Please feel free to delete it if it has been posted before. This is from mediabistro.com:
How to break into the rarified realm of fashion journalism (and why writing for Paper could land you a Vogue byline)
By Melissa Walker – May 17, 2006
You can spot a Chinatown Louis Vuitton at 20 paces, you're a preferred first-hour customer at Marc by Marc Jacobs sample sales and you instinctually knew how to pronounce Proenza Schouler. Still, you haven't yet landed a job in fashion editorial. What gives?
Fashion is a category that doesn't observe the rules of normal editorial engagement. Yes, you need to work hard, kiss *** and make sure your résumé has no typos, but beyond that, there are some valuable specifics you should know. (Especially because most fashion copy is written in-house and editors hire stylists who a) are their friends, b) have drop-dead portfolios or c) have worked for the magazine in the past.)
Work in fashion magazines can run the gamut—ranging from writing and editing stories that address not just current clothing crazes, but put style into a historical context; to joining a glossy's fashion department to help pull product (read: request designer loaners of the latest runway looks) and style photo shoots. Here are some tips—straight from the stiletto set—to help you open the Fashion Week tent flaps:
Be sure you love fashion, not just shopping
"A lot of people who want to write about fashion have the idea that first-person essays like 'I Wore Stripes and Survived' are the quickest way to become fabulous," says Vogue fashion news/features director Sally Singer. "I wish people would work harder at trying to figure out how fashion operates—both as its own medium, and also as a sociological force." In other words, think beyond your own experience and lose the "ditzy girl voice" (it drives Singer crazy).
You'd better really love it, too, says Jane market/fashion news editor Kelley Culp, because working in fashion means "you're going to be broke for a very long time."
Get a job near a fashion department
If you can't be Anna Wintour's right-hand woman, at least get into the building, even if your job seems far, far away from the notorious shoe closet. Linnea Olson Schwartz graduated with a business degree from Wake Forest University and sent her résumé to publishing companies, hoping to get a magazine job in New York. "I took the best offer I had, which was at Vogue on the advertising side," she says. "I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do long-term but I figured it was an amazing opportunity." As second assistant to the publisher, Olson Schwartz did a lot of administrative work, but she also provided daily updates to her boss on relevant news in the fashion and beauty advertising world. After a year there, she moved to GQ, where she worked her way up to associate fashion editor. Olson Schwartz's latest position was as fashion market director of ElleGirl.
Rebecca Dolgin started out as assistant to the editor-in-chief at now-defunct McCall's. "I didn't have fashion experience," says Dolgin, "but I pitched a ton of ideas to editors in different departments so I was confident in packaging stories." She also volunteered to do any writing assignments she could, including fashion pages. When a fashion assistant left, Dolgin slipped into the job. "Learning the fashion market took a few months, but I had an amazing first boss—Mali Lipener Baer—who kindly and patiently showed me the ropes." Dolgin has since edited fashion pages for Parenting, More and is now fashion and beauty editor at All You.
Assist, assist, assist (for free)
"I almost exclusively interview people with some fashion experience, no matter how little," says Olson Schwartz, who hired several fashion assistants at ElleGirl. "Even if you've assisted on a few shoots or interned for a month, I want to know you went out of your way to get experience."
Former Nylon intern and ElleGirl associate fashion editor Tanesha Smith is back in the freelance assistant world after ElleGirl's demise, and she knows how to knock on doors. "Call or email agencies that rep stylists and try to get on their 'assistant lists,'" says Smith. "Most working stylists have a regular assistant, but that girl gets sick sometimes." One caveat: "If you don't have experience, you should volunteer to work for free," advises Smith. Whether you're into writing or editing or styling, experience working fashion shoots is an invaluable addition to your résumé and your portfolio.
Build a portfolio
In addition to the free assisting gigs, wannabe stylists will need fashion work of their own to show editors. Culp majored in fashion design at Otis College of Art and Design in L.A. The work she did in school, plus an unpaid/not-for-credit summer internship at the Marc Jacobs design house bolstered her résumé and portfolio. When she sent her stuff to "every fashion director in New York," Jane called her in.
Even if you're not in school, gathering student models and photographers from art schools like FIT (New York's Fashion Institute of Technology) and Parsons (Craigslist, anyone?) can lead to some amazing—and virtually free—photo shoots, says Schwartz. And, everyone involved ends up with something to show a hiring editor.
As a writer, building up fashion clips can be trickier, since most fashion copy is written in-house. So how do you pitch a fashion story from the outside, and without any connections? "Develop your unique fashion perspective through writing for smaller magazines with specific reader bases," says Singer. She reveals that she constantly looks through magazines like ID and Paper to find writers who may fit well within Vogue.
Marie Claire fashion writer Maureen Dempsey is also encouraging. "We accept pitches for the shopping feature-well stories," she says, adding that she looks at clips to determine whether writers have a voice that can translate to fashion. "Even if it's only 200 words, if it's in a good magazine, it's worth a million."
