Harvard Business School Retail and Luxury Conference
The second day of the HBS conference was back to back! I learned aspects of the fashion industry and business itself that I will never thought I would know at my age. After meeting the brilliant CEO of Loblaw Companies, Galen Weston Jr. I attended the "Investing in Creativity" panel, which held corporate heads from company's such as Converse, Diesel, Ministry of Supply,and Alice and Olivia. After visiting Alice and Olivia in New York City last spring with FAB I fell in love with the aspect of design Stacey Bendit brings to the brand, Alice and Olivia epitomizes my style. The VP of Creative Services, Mai Nozoe (my favorite) spoke about creativity versus business in A&O and how they try to stretch the budget for creativity. Mai is in charge of advertising, social media management, look-books, and magazine placements. Mai was not only intelligent and inspiring but immensely genuine and willing to talk to someone like me. We ended up having lunch later that day and she spoke to me about her previous work with Michael Kors, and why creativity matters. "The Founders Panel" astonished me and opened up my eyes on how to start a business. Derek Lam, Emily Weiss and Jennifer Fisher attended. Derek Lam, being from San Fran, was always someone I dreamed of meeting. He attended Parsons Design School, one of the top fashion schools in the world, and the best in America. He created his brand to be edgy, contemporary, with minimalistic styles. His main advice was to "keep on trucking" and "simply just escape to creativity". Meeting the blog queen, Emily Weiss, was an honor. Emily seemed like a 19 year old with her care free attitude but her business mind was that of a millionaire. She started with a blog ,"Into the Gloss", that made millions and now she is the founder and CEO of Glossier, a beauty brand. Emily told me "I wanted to make beauty cool" "Being Naive is an asset" and she believes one main statement for her company, Glossier "to be inclusive". She talked about everything in fashion being exclusive and she wants to create a brand, a company, a way to live, "to be inclusive". Jennifer Fisher was insane, beautiful, had the most unique style. I wanted to take her jacket and Celine handbag off her. She posed for the camera, spoke loudly about how you should never ever give up, that 500 people said no to her and she still kept going. I am honored to have met these fabulous people, designers and businessmen.
I can't wait to attend the HBS conference next year!
Selfie such a lovely and inspiring women Mai, The VP of Creative Services at Alice and Olivia!
For this day I decided to dress more business casual than formal. I started off with my Alice and Olivia light blue blazer. I thought adding a pastel color would make everyone more hopeful for spring! Blazers are the best items you can own because you can wear them to interviews, a night out, high tea, dinner with the family and to business networking events, it can easily be dressed down or dressed up. I paired this simple blazer with a white leather shirt from a small boutique shop in Los Angeles. I always have to bring my own flare, so instead of black formal pants, business trousers or suit pants, I wore flared a-line black tuxedo pants with a white stripe on the side of the legs. These pants were a limited edition peice from Alice and Olivia on Rodeo in Beverly Hills. My accessories for this outfit included a blue chunky diamond necklace from Zara and a Grey fabric hand bag with gold buttons from the Kate Spade 2013 Fall collection. I threw my glasses on and my Top Shop boot heals for an edgy yet sophisticated look.
Jennifer Fisher of Jennifer Fisher , the most stylist and innovative women! Had a blast with her!
The one and only, (so casual) Derek Lam of Derek Lam!
