In Fashion Part 21

Insiders know what's next by means of gut, instinct, and gossip. You can develop your own predictive abilities by keeping your eyes open, reading the trade papers, Women's Wear Daily, and Ad Age to familiarize yourself with the players and the buzz. You should also read the business section of a good daily newspaper like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, or USA Today to know what's happening to companies on a corporate level and at companies that are among a publication's biggest advertisers.

Getting on the Right Track: Your Path to Power

I sit on the edge of the white plastic bubble chair in front of the enormous white "modern" desk of longtime Seventeen editor in chief and one-time nun Midge Richardson. For someone deep into her fifties, Midge has an athletic body, tastefully blond-streaked hair, and a coquettish manner and way of dress. I calmly try to articulate my professional desire as beauty editor to go to some of the magazine's photography shoots. Seeing the hair and makeup process would surely help me write about what was happening, I reason. This is the basic reporting necessary to make the copy surrounding the pictures clear and useful for the readers. (Like real journalism, I think to myself, but wisely edit this insolent phrase.) Since the concept behind the photo shoot is mine anyhow, wouldn't it be useful for me to be there to make sense of it in words?

I a.s.sure Midge that I will fulfill all other duties of my position so that the hours spent at the shoot won't in any way affect my performance. Midge knows I am the biggest nerd, always at my desk at 7:30 a.m., hours before most of the staff drags themselves in; I'm a good solid producer!

I await her response. Midge stretches her face into her big phony smile that signals bad news. She ends the meeting by explaining that I have attended a good college and that I possess writing and editing skills and therefore do not belong on the set of a photo shoot. The people rightfully populating the set are "street kids," uneducated, not our "kind."

"Leave it to them, Annemarie. That's their job! You don't belong there. Run along now." Being a non-Catholic, I had never made the sign of the cross. Yet, so powerful was her aura that I believe I actually crossed myself at this moment while doing a little half curtsey as I rushed out of the room. Fast-forward fifteen years. After a dizzying series of post-Seventeen magazine and nonmagazine jobs, I actually occupy Midge's office for a few months before the magazine is shuttled to new offices on Broadway, in what would be the start of my short and ill-fated reign as Seventeen editor in chief.

Though I didn't realize it at the time, I learned that what Midge had explained to me way back then was actually the old Conde Nast theory of creative management: that there are people talented in creating pictures, and they should stay away from the words, and that there are those talented in writing, a.s.signing, and editing words, and they should have nothing to do with the pictures. Success at Conde Nast meant knowing which role you were best suited to play and then proving yourself in it. I checked in recently with Conde Nast hiring types and learned that this division between pictures and words is still alive and well. So when you appear at 4 Times Square for your interview, know which way you want to go.

Internet Fashion: The Future of Fashion Journalism?

What does the Internet bring to fashion? Instantaneousness and democracy. The fact that each of us-regardless of our ability to snag a seat at the show or eventually purchase the clothes-may now watch collections within hours of their runway showing is perhaps the most radical change in the doc.u.mentation of fashion of modern times. The question of how this immediacy and openness affect the status quo is awkwardly obvious: Headlines these days declare doomsday stuff like The Death of Glamour Glossies. While it's true that some fashion magazines have been shuttered due to the recent economic downturn (and even the most revered t.i.tles are historically slim, which means, h.e.l.lo, down in advertising income), I am here to promise you that fashion magazines will never, ever go away. At the advent of television in the 1950s, media watchers predicted the death of print journalism-magazines and newspapers-which, in hindsight, was ridiculous. Doom-and-gloomers are doing the same today.

The intimacy and wonder one feels when flipping fashion magazine pages filled with beautiful dresses, creative fashion photography, and gripping, pertinent stories a.s.sure this medium's future. But the harsh reality is that there will likely be fewer and less powerful fashion publications. So, if you are just starting your life in fashion journalism, I beseech you to open your eyes to the online fashion world that desperately needs your new energy, vision, and creativity much more than the moldy old print world does. Plus you'll be guaranteed to express yourself week one, whereas at a magazine it could take years (decades?) before you are able to see your ideas come to life on the pages. Really.

One guy friend, a twenty-something blogger, said it best: "I like writing long form, but things aren't moving in that direction right now. With the Internet, you reach a broader spectrum, and you get the message out faster. It's like being at a fashion/style news desk." He likens his job to that of a fashion journalist at a newspaper, which sounds exciting in an old-fashioned, low-tech sense. So, even as the print world shrinks, perhaps irreversibly, there is no limit to the number of fashion publications on the Internet.

PROFILE.

SARAH CRISTOBAL Senior Fashion Editor of StyleList.com, an AOL Site Downtown, funny, connected, wry, Sarah Cristobal has a groovster style all her own, mixes up labels-like Chanel satin ballet flats worn with thick tights and a girly boho dress-to suit her distinct look. Her experience covering the international fashion and party scene at StyleList.com as well as working on the prototype of Vogue's style.com, then bringing to life the Web pages for Harper's Bazaar, puts twenty-something Sarah in rare company. A member of a small group of savvy online journalists, Sarah now works at the largest stand-alone fashion and beauty site on the Web.

