Following Your Dreams

As a young girl I had always dreamed of working in fashion and living in New York - I was drawn to the bright lights and when I first visited New York in 2003. I was drawn to the energy and knew one day I would be living in New York City. From a young age I always thought to myself, how am I going to do this? How am I going to get there? At the age of 23 I decided to move to New York after getting a job in advertising as a media planner, but was still drawn to the world and glamour of fashion. When fashion week was starting to approach in August of 2006 I went on craigslist last night looking for an internship that would allow me to work later since I was working all day in advertising. I came across a posting for interns that would allow people to work the night shift and weekend- perfect, I though t- sent my resume and was in for an interview that Monday. I was so excited - when I came for my interview and stepped off the elevator at People's Revolution, I was immediately drawn in by the energy of the office, it was a magical moment and one that I will never forget. I was hired and started that Thursday and would go to work at my advertising job from 9am until about 7pm and then I would come into People's Revolution and work until whenever they needed me. I did this for three fashion week seasons until Kelly Cutrone needed a new assistant. I remember clearly she said to me, "Im looking for a new assistant, lets talk business." It was in that moment my whole life changed and I will never forget my interview with Kelly Cutrone and John Trudell (that is for a later blog.) I didnt know exactly what it meant to be an assistant or what it would really be like to work for Kelly, but I knew that I wanted to work with Kelly and People's Revolution. From the beginning, I knew that I was in a really special place with amazing and talented people and would be the place that I would start to fulfill the dreams I had as a little girl.

After being promoted this past August when Andrew was hired as Kelly's assistant (which Andrew if you read this I am still sorry that I ignored you for two weeks, but you know how much I love and adore you!) I was also just mixed about leaving the position of Kelly's assistant. After the promotion I knew I had to prove myself in many ways and yes, this past fashion week, I was running with the big wolves. Looking at it now, they were just taking me to the next level of my training and although I got knocked down the biggest lesson they taught me is to pick yourself up and keep going. Kelly, Emily and Robyn were teaching me valuable professional lessons and in a sense are all my fairy god mothers on this journey and I am truly thankful for each of them in different ways.

Following your dreams is not always easy and you will run into bumps along the way. The purpose of dreams are to drive you to succeed in whatever destiny you would like to make for yourself. It's not always going to be easy and you will be knocked down along the way, but there is always a lesson to be learned and if you're lucky you will find amazing people to guide you along the way.

Stay tuned for next week's episode as I continue on this journey.

Love,

Stefanie