Lessons Learned From Working in Fashion
Like many women now working in fashion, we’ve all shared the same dream. When I think about it, I can’t pin point the exact moment when I became obsessed with the notion of “working in fashion.” I’ve heard stories from people saying their “ah-ha moment” was the first time they read Vogue, watched the Devil Wears Prada, or stepped foot in their first haute couture boutique. Having been a kid to collect many personalities and lean fully into different phases, I don’t think I could have anticipated that ‘fashion’ would be the interest that stuck.
My first week after I moved to New York, I got busy. It was already September, and the chaos of NYFW around me was giving me major FOMO. I didn’t know anyone, I had little experience, and I admittedly was trying hard to lean into what I believed to be “Manhattan girl style.”
Today, I have collected countless stories from my many roles in the industry and there are some that truly stick out to me, almost like a badge of honor or right of passage, when I think about what it means to me to “work in fashion.”
Starting with my first NYC fashion gig: I had reached out to an alumna at my university to see if I could assist her in any capacity (willing to work for free) since she was assisting a stylist that I truly admired. She agreed and put me right to work. The next day, I found myself in deep Brooklyn sitting on the floor of a townhouse taking inventory of the pile of samples around me. The stylist was headed to Brazil the next day and needed all his samples organized and packed up. About every 30 minutes, we would get a request to go pick up more samples.
The location to pick up the samples was everywhere and anywhere and I found myself in what felt like every neighborhood of Manhattan and Brooklyn that day. At one point, I was on a Citibike with my backpack full of samples trying hard to navigate the streets I had never seen before (naturally, no trains were running between the two points I had to be).
I ended up assisting the same stylist on a shoot for InStyle Magazine. It was upon seeing the beautifully printed photographs that I knew I needed to stick with this. The endorphins of being on set and the thrill of seeing a final product is something that I still value today.
Eventually, I couldn’t keep working just for ~experience~ so I got a job in social media marketing at a rapidly growing showroom in the fashion district. A year later with countless photoshoots under my belt and 4 successful collection launches, I headed to LA for our biggest shoot yet. Shooting in a stunning Hollywood Hills mansion with a team I truly admired was yet another re-confirming moment that I was likely doing the right thing. Of course, there were plenty of moments that involved pushing heavy rolling racks through the streets, sewing pieces together on set, and running out for emergency hair extensions for the models, but it was the first time in a professional setting that I was asked, at times, to offer an opinion and present my findings on various research tasks.
Later moving on to Italian luxury fashion, I found myself on Madison Avenue in a big fancy office with a huge showroom and a team of people conversing all day long in Italia-english. When I moved to Milan later that year, I reconnected with my PR team and met my Italian counterparts in the Milan office for fashion week.
When I finally returned to the US after having been working remotely in interior design marketing during my time abroad, I landed my first job at a true haute couture maison. 12-year-old Laura would have never believed that I was doing this. Following detailed direction from Paris, I can now confidently say that I have grasped experience from a variety of fashion businesses from a working in a local showroom, to a sustainable startup, to a widely known RTW brand, to a French haute couture maison. Every single one is different which makes saying “I work in fashion” a very vague statement.
I still have much to learn but if there is anything I have learned (the easy way or hard way), I am sure to carry these points with me everywhere I go:
Details matter the most- Especially when it comes to branding. There is no room for the second-best option- everything must be intentional
Don’t save it for tomorrow- whatever it is, get it done today!
Yes, what you wear to the office matters. Find the balance of professionalism and self-expression- this is fashion after all and it will come up at some point in conversation.
Advocate for yourself while still respecting boundaries- It can be hard in fashion to know where you fit in since it is designed to feel like such an exclusive industry. But at the end of the day, you need to get paid, and you need to be respected- don’t feel bad for expecting these basic things.