Let Me Re-Introduce Myself (the one about my career path)...

Because, let's face it, it's been a while. Plus what I'm watching, listening to, eating, reading etc. this Autumn.

Hi!
Thank you to the lovely (and super-stylish)

Angie Smith

for both the inspiration and the title (sorry Angie, but how could I better it?) for this post. It made me realise how little I talk about my career before Douceur (and LittleSpree before that) before Instagram, and most significantly, before I was ever in front of the camera. I thought it might be nice to share where I’m at and where I’ve come from. And more significantly, how I got here.
We’re going waaaaaaay back guys - back to the smoked-filled seventies…

My Mother’s Vogue and Harpers & Queen magazines…
Let’s start at the very beginning (ish). When I was a little girl, my mother used to always have Vogue and Harpers & Queen (which later became Harpers Bazaar here in the UK) magazines in the house. I remember her flicking through the pages, cigarette in hand. She dipped in and out - my obsession didn’t come from her, but the exposure to fashion publishing, 100% did. I can’t remember how old I was when I first started to take an interest in the mags, but it was pretty young - around eight or nine maybe? So once the new issue had come out (I think my mum must have had them delivered?), she would then give me the previous month’s, to do what I wanted with. I would then carefully cut them up and make collages (who needs Pinterest when you’ve got a blunt pair of scissors, a glue stick and a fitted carpet?). It was my absolute favourite thing to do. I would cut out the models and spread them all over my bedroom floor, pouring over the layouts for hours and hours. I still love creating mood boards today (now with Canva of course), and for a long time, it was a big part of my role as a freelance art director (more of that later). I had to share my vision for a shoot with the brand/client with mood boards. Also when I worked as a fashion editor - that’s how we would present our ideas for shoots to our Editor.

Fashion college & Paris…
Fast forward to when I was 18 (1992), I studied fashion journalism at The London College of Fashion. I had known for as long as I could remember that all I wanted was to work at a fashion magazine. I had always loved writing, but had also been obsessed by fashion magazines since the age of around 11. Jackie anyone? Blue Jeans? My best friend and I used to buy one each (they were weekly I think?) and swap. Ok, so they perhaps weren’t strictly fashion magazines, but they did have fashion in them! And I devoured them! They were the ‘entry drug’ to the ‘harder’, ‘proper’ fashion mags. And pretty quickly, I realised that I wanted to work at one. A dream yes, but one I just couldn’t shake.