Network—duh
Jenny Feldman had a friend who recommended her for the job of editorial assistant to the senior features editor and fashion news director at Elle—now she's the magazine's fashion news editor and writes regularly for other publications ("mainly because they've liked what I've written for Elle"). Which is to say that, even more than in the features editorial world, knowing style insiders is key to breaking into a fashion department.
"Do a lot of internships, go to a lot of events, meet people, make connections," says Wendy Wallace, Marie Claire senior market editor, who has done fashion pages for Seventeen, InStyle, US Weekly and Mirabella (R.I.P.), to name a few. She spent several years as a freelance fashion editor, and says each job she landed was a result of a referral from a friend or someone she'd worked for in the past.
There's no short-cutting the social aspect of the fashion world, so even if you're lugging 30-pound clothing trunks for the stylist you're helping because the regular assistant is sick, don't burn a bridge by complaining.
Give them what they want, with a smile
Fashion perspective can be a very individual thing, but you're not dressing yourself when you're doing an editorial shoot or story—you're trying to appeal to a reader. "You need a strong sensitivity to the demographic you are speaking to," says former ElleGirl fashion director Laurie Trott, who has also worked for W and Nylon, among other magazines. "Think about what they would like to see and buy." Trott says she likes to hire freelancers who can shape their vision for commercial magazines. "Sometimes stylists aren't interested in what's good for the magazine—they're concerned about what's good for their portfolios," says Trott. It can be a turnoff.
Don't be intimidated (or at least pretend not to be)
"The best thing I did was send my résumé to every stylist on every masthead," says Trott. "I wrote a letter letting them know how much I admired their work—because I did—and I said that if there was ever an opportunity to work for them, I would love to. I finally got some calls back."
Smith, who grew up in Ohio, stresses the importance of being persistent. She made multiple follow-up phone calls to land each of her positions. "Talk to everyone you can get on the phone and ask questions," she says. "Show a willingness to help by volunteering, and don't worry too much about being annoying."
Be humble but strong
"To work in fashion editorial, you definitely need a backbone that enables you to deal with egos and strong personalities," says Feldman. In other words: Don't cry until you get home.
Dolgin agrees that working with difficult people means "you need the diplomacy of a U.N. negotiator." Either that, or you're the uber-nasty type everyone else is tip-toeing around (but save that side of your personality for after you've broken in and marched your high heels all the way to the top).
Melissa Walker is the former features editor of ElleGirl. She's hard at work on her first teen novel.
How to break into the rarified realm of fashion journalism (and why writing for Paper could land you a Vogue byline)
By Melissa Walker – May 17, 2006
You can spot a Chinatown Louis Vuitton at 20 paces, you're a preferred first-hour customer at Marc by Marc Jacobs sample sales and you instinctually knew how to pronounce Proenza Schouler. Still, you haven't yet landed a job in fashion editorial. What gives?
Fashion is a category that doesn't observe the rules of normal editorial engagement. Yes, you need to work hard, kiss *** and make sure your résumé has no typos, but beyond that, there are some valuable specifics you should know. (Especially because most fashion copy is written in-house and editors hire stylists who a) are their friends, b) have drop-dead portfolios or c) have worked for the magazine in the past.)
Work in fashion magazines can run the gamut—ranging from writing and editing stories that address not just current clothing crazes, but put style into a historical context; to joining a glossy's fashion department to help pull product (read: request designer loaners of the latest runway looks) and style photo shoots. Here are some tips—straight from the stiletto set—to help you open the Fashion Week tent flaps:
Be sure you love fashion, not just shopping
"A lot of people who want to write about fashion have the idea that first-person essays like 'I Wore Stripes and Survived' are the quickest way to become fabulous," says Vogue fashion news/features director Sally Singer. "I wish people would work harder at trying to figure out how fashion operates—both as its own medium, and also as a sociological force." In other words, think beyond your own experience and lose the "ditzy girl voice" (it drives Singer crazy).
You'd better really love it, too, says Jane market/fashion news editor Kelley Culp, because working in fashion means "you're going to be broke for a very long time."
Get a job near a fashion department
If you can't be Anna Wintour's right-hand woman, at least get into the building, even if your job seems far, far away from the notorious shoe closet. Linnea Olson Schwartz graduated with a business degree from Wake Forest University and sent her résumé to publishing companies, hoping to get a magazine job in New York. "I took the best offer I had, which was at Vogue on the advertising side," she says. "I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do long-term but I figured it was an amazing opportunity." As second assistant to the publisher, Olson Schwartz did a lot of administrative work, but she also provided daily updates to her boss on relevant news in the fashion and beauty advertising world. After a year there, she moved to GQ, where she worked her way up to associate fashion editor. Olson Schwartz's latest position was as fashion market director of ElleGirl.
