There are plenty of personalities in the fashion industry –it is a haven for the exotic and the eccentric. There are the formidables (Anna, Suzy), the fierce (Andre Leon Talley, Carine) and then there are the foundations, the people you see but may not know. the names you see as bylines almost constantly, but the writers behind them, shy and retiring, are not the types for Fashion TV, or Britain's Next Top Model.

Time-honoured fashion journalist Lynn Yaeger speaks to the Business of Fashion today and reveals more of the talent and wit that has ensured her a spot on the front row for more than thirty years – in the loop but not in the spotlight. Here's what we've learned about her:

1. You'll know Yaeger for her cropped hair, geisha-inspired, dollface make-up and many skirts; she hasn't worn trousers since she was eight and describes her look as child-like. 'Sometimes I’ll see a little two-year-old on the street in a giant tutu and a funny sweater and polka-dot socks, and I’ll go, ‘There’s my look.'

2. She studied first sociology and then art history, making the change because she thought dressing like an arty beatnik would suit her more.

3. She spent her graduate loan on designer dresses in the hope that it would make her concentrate and work harder; instead, she ran out of money and began working for New York's alt-magazine du jour The Village Voice for extra cash.

4. While in the customer service department there, she wrote a small piece that was picked up by then editor of Cosmo Helen Gurley Brown, who demanded of the editor 'Who is this Lynn Yaeger?'

5. At her first season of shows, Yaeger was given some advice: 'Bill Cunningham took me aside — he was so sweet to me — and he said, ‘Don’t make friends with any designers, it’s just going to be trouble.’ Well, of course I made friends with everybody. But he was right in a way. Because it’s very difficult when you’re reviewing a friend’s show.”

6. She spent 30 years at The Voice, and now writes for the New York Times and Vogue too. Lynn Yaeger is the most important fashion journalist that you haven't yet seen a film about. Watch this space.