Conversations: Bridging the Intersection of Food, Fashion, and Beauty

As the next installment of our Conversations series, Merry from the Globaledit team sat down with Natalie Pelletier to chat about her thoughts on the creative industry. Natalie is an LA-based actor, writer, sommelier, and podcast host who has worked with brands like Merit Beauty and Avaline Wine. Her experience in and passion for the entertainment, fashion/beauty, and food & beverage spaces is singular—watch the interview below or read on for more!

Merry: Your Instagram bio reads, “Storytelling across different mediums,” and you recently referenced wine as “drinkable art” in one of your substack pieces. What’s the common thread between your creative pursuits? Are there any overlaps between your acting, writing, and sommelier practices?

Natalie: As artists and creatives, we’re so lucky to live in an age where you can consume art in a bunch of different ways, whether it’s visually, listening to someone’s music…there are so many mediums. I really do think that wine is a drinkable piece of art for the winemaker. They’re working with the grapes for a year, and based on the weather and other conditions, all of those factors go into creating their wines.

Something that’s always really inspiring and part of the reason why I love doing so many things is that there always are stories. People are allowed to have varied passions that all blend together. At some point in time, I was a little scared that that wouldn’t really work, like how can I weave writing, acting and wine? Whether it’s a fun acting piece or whatever I’m writing or the wine that I’m drinking, there’s always a story and something that can be inspiring, uplifting.

The intersection of food, fashion, and entertainment feels more prevalent than ever, especially in LA. We’ve seen the rise of culinary creative agencies, curated dinners for brands and shows, chefs as the face of fashion campaigns, and collabs between cafes, restaurants, and fashion brands. How do you think that community or intersection will continue to evolve?

Whether you’re in the kitchen creating a new dish or behind the camera putting out your different shots, everyone has their own little touch and taste point as far as how they see the world. So seeing food and wine as a creative outlet makes sense in the fashion space. When you think of something that’s as highly curated as a tasting menu where the plate is so specifically thought out, it’s just like a designer, when they’re putting out a collection. Every button—down to the last detail—is just so.

I also think fashion and food don’t have to be that hyper-specific. Food and wine are such a vehicle for making people feel comfortable. Not every creative is also a comfortable speaker, maybe their way of expressing is through the clothes—but perhaps a table, a setting, and the right food and wine makes talking about their art or collection feel more natural than a stuffy press conference. Breaking bread with people is also a way to celebrate. A dinner party is a way to say, “Congrats, look at this work that you just put out.”

That’s where that intersection lies, and I think it’ll only continue to grow. Like-minded people find each other, and I’m excited to be living in LA at a time where it’s all happening and feeling that much more inspired. I feel like we’ll see pop-ups in different cities and activations. That’s my hope.

Many clean/natural beauty, skincare, and clothing lines got their start or are based in LA. As someone who’s been in LA for over a decade and champions drinking natural wines, do you think there’s a reason this inclination towards ‘natural’ flourishes in LA?

In LA specifically, we can get that stereotype of eating at Erewhon and being on the raw diet. But for better, what’s cool is that in California, we have so much seasonal produce and organic farmers who show up at our farmers markets, and we can get really inspired. It goes back to the story: what’s the ethos behind this? I think that that extension to wine just makes sense.

It feels pretty non-negotiable these days for social media and content creation to be a necessary part of self-promotion as an independent creative. Does that come naturally to you and is it ever difficult to determine what content goes on what channel?

As someone who has an online presence, I definitely want people to know that they’re not alone or that maybe they hadn’t thought about this wine in this way. At the end of the day, it’s such a gift that I get to create content that I don’t want to put too much stress or pressure on it. If working with a brand aligns, then amazing. The more people who I can reach and help them feel creatively inspired or that it’s not too late in life to redirect or to do that next project that you’re thinking about, those are the things that matter. The rhetoric that I’ve clung onto lately is doing what feels right and authentic to me and not just posting for the sake of posting, like, “If you post three times a day, you’ll build the followers.” I’ve really tried to honor that while it’s a beautiful part of my life, it doesn’t have to be everything. If I’m putting something out online, I want it to not just be fluff.

People are always discussing the next big thing, whether it’s a certain aesthetic, product, or way of working. What’s a hot take that you have about what’s next in any of the industries that you touch?

As far as the entertainment space, my hot take—which I hope to God isn’t a hot take and just is reality soon—is that people really want to have a lot more feel-good content. It doesn’t need to be these splashy sequels, and I think that people want new faces. I just saw Anora, and a lot of it wasn’t a face that you’ve seen a bunch of times. It was just a beautifully funny, heartfelt movie. A friend of mine said, “Please, studios, give people $10 million to make movies, so we can have a lot more than just one $50 million movie.” People want heartwarming stories, and it doesn’t need to be a sequel of a sequel of a sequel.

As far as the wine space went, “natural” felt very buzzy. Natural wine doesn’t have a full-on stamp definition, but I am very much like: a natural wine is made starting in the vineyard, not spraying with herbicides/pesticides, being very intentional and low intervention from start to finish. I think that wine that’s made in a natural way but tastes more for the classical palate is what people want, and that’s where we’re gonna lean. Classic always stays classic for a reason.

Another fun thing about the new wave of California winemakers is that they’re making wines that go back to the root of how California wine tasted back in the 60s before it got overly extracted and macerated They want lower alcohol and for it to have the freshness and essence of California back before the big boys of Napa took over. So it’s kind of…re-finding your roots and having a classic approach.

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Merry Gu leads content marketing at Globaledit. Check out more of Natalie Pelletier’s work here.

The Conversations series highlights the work, insights, and creative process of peers, clients, and friends across various industries. Follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn to stay up to date on future episodes!