CONDE NAST COLLEGE: WILL YOU BE ENROLLING?

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

On Friday, I spent a few brilliant hours at Vogue's Fashion Festival. One of the events on the agenda was Kate Hudson in conversation with Stella McCartney. As you can imagine, the auditorium was packed out. Towards the end, the floor was opened up for questions from the audience. One young girl, 16 years old, stood up and explained how much she admired Stella and the brand she has created and then proceeded to ask Stella for work experience with her. In front of 700 people. Stella said "Yes, of course. Give me your number NOW" How could she not?  Sometimes, that's the kind of thing you have to do to get noticed in a massively competitive industry like fashion.

Conde Nast has another project up its sleeve, just as innovative as the Vogue Fashion Festival. It's the Conde Nast College and will open its doors in January 2013 to its first cohort of students. There are currently two course options- the 10 week Vogue Fashion Certificate (£6,600) or the year-long Vogue Fashion Foundation Diploma (£19,560).  We all know, and I'm not going to repeat at length, that the ratio of eager Fashion industry wannabes to available jobs is way out of line. We also know that, whether we like it or not, the accepted way to get into fashion is to get internships and prove yourself through work which is often unpaid. That's the status quo. So I'm wondering whether the Conde Nast College will change that? Not really they told me when I rang earlier, "We will be arranging work placements and internships for the most promising students". So it's a great way in if you impress enough but you still have to do the work experience like everyone else.

One of the enticing images from Conde Nast college's prospectus 

Susie Forbes, former Editor at Easy Living and Deputy Editor at Vogue, will be Principal at the college. She told the BBC last year, "With access to some of the sharpest and most creative minds shaping the fashion, design and interiors industries today, we aim to educate students to the highest level. It makes perfect sense for Conde Nast to open its college doors in London, the fashion capital of the world."

The admissions team were frank about the reality of the Conde Nast College. They told me "The calibre of visiting lecturers will be like that at the Vogue Fashion Festival, but no you won't get loads of contacts". If that's the case, then I wonder what sets it apart from other fashion education providers?"The Conde Nast name" I was told. That's true, it's a powerful pull.  They added, "The courses will teach you what you need to know, unless you follow fashion religiously already".

It seems brilliant. If the Vogue Festival is anything to go, I'm imagining an editing master class with Alex Shulman one week, a mentoring workshop with Tom Ford the next... those sound like money-can't-buy-experiences. But Conde Nast IS offering them up for anyone willing to pay. Like A.C Grayling's New College of The Humanities, those with the funds can access the very best and most exciting people in the fields they're most interested in. Of course, A.C Grayling will give you an actual degree at the end of it whereas Conde Nast College relies on its name alone- there are no Undergraduate degrees or Masters being handed out here, just certificates and diplomas. What we want to know is would you pay?

Will dreams come true courtesy of Conde Nast College? 

I asked my Twitter followers if they'd pay and there was a mixed response. I think the draw is huge. For those aspiring to careers within Conde Nast's magazine repertoire, it could seem like the perfect way in. If you've got the funds, why wouldn't you? Libby said "I'm sure the contacts you'd make would be incredible, but it's such a daunting amount of money for most". This makes me think back to the girl at the Vogue Festival. If Stella does honour her promise to give her work experience then arguably she has only had to pay the price of entry ticket (£75 at most, not £19,560) for a golden key to the career she wants.

WHAT IT IS REALLY LIKE WORKING IN FASHION

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

A few months ago, I shared my perspective on getting a job in fashion. I had lots of great responses to that blog post but since then Fashed and I have been thinking that I should really let you know what it's actually like once the longed for job is landed.

Virtually everyone I encounter who is unfamiliar with the fashion world assume it is true to its glamorous myth- that everyone spends their days wafting through impeccable fashion cupboards, wearing designer dresses and impossibly high heels, pointing at clothes. Categorically not true.

This is an amazing world to be starting out in - I still have to pinch myself when to think I attended almost 40 shows during London Fashion Week. There are plenty of things I have learnt since last August which have surprised me.

Did you know that it is not a foregone conclusion that because somebody works in fashion they will be obsessed with being uber-thin? Revelation, right? In fact, one of the things that everyone attending London Fashion Week seems to look forward to most is the food served prior to the shows at the Topshop venue. Most of the senior fashion editors I came across made an extra special effort to arrive early so they could chow down.

Anna dello Russo in head to toe Gucci (image from vogue.fr)

I also love the fact that very, very few people who work in fashion feel the need to wear head-to-toe designer looks each and every day. That's why Anna dello Russo is such a photographer's favourite; she is almost unique in her dedication to wearing looks in almost exactly the same way they were shown on the catwalk. More often than not, you will see fashion editors with a fabulous designer handbag or coat, but there are high street and vintage pieces pulling their look together. Some - shock, horror - don't care at all and slop around in jeans and boots.

Mrs Burstein of Browns (image from vogue.co.uk)

When I was a wannabe fashion journalist, many of the most revered members of the industry seemed gilded and untouchable. Some still are, but in the short space of time that I've worked with the Fashed I've met some people I never dreamt I'd have the pleasure of encountering. One highlight has to be Joan Burstein who founded Browns on South Molton Street. She is credited with introducing some of the greatest designers of our time to London- John Galliano, Jil Sander and Donna Karan amongst them. At the store's press day back in November, she was happily chatting away and greeting everyone as they arrived. To my mind, that is amazing because with a reputation like hers, she could easily eschew anything like that.

