 100% accuracy, "read' a person's outfit from their shoes to their bags and everything in between and tell you the essence of who that person is. I've been tested on everything from LIVE on Good Morning America to every second dinner party I attend! It helped me when I was dating, it helps me in work meetings. It's uncanny and even freaks me out at times!"

 

 

 

Interview: Nedahl Stelio
Photos: Jacqui Turk
Makeup: Melanie Burnicle at 2Twenty Group
Hair: Royals Hairstylists