Flora Johnston is the fashion and luxury editor at the Financial times but not only. A very ambitious lady who has never sat still since the early days of her career when instead of partying with friends, she was spending her summers interning to get into the glamorous industry. Her strong passion for the fashion industry is transparent and you’ll hear it in this latest podcast episode, plus see it if you check her fantastic Instagram profile @floramjohnston where she shares with her 11K followers both her looks, street style photos but also her favorite brands, shows and behind the scenes of her fashion career.
Flora was one of the fashion professionals that I invited over for the monthly live Zoom talks for the students of Break into the fashion industry course where they can attend these exclusive talks live and ask directly their questions to their favorite people working in the industry. This new episode of The Glam Observer Podcast is an extract from that live Zoom session.
A fashion editor and stylist, Flora started her career at Vogue up to becoming FT Fashion Editor and the founder of the new Next Gen Project. In this new podcast episode you’ll hear about the early days of her career in fashion, how to use Instagram for your career, how she manages to be a fashion editor and a stylist, how to propose a new project to your company and her tips to break into the fashion industry.
About the attitude you need to make it in fashion:
“My summer holidays were not partying with friends, I was in fashion working, interning somewhere. I was very ambitious.”Â
“You have to juggle a lot of hats before figuring out what you want to do in fashion”
“Your personality and the way you interact really follows you from the first day you enter so don’t say no, say yes, if you can’t do something be a problem solver. “
“There is a big desire thinking that you’re immediately going to get that wonderful job, but there were so many things I had to do that were not fashion-related. “
“Don’t focus on one application, write seven, back yourself and know that rejection part of the process. “
“Always learn, you never know enough”
About how to use Instagram for your career in fashion:
“If someone wants to work with me and they approach me on Instagram I want it to be authentic, I don’t want a robotic message….
…even if you’re not already work in the industry post an article that you loved, maybe you have an opinion about something you read. Make it a dialogue. If you’re trying to enter the luxury space, maybe you’re just window shopping and you came across a product and you take a photo and you say I love it because it’s made of this leather…
…if you’re trying to get a job remember you need to keep it clean, show your personality be careful of what you’re putting online but equally have fun with it.”
About breaking into the fashion industry:Â
“be voracious when it comes to applying for roles, when it comes to writing cover letters, don’t blab on about lots of past things, blab on about the two most important things that you have done, remember that an interview is to get to know you better, never be worried too much about filling tons on your cv write more practical stuff, be kind to each other, to yourself to anyone you work with. never underestimate the power of just being kind”
Listen to the full conversion on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