Rebecca Dolgin started out as assistant to the editor-in-chief at now-defunct McCall's. "I didn't have fashion experience," says Dolgin, "but I pitched a ton of ideas to editors in different departments so I was confident in packaging stories." She also volunteered to do any writing assignments she could, including fashion pages. When a fashion assistant left, Dolgin slipped into the job. "Learning the fashion market took a few months, but I had an amazing first boss—Mali Lipener Baer—who kindly and patiently showed me the ropes." Dolgin has since edited fashion pages for Parenting, More and is now fashion and beauty editor at All You.
Assist, assist, assist (for free)
"I almost exclusively interview people with some fashion experience, no matter how little," says Olson Schwartz, who hired several fashion assistants at ElleGirl. "Even if you've assisted on a few shoots or interned for a month, I want to know you went out of your way to get experience."
Former Nylon intern and ElleGirl associate fashion editor Tanesha Smith is back in the freelance assistant world after ElleGirl's demise, and she knows how to knock on doors. "Call or email agencies that rep stylists and try to get on their 'assistant lists,'" says Smith. "Most working stylists have a regular assistant, but that girl gets sick sometimes." One caveat: "If you don't have experience, you should volunteer to work for free," advises Smith. Whether you're into writing or editing or styling, experience working fashion shoots is an invaluable addition to your résumé and your portfolio.
Build a portfolio
In addition to the free assisting gigs, wannabe stylists will need fashion work of their own to show editors. Culp majored in fashion design at Otis College of Art and Design in L.A. The work she did in school, plus an unpaid/not-for-credit summer internship at the Marc Jacobs design house bolstered her résumé and portfolio. When she sent her stuff to "every fashion director in New York," Jane called her in.
Even if you're not in school, gathering student models and photographers from art schools like FIT (New York's Fashion Institute of Technology) and Parsons (Craigslist, anyone?) can lead to some amazing—and virtually free—photo shoots, says Schwartz. And, everyone involved ends up with something to show a hiring editor.
As a writer, building up fashion clips can be trickier, since most fashion copy is written in-house. So how do you pitch a fashion story from the outside, and without any connections? "Develop your unique fashion perspective through writing for smaller magazines with specific reader bases," says Singer. She reveals that she constantly looks through magazines like ID and Paper to find writers who may fit well within Vogue.
Marie Claire fashion writer Maureen Dempsey is also encouraging. "We accept pitches for the shopping feature-well stories," she says, adding that she looks at clips to determine whether writers have a voice that can translate to fashion. "Even if it's only 200 words, if it's in a good magazine, it's worth a million."
Network—duh
Jenny Feldman had a friend who recommended her for the job of editorial assistant to the senior features editor and fashion news director at Elle—now she's the magazine's fashion news editor and writes regularly for other publications ("mainly because they've liked what I've written for Elle"). Which is to say that, even more than in the features editorial world, knowing style insiders is key to breaking into a fashion department.
"Do a lot of internships, go to a lot of events, meet people, make connections," says Wendy Wallace, Marie Claire senior market editor, who has done fashion pages for Seventeen, InStyle, US Weekly and Mirabella (R.I.P.), to name a few. She spent several years as a freelance fashion editor, and says each job she landed was a result of a referral from a friend or someone she'd worked for in the past.
There's no short-cutting the social aspect of the fashion world, so even if you're lugging 30-pound clothing trunks for the stylist you're helping because the regular assistant is sick, don't burn a bridge by complaining.
Give them what they want, with a smile
Fashion perspective can be a very individual thing, but you're not dressing yourself when you're doing an editorial shoot or story—you're trying to appeal to a reader. "You need a strong sensitivity to the demographic you are speaking to," says former ElleGirl fashion director Laurie Trott, who has also worked for W and Nylon, among other magazines. "Think about what they would like to see and buy." Trott says she likes to hire freelancers who can shape their vision for commercial magazines. "Sometimes stylists aren't interested in what's good for the magazine—they're concerned about what's good for their portfolios," says Trott. It can be a turnoff.
Don't be intimidated (or at least pretend not to be)
"The best thing I did was send my résumé to every stylist on every masthead," says Trott. "I wrote a letter letting them know how much I admired their work—because I did—and I said that if there was ever an opportunity to work for them, I would love to. I finally got some calls back."
Smith, who grew up in Ohio, stresses the importance of being persistent. She made multiple follow-up phone calls to land each of her positions. "Talk to everyone you can get on the phone and ask questions," she says. "Show a willingness to help by volunteering, and don't worry too much about being annoying."
Be humble but strong
"To work in fashion editorial, you definitely need a backbone that enables you to deal with egos and strong personalities," says Feldman. In other words: Don't cry until you get home.
Dolgin agrees that working with difficult people means "you need the diplomacy of a U.N. negotiator." Either that, or you're the uber-nasty type everyone else is tip-toeing around (but save that side of your personality for after you've broken in and marched your high heels all the way to the top).
Melissa Walker is the former features editor of ElleGirl. She's hard at work on her first teen novel.
I can relate to this—not that I'm really broke yet, but I'm not as well-off as some people I've worked with think I am.
Bumping it up to give it some attention!