Kristen McMenamy in the heart stopping finale of McQ's
 first LFW show (image from mydaily.co.uk)

The Fashion Show holds a kind of legendary status in the public eye. Back when I was merely a super fan, I would watch Youtube videos of some of the shows I'd read about as being particularly amazing. So when I found myself last Monday, walking across a crunching bed of autumn leaves to my seat at the McQ Alexander McQueen show it felt a little like I'd been transported into one of those videos. There was Anna Wintour chatting to Samantha Cameron and, oh look, Salma Hayek just walked in too. Later, as Kristen McMenamy in her white, full skirted creation, froze on the catwalk and was showered with leaves before collapsing to the ground, I got to experience first hand the feeling which had been described by fashion editors when asked, 'What's your greatest fashion moment?'. Their answers invariably referred to the spectacles put on by Lee McQueen and now Sarah Burton had given that chance to a new generation. It was unforgettable.

I'm amazed to think how quickly you can be assimilated into the fashion world. Of course, I'm still right at the start of my working life, but this weekend I delivered two talks- one about SS12 trends, the other about how fashion designers use wool in their work- to audiences who actually listened and valued my views. That's astonishing to me but it's also showed me that once you do get a job in fashion, your learning curve is absolutely massive. Fashion is always changing so every day there's a new development, a new way of thinking about things or a new trend that's starting to emerge. That pace really keeps you on your toes. For me, that's infinitely more exciting than the prospect of a free outfit.

HOW TO GET A JOB IN FASHION

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

I've now been Fashion Junior for almost five months. When I was chatting with the FashEd the other day, it struck us both just how far I'd come. Six months ago, I was finishing my English degree and wondering what I would do with my life. Fashion Journalism had been my first choice of career ever since I saw a documentary about Anna Wintour, on a plane when I was 12- what a cliché.

I did my best to exploit my very few contacts in journalism as soon as I could and so got a couple of internships under my belt when I was still quite young. However, the gloomy picture which my university (a well-respected red brick) painted for me made me dedicate most of my third year to Plan B- The Graduate Scheme. That meant taking part in endless psychometric tests, assessment exercises which ranged from building a bridge made out of Lego with 10 other people to spending three hours dealing with a fictional earthquake. I got further than many with lots of the schemes which I applied for but fell at the final hurdle each time. So, I can well understand the frustration of young people looking for work who have slogged their way through a degree (a decent one does require considerable dedication, contrary to popular belief) as well as doing voluntary work, internships and taking up positions on committees of university societies but finding they STILL don't fit the bill.

Fashion Junior graduating!

All this meant that by the time I was tweaking the final essay of my academic career (further study was something I couldn't face) I was still not sure where my next pennies were coming from. I had joined Twitter as an observer, following people who tweeted about things which interested me. It became better procrastination than Facebook. So as I wrote about post-colonial interpretations of Shakespeare, My Fairy Twitter Mother, Melanie Rickey, tweeted that she needed an intern for a few weeks. I tweeted back and there began my astoundingly swift journey from unemployed graduate statistic to Fashion Junior at Large, a job which not only involves posting on this blog but also helping out the FashEd with all her other projects.

 Around 100 people applied for the job I have and I still have to pinch myself that I am the one who got it. I see internships and jobs advertised every day via Twitter. In fact, you should follow @katie_jane_rose because she is always retweeting opportunities.  You'd be stupid not to be on Twitter if you want a career in any industry which has embraced it. It is a unique chance to connect with the key people. I was very lucky to get a paid job straight away, I don't contest that and don't want to sound like a brat. I was gearing myself up for unpaid internships like many of my friends. I'm lucky that my parents live near enough to London  that I could have done that. It's a travesty that that fact is a prerequisite for gaining experience in capital-centric industries. Even doing paid work at weekends would do nothing to cover rent in London.

I wanted to write about this because I feel despair about the situation which so many people my age find themselves in. On Friday, Dazed ran the first of a series of interviews with young people about the unemployment they face entitled 'Wasted Youth'.Newspapers are full of gloomy stories about the situation with plenty of jobseekers willing to tell their stories; what's shocking and should send shivers done the spine of every person in this country is that these people range from 17 year olds who want to become plumbers and electricians to 24 year-olds with Masters degrees. No path or background is a guarantee any more.

But I do think we can be more positive and more savvy. I loved Celine Cavaillero's website which even made it onto Vogue.co.uk after she recreated their site as her CV. At the time, everyone was talking about her and being entertained by her way of making herself stand out. I gather that since then she has landed a job with Yahoo in France.

But it's not all about gimmicks; I know I wouldn't have been offered my job with the FashEd had I not displayed considerable fashion geekiness. I gave an impassioned monologue about my love of Jonathan Saunders' AW11 collection. I was also able to explain who Ines de la Fressange and Diana Vreeland were. These people are not completely obscure but you do need to have been immersing yourself in fashion news and history to be able to answer.

So, if you are looking for a job in fashion I suggest you do hours of research, looking through the latest collections, reading about designers, see what Fashion Editors are talking about. Learn to make a fabulous cup of tea and think one step ahead of your potential employer (not always easy!). Be endlessly proactive. 'The harder you work, the luckier you get' a very wise editor I admire recently wrote and that could not be truer.

MY NEW FASHION WEEK UNIFORM (AND YOURS TOO!)

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

New York fashion week kicks off tomorrow, and London Fashion Week starts next friday... so it's time to work out the fashion uniform of the season. Knowledge is power! Having a uniform makes life so much easier too.

