fashionhodgepodge

When I accepted a fashion PR internship in February 2010, I didnt think that I would be getting to do as much as what I am doing now. I saw the below article and found that I get to do and participate in the majority of the Director of Communications does and related to much of what is said, which I am very fortunate for.

It may seem silly that a multi-year marketing veteran such as myself would want to step back into the role of an intern, but Lindsey is right. You really cannot learn any of what I have learned at my PR internship in a classroom. I wanted brand experience and I haven’t gotten so much from my internship and continue to love every moment of it. I didnt really realize it until I read the post below, but I am getting exposure to experience that I never thought I would have the chance to do, such as communicating with magazine editors, working with celebrities and stylists, and being a part of fashion week events.  While it can be stressful at times, I do find that I thrive off the fast-pace environment and love what I accomplish at the end of the day.

This interview gives a great little peek into what my current world is like and what fashion PR is all about.

This article was written by Brooke Moreland and originally appeared on The Gloss. View the original post. Also syndicated on PR Couture

… What exactly do people in Fashion PR do? Could it really be as crazy as the ladies and gents at People’s Revolution make it seem? Is it fun? So I decided to interview Lindsey Green, Director of Communications for Jill Stuart, to help me clear some of this stuff up.

What exactly does a fashion publicist do all day?

I’m the Director of Communications which is PR but also covers more. Basically all operations regarding name, the brand, press, image, magazine credits, you name it- all goes through me. It’s my job to make sure our company’s image is presented in the best way possible. Fashion is a big world and it can be hard to control. You do spend time putting out fires, but mostly I spend my days focusing on gaining exposure for our line, whether is communicating with editors and seeing what styles they need for upcoming shoots, talking to celeb stylists and coordinating which looks would be great for their clients, setting up photo shoots and interviews and generally handling all business Jill Stuart related.

Is your job a glamorous one? Do you have to go out to parties and mingle for work? Is that fun, or is work always work?

There are certainly glamorous aspects to any fashion job but it’s not the kind of glamour people perceive when they see movies or watch reality TV. It’s tough, hard work with long hours, lots of details and responsibilities. Going out to events is often a part of my job. Sometimes it’s really exciting as there’s so many great things going on in the fashion world, but obviously some nights you’ve been working all day and it can be tough to then go out. I find the experience really fun and I feel really fortunate to be able to be a part of it. Who’s going to complain about free cocktails and mingling with interesting people? I’m not.

Can you explain the different types of fashion PR?

There are a few different types. What I do is called “In House PR” meaning I just work in house for one brand. I love this because it gives me the ability to really connect with our line and have a relationship with editors, stylists, our design team etc as the face of the brand. They can all come to me and they know me. I’ve been with Jill for over two years and we’re like a family. I absolutely love it. Working in house also means you take care of many day to day things and also have a lot more business thrown your way than just PR. Fashion is, after all, a business and being inside a house you gain that exposure in huge levels. Then there’s Agency PR. We work with a fantastic Agency, Alison Brod PR. They rep lots of different brands, yet somehow manage to make us feel like we’re their only client, which is the trick to running a good agency operation. Alison is never out of reach to me, we talk almost daily, I also have constant communication with her VP of fashion. Agency PR gives you the very face paced experience of working with LOTS of difference brands. There’s more pitching stories, more events to work and set up and plan for, lots of clients to juggle and different personalities to navigate. ABPR helps me handle almost all the details of our show such as our invites, seating chart (that’s a big one, and I love them for it!) making sure the celebrities coming have everything they need, they set up backstage interviews and requests for me to approve. We still over see everything, but they are there to make sure it goes exactly to our liking. I think to be great in Fashion PR it’s vital to have some experience working at both an Agency and In house. For someone just starting out an agency job can be ideal. You get so much exposure and you learn quickly, because you have to…

Have you seen the Bravo show Kell on Earth? Do you think it accurately portrays the industry? Do you like it? Is everyone really as stressed out as the employees of People’s Revolution? Is it really that miserable? (I’m obsessed with this show and really curious about other people’s take on it.)

