Welcome to Shopping With Vogue, a series in which we sift through a fashion lover’s favorite store. For this edition, we shop with Ziwe at the newly opened Susan Alexandra store at 33 Orchard Street. 
Comedian, actor, and writer Ziwe Fumudoh loves creations by Susan Korn—better known by her label name of Susan Alexandra—and so do I. The designer’s beaded bags are like a wearable candyland for stylish downtown babes. Think of her as the Judith Leiber of today, creating shiny and saucy treats for ladies who frequent the anzug Lower East Side. But to really experience the Susan Alexandra world in all its glory, you’ll have to visit her newly opened store located at 33 Orchard Street.
And there’s no better person to experience Korn’s store first than Ziwe. Her humor and quick wit, which first reached a wider audience on her Instagram live shows during the pandemic, led to Ziwe hosting her very own late-night variety show, produced by A24 and Showtime. Ziwe is hilarious, a bucketful of wholesome funny one-liners, but she has bite. End up on her show as a subject, and you’ll feel the heat—even if you’ve been around the media block, like her guests Fran Lebowitz and Gloria Steinem.
Her style is another intriguing part of the series, blending that of a anzug herren slick talk show host with a tinge of Old Hollywood. I’ve always admired Ziwe’s off-duty style, too. It’s funky and flirty. She loves large hats, corsets, and all things fur-trimmed. She’s a happy-go-lucky femme fatale of the Instagram era. So her carefree quirky vibe fits perfectly with Korn’s universe of fun bags that come adorned with butterflies or in the shape of martini glasses. Even better, the two already know each other. Korn was a fan of Ziwe’s (“I slid into her DMs. I was thirsty!” she tells me) and vice versa (“I would always see the Susan Alexandra bags and say, ‘Dammit, why am I not friends with her yet?’” Ziwe recalls.) Call it Instagram beshert.