My favourite SS10 look from LA Label  L'Agence, available at Selfridges

They say that fashion changes and style stays the same. Well, that's not true. Fashion can change every week (I know this from working on Grazia, and this is what makes fashion fun).  What constitutes the very core of a stylish wardrobe changes too, just not as often.

For spring there has been a big style basics change. I am seeing it everywhere. Yes of course on fashion conscious women, but also on young girls shopping the high street and on the LA girls who love their casual elegance.

What has happened is, in one set of fashion collections, the former “essentials” of every girl’s wardrobe; namely the blazer, slim jean, basic legging, printed blouse, and statement dress have been replaced by a new set of loose, luxe easy to wear clothes that define a new body proportion. I can say this with authority because my fashion buyer friends agree with me – this is what they are buying for their shops!

"A couple of years back to satisfy demand I would have to buy at least five types of blazer, and at least ten styles of straight-leg dark denim jean," says a very influential buyer friend of mine. "Now it's a biker jacket hybrid, a draped loose jersey T-shirt, a luxury legging or legging jean, a short tunic dress and carrot leg trousers that I need to buy into in different ways," she said over lunch recently. You will already be vaguely familiar with the new style basics, now you just have to buy one or two to see what I mean. They will change the way you feel about the rest of your wardrobe, and give your fashion mojo a boost.

THE FASHION EDITOR AT LARGE TOP FIVE CORE STYLE ESSENTIALS FOR SS10

1. A drapey yet snug-fit washed leather jacket with biker details (see this one by one of my favourite labels right now Helmut Lang, from Matches) I tried this on last week, and knew in an instant that it would go with everything from a sexy dress to joggers to jeans, traveller pants (see tomorrows for these babies!!), leggings, and shorts. It's elegant, smart, louche but most of all uber chic, flattering and will serve as a staple for the next couple of years at least. 

2. Baggy trousers with slim-fit ankle, these ones cost £95 and are by Whistles. The tapered rolled-up ankle creates the illusion of a spindly ankle, and therefore of a slim body. Like!

This is my actual top, £25 from Cos, this is a khaki one and they come up over the wrist and you tuck your thumb in the cuff- also bought in black, white, grey

This black mesh tank £25 from COS pulls down to upper thigh and is an amazing layering piece (Also comes in pale nude) 

3. Good T-shirting.  For British readers may I reccomend COS. In the last week have bought ten t-shirts and five vests which am shaering with my other half. They are so useful, and worth every penny. My other preferred T-Shirt labels are Splendid, American Vintage and TopShop.

4. Luxury leggings. See the above from Les Chiffoniers at Matches. Don't need to explain the usefulness of these. These will not date like the printed ones that are around at the moment.

5. A peep toe ankle "boot". These ones are by ACNE, from Net-a-Porter. If you have an eye for fashion, you will NOT get through spring without getting a pair of something a bit like this on your tootsies. Trust!

and finally...a bit of mood

Unique by TopShop backstage shot from SS10

Think of this post as a cocktail, with five parts staples and one part frou-frou cocktail umbrella's, glace cherries and sparklers. To look Fashion Now get all of the above and mix it liberally with all the elements of the above photo!

CANT WAIT TO WEAR...CAN'T WAIT NOT TO WEAR....

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

CAN'T WAIT NOT TO WEAR: in my Woolrich parka, GAP khaki's and motorbike ankle boots

CAN'T WAIT TO WEAR: my new pair of what I am calling my rose-tinted spectacles from the 70's. 

A quick post on the END OF THE WINTER SEASON. When you are a fashion journalist on daily or weekly print meda, January is a long month.  This is because in fashion-land, winter ends with the cessation of winter sales and the arrival of new season spring stock into stores. Today was that day, and the longest month of the fashion year is now over. I will celebrate with one YAY! 

This is good news for me as a fashion journalist on the simple level that I can now write stories that have follow through (imaginary or otherwise) at retail level for readers. All the information gleaned and absorbed at the SS10 shows in London/Milan and Paris now has relevance to the fashion-loving public and the fashion journalist can unleash all those thoughts, ideas and fashion facts. After all, there is not much use writing about the trend for wearing pink with khaki if there are rails of sale coats in the shops.

For me personally, the first day of fashion spring is a one for me to hit the shops to see how retailers have bought into the collections. What is in a shop - high end fashion, or high street - is almost NEVER exactly the same as what was in the lookbook you saw, or the catwalk show you viewed for that season. Strange, but true and the reason why a shopping recce is essential.  

ANYWAY. I shopped in a carefully planned and perfectly executed manoeuvre on the Marylebone High Street today, and the experience served to remind me 1. that there is a whole new fashion uniform to get to grips with this season and 2. that my wardrobe is in desperate need of an overhaul. There are things that I love, such as my Woolrich parka - the fashion parka of the winter hands-down - and my Gap khakis (three seasons old) and the motrocycle boots by Gap (even older) that I have come to rely on heavily in this lull of darkest winter. Wearing these items yesterday on a jaunt to Brick Lane Market, (which I see through new eyes since being shown around by my old friend Tamsin O Hanlon just before Christmas) I realised they needed retiring.

This brings me neatly onto the phenomenon I have only just cottoned onto in my own life which I am calling the "I can't wait to wear" frisson. The items listed above (and what I'm wearing in the picture at the top) are things I now CANNOT WAIT NOT TO WEAR, because I want winter to end, and to start wearing my new clothes. (More about them later this week - for I bought two items of CELINE!!!! And a pair of Phillip Lim 3.1 carrot leg khaki's.)  

ALSO, I found the rose-tinted spectacles I'm wearing in the picture at Brick Lane yesterday for £25. These glasses are my new Spring facewear, items I CANNOT WAIT TO WEAR a whole lot more!

