Working As A Fashion PR

Do you need to work for a company as a Fashion PR?

You can obviously work for yourself. You have to have done a certain amount of time to build up your reputation, and to work for yourself. Otherwise you'll find it quite difficult to get business. Obviously, I think, first and foremost, you have to work for a company or designer to build up your reputation. And then there's a lot of people that go freelance. Or you can start as freelance and build your reputation up through that. It is, ultimately, all about your reputation. How people think you deliver in your job and if you're good at your job. And what results you've driven for clients.

Who do you work for as a fashion PR?

As a Fashion PR You either work for a brand in house, or a designer in house, or you work for an agency, where you can look after more than one brand or more than one designer at one time.

Does a Fashion PR have a set number of brands that you represent?

They don't, as far as I'm aware. Obviously that would be agency side if they looked after more than one. It depends on the size of the brand, it depends on the size of the team around you and what they do. I look after six at the moment, but I've got a team around me that do much more sort of day-to-day client contact so that everyone gets service to a hundred and, a hundred percent. And I think you just have to balance it, and if you feel that you're not servicing then you obviously need to offload some work, because that's the most important thing is that the client feels that you are their PR, you are there for them one hundred percent.

Does a Fashion PR represent male and female brands?

You can do, yes. I do. You naturally specialize in one, which is just where your personality takes you more than anything. But a lot of people don't; a lot of people do one or the other. If you work for a designer, a women's wear designer, you're always going to do that whilst you're there. I started doing women's wear PR for Julien and then moved from that to do Levi's, which is obviously men's and womens, and I'm now probably set more in men's wear than I do womens'. It depends on who you work for. There's different ways of communicating women's PR than there is to men's, obviously. Women's is much more focused about catwalk and trends and a new shape, a new silhouette whereas guys' is simpler than that. For men it's about a cut, or they might have a hem of a trouser that is slightly higher than last season, or a bit more of a "look" than necessarily fashion.

Do Fashion PRs regularly work with the same publications or stylists?

Yes, you do. You have to keep your contacts with them and you also have to find new ones and continually, sort of, build your black book, if you like. But once you've got a contact you've got to hold on to it and keep it and that's ultimately what you're power, your power is who you know and what you can deliver for your client. You have to make sure that you don't just lose people along the way.

Do you provide clothes to celebrities?

Yes, we do that quite a lot. Anything from casual wear, like Levis, to a big product placement plan. Last year we placed 380 celebrities or trendsetters within the UK, so if you're averaging more than a person a day, it's quite a lot. We place a certain look - we'll place a skinny fit or loose fit next season or whoever that may be for visibility. It also helps drive sales for that brand in particular. Or you can do anything from the BAFTAS to the GQ Awards. It depends on who you work for and whether your designer is interested in using a celebrity or not. A lot of people are, because it is the age of celebrity at the moment. You'll have celebrities that will only wear certain clothes which you might not be able to get to, and then you'll have new targets and new people coming through that might be more relevant to what who you're working for. So we do target celebs.

Do you pay celebrities to wear clothes?

We haven't done, but I know that you can do. Obviously, there are sponsorship deals in place. One of the people that we work with, Umbro, have a sponsorship deal with the likes of John Terry and Michael Owen, and there is a payment involved in wearing their boots and being an Umbro player. In fashion, it can be a little bit different. Sometimes you pay, sometimes you don't. In my experience, we never have.

Which magazines have you provided clothes for?

Well, every single magazine you can think of. I mean, we send out every single day to Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmo, all the women's titles; Men's Health, Maxim, Arena, Zoo Magazine, Nuts Magazine. Every single magazine you can think of, we work with.

Which TV shows have you provided clothes for?

It's a little bit different with TV shows because TV shows aren't credited and you don't tend to get, as you do in a magazine, trousers worn by X model wear Hugo Boss, or wear Levi's, or wear whoever. TV is a little bit different, and depending on the show and depending on who's in it and what they're talking about, if it fits with the brand then we might do it; if it doesn't, we wouldn't.

Do you get paid commission for each exposure of a brand you provide?

