Food and drink generously provided by famed soul food eatery Sylvia’s flowed freely on the recent evening when Harriette Cole, founder of DreamLeapers Initiatives did a deep dive into the fashion world. Cole moderated panelists Princess Jenkins, clothing designer and owner of The Brownstone, a lifestyle boutique in Harlem; Women’s Wear Daily fashion photographer George Chinsee; magazine stylist Carlton Jones; Guy Wood, owner of 5001 Flavors and Harlem Haberdashery; and veteran Wall Street Journal fashion writer Teri Agins. This gathering was the latest DreamLeapers Salon event, and it focused on providing all the right answers for those seeking to break into the fashion industry.
Cole owed some of her adroitness at asking the correct questions of panelists to her career as a journalist and her long relationship with fashion. At the beginning of the evening, Cole shared that she originally “moved to New York City to work in fashion.” She worked at Essence magazine first as the lifestyle editor, and then as the fashion editor. First up was Jenkins, who explained that for her the key to success in retail is to “be kind to people, be fair to people, have a great product, and wonderful customer service.” Jenkins elaborated that being kind to people included taking an interest in their lives or as she put it, “go on their life journey with them.” Jenkins has witnessed a number of customers who loved clothing actually be buried in clothing purchased from her boutique. Their family members would tell her how much the customer loved this or that outfit and felt that they would want to be adorned in it on their journey to the afterlife.
In his capacity as a magazine stylist for storied publications such as Essence, Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone, The Source and Vibe, Carlton Jones has worked with Lenny Kravitz, Michelle Obama, Natalie Portman, Nikki Minaj, Samuel L. Jackson and many other superstars. The challenge for stylists who Cole defined as those who, “create the images that drive people to stores,” is to get access. For Jones, a pivotal shift in his career came when he got to work with Queen Latifah for one of her albums, just when she was trying to change her image from just a hip-hop artist to the softer, more mainstream artist. “I believe I was the first stylist who put her in a dress,” he said. He recalled that this time was a vulnerable time in her personal life. She had just lost her brother in a tragic accident. Contacts, he explained, were the key to opportunities that came his way. “When they say it’s who you know, it’s so much who you know,” he said. The other dimension is being someone people want to work with or recommend after that first meeting. He said, “Be personable. Be that person that it is easy for people feel
it cool to be with.”
Jamaican-born Chinsee, who has been married to Cole for 23 years, has worked at fashion bible Women’s Wear Daily for more than 30 years. Chinsee emphasized knowledge of craft as well as the importance of relationships. A spontaneous offer to help an acquaintance renovate her home led to an introduction to renowned photographer Irving Penn, and that launched his career.
“The camera was on my body 24/7,” he remarked about the beginning of his career. “I didn’t go anywhere without my camera. I forced myself to shoot without a light meter. To walk around and study light.” He would spend hours in the photo lab after his classes at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Perhaps the most important advice he ever got regarding creating a profitable, successful career as a photographer was from Penn. “He said ‘If you want to feed your family, learn still life photography,’” he recalled. “Eighty percent of the business is still life, 20 percent is fashion. Eighty percent of the people are going after 20 percent of the work.” It appears to have been sound advice indeed. He is the last man standing at the esteemed fashion publication. From a high of six, he is now its sole staff photographer.
A designer of clothing customized for music artists and other celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, LeBron James and Kim Kardashian, Guy Wood freely admits it was by happenstance he fell into the fashion business. Cole described Wood, who hails from Esplanade Gardens, as “being part of an incredible movement that changed life as we know it, which is hip-hop,” She added, “Not just in New York, but globally.”
Although Cole had an abiding love of fashion (He admitted to wearing velvet in the middle of the day to his job at OTB.) and learned sewing from his seamstress mother, he had never considered fashion as a career. He recalled, “I used to go to parties and there’s P-Diddy and there’s Jay-Z, but no one really knows them because they’re not famous yet. They like what I’m wearing and my stuff is custom-made. They’re feeling what I’m wearing so they step to me.” From there, his business was born. The lesson? “You gotta be ready to grab every opportunity,” he said. “If you have the talent, don’t ask your neighbor, don’t ask your homeboy, don’t ask your girlfriend. Just do it. At the end of the day you are what you project
yourself to be.”
Starting in 1989, Teri Agins, author of “Hijacking the Runway” built the fashion beat for the Wall Street Journal, one of the world’s premier business publications, from the ground up. Agins reminded attendees that fashion, at the end of the day, is a business. When the Wall Street Journal decided that it wanted a fashion section, “None of the other women wanted to do it,” Agins revealed. “They wanted to do banking and mergers and acquisitions and commodities.” She was happy to cover fashion. She says she tells anyone interested in journalism, “Every story is a business story. It’s not a business story because there’s numbers in it. It’s a business story because someone always stands to gain or lose.” She also cautions fashion reporters against exclusively pursuing big name designers for their stories. “You can actually talk to someone small and get a better story because that person is gonna give you access,” she said.