Now, I'd better go. A glass of Cotes-du-Rhone calls....

THANKYOU BRIXIE!

A huge big thanks to my dear friend Brix Smith Start who accomodated my last minute trip to Paris. I stayed at her families' fabulous Paris apartment, in the "Brix" room, which is dominated by the sweet painting of her.

While I'm at it, me and Brix dug these up the other night.

Brix with her ex-husband Mark E. Smith in her The Fall days.

Brix performing with The Fall in mid-eighties

We laughed hard when we saw this one.

My favoutite - she looks so beautiful here.

Check back soon to read a life-story epic interview with the woman herself.

A BIG DAY FOR FASHION EDITOR AT LARGE TODAY...

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large


We have moved into our office! We have email addresses and telephone numbers!

Unfortunately, this is not our office. Think two tables facing each other and enough room to swing a kitten.

The Fashion Editor at Large is at melanie@fashioneditoratlarge.com 
+44 207 291 0330
I am, of course, still fully contactable at Grazia where I am Fashion Editor-at-Large via my email and mobile number, but I will be using both emails from today. The Fashion Editor at Large blog will be hosted by Graziadaily.co.uk from mid February.

The Fashion Junior at Large is at
Esme@fashioneditoratlarge.com
+44 207 291 0333

BARBIE SHOWS US HOW TO DO SS10!

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

My former assistant Hannah Almassi, now the fabulous Style Hunter and the fashion features assistant to the superchic Kay Barron at Grazia, has a blog (yes, her too!) called fashionfoibles.blogspot.com and today she showed me what she had been up to this weekend. Namely, the below....

Yes, Hannah has been re-making clothes for her Barbies all weekend in the spirit of the SS10 collections. The results, showcased on her blog are, I think, pure genius. The Stella and Kane ones were my favourites, and Hannah forwarded me the JPegs so I could share.

There is a very good reason for this weekend project. Hannah's parents are about to move house and she was taking a trip down memory lane (as you do when you are going through boxes of childhood stuff from the attic) and found 30 Barbie dolls, two Ken dolls, a Barbie and Ken caravan and lots and lots of clothes from the late 80's and early 90's and got carried away. As you do.

According to her mother, Hannah was found sat on the floor in the same position she used to sit when she was five playing with her dolly's. Cute, cute cute. Apart from gaining a bit more insight into Hannah's childhood than I expected for a Monday, I nevertheless instantly understood why Hannah came to study for a B.A in fashion design, and how she came to work at Grazia and become the success she is.

When I questioned her inspiration for the Barbie project Hannah responded with her characteristic half smile and a toss of her mane of hair and said, "The reasons are so deep I think it will take some time to answer the question." 

We don't need the answer just yet, but in the meantime see if you can recreate the last Chanel show using your Barbies, Kens and perhaps the caravan in place of the barn? You just need a bit of hay and some mini-clogs and can turn one of the Ken's into a mini Karl, then Barbie and Ken can start rolling around in the hay.....

You're the best Hannah Wannah!
xxxx

MEET THE FASHION JUNIOR AT LARGE!

Posted by the Fashion Junior at Large

me

As the proper media launch date of the Fashion Editor at Large blog grows tantalisingly imminent I thought perhaps it was time that the Fashion Junior at Large was unveiled and introduced. My name is Esme Benjamin, and I am a compulsive writer and lifelong fashion fan. A typically broke mid-twenties graduate, I live in east London with a shoe designer, a graphic designer, a film editor, and two advertising creative’s. All of my housemates are boys, one of them is my boyfriend Sid, and as a group they have styled themselves as The Lorden Art Factory – a collective who, when they aren’t doing artsy stuff for their respective occupations, are doing more artsy stuff as a hobby and tongue-in-cheek money spinning project. I will keep you up to date with their deeds as and when. If you’re wondering how I ended up here, let me assure you it hasn’t been a fast or simple route.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS HAVE INCLUDED
1. A hard earned distinction in Fashion Journalism from University of the Arts.
2. An internship at NYLON magazine (AKA a reason to go to New York which was more acceptable to my parents than shopping, eating and getting drunk in Williamsburg).
3. Eating waffles drowning in molten chocolate on an all expenses paid press trip to Brussels.
4. Being photographed for the final of Grazia’s street style competition
5. Working with the Fashion Editor at Large after much determined harassment on my part.
6. Managing to blag a front row seat at my very first London Fashion Week show (don’t ask me how!).

CAREER LOWS HAVE INCLUDED
1. Picking up the poop of NYLON’s office Shar Peis
2. Fetching Diet Coke for an editor at In Style who insisted on calling me ‘Elsie’ no matter how many times I tried to tell her it was ESME!
3. Not getting paid for my first freelance writing job in London (interviews with V V Brown and Fred Butler) because the magazine went bust.
4. Assisting on a shoot with a size 8 model who was considered by the stylist to have ‘chunky legs’
5. Being downgraded to a standing ticket at my second ever London Fashion Week (oh the shame!)

So that’s me - the Robin to Fashion Editor at Large’s Batman. Her right hand girl. I hope my perspective as a 24 year old who is undergoing a baptism of fire into the fashion world will offer readers a contrast whilst complimenting Fashion Editor at Large as a respected and established name. Let the journey commence!

THE TUMBLE OF MY MIND AS WE ENTER A NEW DECADE

                                       May I suggest you read this post while listening to the above.