Um yes and I LOVE IT! First off, Kelly Cutrone is one of the best in industry and with good reason. She trusts her employees with immense responsibilities because she’s kept her firm small and intimate, which for clients is ideal, this is why people flock to that firm for representation. Is it that miserable during fashion week…it can be, but at the same time you still enjoy it, if you can’t enjoy it even in the stressful times, then it’s not the right industry for you. I love watching the show because even though my situation at Jill is very different, I can still relate to it. Obviously on reality TV the drama is going to be played up and the stress is going to be played up, but fashion is a high stress industry and if you can’t handle that pressure then you’re not going to succeed. This, as I like to say, is a world for the tough.

All week long I’ve been helping send out samples in preparation for our show this weekend. Saturday was no different. I came into the office and started to work on gathering some images from the Haiti for Relief event that had featured one of our dresses. This was a daunting task as looking through more than a few dozen sites, I only found two sites that featured photos of our gown.

With about 7-8 “To-Do” items on my list, I had to hurry. I made some notes to the town car reservations for the celebrities, which took an extremely long time, since I was on hold twice with the car service. Before I knew it, it was time for me to take some more samples down to Greenwich Village for a celeb attending the show. I dropped those off, which took forever to find in the cold, and was then called on my cell to do a “pick up” of clothes that I dropped off at the MTV Celeb’s house. So, I went to her house to pick up the clothes that she want wearing and got to have a little chat. She was super sweet and pleasant, which I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but for some reason I was.

Rushing to try to get back to the office because I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it back in time, it was already 7pm. I made it back to the office, and rounded some odd tasks here and there, and headed home for the night to look at a few apartments in the city. I left the office around 7:30pm, looked at apartments (which neither was anything special) grabbed some dinner and got a text from another intern.

I first I didn’t think anything off it. We had been texting all evening for guest list names, etc. But then I saw that our manager had wanted one of use to come back to the office to help put together some outfits and drop-off at another celeb’s house. It was about 9:30pm, and I figured that I was the newbie so it should be me to go. So i made the trek back to the office in the cold cold winter, and arrived in our midtown space. The looks for the celeb hadn’t been pulled yet, so I looked through a few of the look books to see what she preference and started going through the fashion closet to find similar styles. I actually had a great time doing this. It was like playing stylist like the good ole days when I worked with models and styled their test shoots. Although it was already past 10pm I didn’t mind.

I got all the items recorded, placed into garment bags and headed down to Tribeca. It was so much farther than I thought. I didn’t get down there (in a cab) till about 11:45pm. The neighborhood was desolate. No one around and it looked like an industrial area. I couldn’t find my direction since it was so dark, but then out of the corner of my eye I saw a man dressed in a nice peacoat come out of a huge garage door. It thought that was odd, so I walked toward the door only to find that it was the address that I needed and the door lead to a gorgeous huge courtyard in front of a luxury condo building. Thank goodness for that man, as I would’ve never found that building. It was uber-disguised especially in the dark night. After my drop off, I ended up getting home around 12:3opm and I was out!

The next day (Day 5) was the show .My manager let me come an hour late to the venue since I worked so late the night before. I got there, and had to get an access badge in order to go backstage and escort peeps back and forth. Of course there is a sassy power hungry girl working the badges and said “Interns don’t get badges”. I responded, “I was instructed to get one”, and she replied “thats not my problem”. All of the other PR interns had badges, and security was getting tighter about letting people rooam the venue. I tried back again, and a different girl was happy to check my credentials and give me a badge. Now, was that so hard sassy girl?

The interns were in charge of handing out the “run of show sheets” and “contact credentials”. So, I had to greet all of the presentaion guests and give them the run of show information. Eveyrhing went as planned. The show was beautiful, celebs showed up on time, and no one wore the same outfit!

I’m headed to New York City. Yes, the New York where Frank Sinatra says “if you can make it there you can make it anywhere”, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of…ok I will stop with the song references, but its true.

I’ve been to NYC more than a dozen times for work when I was a model agent and then an intern at IMG Fashion for New York Fashion Week. But this time I’m going to intern at major fashion brand’s PR department working with samples, product placement, media outlets, etc. I’m so excited but nervous at the same time. This is a huge step for me that I thought I would never take. Why now? I have no clue, but I’m going to take it.

I’m going to try my best to tell it like it is. (This isn’t the Hills or the City where I’m going to be having lunch around town every day.)  Stay tuned for the days to get crazy – up first, New York Fashion Week, the last at Bryant Park.