Kate Young is one of the most established fashion stylists. Her rooster of clients includes Selena Gomez, Dakota Johnson, Margot Robbie…
New York-based Kate Young’s path to becoming a celebrity stylist is quite interesting and there are a lot of career takeaways.
At the beginning of her career in fashion, she thought she’d be a fashion writer. After her first fashion job at Lynne Franks PR in London, Kate Young relocated to New York to work at Vogue and becoming Anna Wintour’s assistant. After 6 months at Vogue, she realized she wanted to be a stylist. With her time at Vogue as Anna Wintour’s Assistant, then market editor and then Tonne Goodman’s assistant, she was styling most of the not main fashion stories. This is how she started meeting lots of celebrities and publicists. Celebrities then asked her if they could borrow dresses for their premiere, she asked publicists and that’s how it all started.
Kate Young went full-time styling celebrities when she became a mum.
Read what are the 4 career lessons learned from Kate Young’s beginnings.
1.Don’t let others opinions stop you
Her family was supportive with her love for fashion, but nobody considered working in fashion as a career. So she didn’t go to fashion school but this hasn’t stopped her to pursue her dream of getting into the fashion industry. She started her career in fashion by running the closet at Lynne Franks PR and helping during London Fashion Week.
The lesson here is that you should never give up only because someone, even if they are the closest to you like your family, doesn’t support your choice of working in fashion. Most of the people don’t understand what it means working in fashion and that fashion is a real career option like any other and also one of the biggest industries in the world. If they are friends or other people, just ignore their opinion, but if they are your family talk to them about your passion for this industry and bring them your plan. Don’t just say that you want to work in fashion. Be specific. Show your parents the career path you want to take, if you want to become a stylist, a designer, work in PR, in Marketing… and if they are worried about your financials, show them how much fashion jobs pay. Be clear by saying that it will be hard in the beginning but then you’ll have a decent income and most of all, that you are ready to work really hard to follow your passion and become the best at it.
2.You can get started in the fashion industry even if you didn’t study fashion.
Kate Young studied English and Art History, so if you didn’t believe me when in many articles, the podcast, and videos I mention that attending a fashion course is not mandatory to get a job in fashion, you have a real example (and she’s just one of many successful industry professionals who started with no fashion education). Read our interviews with many fashion professionals and discover how many of them didn’t study fashion.
3. Connections are the key to get started
Kate Young’s first job was running the closet at Lynne Franks PR and helping during London Fashion Week. When she went back home in New York for Christmas she called the mom of two friends who was then art director at Glamour Magazine and who introduced her to human resources. She interviewed with Anna Wintour too and got a job as Paul Wilmot’s (Director of PR at Vogue) assistant. He left the second day she worked there, but Anna Wintour’s assistant quit that day too so she became Anna Wintour’s assistant.
There is a bit of luck at this point in her story as it was a coincidence that Anna Wintour’s assistant left so she could get the job, but it all began with a connection. So check if your friends, your parents’ friends and even friends of friends work in fashion and don’t be afraid to give them a call and say that you’re looking for a new job or internship, as they are already in the industry they will help you find something! And if you don’t know anyone in fashion, like it was for me when I first started, don’t worry! You can build your network from scratch! Check the online course Break into the fashion industry to learn all the practical tricks to grow your fashion connections from scratch and most of all how to leverage them and reach out to get a job!
4. “No” is not an option
In an interview with Hollywood reporter, Kate Young said that the biggest lesson she has learned from Anna Wintour is that no is not an option and that there is always an alternative.
As I said in my recent YouTube video with my tips to succeed at your fashion internship, never ever say no. Don’t say no because it’s not your job, don’t say no because you don’t know how to do it. Even if you have no idea how to do something, say yes and figure it out: search on Google, ask your colleagues, call your friends who work at other fashion companies. Exceed expectations and show you can do anything. Even if it’s not like they wanted you to do it, find out other ways but always bring the results. Keep in mind that there is always a solution to anything! If you want to become a successful industry professionals you have to show that you’re resourceful! Those who don’t accept challenges don’t get the results they want, the promotion and the top jobs.
In the online course Break into the fashion industry, you’ll also find an entire video lesson on how to start your career as a stylist. Enroll now to get all the tools you need to get a job in fashion quickly and with no stress!
