SCÈNE 11. Liana Satenstein, Founder/Writer, NEVERWORNS
Pout and about: Two city women, alike in their quest for the perfect lipstick shade and satisfying relationship, strike up a romance.
Welcome back to Mise-En-Scène, edition number 11. Please enjoy New York Times critic
saying “mise-en-scène” while misremembering the dramatic title of Eminem’s forthcoming album on the latest episode of Popcast (Deluxe). It made me do a double-take, because Marshall would.With assist from guest curator
, in this edition we’re spotlighting a canonical entry in a favorite genre, the New York City romantic comedy of a certain vintage (that vintage being pre-2006). Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld and co-written by Jessica Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, Liana’s Mise-En-Scène selection Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) follows two women—the tightly wound, slightly screwball Jessica (Westfeldt) and the slinky, self-possessed Helen (Juergensen)—who, in their respective searches for a satisfying relationship, meet, date, and learn things, before ultimately landing on what’s really right for each of them. Liana notes: “I don’t quite remember [how I first came across Stein], but I saw the film years and years ago and I always rewatch it.”Liana (@liana_ava) is a former Vogue scribe, Schmatta Shrink, organizer of legendary closet sales (Chloë Sevigny, Lauren Ezersky), and super-host (listen to her recent conversation with Plum Sykes, author and gimlet-eyed chronicler of high society’s whims, and get whisked back in time to ‘90s New York). As founder, writer, and emcee of NEVERWORNS, a newsletter-and-video series, Liana explores the kinetic relationship between our closets and ourselves. Much like her choice of film—besides Stein, A Perfect Murder (1998) and Unfaithful (2002) are regularly on the rotation—there’s verve and texture in Liana’s writing. She goes extra-hard on delicious details about fashion rarities, era-defining statement pieces, and brand resurgences that others sleep on. Plus, her Instagram captions are a joy; no one save for Mariah Carey wields an adjective better.
In celebrating Kissing Jessica Stein, Liana singles out a scene that takes place in the back of a cab, where our two ladies, having just met, connect over the ideal hue of lipstick. (One of Helen’s recommendations is still for sale: M.A.C.’s Viva Glam III, now going by Viva Empowered.) Originally based on Westfeldt and Juergensen’s Off-Broadway play, Lipschtick: The Story of Two Women Seeking the Perfect Shade, the film, appropriately, has a theatrical sensibility: The protagonists are hyper-verbal, often ready with a zippy retort, and the supporting cast features many a stage player (including a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Idina Menzel). Still, the story is grounded in sweet, slice-of-life honesty that harkens to humble comedies like Crossing Delancey (1988) and the rougher-around-the-edges Miami Rhapsody (a 1995 cult classic in which Sarah Jessica Parker plays a proto-Carrie Bradshaw).
In a New York City rom-com, every detail stands out tenfold and counts for more. Kissing Jessica Stein, perhaps owing to its indie status, has a distinctive grain that prevents the film from edging into schmaltz. Set in pre-9/11 New York, the city’s true grime rubs up against the film’s engineered charm. The locations (cozy neighborhood haunts, cluttered office spaces, aspirational apartments) are imbued with lived-in energy. The mood, typical of most rom-coms, is conjured through a cocktail of diegetic sounds (a yellow cab screeching past a curb, the crisp clicks of a stiletto touching down on pavement) and the dreamy swells of non-diegetic jazz music (the soundtrack features the airy mid-century crooning of Blossom Dearie).
Stein’s wardrobe—which Liana covered for VOGUE.com in 2022, even accessing costume designer Melissa Bruning’s original moodboards!—is pitched just enough for movie-storytelling purposes. As our anxious heroine Jessica experiments in romance, her clothes get ever-so-slightly more sensual. But the costume design is also rooted in the way real city women dress to live real city lives. It’s perfectly period, too: There’s traditional uptown restraint in tailored overcoats, tasteful midi skirts, and buffed nails, no polish; downtown exuberance in expressive hair, chrome-leather pants, and bright, netted tops.
Read on for more of Liana’s thoughts1 on Kissing Jessica Stein, the “most girl conversation” she’s ever heard, and the film’s “everyday aspirational” costume design.
“YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY KNOW WHO YOU ARE OR HOW YOU’LL RESPOND TO SOMETHING UNTIL YOU TRY IT”: NEVERWORNS FOUNDER/WRITER LIANA SATENSTEIN ON KISSING JESSICA STEIN, 2001
LIANA ON THE BACKSEAT TAXICAB SCENE IN KISSING JESSICA STEIN:
The two main characters Jessica and Helen are talking about Helen’s lipstick concoction. This is the most girl conversation I’ve ever heard–and I’ve been there. It’s the most superficial conversation and yet the most tender moment between the two in the film.
LIANA ON THE FILM’S COSTUME DESIGN:
I love the costume design… because it feels like real women are wearing these clothes and you can really understand who they are through their clothing. Maybe the choices are a bit hammed up, but this is always what I imagined hot, cool women in New York to dress like. Everyday aspirational. I was able to interview the costume designer Melissa Bruning who sent me the moodboards from the film, which was a career highlight.
LIANA ON STEIN BEING “UN-ONLINE” AND WHY IT RESONATES WITH HER:
I am so exhausted from being online and this seems like one of the most un-online movies ever. The whole [cab] scene makes me want to meet up with my friend, borrow her lipstick, smoke a cigarette, and guzzle a frosty Heineken.
LIANA SATENSTEIN RECOMMENDS
Aside from the flirty, urbane fashions sported by Jessica and Helen in Kissing Jessica Stein, Liana’s tastes run the City Girl gamut: a sleek and sensible ‘90s bag, freshly updated and on the shoulders of a new generation 30 years later; a grocery store staple; and a chilly book about organized crime on a global scale.
McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny.
Liana says: This is a fascinating book about the immense amount of organized crime and corruption after the fall of the Soviet Union… Seedy and foul and plenty of bribes to go around.The Kate Spade-aissance.
Liana says: I’m writing a piece on the rise of the brand and why we should pay attention. I was able to go to the archive. Stay tuned! P.S. There are some really fabulous felt bags I am collecting right now. (Nat’s note: Update: Liana recently published the piece; read it on NEVERWORNS here!)Rotisserie chicken.
Liana says: I devour one roughly once a week. Maybe twice. I buy them at Union Market… succulent.Diet Coke.
Liana says: I don’t drink soda but need one to get me going sometimes… always from the can, baby.
Moleskin soft-cover planner.
Liana says: My planner. Moleskin soft-cover… I’m really trying to get better at taking notes and writing down everything. I need to keep it with me 24/7.
Thank you for hanging out with us. Kissing Jessica Stein is available to rent on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Special thanks and a hearty bravo to Liana Satenstein for her zesty Mise-En-Scène selection. Read her VOGUE.com piece on Melissa Bruning’s costume design for Kissing Jessica Stein here, subscribe to her NEVERWORNS newsletter here, and stream her NEVERWORNS YouTube series here.
Until we meet again for the next newsletter… in the dulcet tones of Miss Dearie, “I wish you love.”
Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.