excuse my very shitty camera (should have bought my SLR) and my nervous face...
Her outfit was amazing, she never fails to disappoint! Those Balenciaga pants were like straight out of a textiles magazine or something.
Summary of thoughts and what I learnt:
Summary of thoughts and what I learnt:
In order to survive in the industry a must have is a unique personality. All of the speakers had a charismatic air, very sassy and opinionated but in a way that inspired and influenced rather than being downright annoying. You have to learn to take the initiative to make yourself known to the big names rather than be polite and wait for invitations. It was all, in a sense, to do with networking and building a good 'circle' of influential figures, including as many people as you can that are involved in the artistic world. You want to know people who are not afraid to wear it, let their styles be known and speak out their opinions of what is on the runway each season.
I think that itself is a huge barrier to me, as I am and was never the type of person that would step into a room and make sure that everyone in the room knows who I am. I'd like to build relationships slowly, but in the case of the fashion industry, that's definitely not the case. You had to grasp your opportunities, collab with others if you can but then quickly move on to your own thing if the media and public wants it. In this somewhat predatory and quite vicious environment, you had to keep your cool, wear out your style, whilst being polite to everyone. I'm not sure if people can actually make real friends in this way, because to me it's like a special form of survival-of-the-strongest, but all the same it's fascinating.
Another major difference to how I perceive things is that fashion is all to do with interpersonal, and not so much knowledge based skills. You have to be able to wow someone with the way you dress, speak and present yourself in the space of say 5min, rather than slowly impress your peers like in any other profession, which is I think what makes fashion stand out so much. Everything is fast paced and ever changing. Unknown designers could become something groundbreaking overnight. What made me laugh was how the speakers all made it clear that applying for internships in the fashion industry was completed on the other side of the spectrum to applying for banks and financial institutes. You didn't even need a proper CV, all they want to know is about your personality and general tastes. Since I do a maths degree it'll be inevitable for me at some stage to be sitting in an interview room crunching out equations or talking about how many investment projects I've undertaken, so to me the fashion industry right now sounds like something I'd only dream of to pursue. Mind that I have no interest in being a designer. Not that I'm not interested in design, but I'd rather watch other people do their magic and analyse/judge/talk about them than actually creating them myself. I do however envy how designers need to have the creativity, but also tonnes of skills in correctly predicting whether designs and campaigns will induce sales, and how many garments need to be made to satisfy demand and break even. Afterall fashion is a business and nothing will happen if the revenues don't come crashing in.
What I found inspiring about Suzie (aside from her style of course), was how unwavering she is. She knows exactly what she is doing, and seems like she wouldn't easily change her opinions. Behind that huge bubbly and what seems to all fashion bloggers a spontaneous personality, she knows what and what not to feature in her blog, knows the problems with aspiring young designers and knows where her two feet stand in the industry.
I mustered up my courage to have a chat with her at the end (to me she is a celebrity, I knew about her blog when I was 15, that's 2008 when she was still a newbie AND the fashion blogosphere was still in development). I told her that I was a fan (she must get that a lot haha), and also quite earnestly asked her for some advice on how to keep up a good blog. I honestly told her how it is difficult to be true to yourself when writing when you expect a readership, to which she gave me some very valuable advice. She pointed out that many people own blogs hoping to get into the industry, and that's not the way forward as they'll soon lose that creative drive and individualistic tone and writing style. She reassured me that doing maths was not the end to a career in fashion, and that it should be a personal thing that you will always have an interest in, if you are really passionate about it.
Even though my blog is not really a pure fashion blog, and I lack a lot of knowledge AND possessions in fashion items, I hope I will maintain a comfortable level of readership interested in my analysis in it and a lot of different field of interest to me. I will strive to find a style that is personal to me and will try to stay true to myself. I want to be able to breakdown fashion, question fashion, look into fashion, rather than rant on about how I really like so-and-so's design and how I really want to own it.
Even though my blog is not really a pure fashion blog, and I lack a lot of knowledge AND possessions in fashion items, I hope I will maintain a comfortable level of readership interested in my analysis in it and a lot of different field of interest to me. I will strive to find a style that is personal to me and will try to stay true to myself. I want to be able to breakdown fashion, question fashion, look into fashion, rather than rant on about how I really like so-and-so's design and how I really want to own it.
Check out Suzie's blog here (trust me, it will open your eyes to some things):
Jing.... thankyou for posting this. I've been so confused about my future and what I plan on doing, but this has given me some ideas. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a fashion designer, since I was 13. But I was scared and wanted stability so I studied other subjects.... but now it's eating me up and I feel that I have to attempt it or I will waste myself. T_T
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about it I know so little about the fashion industry and brands, the business sides, and style in general! I just like certain things and I piece them together how I see fit.
This is proably really bad, but ah well! And If this is the case you can help me on my future endeavours! <3