If you’ve just met me in recent months and asked what I do for work, I probably breezed through it quickly, saying I consult or write for beauty brands, I host fashion shows for major retailers, I travel around the world and write about it, or I might have just quipped, “I’m a girl about town! I’ve been doing this for awhile.”
Which is all technically true, but if you dig deeper, you’ll find that I damn near killed myself with utter determination and drive to make it as a fashion & beauty editor at major publications (and sacrificed a lot of my sanity!) to get to this point after 14 years. Let me back up: I had 7 internships under my belt (including a highly-coveted one at @instylemagazine) by the time I graduated college and moved to NYC to launch my glossy magazine career in the Big Apple. 🚖 I did a graduate course at Columbia, and from there, I jumped into the editorial styling world at @real_simple, before I landed my DREAM JOB in just a few short months at @instylemagazine.
I pitched and launched a few celebrity style features (remember “Look for Less” or “Where Can I Find…”? That was me.), sat next to editorial legends at NY staff meetings, networked my heart out, and quickly became known as the “nice editor” because I always answered PR calls (even on deadline), could never turn down a showroom invite and gave the interns swag when my shelves started to spill over.
I came in early and stayed l-a-t-e, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
This was before the recession hit and the industry changed, before “blog” was a thing, or “influencer” was a normal thing to say to strangers, and before working online was cool because print mags were very much thriving.
Looking back, this job gave me so much more than I could have asked for, and propelled the rest of my career in LA. I owe a great deal of my career confidence to my time spent at @instylemagazine! I covered red carpet trends and gathered celeb quotes with the quickness and ID’ed designers like a private investigator.
Fast forward to yesterday where I was among a select few invited to preview the ICONIC red carpet gown exhibit at @gettymuseum in LA, hosted by @instylemagazine in advance of their annual InStyle Awards and I was beaming with pride. It was as gorgeous and glamorous as ever.
You’ll likely remember so many of these gorgeous designer gowns from red carpet moments worn by Hollywood’s leading ladies.
Gwyenth Paltrow wore the pale pink Ralph Lauren Collection gown in 1999, and Thandie Newton wore the Brandon Maxwell design in 2018. Who could forget Nicole Kidman in that apple red Balenciaga at the 2007 Oscars?
You may remember Renee Zellweger in this stunning yellow gown in 2001, or when Kate Hudson stepped out in the printed Valentino Couture gown in 2003 looking like a bohemian queen. SO many good fashion moments. I just about died.
xx
Jenn
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