Fashion Industry is a War: Thoughts

Hey there and welcome to Kell on Earth! Since you all don’t know much about me yet, I’d like to start out with giving a little glimpse into how I ended up here at People’s Revolution and a part of this awesome team. I left my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota about 13 years ago, with a dream of working in fashion and a passionate drive to succeed. When I arrived in New York City for the first time – it was the best moment of my life. I was star-struck: the lights, the energy, the people, the FASHION!!!! I knew if I would ever be able to accomplish my dream, this is the place I needed to be. I love New York and definitely now think of myself as much of a true New Yorker as I am a hometown girl from Minnesota. I got my very first PR job at quite a young age (20), working for the legendary designer Vivienne Westwood, followed by designer Betsey Johnson, and from there I continued to grow in my career and learning more and more about the fashion industry. I worked at several companies before ending up at People's, at one of which I met a wonderful co-worker who became a great friend - the lovely and talented Miss Robyn Berkley. In fact, she is the one who called me in to join her and Kelly at People’s Revolution! Apparently Kelly had seen me working at a fashion show many years ago and she asked Robyn about me – and about 3 years ago, I joined the company as a Partner, working closely with Robyn and Kelly, my wonderful soul-sisters. I love working with both of them, and I must say that each day at People’s has provided interesting new experiences and lots of crazy stories, many bizarre moments, some emotional meltdowns, lots of wins, occasional losses, clashing personalities, lasting friendships, many challenges, many accomplishments, innovative ideas, and the forging of new frontiers.

Which leads me to where we are now – the first episode of Kell on Earth. At the start of every fashion week, there is always a stressful feeling inside of not being able to get everything done. Our lists of tasks are endless, and we need to ensure we are on top of every single detail. The way we organize our teams for the shows is usually we somewhat split up the teams so that Robyn or I, and sometimes Kelly or Pablo, will “key” certain shows, with an assistant or account executive under us helping out as a second key and directing the team below them. That is why you see more of Robyn and Stefanie working on the Chado Ralph Rucci show, while me, Andrew and Kelly head to David Delfin. Robyn works on David’s account as well, but I did a lot of the production side of things and helped pick up on that show, since Robyn was snowed under with Chado.

The day of David’s show, Andrew wore the floor-length sequin dress. Totally hilarious - I love his comments about his “mesmerizing” look. I am sure he is right though – people must having been staring! Loved the plaid shirt layered over it too – Andrew’s looks are very well thought out. I personally loved the Davidelfin show (his name is David Delfin – the brand is “Davidelfin”) - the hair and make-up look was very cool and edgy (hair was lead by Amy Farid of Bumble & Bumble and make-up by Gregory Arlt for MAC). I mean, the orange hair with mint green I am sure is not for everyone…but I thought it looked brilliant! And of course I loved the sparkly blue Christian Louboutin high-heel booties-- amazing. He is a designer to watch.

Stefanie Skinner cracks me up in this episode, as she always does. Her line “I’m not a pill-popper” is one of my favorite quotes of the episode. My other favorite is when she talks about “running with the big wolves this season” -- the big wolves as in me, Robyn and Kelly, of course. She is so endearing and she really does do so much for all of us. Technology has NOT been on her side lately! In fact, a dear friend of our agency, the famous Astrologer Susan Miller, warned us on Astrology Zone that Mercury Retrograde would be taking place RIGHT before and during New York Fashion Week. This is always a major bummer because Mercury is the planet of communication and technology—which are key components for organizing a successful fashion show! We took a direct hit this time around…

This leads me to where we are at with the Chado show. Skinner and Robyn were working TONS AND TONS of long and dedicated hours to make this show go off well – painstakingly checking every detail again and again. Seating charts are a lot of work and we spend a lot of time to get them right, and putting together a guest list for a show is a lot more tedious than it may seem. I had been working on a big event the night before the Chado show and taking care of another client of mine the day of, so I went to go directly to the tents to meet the team. Just before I left, I got a call from Stefanie- panicking – I literally had to try to calm her down and tell her to take a deep breath and explain what is going on. We were using an online database – so I logged in to give my opinion and try to see where the error was – and then I realized OH MY GOD…there is definitely a glitch! Something is out of our control, a technological glitch in the matrix. I thought YIKES - this is NOT going to be good…but all we can do is hope for the best and somehow plow through this…Bryant Park, here we come…WISH US LUCK!!!! See you next week.

–Emily AKA "The Slayer"