Fashion Group Foundation of Houston Career Day!
On March 10th, Jasmine and I attended a career day sponsored by the Fashion Group Foundation of Houston at the University of Houston Hilton. The career day started with a welcome speech by Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, and then you split into whichever workshops you picked. You could choose between:
- Fashion Design/Interior Design
- Retail Management
- Fashion Marketing/Journalism/Special Events
- Fashion Production/Modeling/Fashion Styling
- Mapping your career path
- Smart Money
- Starting Your Own Fashion Business
- Teacher Networking
I think that this was geared mostly towards high school students, but any one could attend. The Career Day ended with a presentation by the founder of Charming Charlie, and a fashion show that featured college and high school student's designs.
Jasmine and I picked Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing for our two workshops. (you know we had to stick together!) The Fashion Design Workshop featured Chloe Dao, owner of Lot 8 and Project Runway Season 2 Winner, Eva Prappas, Costume Designer/Fashion Consultant and Susan Fruit, a famed interior designer. The panel discussion was very informative, and I learned a lot as far as staying persistent, and just being grateful for any position you are given.(which we knew from the beginning!) Jasmine and I talked to Chloe Dao after her discussion about future opportunities, and we are hoping and crossing our fingers that something GREAT comes out of this!
Our next workshop was for Fashion Marketing/Journalism which featured a representative from Page Parkes, renaissance girl Dusty Gilbert (founder of Bare Communication), a professor from UH's Merchandising branch, and fashion/beauty writer Joy Sewing. Ms. Sewing couldn't stay for long but she sure did make an impact on the girls in the workshop. She said that she was a journalist first, and loved fashion second. I think that is incredibly important, especially if you are covering for a newspaper like the Houston Chronicle. The panel answered questions about taking our careers to the next level, and addressed our concerns about Houston and whether we should move to LA or NYC.
The thing that I really took away from the workshop is what the UH professor said. She advised us to be a change agent for Houston and to bring the opportunities to ourselves. I think she really inspired us to make a fashion scene really happen for Houston. It is way too easy to think "well Houston is nice, but it doesn't really have anything, as far as FASHION goes." It really made me think about getting out there and letting people know about COUGAR STYLE and what Jasmine and I really want to do. (start a store, fashion advertising/public relations)
We just have to get out there and make it happen!
Blogger is acting weird, so I am going to post pictures another time.