In Fashion Part 25

With U.S. stores buying less, everyone began looking to expand international distribution: Laura's "niche" was now the hot category.

HOW VINCE LURED LAURA.

"First, it was very flattering to be sought out [Vince hired a headhunter to find Laura and had previously tried to hire Laura when she worked for Elie, but Elie personally asked Vince to back off]. I also felt an immediate connection with the CEO. There were other people there who'd worked at Elie. The CEO knew exactly what kind of training I'd had. I had already earned my badges. Working at Elie as long as I did said something to him about my work ethic."

IT'S A MATCH "When I went back to Vince, on my request, for a second interview, the CEO told me that he knew I was 'the one' because of the confident way I walked into the room and took off my jacket. He said that my ease made him comfortable as well. And he liked my energy."

LAURA'S LOOK On that interview: a Margiela sweater, belt, and leggings.

In general: "You have to be fashion. You can't show up in a suit. Do I wear Vince? Yes. I am proud to represent the brand, but I wear it in my way. I mix it up. Some people want a brand to look like it does in the look book. I love vintage. I have a lot of eclectic pieces. I'm a downtown girl. I want people to see that Vince can be funky or cla.s.sic. That you can insert your own personality into it."

VINCE SNAPSHOT.

Vince is a hip, accessible brand. Well established in the United States, it is sold at four hundred outlets, including major department stores and specialty stores. In department store speak, Vince is considered contemporary because it is youthful, casual, and less expensive than designer labels.

LAURA'S VINCE CHALLENGES Creating a structure for its European business Blowing out international distribution Overseeing international PR THE AMERICAN PACE.

"I like working for an American brand and taking it international. Especially if you are a New Yorker, you are used to working fast and hard."

DOES LAURA HAVE A LIFE?.

"At times, it's been compromised. As soon as I start dating someone, I end up disappearing to Milan for three weeks. It's a challenge to have a home life when I am never at home."

HAVING IT ALL?.

"Yes, I can. I'm young, and life has much to offer. I'm ready for the next challenge or opportunity, personal or business. I'll embrace it because I don't like to do anything halfway."

Brand Life: PR, Advertising, Retail, and Retail Management

"If you are young and beautiful, go into PR," advises my friend Roberto Pesaro, who held, among other posts, the chief operating officer job at Giorgio Armani North America for many years. By "PR" Pesaro means "public relations," but this could be variously called "communications" or "imaging." It is absolutely the most exciting side of the fashion business and among the most important. If you have the PR gift, you might just want to develop it. Here are some eye-opening reasons why: A top PR person helps set the agenda, as well as the voice and the niche, of a designer.

A top PR person is the inner circle and gets as much face time with a designer as the CEO.

A top PR person can make as much money (in a top multinational brand, we're talking $1 million or more) as the CEO.

A top PR person has independent relationships with top fashonistas, editors in chief, newspaper journalists, publishers, and stylists, as well as some of the top celebrities who come to events and runway shows, and who wear the clothes.

A top PR person helps orchestrate the relationships between the designer and the personalities who wear the label.

A top PR person is the gatekeeper to all external relationships and a.s.sociations with the brand.

A top PR person attends important red carpet events with the designer and is wined and dined (or does the wining and dining) at the coolest restaurants and clubs.

Sounds lovely, but, trust me, there's nothing easy about PR. As with many fashionista roles we've discussed, you're on constant call and, at least in the first decade or so of your career, it's tough to have a private life.

Do you have thick skin? Are you able to separate your professional role from your personal self-worth? Do you look relaxed and confident, even when you are being grilled? Are you a natural "spin doctor," working out on the spot how seemingly bad news can, in fact, be flipped into a major opportunity? You are the first person the designer calls when he's screaming, mad, and putridly upset. You are also the first person the CEO calls when she's spitting angry upset. Everything regarding the press coverage and the image of your brand-and others-is your fault. As the expert in this arena, you are called upon to explain why other brands get attention, why celebrities would wear other designers' clothes, why your brand doesn't get more, more, more attention all, all, all of the time.

