Cory Ohlendorf is the senior editor of DC magazine, overseeing fashion and style. His fashion writing has appeared nationally in the Washington Post, Men.Style.com, New York magazine, Angeleno, The Miami Herald, and the Chicago Tribune.
PO Box 25645
Washington, DC 20027
Born and raised in the sleepy midwestern town of Mascoutah, Illinois, I grew up with a keen sense that I was just slightly different from the other kids on my soccer team. Despite a happy and blissfully average childhood, I wanted something more. Something exciting and flashy. I wanted to grow up to be a combination of Kurt Loder and Elsa Klensch.
I grew up with a love of style and pop culture. MTV and magazines served as my telescope into a world beyond the fields of corn. At 13, I began my GQ subscription, which has continued uninterrupted to this day. After high school, I traveled north to Northern Illinois University and spent nearly every weekend in Chicago.
While at NIU, a part-time job at the school paper eventually lead to a full-time position on the paper's Web site—writing and editing articles covering everything from celebrities to fashion.
I soon began writing a weekly column about life in college that was regularly picked up by the wires and run in various student newspapers across the country. Its popularity is what officially cemented my hands to the keyboard.
My senior year, I was awarded the Donald F. Brod memorial scholarship for journalistic integrity by the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association. A coup for someone who covered the lighter things in life.
After graduation, I bounced around with internships and freelance gigs for various publications and in late 2004 came to Washington on somewhat of a lark. I wrote feature stories for the Georgetown and Dupont Current newspapers as well as style and shopping pieces for the now defunct West End Guide.
In 2006, I landed at Washingtonian magazine, where I wrote pieces for both the magazine and the Web site focusing on culture and style (the extremely observant will have noticed a pattern developing).
Less than a month after I left Washingtonian, I was snatched up by the The Washington Post where the Style section is a perfect fit. When I'm not working, I love to read—Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris and Donald Miller are among my favorites.
I also enjoy films, museums and photography. To me, living well means indulging occasionally in things that don't always make sense to others.
I live in Georgetown and while I find spending hundreds of dollars on a pair of jeans is normal, I find it offensive that my local CVS can get away with charging nearly $2 for a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke.
