Fashion blogger Diane Vadino is the author of new novel  Smart Girls Like Me: think an evil boss at an online fashion mag, think “The Dot-Com Devil Wears Prada.” Before Diane was writing about fashion editors and blogging about boots, Diane interviewed the Beastie Boys and Metallica for music mag Spin, covered Milano fashion week with pigeon Italian for Surface magazine, and worked with beauty bible Allure. These days, when Vandino’s not typing for her blog BunnyShop, her words on film, design, and art are in Nylon and ID — and here, in ThisNext, as we dish about her new novel, favorites for fall fashion, and what’s really hiding under her bed.

TN: Tell us about what your book.
DV: I’m so bad at answering this question, but: It’s really about a girl who’d be perfectly happy if nothing, in the world, ever changed one bit, but who’s sort of forced to grow up. See? I’m awful at it. It’s set at the millennium. There’s a tiara! And a wedding dress. And a stripper outfit, used at a wedding. And models! Though they don’t have a speaking role. Really, it’s about how what for me was always pretty much the most important relationship in my life evolved. Best friends are tricky, because they’re like family, but they’re not, really — and it’s that tension, that prospective sense of loss, that is what I think can make that relationship so special, but also so stressful, too.

TN: How does your book relate to your blog? Was it inspired by your blog,  or is it pretty different?
DV: Only fairly tangentially. With Bunnyshop, we try to talk about fashion in a smart (apparently I just love that word) way, and Smart Girls Like Me is set at a fashion website. So there’s, you know, talk of Prada and Marc Jacobs and all that. And it’s true that both Bunnyshop and the site in the book, Couture, are far, far, far on the peripheries of the actual fashion world, so I would say they share a certain outsider’s perspective. But I started writing the book in 2001, so four years before we started with Bunnyshop. They’re definitely products of different times, and different parts of my head.

TN: The main character is an assistant at a fashion dot-com — how is this not the Dot-Com Devil Wears Prada?
DV: I don’t know — it could be! I’m totally not in a place to provide an all-access pass to the inner sanctums of fashion — like I was saying, Smart Girls Like Me is definitely about an outsider’s perspective of an industry that can be utterly baffling, but also incredibly beautiful and rewarding. I was an editor for several years at a fashion and design magazine that had really staked out a place on the leading edge — I can’t tell you how many times I used that phrase while I was there — of those industries. I like it there. I’m not sure, but I’m betting what I saw there is weirder, more indulgent — sometimes successful, sometimes not, but always interesting. I’m thinking of this fashion show I saw where all the models were wearing plastic alligators on their heads. I mean, how can you not love that?

TN: Is Smart Girls protagonist Betsy you, at all?
DV: Some of her is. I definitely spill things on my clothes — I did that today, in front of my Nylon editor. But I like to think I’ve grown out of that, or at least am a bit further down the same path she’s on. Julia — Betsy’s older, burnt-out boss — is maybe the one I feel the most kinship with now. As I got older while writing it — which is what happens when it takes six years! — my sympathies shifted from one character to the next.

TN: Any sneak previews you can share with ThisNext readers?
DV: From the book? There are two weddings. One involves a stripper nurse’s uniform and a kilt and a dog. The other does not. I totally prefer the first one!

TN: What’s the biggest response a piece of writing of yours has received?
DV: The reviews from the book are just now coming in — and that’s been super cool. My favorite, though — and this is so random — was when I did a piece on TV correspondent Greg Kelly, who was reporting for Fox News in Iraq. His dad is New York police commissioner Ray Kelly, and out of nowhere he called me after I’d done the piece, out of nowhere to say he liked it. It was bizarre. And awesome. I have no idea what would have happened if the piece had been negative.

TN: The product that’s had the biggest influence on your writing?
DV: Diet Coke. Without a doubt, Diet Coke. I don’t drink coffee, so it’s my caffeine go-to. I have to say, though, cherry Coke Zero and Diet Dr. Pepper are also delicious.

TN: If you were a product,  you’d be a ________.
DV: I may, in fact, actually be Diet Coke — I am more Diet Coke than water anyway. Er, you know what I mean. Otherwise, I may be this stuffed (toy) reindeer I bought in Finland this summer, when I drove from London to Mongolia. I spent the next three weeks talking to everyone around me as the reindeer. They all, you can imagine, loved this.

TN: Your favorite product discovery in the last six months…
DV: Alyson Fox drawings from the Shiny Squirrel. I need to buy one immediately.

TN: Most prized possession?
DV: I lose things too often to get too sentimental about them. I was desperately attached to my passport — it was the one thing I’d never lost, at least not for five years — and it disappeared in London a couple weeks ago. I have a stuffed yellow rabbit I keep at my parents’ house so nothing can happen to him. Otherwise, it’s just about replacement value — so I’d probably say my laptop.

TN: A product love secret you’re too embarrassed to share?
DV: Well, I mentioned the reindeer. I just bought these $28 Marc Jacobs rain boots that I’m sure make my already short legs look like tree trunks, but whatever. And everyone always made fun of this pink and brown Roxy roll-y suitcase I had, but I loved it and it took loads of abuse.

TN: Name an item under your bed.
DV: I wish! I travel so much that I’ve never invested in much furniture — so my box spring’s right on the floor. (I know, chic.) But I’m actually going to IKEA tomorrow with my sister, who’s promised to buy me a bed — so hopefully there’ll be something there soon!

TN: Something in your closet that is not apparel,  shoes,  bags,  etc.?
DV: I actually have a complete drum set in my closet. Bizarre.

TN: Fav trend for fall? Least fav trend for fall?
DV: All I want for fall is a black dress, black swing coat, black tights, and brown boots. Is that a trend? I also so love the super bright neon tights, though I haven’t seen them nearly as much here in New York as I did a couple weeks ago in London — maybe it’s because the cool weather is just settling in here. I also love the huge, full skirts. There’s so much I like — I actually just had to Google “fall trends” to figure out what I didn’t. According to InStyle, “skirted suits” is a fall trend. I don’t own any suits, so I definitely won’t be participating in that one.

TN: Can’t leave home without your ______?
DV: I know this is the obvious answer, but it really is my American Express card. Their customer service is tops compared to every other credit card I carry. I travel constantly and I don’t remember the last time I went anywhere without it. Plus, I used my points over the summer for a sweet upgrade on a flight from Shanghai to London. I always thought those things were scams but the AMEX one is great.

TN: City or suburbs?
DV: I love both — grew up in the latter and live in the former. I guess city for now — but in my heart I’m a Jersey girl from the suburbs and I’m sure I’ll make it back there eventually. I mean, I’m from New Jersey — I need a car to, like, drive around and listen to Bruce Springsteen.

TN: Loft or the perfect house with the white picket fence?
DV: I am never, ever leaving my studio. I really like small spaces — I think they encourage you not to be such a hoarder. I stayed in a spotless Swedish hostel once, with a view overlooking Stockholm, with a free, fast Internet connection. I could have happily stayed there for months.

TN: Flip-flops or sneakers?
DV: Havaianas, everyday. But I run in Nike Pegasus.

TN: Coffee or tea?
DV: Neither! And I can’t really drink alcohol — I’m not exaggerating when I say one glass of wine and I’m on the ground — so I’m basically the idiot meeting friends at Starbucks with a Dr. Pepper in her tote bag.