Right here at the cultural center was a day filled with classes about fashion and growth opportunities for those in the fashion industry.
Two of the Panelists are among the Chicago favorites in the fashion industry: Kristen Amato, President of the Chicago Fashion Foundation; and Lara Miller, Executive Director of the Chicago Fashion Incubator.
I truly adore Lara Miller as a person and as a fashion designer. Meeting her yesterday at the Fashion Chicago event was an honor of mine.
"The fashion focus Chicago is different from new york fashion week and LA fashion week and it should be, " Lara Miller. Lara stressed how Chicago is different in that fashion week here is focused directly to the consumers instead of just the industry and retail buyers.
I am a huge fan of Kristen Amato, and own a couple of pieces that I purchased a couple of years ago from Macy's on State street! It was so nice to hear her thoughts about how designers can market themselves.
"It is up to each designer to go with what works best for them, you may want to wait until you have two or twenty stores to hire a publicist,"K. Amato says.
The universal agreement among all the panelist was that no other tool works better than marketing yourself the old fashioned way...that is by being present in the Chicago fashion events and to market yourself. That is very pertinent advice for any and everyone in the fashion industry and beyond.
Ciao!
CChic