No, we do not and we reckon with all my clients I reckon we retain bases with them so they pay a fee every month and you might have a bonus structure in place so if there is a certain target that you can reach through PR or if it is a sales target and you could affect that through publicity then you might get bonus at the end of the year. But it is not the norm to do it like that as far as I know.

How much can a successful Fashion PR earn?

I think a successful Fashion PR can earn anything from £30,000 to £100,000 depending on your level. It's completely dependent on who you work for, and whether that's an agency or, again, a designer and what their revenue is like, and if they're making sales or if they're not.

Do you provide more than one than one label or brand for a job?

I would provide more than one label, because there might be more than one label that fits that story. Obviously that's an attraction with an agency - we look after a wide number of designers or a vast number of designers even, and then it's like a one stop shop. They know they can call in sportswear, tailor-made, fit-wear and it's one call, and that's it. It makes it easy for everyone.

How can you tell if a brand will be wanted?

You have an idea if a brand's wanted, if you want it. If you look at it and you see what they are doing and you think that's interesting, or you would buy it yourself and your friends would buy it, or you may get it for you or for your boyfriend. If there is that personal interest, then there's possibly going to be interest elsewhere.

Do you only place clothes where the fashion designer wants you to?

Yes, they have a say definitely. I mean, it is important for a brand to be where they want to be. However, the employee asks because we understand the industry and we are the professionals within that sector. Therefore, it is definitely up to us to advise them of where their brand should and should not be. And sometimes that is a bit of give and take whereby sometimes we win and sometimes they win. But ultimately it is a partnership and you have to make sure you are doing what they want and they trust you enough to put their brand in the right places.

Do you work with models?

Yes, we do, sometimes. It depends on what we're doing. If we do a little salon show for the launch of a new season, then we'll cast some models with a stylist, or we might product place them. They might be on our list that are key targets within the industry that we want to see our clothes on, or we might be doing a show. I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago for Men's Fashion Week, and there's obviously models that were being cast for the show there.

Do you provide all the clothes on a particular production?

No we don't. There's many kinds, ten to fifteen probably , of key agencies that people we call stylists will phone and give their story to, within London that is. Also, they'll talk to individual designers because a lot of designers have their own in-house PR. But they'll get a multitude of clothes and then they'll pull from that their exact story and take that to the shoot with a few extra styling bits.

Is doing PR for the catwalk different from magazine work?

With the catwalk show, your main objective is to make sure that the press are there and buyers, if that's part of your role as well. Also, with catwalk you'll reckon a year in advance for magazines. A few magazines might do a preview. You'll get a write up in the newspapers and whether the press liked it or they didn't like it, what they felt worked, what they felt was on trends, which will all be included in that. Magazines, you're probably working about four or maybe five months in advance. It's much shorter lead times. Obviously, your objective changes too. Getting products on pages as opposed to bums on seats.

Do fashion PRs stick to certain types of fashion?

I haven't really, because I started in obviously really high fashion in working for Julie McDonald and then having moved into casual wear with Levi's. And also sportswear because I look after Umbro by Kim Jones as well, which is sort of a balance between sportswear and designer, and also menswear label who has catwalked again. So it is... you don't have to necessarily stick to it. You become a specialist in it but you can also learn new things. And PR is PR. If you publicize something and you know how to communicate something in an interesting way, I think you can apply that skill to pretty much anything.

What happens if the stylist hates the clothes you've provided?

None of the stylists I've sent to have hated all the clothes I've sent them. They won't use them ultimately, and then you'll end up a few months into your time where you're supposed to be delivering media with nothing. Then, you'll have to sit down with whoever you work with and recognize there's a bit of a problem there and how to fix it.

Do brands come in and out of fashion?

They definitely do - Levi's is a brilliant example of that. It's obviously the biggest denim brand in the world and it goes through peaks and drops of success. At the moment it's really successful. It's had times in the past, like the launch of engineer jeans that was massively successful, and then it goes through dips when all of the LA denim brands come over. People then want to buy Rock and Republic for 350 pounds and we go a bit denim designer crazy. They'll then go back to their brands that they love and know that deliver a really quality product, and then they'll go on a high again. They definitely dip, and our job as their PR is to make the dips less and the highs more.