I went to Africa to see in the new decade. I love Africa. It's a good place to clear the brain. I was very VERY glad to say goodbye to the noughties, and this new decade feels so full of promise. I've been back from my Africa jaunt for a few days now, and still my brain is scrambled. It's churning like a washing machine with visuals from films, fashion references, music, books, sights, sounds, smells, thoughts each appearing at intervals as they would if you were staring into a little round door.....

Today is the first day for the rest of my blog. A day will now not go by without at least one post. So I've been wondering what to start with. This is my best offer: a glimpse inside the washing machine.

LISTENING
I'm obsessed with The XX, and the track above especially. This number is a bit old hat now if you are on the edge of the edge of new music (I listen to NME Radio when I'm not tuned into Radio 4 so I'm doing OK). If I were 22 now I would look like the singer in The XX. In fact when I was 22 I DID look like the singer from the band. I love this track; I listen to it on repeat. Also can't stop playing Exlovers cover of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak.

THINKING ABOUT THE 90'S
Selfridges opens a concept store dedicated to the 90's tomorrow morning. The 90's were my formative years, I did it ALLLLL in the 90's, and I'm going to Selfridges tomorrow for a walk-through of the space with the creative director and can't wait. Reading about the store and its products - original 90's fashion supplied by Rellik, bumbags, CK One, Nevermind by Nirvana etc - has given me all sorts of flashbacks, so I went down memory lane for a walk............

As you can see this was me in 1991, just after I left home. (I'm NOT the girl puffing on a large reefer). All we wore was puffa jackets and novelty jumpers with coloured jeans in the winter (even indoors as you can see, no heating), and in the summer Stussy T-shirts, high-top trainers, and cut -off jeans. Not so different from what I've been wearing today in the sub-zero temps.

Not long after the previous picture I cut my hair off and wore tiny cotton vests and boyish jeans for quite a while loving Helmut Lang (and wearing Muji copies) while listening to Massive Attack, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Portishead,  oh and worshipping Kate Moss (just a year younger than me) and generally working the androgynous look that the 90's was all about. The other girl in the picture (on the right) is my gorgeous sister Jennifer.

 

Yeah, I know I look hilarious. But things got better for me as the decade wore on. By the end of the 90's I was working for the Sunday Times Style as Fashion Features Editor, was dating a fashion designer (Sonja Nuttall), and wearing labels like Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto, Hussein Chalayan, McQueen and of course copious amounts of Ms Nuttall's gear. I also unfortunately streaked my hair blonde (see below), lived in an east london loft on De Beauvoir road, right around the corner from where Giles Deacon now lives (I will never live in a loft again - so 90's, so loud, so cold) and listened to a CD walkman on my way to work at Wapping. I also wore CK One and my favourite film was The Matrix.

   

Here I'm wearing minimalist Sonja Nuttall and some denim wedges I think they were from Russell & Bromley.

Other things on my mind: (I will be exploring all of these more this week)

1. What will this 90's shop look like?

2. New dressing for a new decade - our wardrobe staples have changed - I think I've pinned down the new essentials

2. African prints - aside from the pastel mania that has been reflected prettily on the February covers from British Elle and Vogue, I am seeing Africa everywhere, and NOT just cos I got back from there.

3. I'm getting bored of Lady Gaga - I thought her hat hair this weekend was just stoopid. Not clever or funny, or a statement - just bla.

4. My Tax Return

5. Why am I re-reading The Fashion System by Roland Barthes?

ALL ABOUT THE FABBEST GIRL IN FASHION

FASHION INSIDER  #2  YASMIN SEWELL

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

Following on from last month's Fashion Insider interview with Sarah Mower, this month I bring you one of the best buyers in fashion, Yasmin Sewell.

Yasmin is one of the best respected and well-known fashion buyers in Britain, and is something of a celebrity in her homeland Australia. One Aussie summer I happened to be down in Sydney visiting Yasmin for her 30th when I spotted her in a celebrity magazine labelled as “the other woman” in the break-up of a famous Australian actor!!! Far from being the other woman, she has known said actor since childhood, and they were having fun on Bondi when the photograph was taken. Though, that is not to say she hasn’t had her fair share of actors. She was married to the delectable Rufus Sewell for most of her 20’s. Lucky lucky... But ANYWAY. That is not what I am here to tell you. Yasmin Sewell is a great friend of mine, and her story is an interesting one and not what you would expect. Her talent for picking fashion winners is rather prodigious: she was all over Christopher Kane the second he graduated, and was the first to champion ACNE in the UK. Her latest discoveries are numerous. I also admire that she gives her time for free to young designers such as the wonderful J.W Anderson, a talent of the future to be sure. Yasmin has exquisite taste, and her eye for what women want is up there with the greats. She is the creative consultant for Liberty, and at the Liberty press day last week, I could see her influence as clear as if it were her fingerprint. For the cost of a mere glass of white wine (she doesn’t drink much) and a few nibbles, Yasmin agreed to let me interrogate her about her life and career, how she came to develop her famously good taste and end up exercising her buying prowess in the fabulous fashion stores of London.

AND THEN YASMIN TOLD US EVERYTHING!

I left school at 15. I wanted to be free. I was rebellious. The teachers said “She has SO much potential.” I thought “What the fuck do they know?” The truth is I didn’t know what motivation was.

My teacher Mrs Nichols changed my life. She put me forward for a job with McGrath Partners estate agents. John, the guy who owned it, was a 26 year old self-made millionaire and motivational speaker. I got the job as an office assistant. Within three days everything I thought about life turned around. The job became my higher education. I don’t know where I’d be without it. I learned everything about business and running a company. By the time I left when I was 18 I was helping John run the company. Today he is a billionaire.

