WWD Hosts Fashion Scholarship Fund Students for Live Discussions With Industry Insiders
Ahead of the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s annual evening gala, WWD invited students to get an early start at its studio with a variety of panel discussions designed to teach the new class about the fashion industry. The new class of FSF scholars includes 130 college students recognized for their talents and potential to disrupt and transform the fashion industry.
James Fallon, editorial director of Fairchild Media Group, began the day’s programming with a session called “Daily Edit Meeting.” “The newsroom is controlled anarchy,” he told the group of FSF finalists.
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Fallon spoke about the importance of WWD maintaining a close and trustworthy group of sources of executives, chief executive officers and designers in its groundbreaking reporting and breaking industry news daily.
While sources can often be insistent one way or another when designers leave or major industry shakeups, Fallon explained that WWD doesn’t report on every single rumor that comes across its vast array of reporters’ desks as it would undermine the publication’s integrity. “The bedrock of what we do is objective reporting,” Fallon said. “Fashion loves gossip.”
Further, Fallon warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence as a replacement for good journalism. He likened ChatGPT and other software taking prominence to Wikipedia and explained that technology can never really take over the role of a journalist and the relationships a publication has built up over the years.
The session closed with advice for budding designers. Fallon cited longevity and having a singular vision with a solid business as a major key to success; he warned against designers who constantly follow trends and have no brand identity.
Immediately following, American fashion designer Reed Krakoff joined Fallon on stage to share the story of his career. Looking back to the very beginning of his entrance into fashion, Krakoff said it was entirely organic. Fashion hadn’t yet become big business, with very few public companies. It was only after trying out a few different paths that Krakoff landed at Parsons and felt a comfort within the industry and began working with designers, including Ralph Lauren.
Krakoff explained that he learned a lot from the experience that he took with him throughout his career, including how to understand a brand. Krakoff subsequently worked with Tommy Hilfiger, where he worked on the launch of 10 new categories. But Hilfiger eventually fired him because Krakoff was becoming a bit too big for his britches. He was unemployed for about a year and had accepted a job with Trussardi in Milan. But Coach called him and urged him to meet with its CEO Lew Frankfort — who persuaded him to join to turn the brand around. Krakoff made it a megabrand stretching beyond a handbag into other accessories and fashion.
In 2010, Krakoff launched a namesake brand under Coach. The company found success dressing Michelle Obama for her official portrait as first lady and a Vogue cover as well as Jennifer Lopez — but the designer said ultimately it wasn’t enough. Krakoff went to his partners and asked for them to either make a large investment or the brand needed to come to an end. “It was very sad, but I knew it was just not my destiny,” Krakoff said.
After the Reed Krakoff brand closed, he became chief artistic officer at Tiffany & Co. before joining L Catterton as a strategic adviser and is creative chairman of its John Hardy subsidiary. Asked whether he is now seen as the turnaround specialist for brands, Krakoff agreed and said his role is to “make people uncomfortable.” He reflected that he believes that to be successful you have to challenge yourself and go through periods of uncertainty. Brands who fall into the trap of looking as though they are only about selling products, he said, lose credibility and customers. “You have to bet on newness, bet on a new vision.”
Christian Juul Nielsen, designer at Aknvas, then sat down with Bach Mai, designer at his eponymous brand, to give the students advice on starting their own brand.
Nielsen, a Danish designer, attended the London College of Fashion and moved to Paris, where he worked at Nina Ricci, Christian Lacroix and Christian Dior under John Galliano and Raf Simons. Meanwhile, Texas-born Mai attended FIT and later moved to Paris to get his master’s at Institut Français de la Mode; Mai worked at Prabal Gurung, Oscar de la Renta and at Maison Margiela under Galliano.
Both Nielsen and Mai worked on hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of haute couture in Paris but saw the clothing as unapproachable for most people. Nielsen said his approach to his brand is to “take couture to the streets and infusing couture-inspired details,” while working in similar ways to his time in the Paris couture houses.
Mai said as an American, Paris always felt like a far-off dream. After returning to the U.S., he wanted to take couture with an American approach, his Texas background and explore the future of American couture. Mai said other big-name event designers in the industry are fellow Texans such as Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli, Brandon Maxwell and Jackson Wiederhoeft.
Nielsen homed in on how image curation is a fundamental part of the fashion business, especially given today’s social media and digital-driven era. Mai and Nielsen both explained that they held off on doing a runway show off the bat and used lookbooks and presentation formats, especially as the costs to put on a show are exponential. But Nielsen encouraged designers to continue to be spontaneous and cast their friends as models and to use their school connections to help make their brand come to life.
While Nielsen said he finds planning 10 years ahead is impossible. He suggested starting at least with a loose plan at least three seasons ahead while encouraging budding designers to find their niche and who their audience is. Mai similarly stated that designers should ask themselves “why do these clothes need to exist?” in the larger fashion ecosystem, rather than as a self-indulgent venture.
Mai cited Tom Ford’s famous quote about how he’s lucky to spend “10 percent of the time designing,” while most of the time spent running the business has to do with being an entrepreneur. Mai went on to explain that the business of fashion is incredibly hard and figuring out where to find the money to fund the business is key.
Mai left the students with one final piece of advice: “You don’t need to compete with these big brands, and don’t try to. You have something different to offer.”
The day ended with Emily Mercer, market editor at WWD, and Thomas Waller, senior fashion market editor, accessories, at WWD, who shared their own insights behind the making of a WWD cover. Mercer and Waller explained that different from many other publications, their roles as market editors at WWD are responsible not only for fashion editorial shoots but for writing fashion show reviews, covering fashion weeks and writing weekly news or feature stories. The position, they agreed, requires them to be fully immersed, from meeting with the brand’s PR agencies to connecting with up-and-coming designers.
“On a typical day, you might wake up in the morning and see a CEO for an interview,” Waller said. “[And then] somebody sent me a DM over the weekend of a young brand in Brooklyn to ask to be seen. Maybe we have a dinner that night and you think it’s fancy to have dinner with Gucci — and that’s cool — but what that really is, is a time to build relationships and meet people in the industry.”
To get ready for a photo shoot, with celebrities or models, Mercer explained that it’s a collaborative experience between the visual team, art team, writers and the fashion team, where the style director will typically lead and conceptualize the overall idea with the visual director. “From there, we will then go out into the market and kind of curate what is going to be on set in terms of everything fashion,” she said.
Relationships and collaboration, Mercer and Waller agreed, are among the most important aspects of their jobs. Before a photo shoot, the fashion team works together to create direction, what to feature and the story being told. On a photo shoot, no task is beneath anyone on set.
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