Thursday, September 27, 2007

the week I worked in fashion


Have you ever thought you wanted something really badly, only to discover you didn't really want the reality of it at all? Life is kind of like that sometimes, right?


Well, When Dan and I moved back to NY in January, I thought I really wanted to work in Fashion. I had been doing visuals with J. Crew part time and I felt like a job in visual merchandising would be my dream come true. I interviewed a couple of places, and and was simultaneously interviewing for some more traditional NY corporate jobs.


After a couple of ups and downs, I ended up with two offers. One with an up and coming fashion house designing the displays for their store windows, and one working with a Hedge Fund. I was torn. The fashion one sounded so glamorous, and in some ways it sounded like a dream come true-but I had loved the people at the Hedge fund so much! I was really torn.


Anyway, after a little nudging and coaxing from Dan, I ended up taking the job with J. Mendel. If you are not familiar with them, you should definitely check out their collection at style.com or their website. J. Mendel is super popular with celebrity crowd (it makes sense since their evening gowns cost about $20,000 and no one but celebrities could afford them) and they were a definite favorite at the Oscars this year for evening wear. Part of my job duties included attending the runway shows, browsing Madison Avenue boutiques to check out the competition, designing windows displays, and making sure our boutique at bergdorfs and our Madison avenue store were in top shape. Unfortunately I only lasted a week.


It wasn't so much that I hated the job, I was more that it just turned out not to be the right thing for me, which I realized when I saw one of my bulimic co-workers throwing up in the bathroom after lunch, but that is another story. Luckily the hedge fund was still waiting there when I changed my mind!


Anyway, fast forward about 7 months, and here I am sitting at my desk, when I stumble upon this post about my former boss's apartment on one of my new favorite blogs, Habitually Chic.

I never knew Gilles was so cool, maybe if I had, I would have stuck around. Luckily, I still get a little taste of that high fashion when I walk by the windows I would have designed every morning on my way to work, and see what my replacement came up with!

3 comments:

Brynn and Jesse said...

That sounds like an adventure! I can see how the fashion world would seem like a glamorous place to work but then turn out to be nasty! I hope you have found something you enjoy doing!!

Jill said...

I think it is a good thing you don't work there, much to stuffy. Its amazing to see his apartment though!

Kristy Stoner said...

I'm sorry it didn't work out. That's dang cool that you went for it! Otherwise you'd never have known! Good for you!