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CNN Live At Daybreak
DailyCandy Founder Discusses Online Compendium of Hip
Aired July 06, 2001 - 07:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: What is quintessentially New York is turning out to be big business for Dany Levy, our next guest this morning.
Good morning, Dany.
DAVY LEVY, FOUNDER, DAILYCANDY: Good morning.
LIN: So I understand you're a self-confessed sugar junkie and expert on getting the scoop. All I have to do to be cool now is to click onto your Web site, right -- dailycandy.com?
LEVY: That's true.
LIN: What is this all about? Why did you start this Web site?
LEVY: Basically, I was a print journalist for four years before I stared DailyCandy. And I saw the Web as the perfect medium to do journalism in a very immediate way, basically, to say I see this today, and I can show it to you right now. So it's basically a daily e-mail that goes out every morning, starting at about 5:00 a.m., on one hip thing happening, either in New York City or nationwide.
LIN: Different categories like what, food, clubs and clothing?
LEVY: There are new restaurant openings. There are sample sales. The sample sale items are huge with our subscribers. It can be anything from the new Cannon Digital ELPH camera or the new IT cell phone that everyone's talking about. It really ranges. It's definitely all categories.
LIN: You brought some "it" products. And I got a preview on our monitor here, and I have to ask you, what does this stuffed animal have to do with being in the know.
LEVY: Well, that's kind of the fun of DailyCandy is you never know what you're going to get.
LIN: Show us what you've got.
LEVY: He fell down.
Part of what DailyCandy is known for is sourcing these products, and I found a young designer who was making these and basically wrote it up as an item, and then a couple of other print magazines picked it up, and it became sort of the "it" puppy to get your loved ones. It's a little cashmere puppy from a company named Alvin & Sparky.
LIN: What else do you have there?
LEVY: I have BIZ laundry detergent.
LIN: You got to explain that one.
LEVY: OK, this is great. I have a friend from Texas who was obsessed and very upset with his dry cleaner because his sheets would never come back white. So he told me that in Texas they had BIZ, which was, like, this miracle product. So I went and sourced it, found it online, and ran an item on how to keep things white.
now with "Vogue" magazine declaring white all the rage -- which I think is completely unpractical, hence why I'm wearing black...
LIN: But you are a New Yorker; this is what we expect.
Now, you pose some interesting questions on your Web site. I think this was under fashion: Do real men wear flip-flops?
LEVY: Pardon? I just lost you there.
LIN: I was just saying that on your fashion page, you pose this question: Do real men wear flip-flops?
LEVY: Well, what do you think: Do real men wear flip-flops?
LIN: I don't know. I guess these days it depends on how you define a real man. But in this case -- you're going to the beach. What does a set of flip-flops have to do with masculinity?
I'm sorry, Dany, we lost your audio. But...
(CROSSTALK)
LEVY: It's OK. I'm just having fun looking at the pictures.
LIN: Well, now you can hear me. I'm seeing a pair of flip- flops. So you address men's needs as well as women's needs. So how do you address this question: Do real men wear flip-flops? And why should that be important to a guy? Do men really care about what's in and what's out?
LEVY: I think men are very aware. Men are as aware as women, and they tend not to want to cross lines, of they think that would make them be seen as a sissy. And we do have a lot of males on our site and who do get the e-mail newsletter. So they're always asking questions like is it cool for me to wear X -- or it's like the quintessential "do real men eat quiche?" Do real men wear flip-flops?
LIN: That was the question 20 years ago.
(CROSSTALK) LEVY: Do real men wear flip-flops? Most do, because they're comfortable, and they're easy, and that was the question we posed.
LIN: Dany, you've got the best job in the world. Thanks for joining us this morning. It was really fun reading your Web site.
LEVY: Thank you for having me.
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