I call those days my Gloria Estefan period. I was a Lebanese girl in Sydney. I had waist length curly hair and my figure was more curvaceous than it is today. I wore conservative suits to work.

I shaved all my hair off when I was 19 and became the door bitch of a nightclub. After that only the kind of guys I liked would whistle at me in the street.

The single biggest event of my teens was the moment I fell in love with Rufus (Sewell).

Three days after I shaved my hair off I was sat in the Pacific Blue Room, a hot restaurant on Oxford Street in Sydney when Kiefer Sutherland walked in with this weird looking guy. He had these big big eyes. He was staring at me, and I was like “who is this weird guy?” Then a few minutes later I looked back at him, and that was it. It was love. The man was Rufus Sewell. A week later I had moved into his hotel. He was making a movie called Dark City. We became inseparable. Three months later I moved to London. That was it. I was 20.

London was all about building a career. Interning. I liked fashion, but I didn’t know what aspect.

I worked on the shop floor at Browns. I was just discovering my personal style. Then Rufus and I went to New York. I interned at Harpers Bazaar with Tonne Goodman. Then back in London I worked with Alison Edmond at Harpers and Queen as bookings editor.

Browns inspired me at retail, but I felt they had a snobbish attitude to service that was a bit old-school. Well it was 1995. I thought to myself “something is missing here”. John McGrath trained me in service, he is revolutionary. No pretension. For him good service had to be efficient, co-operative and about making the customer feel fantastic.

My “Eureka” moment came when a Sydney boutique called Museum asked me to buy some clothes for them. So I just made a few calls and did it without thinking.

Buying the clothes was such a buzz. There I was picking a dress someone would want six months later. Someone will buy it and it will make them happy.

That period made me. Within a few months I had found a shop that looked like a fashion design studio. It was upstairs, you had to ring a bell to get in and when you got there you could hang out as long as you wanted. I was 22. It took 18 months to launch. I called it Yasmin Cho. Cho is the name of my best school friend. People called me Yasmin Cho for years. The store was about embracing the avant-garde of the time. We were selling Susan Ciancolo, Imitation of Christ. A.F Vandervorst.

I remember seeing Rick Owens in the back corner of some dodgy showroom in Paris in 1998.

His jackets were just amazing. Now he is one of the best-selling designers in the world.

I was surprised that seeing and spotting and getting these designers seemed so easy to me. Was no one else seeing what I was seeing? After a while I realised I must have a good eye. I had no history as a buyer. How was I supposed to know?

I had no rules, no boss, no one saying “look at the sales of last season.” It was just about love.

With Yasmin Cho I took a lot of risks. Some didn’t pay off. In the end I failed. I had the wrong advisors and lost the business. I was screwed over. I let it happen. Failure was a privilege. Now when it comes to business I don’t let people mess me around.

Experience breeds caution. But it doesn’t mean the cowl neck that didn’t sell in ’99 won’t sell in 2009.

You never really know if something is going to work. But when I was at Browns from 2005-2008, and first saw Christopher Kane, I knew. If something doesn’t look like it will work, you’ve got to push it. Call the top five fashion journalists and the top ten customers and make it happen.

The secret of being a good buyer? Being tuned in. You’ve got to know what is happening. I get inspiration from what I haven’t seen. I can sense when a trend is coming to an end.

I listen to journalists. Big customers are influenced by magazines. Sometimes I buy things I don’t love but that the press love because I know customers will buy them.

My biggest success as a buyer was backing ACNE back in 2005. I had just arrived at Browns and when I walked into my office for the first time there was a pile of about 200 look books. I remember throwing them all away except ACNE. That was a good example of liking it because I hadn’t seen anything else like it. Their aesthetic didn’t exist then, and I knew that as SOON AS I SAW IT that it was going to be huge. And it was.

You’ll never see me in leggings and a tank top. I’m very petite – a size 6 – but I’m pear shaped with not the longest legs in the world, a 23 inch waist and a D-cup. You could say I have hidden curves. So I dress to accentuate my best bits which are my long neck and long, thin arms. Me in a pair of Sass & Bide skinny jeans? Yikes! Me in my long Sophia Kokosalaki dress? Yeah!

At one point in my life I listened ONLY to Marvin Gaye for three years.

Today I’m rocking a “portfolio career”. I work for Liberty, do a TV show for Fashionair, I mentor young designers and consult for designer labels and retail brands. I’m pretty happy.

Thanks Yazzy xxx

Yazzy is wearing a top by TOGA. (Last season, sadly)

http://www.yasminsewell.com/

Photo credit: Chris Brooks

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CHUFFED WITH SELF TODAY

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large


Last night at the Campaign Media Awards in London Grazia was given an award for the best campaign in the media and home shopping category. Triple yay! What did we win for? The fact that just over a year ago we moved the entire magazine - desks, computers, phones - to a pop-up office in Westfield, and actually created an issue from there. People thought we were mad, (we are) but it was a brilliant, exciting and ground-breaking project and the entire team worked their buns off.  It was a huge group effort - and though I am truly crap at logistics, I have my good points, and one of them is that I came up with the idea to do it in the first place!  This is where I can allow myself a little nod of satisfaction. And maybe a little jig around my office. Oh sod it, I'm gonna do a Jensen Button and spray Champagne around. But think I will save that for the Team Grazia Christmas party....

