Teen Vogue Fashion University Experience

Teen Vogue Fashion University Experience

Day One: Friday, March 13^th

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 14^th

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 15^th

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!