WHY SARAH LOVES DOING ONLINE FASHION.

"You get to work in real time. You can be immediately relevant to your audience. You can come up with cool concepts using interactive technology. Editorially speaking, it's like working at a newspaper where you're rushing to break news, but with the Internet features can be produced faster and you can see how well it tracks right away through comments and page views."

WHAT IT TAKES TO DO IT.

"It's a different skill set than what you are taught in J school (at least when I was there). Learning the technical aspects was akin to learning a different language. It's helpful to have the insight behind how everything works. If you're not well versed, take a computer science cla.s.s. Learn about HTML and XML. Familiarize yourself with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and all of those social networking sites which have become so important for media outlets that want to reach a broader audience. Maybe even get your hands dirty and start your own blog. It's so easy to do these days."

THE RACE TO POST.

"I think knowing PhotoShop is useful so you can crop your own images and put them up yourself. With a small team, if you have to put your request into an overloaded photo editor, then wait for her to help, chances are that someone will beat you to the story. It's a race to be first and relevant. You want the page views. You want the credibility."

"WRITING IS LIKE THE ICING ON THE CAKE"

"Once you master the back-end stuff, then there's the fun part that is the actual fashion journalism. Know the designers, and know their collections and their histories. You have to be quick on your feet and fast."

"I DIDN'T GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE"

Sarah was working toward a double degree in journalism and Spanish at the University of Ma.s.sachusetts, and she had completed more than half of the degree requirements.

"I was saving money to spend a semester in Spain and fell short, so I moved to New York instead. Made sense at the time, even though NYC is not cheap! I guess I wanted to get on with things and live my life so I packed up and went. I had grown up near where I went to college. It was and still is a lovely area, but I knew that I was ready to move on."

BIG BREAK.

"When I left school, I immediately got an internship at Blackbook magazine-this cool downtown fashion and art quarterly. I was lucky that the editor in chief gave me a shot. This lovely man named Al (to whom I am forever indebted) used to bring Blackbook into the restaurant where I worked in Northampton, Ma.s.sachusetts, and the whole staff used to drool over it. When I decided to move to New York, he gave me the editor's phone number because he was one of his best friends. I've been really lucky. I've had nice people giving me breaks along the way."

"I WORE A SUIT TO MY INTERVIEW WITH THE EDITOR IN CHIEF"

"We met at the funkiest coffee shop/art studio in Soho. I was so young and green, and I thought, 'Oh G.o.d, I have an interview with the editor in chief, and I need to look professional.' Mind you, I was not going on an interview to be an insurance salesman! Anyhow, I got the unpaid internship and worked there two or three days a week for ten months. I made coffee runs. I delivered magazines. I got to write a little. I was in heaven."

NEXT STEP.

Sarah then went to work as an editorial a.s.sistant for Bob Guccione's Gear magazine. "I a.s.sisted the editor in chief and got to write. It was a total laddie mag but I learned a lot and still keep in touch with the friends I made there. I ended up staying for three years."

STYLE.COM.

"Then I went to Style.com, kind of as a utility player. I started doing returns for the fashion closet, then subbed in as managing editor (ahem, short-lived!), then shifted over to the fashion department as a junior market editor.

"Back then filing stories was akin to a magazine process. Everything was written in a Word doc.u.ment, then it would go through channels to the editor in chief. After the copy editor formatted it and signed off, the story was cut-and-pasted into the content management system (CMS). Now everything is written directly into the blog platform."

FASHION MARKET EDITOR.

"At one point I was working directly with Candy Pratts Price [the former executive fashion director of Style.com] as a junior market editor, sourcing product for her shopping and trend stories. She's a legend in the business, and I learned a lot from her. Not just about fashion but also about being accountable for your actions. If you said that you were going to have something ready for a meeting, you had better have it ready. You couldn't be laissez-faire around Candy. After doing that for six months, I moved to Barcelona for a change of scene. I had some friends there and I speak Spanish."

BARCELONA BEAT.

"I lived there just shy of six months and worked as a freelance writer and editor for Dresslab.com-a BCN-based fashion and design website, and I also did some travel writing for the [now defunct] Spain magazine."

STYLE.COM, PART DEUX.

"I returned from Barcelona totally broke and was lucky enough to land at Style.com again as the a.s.sociate editor. I was the social reporter for three years. I covered glamorous parties, went to the Oscars and the Golden Globes, to Istanbul with Zac Posen. It was quite the whirlwind, and great exposure."

NEXT STOP: HARPERSBAZAAR.COM.

"When I got to Bazaar, I was responsible for getting the magazine content online as well as coming up with original content in the form of a blog, videos, etc. That equated to having a good handle on the back-end practices to make sure the content is search-engine friendly (SEO data). Also getting the content out there was essential via Bazaar-branded pages on Facebook and other social networking sites. I also worked with the PR team to "break" stories at specific times. Tracking the success of the site and anything that was trending was measured by using a.n.a.lytical data platforms like comScore and Omniture. In addition, I also wrote features for the mag itself, which was great."

STYLELIST.COM.