THE FASHION EDITOR AT LARGE UNMASKED

My friends and work colleagues say there is no point in me being anonymous for this blog as everyone knows it’s me anyway and whats the point. So, OK, my name is Melanie Rickey. I love being a fashion journalist. But “fashion journalist” is not what I write when I’m filling in forms under “occupation”. I write “journalist.” That is what I am. I am driven by a need to understand the world around me and inform or explain it to those who don’t have the time to find out, but are still curious, interested or maybe just a bit obsessed. My specialist subject is fashion. I totally love main-lining the zeitgeist but equally what I do is about respecting the integrity and creativity of the people who make fashion happen. It’s also about recognising the good and the great from the bad and the ugly. Oh, and exercising my trend divining gene. I love to sniff out a trend. I’ve been writing for print media for twelve years and have worked for everyone you can think of in the British press including The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times Style and have been with the amazing Grazia since its very first issue nearly five years ago, and my current role there is as Fashion Editor at Large. Hence the idea for my blog. A fashion editor out and about and at large is what I am, and that is what I bring to Grazia and my blog. I also write for American, Australian and Japanese press. Yet despite my hard earned professional status, there is still something of a teenage fashion superfan about me. I really enjoy the infectious excitement of Bryanboys blog - he is a bonafide superfan pressing his pretty nose up against the window of the industry – and now he’s in it too. Likewise, look at the success of Susie Lau’s Style Bubble blog. Both of these bloggers have crossed over into the industry from being amateurs. And I’m in the industry and sort of crossing over by adding blogging to what I do. I’m a professional journalist and editor working in the heart of the industry. Yet, this parallel of reporting and blogging feels totally right. There's so much that I store for later use in print that never makes it to publication. Or stuff I want to talk about with my friends, except that they are not interested in what model I've got a crush on this week, what shoe I can't stop wearing, or more important issues as to where fashion is going, how it is changing and who is changing it. Who ever heard of someone making their career their hobby aswell? Not me, but what I do know is that my blogging life has begun.

YOU CAN'T GET MORE FASHION INSIDER THAN THIS...

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

This is the very first in a new series of interviews I'm doing with those major players in global fashion who operate in the open, but keep themselves below the radar. Who better to kick-off with than revered fashion critic and A-list journalist Sarah Mower? I am lucky enough to count Sarah as a friend, and when your blog is in "pilot mode" you need your friends. Anyway. Mindful of the fact Sarah only talks to strangers when she has a pen in her hand, and aware that while she knows a lot of things about a lot of people, we know very little about her, she let me turn the tables and all it cost me was a bottle of red wine!
(for career and personal bio, plus further reading on/by Sarah, scroll to the end of this posting)
Sarah interviewing John Galliano after his own label show in Paris on 6 October 2009.

FASHION INSIDER: #1 SARAH MOWERWith her uniform of peak-shouldered Margiela tailoring, extremely high heels, dark shades and a penchant for not smiling or making small talk, Mower cuts something of a mysterious dash around the fashion capitals. Most people are intimidated by her. Which stands to reason as she attends several major-league shows a day, and while most fashion people are sleeping or partying she writes several critiques in razor sharp prose, puts them online, and STILL gets to the 9am show on time. In real-life though, she is simply, by her own admission “something of an introvert.” What she’s really saying is that she’s shy. Behind the uptight veneer is a very endearing character for whom the mantra “with great power comes great responsibility” could have been written.

AND THEN SARAH INVITED US INTO HER HEAD…I thank god every day for Google. Because when designers start quoting their influences to me, at least these days I know what obscure artists, photographer or blah blah they are on about because I can go back and check it.

My job...to me it’s being alive. I don’t know; feeling your synapses jump, and the electricity of ideas cross-fertilizing and connecting. That’s what I like. Really that’s why this role of Ambassador for Emerging Talent has come out of it. You know quite a lot of things about a lot of things, and about a lot of people and you can see who needs what, and you can right wrongs and knowing how the whole system works, you can enable people.

I know I have a very grumpy face, but that isn’t what I’m like inside.

I’ve learned not to be riled at fashion shows. There isn’t any point. You can get anxious about getting into the thing. You can get anxious and annoyed about waiting. You can get annoyed with PR’s who don’t know who you are. What I’ve learnt is that it’s just not worth it. Because in the end all that stays with you are the good things. You just have to let the rest go.

I never had the patience to be an artist. My mother was an art teacher. As soon as I was old enough to hold a pen she encouraged me to just draw all the time. All I could do, ever, was draw. Get an idea down quickly. There couldn’t be any palaver between me thinking of an idea and expressing it.

When I started out, I was really scared of designers. And very intimidated. They were older than me. Gradually they got younger and younger, and I learned more and more. I now see what it takes for a designer to actually be able to do it.

Embarrasingly, I have cried at a show. Oh god! I used to sob at Helmut Lang shows and I don’t know why.

Being a fashion critic is very complex. You have to judge or assess what a designer is doing in relation to everything else: the trends that are coming up, or the feeling or mood that is rising from the season. You also have to connect how it relates back to their body of work. So you are judging them against their own track record. I know all this inside of me when I sit down to a show.
I have googled myself. I’m happy to say I have only ever found two spiteful things about me. One was hilarious: it said “Who is Sarah Mower? Has she ever done a day’s work in her life?” And that did make me laugh. Those who know me will know I work every single hour I could possibly work.

I’m big in Japan. I have an illustrated column in Japanese Vogue. They like me in China too. when I was in Shanghai, a girl came up and said “ Oh, Sarah Mower! You’re like a Manga hero!”

