Hosted by LA Times Contributing Style Writer Dave Schilling and freelance culture writer/editor Alana Hope Levinson — two California natives with shopping addictions — FREE VALIDATION is a fashion podcast that centers a West Coast sensibility. Though many mainstream trends pull on the aesthetics of the West (tie dye, Birkenstocks, etc), the conversation among fashionistas around how people dress in cities like Los Angeles is largely inaccurate and condescending — that is, until now.