As we make our way to the end of New York Fashion Week 2024, I sat down with founding editor-in-chief of Spotlight Magazine and fashion commentator, Sydney Sadick. Sadick’s career history is studded by incredible internships with Rachel Zoe and O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, publishing hundreds of articles with The Daily Front Row and interviewing this generation’s most fashionable celebrities and icons. Sydney is originally from New York City and now splits her time between the Hamptons, Manhattan and Florida.
So, maybe like me, you’re wondering what a day in the life of a publishing and fashion mogul looks like? “I don’t sleep that much,” Sydney joked after listing for me how she went from NBC Studios, where she revealed the new cover for the next edition of Spotlight, to a business lunch that was followed by not one, but two fashion shows, and a fashion week cocktail party hosted by shoe designer, Alexandre Birman. “When you’re running a business,” Sadick started, “you just have to go 24/7 and I’m not really good when I stand still anyway.”
Sadick always knew that she wanted to be in the media world from a young age. After attending Harvard Summer Program she started a blog and ended up scoring an internship with The Daily Front Row just as they were launching The Daily Summer Out East. She spent the next years moving from The Daily Front Row to Hamptons Magazine. “I still probably didn’t realize or know that I wanted to start my own [magazine] then,” Sadick said, “but after learning more about the publishing side of the business, I was just like ‘I feel like I can really do this, I know how to sell’ and realizing there was this void in the marketplace for a little bit of a younger, hip-er magazine that is still focused on all of the things and people that make up our community in the Hamptons just made sense to me during Covid.” While Sadick has had wild success with launching Spotlight Magazine she emphasized the importance of those beginning years where she spent time networking and making important connections. “I would never just say, ‘graduate from college and immediately start your own media business’ if you don’t have the connections,” Sadick advised. That piece of advice can be so helpful for those entrepreneurs or young adults just starting out who feel stuck in the early years and can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel– it’s in those early years where the groundwork is really done.
It wouldn’t be an interview with Sydney Sadick if we didn’t ask her a few style questions. Need overall style advice? Sadick put it simply, “Wear what you want. As I’ve gotten older I feel like I’m not avoiding pieces in my closet because I feel like they are defined by a certain time.” Her favorite trend of the year? “We’re seeing this Mob Wife moment with lots of leather and faux fur,” she started, “it’s very fun and very New York.” One trend you won’t see Sydney Sadick participating in, “I think it’s so cute for some people but like for me personally I wouldn’t wear the Eclectic Grandpa trend,” she said.
Next month Sadick will tie the knot with fiance Nick Adams. This summer you can find her enjoying her favorite Hamptons spots: The Golden Pear, Sant Ambroeus and likely spending the fourth of July at Le Bilboquet in Sag Harbor.