At the start of LFW [in the eighties] designers really couldn’t do it. They were designing things on their kitchen table and just thinking fashion was all about the catwalk show. They didn’t know anyone who could manufacture, they would send their clothes off to Italy and they would come back rubbish. And that would be the end of the latest wave of enthusiasm for London designers.

Back in the 1990’s Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan were putting on the most incredible shows we will ever see. It was beyond fashion. It was Barnum and Bailey. It was absolutely mind blowingly theatrical, visceral, moving and terrifying. They were rivals. It was like the Blur and Oasis stand-off.

I don’t get my legs out much because I’ve got terrible legs. And you can write that.

Know who you are. If it’s a frilly moment, and you are not a frilly person you can’t give into frills. When I was a kid you had to wear a mini-skirt or bellbottoms. Now fashion is so diverse. And Thank God.

A lot of people ask me what makes a good designer. When they're able to articulate who they are while capturing something about the times-while making clothes that can be worn, that’s the key. A designer is bad when they're derivative, run after every trend and don't have the skills to make things properly.

After 9/11, London fashion was so dead. Everything was so hopeless. The rest of fashion became so polite. Then suddenly all those kids Christopher Kane, and Marios Schwab and Gareth Pugh suddenly came up with this sense of confidence. But it wasn’t an aggressive sense of confidence. They weren’t snotty. They wanted to learn. I didn’t know if I could help them, but I was going to try.

For me, the less identifiable clothes are, the better. I wouldn’t wear the obvious thing by a designer. Dressing for me is a process of many things; trying to dress your own body, accept your own body. And whatever age you are – know it and celebrate it.

I’ve met Martin Margiela. [the famously private designer, who hasn’t been photographed for over a decade] He is the best mentor and teacher there could ever be. He talked to me about how he does things. I can’t tell you what I learned from him, because I swore to him that I would never, ever break that confidence. And I never will.

What keeps me going is the idea that I'll witness something that's never been seen before. After 20 years of watching shows, that can still happen.
THANKYOU SARAH. xxxx

MOWER CAREER BIO:
Sarah has been at the forefront of fashion journalism for twenty years working for titles including Honey, The Observer and Vogue UK. From 1992-1999 she was the fashion features director of American Harpers Bazaar. After that, back in London, she edited her own short-lived magazine The Fashion before signing up to US Vogue where she remains. When in 2000 she was asked to start writing catwalk show reviews for American Vogue’s new website Style.com she says “It was a very, very lowly thing. The challenge was to conquer designers’ fear of the web. Many designers weren’t keen on letting style.com into shows; they thought it would mean more copying.” A decade later Sarah is a commanding presence at the global fashion weeks; designers read Mower's reviews of their shows the morning after. Journalists and stylists read style.com to see what she is thinking, because her thoughts are often the barometer of where fashion might be going. Then there are the few million fashion fans who read style.com too. In 2009 Sarah was appointed as the British Fashion Council’s Ambassador for Emerging Talent, which puts her in charge of discovering, nurturing, and promoting the next wave of British fashion talent to the world. No pressure, then!
MOWER PERSONAL BIO:
Sarah lives in Shepherds Bush with her husband Steve, and three children Tom, Maisie and Phoebe. She is currently in mourning at the departure of Martin Margiela from his Maison.
FURTHER READING: Stylist: The Interpreters of Fashion ; Gucci by Gucci: 85 Years of Gucci; New Role at BFC; Style.com Martin Margiela SS10 review
A version of this interview was published during London Fashion Week in The Daily. Link coming soon!

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE ALL GO HOME FROM THE SHOWS?

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

So, what do we fashion pro's do after the shows? Its a question I'm always asked. If you are someone like the superfabulous-blogger (but fashion newbie) BryanBoy, you go to America to see you sick Aunty (hope she is OK, Bryan). If you are a proper fashionista with a proper job and everything, you come home from the shows and ....

1) On the first couple of days back I tend to regress to being 14 on the sofa while watching re-runs of CSI (Miami or Las Vegas) and eating microwave Spaghetti Hoops. Meanwhile my family shouts at me for absolutely anything/nothing because they are annoyed with me for being away and being back. Every fashion editor I know experiences a version of this.

2) Then we have to GO BACK TO WORK, where colleagues think we've been off having a long and glamorous party, and try not to sound ungrateful. Avoid croissants.

3) In my case after Paris I sat in front of my laptop for five days straight and anyalysed the shows, the trends, the pieces then created a 200 page master document that will be my bible for the next six months. Not only for work, but for what I want to buy next season. That's why my blog has been quiet. But I feel like a walking encyclopaedia. I will share it all with you over time!

4) This is the bit that we are all doing now, people! Ten days after getting back the work starts kicking in again.

a) If you are the TOP EDITORIAL STYLIST I met in the park this morning while walking my little black shaggy dog, W, then you are being booked for global ad campiagns and pitching to your magazine/s for shoot ideas. Apparently budgets are down for even the A-List stylists this season, and everyone has to fly economy. Well, Conde Nast have just made ten people on American Vogue redundant. Times are still tough.

b) If you are a FASHION JOURNALIST like me, its time to pitch feature stories, profiles, general ideas at your various editors, and attend some of the decent press days to see what is going on at street level.

c) If you are a FASHION BUYER you are only just getting back from buying collections in Paris, and are still at the CSI/Spaghetti Hoops stage, but at least you have decided what is going to be in your shop next season...

d) If you are a FASHION DESIGNER, you are looking at your books and working out if you have had a good or bad season, (us Brits are doing well becasue of good collections, and moreover a favourable Sterling exchange rate). And designers will be designing their collections for AW10/11 too.

So you see, it ain't over when the shows are over.