September Style Q&A: Fashion Week Invites, Fall Jackets, and The Washing Cashmere Hack I Live By
Let's Get Dressed
Host Liv Perez hosts a September AMA episode focused on practical fashion industry advice and wardrobe maintenance. The episode covers strat
Key takeaways
- To land Fashion Week invites, build a content strategy months in advance and pitch brands 3-4 weeks before the event.
- For corporate fashion, aim for 'corporate with a pop' using colorful cardigans or statement skirts to show personality.
Main topics
- Fashion Week invitation strategies
- Corporate fashion wardrobe building
Notable quotes
September is the January of our year.
Conclusion
The episode provides actionable, high-value advice for fashion enthusi
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:02) Welcome back to Let's Get Dressed. Before we dive into today's episode, make sure that you're following the show both on Apple Podcasts and Spotify so that you don't miss a new episode. In case you want to watch today's episode, you can head over to YouTube. The full episode is available there too. And when you're done, leave us a review. I always love to hear what you guys think about the episodes and it really helps the show go. Now let's go get dressed. Speaker 1 (0:27) Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Let's Get Dressed. It's your host, Liv Perez. We are back with another AMA episode. It's the end of the month, end of September, a month that I feel like has been absolutely nuts. In fashion, they always say that September is the January of our year, and it definitely feels like that. So there's something very funny about the fashion industry that I think is absolutely insane. which is that all the European brands, all of Europe takes all of August off, right? Like no one's answering emails. Everyone's on vacation, which by the way, I feel like as Americans, we should maybe adopt because I really love that mentality. But the second August is over. It's usually Labor Day. So Labor Day happens. And then. The first Wednesday back after Labor Day is when Fashion Month starts. So not only have you not been emailing, not communicating really with people for a whole month, but the second that you do start communicating again, you are communicating about the biggest month in the industry. You've got New York, London, Milan, Paris Fashion Week, and everyone is trying to get everything done in quite literally seven days. So it's always a very crazy kind of back to school in my world, but it's always really fun. I always feel very grateful to be there. And I was in New York, which was amazing. In case you guys missed it, we launched a new series a few weeks back called Undressed, which I'm really excited about. I love the interviews on the show and it's my favorite format. It's why I started a podcast. As someone who is in the industry and being able to experience things on the ground, like Fashion Week or brand trips or big events and things that I feel like we could be discussing all together, I'm very excited about Undressed because it's going to be our solution to that. So they are episodes that are very lo-fi. Me and a mini mic recording on my iPhone. I did it during New York Fashion Week and I got so many good responses from you guys. It actually meant a lot to hear how many of you loved it because I'm someone who is... a little bit of a perfectionist with things. And so recording on my iPhone and a mini mic was like a daunting experience, but so many of you loved it. And I'm so, so happy about that. So you will see more of them coming out. So definitely go check all the undress out. I actually really recommend watching it. And I love seeing how many people tuned in on YouTube. We did so many visuals in that video from runway photos to personal photos. Every single thing I talked about, there was a visual for. So highly recommend going over to our YouTube and subscribing there so you don't miss those. I always think September AMAs are the best. There's so much to talk about, whether it's fashion week, trends that you guys are thinking about, what to buy for fall. Some of you asked me about how to be a fashion girl with shedding dog. I feel like we've talked about that a lot on the podcast lately. So I'm here to get all of your questions answered. And let's dive in. Okay, first things first, I loved this question. Someone asked, I love watching Fashion Week from afar, but have been really interested in going myself. How do I get invited to Fashion Week as a creative? So off the bat, if you haven't shown a brand any love on social or created any content for them, I don't think you should expect to get an invitation. I think there is a lot of strategy that goes into landing Fashion Week shows. And so I would say really try to build that out before Fashion Week comes around so that when you go to pitch a brand, you have a lot to show them about your point of view on the brand, the content you've created for them, whether it's writing, whether it's visuals on Instagram, whatever it is, I would build your strategy a couple months ahead of time. Then about like three to four weeks before Fashion Week happens, I would put together a really good pitch. Nothing too long because think about how many pitches these brands are getting. Just something that's concise that... shares your connection and relationship to the brand, and then also your portfolio of work and the content that you've already created for the brand, and maybe some of the engagement that it got. I think it's always really good for a brand to see that your community is engaged in what you have to say and cares about your point of view. Then after that, you're going to pitch the brand. This is one of my favorite parts of what I do, which is this like very big Easter egg hunt online to try and find people's contacts. I do it for literally everything. I do it for brands. I do it for, you know, podcast guests. I do it for travel opportunities. I'm always cold emailing people and I will go online and find like the formula that a brand uses for emails, right? Like first name, last name, then the company name. And I will go on LinkedIn and cold email every person that works at the company. Specifically, I would start with, of course, like the PR people, the head of marketing, head of VIP. Those are the people you want to look for at brands that will get you seats at the show. This is something that I learned really late as well. I remember, you know, six years ago, I had been doing Fashion Week for two years at that point, but no one ever really teaches you what you're supposed to do for Fashion Weeks in my position, right? if you're going as a creative, if you're going as a freelancer and not somebody who works in editorial or works for a brand, no one really teaches you how to pitch and when to pitch and what to do. So consider this me teaching you because there were numerous years where I would just show up to fashion weeks and be like, oh, why didn't I get invited to that? Or why am I not going to that? And a peer would be like, oh, did you pitch the brand? And I'd be like, no. And they would be like, well, how do they know then that you're here? reach out in advance and don't be afraid to follow up. Even now where I'm at, I'm still following up with brands after I've let them know that I'm going to be in town. I'm following up with them. Even if it's for shows that I haven't gotten, you know, three, four days ahead of the show. Hey, just wanted to check in and see if there were any available seats. I'd love to be there and see the collection. So it is a little bit of a shameless endeavor, but going to a fashion show is amazing. Again, it's where I get so much inspiration every year. And so I really recommend putting yourself out there. and doing whatever it takes to get there. Also, I think one more thing when it comes to the pitch, language is very important. I always come from the perspective of like, I'd love to be considered as an attendee for the show, or I'd love to attend the show should there be an opportunity this year. I think using that kind of verbiage is really important instead of kind of coming at it like you deserve to be there. I would never email saying like, hey, just looking to confirm my seat for this year's show. They have people pitching them from all around the world. So it really is an honor to be considered for a show. So that's the tone that I would strike. And then my last tip is, while of course, I'm sure a lot of us want to go for all of the big shows, I would really focus on the emerging designers and build your portfolio of Fashion Week content. My first few years of Fashion Week, I was going to smaller designers and emerging designers and presentations and really kind of building my network and portfolio of content that I could take during Fashion Week. Also, again, it's kind of its own ecosystem. Some people have Burning Man. We have Fashion Week. Like there's its own like language and communication and like way of moving through Fashion Week. So I do think that you have to learn the language and kind of pay your dues. And that's another approach that I would take if you