In short, designers get crazy jealous of stories done on other designers. They never get enough attention, and they are never happy about it. Think of the worst behaved child you've ever witnessed screaming for ice cream. Bingo!

How to Get into PR: Education

In a perfect world, your education would be a BA degree from a liberal arts college. To get into PR, you have to be literate, and you have to be able to write and communicate and speak and think in concise bullets and sound bites. But that's not the only priority. You need to be culturally in tune. You need to understand the world. You need to understand and be able to interpret references to artists, personalities, and works as vastly divergent as Mondrian, Warhol, Whitman, Cher, Chanel, Dali, Eames, Kate Moss, Catherine the Great, Kate Hepburn, Guy Bourdin, Van der Rohe, Mme. Gres, Blondie, Anna Karenina, and Vargas without rushing off to do a Google search.

Here's my point of view: Majoring in communications or PR is a huge waste of time and money. Instead, why not study something you have a pa.s.sion for or are curious about: like film, French, art history, Italian, or ancient or European history? If you study English lit, as I did, you spend your time reading novels and poetry and walking around campus with stacks of beautiful books starting with Shakespeare on the bottom, Romantic poetry, Faulkner, Walker Percy. It's one of the best things America has to offer the world: a good liberal arts education.

What you gain in terms of historic context and disciplining your mind will far outweigh any practical skills you would acquire in the communications department. Trust me, you'll learn everything you need to learn through one or two core PR cla.s.ses, during internships or your first six months on the job, and probably most of it isn't on the curriculum at most schools.

The PR Personality: Do You Have It?

More yesses = more PR success

Do people remember you after meeting you only once?

Are you great at remembering people's names and faces?

Do you have a high glamour quotient?

Do you have a high stamina for work?

Are you socially confident?

Are you comfortable not being Number 1, but working for him or her?

Do you thrive in an unpredictable work environment where there is no such thing as a normal workday?

Does your mind remain calm, unfazed, and organized, even when under pressure and amid chaos?

Can you keep your head and stay verbal under pressure?

Do you love the buzz of mult.i.tasking under tight deadlines?

Do you put people at ease and make every situation feel like a party?

Do you create good spin? Can you transform potentially negative questions and situations into favorable outcomes?

Do you look for inspiration in unconventional places?

Do you innately understand the business back story (that is, "where the bread gets b.u.t.tered")?

First-Job Options (Even If a Second Career)

Start in fashion editorial and make the jump whenever you want.

Start in advertising and make the jump whenever it makes sense.

Start in retail and make the jump whenever.

Start working for an accessories company and make the jump later.

Start at Sotheby's or Christie's in events or PR and make the jump to fashion after a year or two.

Join a small fashion public relations agency.

Intern part time or start as an a.s.sistant in the PR department inside at a fashion brand.

The Best Way to Jump-Start Your PR Career

Team up with a young designer-friend so that you can found and build the brand together.

GOOD PRESS: TOP FASHION PR FIRMS.

BPCM (previously Bismarck Phillips). Bismarck Phillips Communications and Media is the most uptown minded of this group of agencies. Fashion clients of the ten-year-old company include Catherine Malandrino, Alberta Ferretti, and Celine.

Offices in New York, LA, London, and Paris

www.bpcm.com

Bureau Betak. Headed by Alexandre de Betak. Clients include Donna Karan and TSE Cashmere.

199 Lafayette Street, New York City

(212) 274-0669.

KCD Inc. Originally named for its ill.u.s.trious founders (Vogue editor and fashion visionary Kezia Keeble, stylist and humanist Paul Cavaco, and New York Times writer and intellect John Duka), this agency was the first to combine into one shop styling, advertising, and public relations. Now run by proteges of the founders, Ed Filipowski (PR side) and Julie Mannion (production), it retains its integrity, high standards, and ability to edit brilliantly for the editors. Its original client, Versace, is still with the firm, as well as a rich mix of some of the world's most influential and exciting designers, like Marc Jacobs, Zac Posen, and Anna Sui, and Europeans Yves Saint Laurent and Chloe, among others.

www.kcdworldwide.com (access only with a pa.s.s code)