"There's a nice hodgepodge of backgrounds, not just fashion magazine people, but women who've worked in television, newspapers, wire services. There's definitely a sense of everyone working toward a common goal. It's a great place to be."

Since Sarah started in March 2009, "It's got a huge built-in audience and we're making it relevant in the fashion/blog community. It's getting there. We've gained a lot of traction recently."

FASHION MAGAZINES VERSUS FASHION WEBSITES.

"Working in magazines is great, but I love the Web. It feels a bit freer and more interpretive."

HOW DID SARAH FIGURE OUT THE TECHNICAL STUFF?.

"Repet.i.tion. Making mistakes. A lot of late nights of trying to figure what goes where and how. Each site has different strategies, and so it's been great to learn everywhere I went."

WHAT MOST PEOPLE DON'T GET "There is an editorial schedule to working on the Web. I think there is a misconception that you can just throw any story up at any time. While we make room for daily updates, that is only one component of the site.

"Every site is different and has its own lexicon. It's really involved and there's a lot of minutia, even more so than magazines. The process isn't necessarily as thorough as print and sometimes mistakes are made, but, fortunately, you can go in quickly to fix errors and republish the piece instead of issuing a retraction."

JOURNALISM 101.

"In the blogsphere grammar and prose can go out the window, and it kind of drives me crazy. If you can submit clean copy and have your facts straight, you'll get a lot of work. Some writers are lazy and not very good, and that creates more work for the editor, which is not favorable."

LOOKING BACK.

"I've written tons of articles; it's important to keep developing yourself as a writer whether it is print or online. It's a humbling experience to have an editor tear through your copy. It's happened to me countless times, and you pretty much want to crawl into a ball under your desk, but you can't be precious about it. It's the only way to learn and get better."

IF YOU WANT TO BE A WEB EDITOR.

"Know who your compet.i.tion is, and, even more important, know who your audience is. Stay true to them. Be informed. Read a lot-including Women's Wear Daily every morning. Be credible, not a couch-potato critic who offers up unfounded opinions. Be ready to work in a reactionary environment. It's like being at a news desk. StyleList is a fashion/beauty/pop culture news desk."

WHERE THE $$$ IS.

"Most advertisers are clamoring for the online buy these days, which translates to lots of opportunity on the Web."

THE SATISFACTION OF INSTANT INTERCHANGE.

"Sometimes you'll work hard on something and it won't yield the results you were hoping for. Other times a story will take off like wildfire across the Web. It is instant and pretty subjective."

STYLELIST NUMBERS.

"Last month (April 2010) we averaged 5.7 million unique visitors and about 45 million page views. We're the largest stand-alone fashion and beauty site on the Web!"

PEOPLE WANT THEIR VOICES HEARD.

"Look at Cathy Horyn's New York Times fashion blog. Some of her commenters will write the equivalent of comparative literature essays in response to her posts, and she will reference them. It's a very democratic way of connecting with your audience and gives everyone a voice."

ONLINE OUTREACH = COMMUNITY.

"It's nice to work at a place that runs the gamut from affordable, real-women fashion to high-end pieces. Fashion and style shouldn't be alienating. It's a creative mode of expression and is always up for self-interpretation.

"Online fashion feels a bit more flexible than magazines and less exclusionary. Especially if you consider how all of the sale sites like Gilt and Outnet have taken off. It's interesting to see how things have shifted. And it's just gaining momentum."

The Next Big Job: How to Prove You're the Absolute Best Person

Here, we're talking promotions or stepped-up responsibility. There are two ways this can materialize: more money and/or a new t.i.tle. It always looks good on your resume if you start with one t.i.tle and then earn a promotion, so in this respect the t.i.tle is more important than the money.

Creative jobs are the most sought after positions around, requiring that you show more commitment, pa.s.sion, and tenacity than anyone else in the running. If you hear that someone is leaving in your office and it's a job you'd like, go for it with the same seriousness of an outside search.

It's grueling, but chances are this will be the only time you sweat it out this painfully. Once you earn the job and spend a couple of years proving yourself, you'll soon start receiving cryptic messages from masthead-reading managing editors or head hunters looking to fill an even better slot.

Normal Tryouts

If you're really in the running for a position, the boss may ask you to do a tryout. This is a good sign, and you should take the a.s.signment seriously. You may be asked to do any or all of the following: Write a list of ten story ideas.

Rewrite an ad or story.

Critique an ad or an issue of a magazine.

Take an editing test.

Lay out a page or ad (if you are a graphic designer).

Be prepared to spend an entire weekend working on this, which is a drag, but that's the deal. Don't hand over your a.s.signment unless you've written it, put it away, then rewritten and polished it. Make it look as exciting and readable as possible. Run it by friends whose opinions you trust. Get it in on time. No excuses!

Real Tryouts

Often, what it really takes to get the job is a whole different level of commitment, verve, and tenacity. Atoosa Rubenstein worked for free as an intern for years at Sa.s.sy magazine before she was made a staffer. From a staff job at Cosmopolitan magazine, Atoosa was the founding editor of CosmoGirl. She later took over Seventeen and is now out on her own building an empire.