Teen Vogue Fashion University Experience
Day One: Friday, March 13th
6 – 9pm- EXPRESS Shopping Event
EXPRESS Shopping Event
The EXPRESS Shopping Event took
place at the store in Times Square. The store was open to Teen Vogue students
and gave us a 25% discount on any purchases. The second floor had a temporary
tattoo station, a lash bar and offered mock tails and hor d'oeuvres. Teen Vogue
Editors attended the event and met and took pictures with students.
Day Two: Saturday, March 14th
My day went
like this:
7:30am- Check-in to One World Trade Center
9 - 9:50am- DEAN Speaker, Michelle Phan
10:10 – 11am- Juliana Riberio & Brian
Phillips
11:20 – 12:10pm- Kristen Joy Watts
12:30 – 1:20pm- Lunch in the Condé Nast cafeteria
1:40 – 2:30pm- Teen Vogue Editors Panel
2:50 – 3:40pm- Aliza Licht
4 – 4:50pm- Mickey Rapkin
5 – 6pm- Mix & Mingle with Teen Vogue
One World Trade Center |
Entering One World Trade Center was
a surreal moment for me. Being in the same building where amazing fashion
magazines are created was inspiring and amazing. I couldn’t help myself imagine
Anna Wintour walking through the halls with her sunglasses and Starbucks while
talking to André Leon Tally about the September issue of Vogue. The building is large, sleek and minimal. White marble walls
lined the building along with giant pink and blue paintings. Being in this
building made me more excited than ever to hear from the great speakers at Teen
Vogue Fashion University.
Michelle Phan and Amy Astley |
Michelle Phan
Known for her beauty
videos on YouTube, Michelle Phan spoke a lot about confidence at TVFU. She told
us how she got started on YouTube during college and how her professors would
tell her she was wasting her time. She didn’t care and kept making videos,
eventually gaining over 7.5 MILLION
YouTube subscribers. She credits her success to her confidence and always being
herself. Although she is huge online, Michelle told us to always make time to
get offline and live in the moment.
Juliana Riberio and Brian Phillips |
Juliana Riberio & Brian Phillips
Juliana and
Brian both work for a PR company called Black Frame. They talked a lot about
how to create successful PR. They said to always be transparent, don’t be
predictable and do surprising things, and to do your research. They told us
that fashion is in everything having to do with pop culture. And most importantly,
relationships are key.
Kristen Joy Watts |
Kristen Joy Watts
Kristen Joy
Watts, or @kjwww on Instragram, is the Art and Fashion Lead at Instragram. How
awesome would it be to work for Instragram? Probably freaking awesome. She told
us that the key to creating great photos is to be authentic and personal. I
loved that she had us do an exercise during her seminar. She told us to trade
phones with someone we didn’t know and look at each other’s Instrgram pictures.
We then had to tell that person what we though of them based only on the photos
they posted. I was told that I’m a coffee nut and I like to travel. One of
those is true (those Starbucks cups are filled with chai tea lattes). Kristen
also had a PowerPoint for her seminar and threw in some random Kanye West gifs.
This made me love her instantly.
Teen Vogue Editors |
Teen Vogue Editors Panel
The editors of
Teen Vogue talked about breaking into the industry. They said to make sure you could
ace an edit test, know the magazine inside and out, have a body of work to look
at (a blog, writing samples) and email everyone. One editor said that she
emailed everyone on the masthead. And lastly, the editor-in-chief, Amy Astley,
said to babysit. She said that babysitting in NYC could lead to great
connections in the industry.
Aliza Licht |
Aliza Licht
Also known as
@dknyprgirl on Twitter, Aliza Licht is the SVP of
Global Communications at Donna Karan International. She gave us a behind the
scenes look at the PR for the Cara Delevingne DKNY collection. The thing I took
away most from Aliza’s seminar is that PR is “so not about you.” You need to
think about the brand and the customer.
Mickey Rapkin |
Mickey Rapkin
Mickey Rapkin
wrote Pitch Perfect, so before this seminar I knew he was going to be funny. I
was right. He shared hilarious stories about interviewing celebrities for magazine
articles and about going to the Pitch Perfect set and premiere. He’s
interviewed everyone from Gerard Butler to Blake Lively and Ariana Grande. The
thing I loved about Mickey’s seminar was how honest he was with us. He told us
about times where his tape recorder broke and he needed to call this celebrity
back and explain why he needed to do the interview over again. This has
happened to him three times.
View from the 64th Floor |
Dress by Zac Posen for Cinderella |
Day Three: Sunday, March 15th
My day went
like this:
8:30am- Check-in to One World Trade Center
10 – 12pm- Keynote Speaker, Erika Bearman & Graduation!
Me and Erika Bearman |
Erika Bearman |
Erika Bearman
Erika Bearman
was such an inspiring speaker. Known as @oscarprgirl on Twitter, Erika is the
SVP of Global Communications at Oscar de la Renta. She talked a lot about how
she broke into the industry, starting out at Giorgio Armani in the beauty
department. She then worked at Burberry and Dior before landing a job at Oscar
de la Renta. That’s pretty much my dream resume. She said that the most
important thing is to work hard and do more than your job. She said that if she
just did her job she wouldn’t be sitting in front of us today. She also said
that it’s OK to ask for help. She recalled doing excel spreadsheets when she
was first starting out and not understanding formulas. She ended up having to
call her husband for help. She talked about the challenges of keeping Oscar’s
memory alive in the brand after his death in October. But the thing I liked
most about her seminar is that she reminded us that there would always be someone
who is prettier or smarter or funnier, but to remember that we are enough. Erika
also stayed after her seminar was over and met every single on of us. She
answered questions, took pictures and took our business cards.
Teen Vogue
Fashion University was a really great experience. I learned a lot and met a lot
of different people. If you have any questions about TVFU, let me know in the
comments below!
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