Front Row Fashion A Personal Peek Inside the Fashion World

The fashion industry is a complex world filled with designers, editors, publishers, models, photographers, buyers, stylists, and countless other titles that are all working for one reason: Their love of fashion and style. Each year they develop new and different takes on the word “fashion” and convey them to the public in ways that awe and inspire.
The style world is unimaginably chaotic and bizarre… I know because not only have I been enthralled with it since my infant stages, I have lived in the trenches of fashion for the past 10 years. Take one look at New York Fashion Week and most people do not know where to begin, let alone get an invite to sit front row. Well, let me be your personal guide into the world of fashion and give you a small glimpse of what, how, and why it all takes place.

FASHION INTERN
First, let’s take it back a few years to when I was handed my diploma and set off to the Big Apple to become a clothing-slugging fashion intern at Glamour Magazine. It was one of the most exciting and hectic times of my life. Moving to a new city, starting a career, and living a dream. The first time I heard the two glorious words “sample sale” I practically fainted. I had worked at magazines before, but somehow a national headlining magazine seemed different, and it was. This is when I learned the question “who are you wearing?” Not “what are you wearing?”
During the first few months I quickly learned that the New York fashion industry can chew you up and eat you alive -- trust me, I witnessed it! It is intense and non-stop. In this world, divas rule. The worker bees come in early, leave late, and never get as much as a thank you. As an assistant, a 4 a.m. phone call on Thanksgiving regarding misplaced sunglasses would not be out of the norm. Twenty-four hour call is simply the expectation of the industry. If you survive a day, you might make it a week… If you survive the week you might make it a year… And if you survive the year, you just might make it. One might think every successful designer grew up on the Upper East Side, not so. Exceptional designers like Anna Sui and Tracy Reese both were born in the Detroit area - who knew?

PAY ATTENTION…
My best advice to anyone who wants to truly know the industry is to study up. Purchase a subscription to Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and anything else you can get your hands on. Read them daily. Pay attention to the advertisements, learn the names on the masthead, and figure out how to identify a designer at a blink of an eye. By knowing a Chanel skirt when you see one, you might have a shot at success. Scour websites like style.com for the photos and videos straight from the runway. Sometimes there are even live feeds of fashion shows. If you are a fashionista, what could be more brilliant?!
The New York fashion industry may seem far off, but thanks to modern communications it is more accessible than ever. What happens on the runway never stays on the runway.
Spring 2011 trends might seem distant to those of us living in Northern Michigan; however the looks that are spotted during fashion week have a huge impact on what will be in the store for seasons and seasons to come. What goes down the runway will determine what people will be sporting, and if that look is over-sized neon muumuus, we are all in trouble.

BE CHOOSEY…
Speaking of runway trends, even fashion insiders need to beware of getting too caught up in the constantly changing trends like open-toed boots or the denim-on-denim wave that is inching its way toward us at the moment. Some of the looks that designers and editors consider smash hits on the runways might not play out in real life. In the case of harem pants (also known as hammer pants), my answer is no. Pick a style and make it yours. This is one of the reasons the color black is an industry staple, it doesn’t change with the trends.
The number one misconception of the fashion industry: You must resemble Heidi Klum to get ahead, or at least be “really good looking” to quote from Zoolander. The truth is that behind the camera are countless people who do not fit into sample-sized clothes and never will. Their entire focus is to make others look effortless, so they can have a bad hair day and be glad they are not the person in front of the camera. The only career path where this is closer to the truth is modeling, even then, I’m not totally convinced.

PERSONAL EXPRESSION
So, what is style? Is it carrying the latest Balenciaga handbag or wearing a Burberry trench coat or spending the most money on a pair of sneakers? If only it were that simple. It really comes down to personal expression through style. It is confidence and following your own instincts in what you wear. In a sense, style is not what you are wearing, but how you are wearing it. No matter what is in one’s closet, if it is worn with style, then it is stylish.
Take Lady GaGa for example. Does she have style? Yes. Now, can you imagine a stylish co-worker walking into the office wearing a plastic champagne bubble suit? Probably not. But if the answer is yes, I would love to feature your co-worker in a future column sometime soon. E-mail me a picture.
In short, the world of fashion is all around us. It is in the oversized handbag we carry or the scarf we drape around our necks on a cold fall day. And, although you might not be front row next to Anna Wintour (editor-in-chief of American Vogue) watching the Gucci show, the good news is that fashion is always at your finger tips. You can be sitting next to a best friend talking about it and formulating your own individual style.
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