You won’t find a sweeter power couple than Blair Eadie and Andrew Powell, the duo behind the fashion blog Atlantic-Pacific, a years-long project in which the two have catalogued Eadie’s unique brand of quirky uptown style in photos taken by Powell. The two, who met while working at GAP in San Francisco, also spend their days at equally impressive New York City-based fashion jobs: Eadie is Director of Merchandising at Tory Burch and Powell serves as the VP of Men’s Merchandising at Gilt. One evening in the West Village, we catch up with the pair for a round of beers before they head off for their weekly date night—a Wednesday tradition since the two got together.

ON ALMOST NOT WORKING IN FASHION:

Blair: I studied political science and then I ended up going to The University of Florida, which doesn’t have a huge fashion or creative presence. So even when I took an internship with Saks Fifth Avenue, it was like, “Ok, I think this might be my passion but it’s not like I could switch paths in a college sense.” When I came across the GAP Retail Management Program I was like, “Oh, this is actually setting you up for success and giving you all the tools that you need and cutting a clear path.” It showed me that you can create a really successful career in fashion that’s both creatively stimulating but at the same time definitely business savvy.

Andrew: I studied finance in college and I actually liked it. But I knew that I didn’t want to be a banker or anything like that. Growing up, I liked getting dressed up for school and my parents could drop me off at a mall for four hours. My friends would be like “What do you do there?” and I’d be like, “I don’t know? The windows are cool and I like going in the stores!” I never knew that merchandising was a real job. If I could talk to the 12-year-old me, I’d be like, “Actually this is a really cool career that you’re not going to find out about for another 10 years….”

ON STARTING A BLOG OFF THE CLOCK:

Blair: When I got into blogging it was early enough that it wasn’t necessarily seen as a business, so I don’t think it was thought of as competitive. It wasn’t like GAP would have said, “Oh, she’s going to partner with other brands”…that didn’t even exist then. So it was cool that I started at this time when blogs were truly what I think they should be—just creative, cool, organic things. Since Andrew and I worked in the same office at the time, we would take pictures at lunch.

ON WHAT THEY’VE LEARNED FROM EACH OTHER:

Andrew: I’ve learned more about Blair as a person and who she is—that’s been cool. I think a lot of times when you get into a working relationship it can go south. But we met each other so long ago, and I’m still very inspired by her. I love what I do and it was really cool to find somebody else who loves that as well. I’ve learned a lot about passion for the business and persistence and loving what you do and being really proud of it.

ON THE LAST PROJECT THEY LOVED:

Blair: At Tory, I’m really passionate about having a merchandising point of view. If we love something, I want to do a 360-marketing approach where it’s like, we believe in this, we want it in the windows, on Instagram, etcetera. So we created this bag, did it in nine colors, and I was like, let’s buy it tight but make a statement. When we did it, it was a really cool moment. For a merchant, that’s when it all comes together.

Andrew: An aspect of my role at Gilt is to look a little farther out and drum up new ideas to engage our customer. Recently, we’ve found success with vintage and one-off products. That’s been exciting for me because it’s a new avenue for the company. It’s really cool when you see the ripple effects through the organization.

ON EMBRACING TRENDS (OR NOT):

Andrew: There are so few menswear trends. If you look at trends like that, then I embrace more than my friends do. They probably look to me to see what’s cool—so that’s a nice feeling. As much as I try, I don’t know how far I stray from that Ivy, Connecticut boarding school look, though.

ON PUTTING TOGETHER A KILLER ENSEMBLE:

Blair: This is so bad, but I’m usually most excited about the newest thing I’ve got. So that’s the easiest place to start. I also love working in a creative environment where you get to see people and what they wear every day—maybe they just went on a design trip to Paris and Milan or something. If you work at a place where people have a unique sense of style, it’s super invigorating.

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