I met Carolina back when I was a student in Bologna. I always found her career path fascinating. Though she didn’t study, her formation is what makes her a great digital PR today.
Carolina built her digital PR agency through years and years of hard work and connecting with people. I think her story is the perfect illustration of how putting yourself out there, interning and connecting with people can help you build your career in fashion. Have a great read!
- What did you study?
I did Media Studies with a focus on Semiotics. During my degree, I also attended a Fashion Styling course in London.
- How did your studies help you working in fashion?
My experiences helped me more getting a job in fashion than my studies. I began working in this field when I was at uni. At that time I was hired by a small fashion radio which had a web magazine, in the meantime, I also provided content for an online shop selling luxury fashion. Since the beginning of my studies, I have always tried to understand the complexity of the fashion industry and who were the professionals making it happen. To be able to do so, I worked in many different fields of the sector inviting people to collaborate with me and doing internships for an online publication, an e-shop, a press office and production companies. My studies were useful regarding communications as it was my field of competence.
- Did you always want to work in fashion?
Fashion has always interested me, but I am even more interested in communications because it is in continually evolving and that is what makes its beauty!
- You have an impressive and interesting CV. A lot of people dream of writing or working for Condé Nast, and you succeeded in doing this as a fashion contributor for style.it, how did this opportunity come to you?
Thank you. I collaborated with Style.it – then vanityfair.it – together with Federico Rocca, fashion director at vanityfair.it, with whom I worked in the past for the fashion radio and web magazine I told you about earlier. It was him who proposed me to be a fashion contributor to style.it. He has been such an intriguing and helpful mentor.
- You are digital PR consultant for Max Mara, can you tell us what you do exactly?
I manage the relationships with digital influencers and the collaborations for the other brands of the group: Max Mara, Sportmax, Weekend Max Mara, MAX&Co., Marella, Pennyblack, iBlues. My work is both at the national and international level, collaborating with PR offices worldwide.
- Six years ago, you created Carolina Rimondi – Digital PR, your digital PR and brand strategy agency. How was becoming your boss?
I have always wanted to be my own boss to keep my freedom of thought and movement. I started with small projects that companies commissioned me when I was studying and today I have the chance to work with large brands. I am really excited about what is going to happen in 2018; I expect a year of significant growth and changes!
- What kind of support do you offer to brands through your agency?
We specialise in digital PR and influencer marketing using tools helping us analysing and managing influencers from all over the world. For the companies that hire us, we do strategy planning, project management with influencers, find new event and engagement formats for a social media audience and finally we also offer formations on those subjects. I need to be a very sociable person as what makes PR is relationships, but I also collaborate remotely with influencer and PR to create projects on a global scale.
- Can you tell us what is digital storytelling and a digital showroom?
The borders between reality and digital or even offline and online are becoming more and more transient. The storytelling which is the story a brand tells of itself or a product must develop itself coherently on all levels of the communication process. My mission in this context is to find the right influencers able to contribute to the brand storytelling while presenting it to the right audience.
- You also teach Fashion Writing at the Istituto Marangoni. How did this opportunity come to you?
It was Anna (Marconi, author of Taste of Runway: http://www.tasteofrunway.com/) to invite me to teach digital PR at the Istituto Marangoni. Later on, she also proposed me to prepare a Fashion Writing course. The first year I taught foreigners, and this was a real challenge. Besides being my first experience as a professor, giving a course to students with different cultural backgrounds made my beginnings in teaching fascinating even though it wasn’t always easy.
- What are the advantages of taking this Fashion Writing course according to you?
The class offers basic knowledge, fashion writing exercises to then become a real workshop on fashion blogging. From creating a personal style blog with pictures of their outfits to the blog-portfolio – it is a very actual project that students can shape according to their interests and goals. We work a lot to make their blogs unique with original content. Ultimately, uni is always the right place to experiment!
- What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a digital PR?
Always stay in the loop of new projects done by companies, who are the influencers creating fascinating content and keep updated with the latest analysis tools. Stay humble and willing to learn because despite social media being a window to discover the fashion system it can also quickly blind you and make you give yourself a job title because you know some influencers or have a steady following. Finally, I would advise always to be nice to people (even with the ones that aren’t with us!) and keep a low-profile: discretion and politeness are according to me two qualities every digital PR should have.
