How New York Fashion Week Changed My Life

How New York Fashion Week Changed My Life – 09 October, 2014

One of the great dilemmas I’ve struggled with since a child has been choosing just one subject matter that I could make a profession and practice happily for the rest of my life. You see, since a very early age I have been interested in a plethora of subject matters – my earliest passions were history, art history, geography and political science – I am still just as passionate about those subject matters today, I just don’t currently practice them as a full-time profession. I have used my college major, political science, at my most recent former position, but it’s not defining the scope of my career progression. I have also volunteered as a docent at an art museum and I can’t read enough about colonial history (my favorite), so I guess those early subjects are still a very big part of my life today, they’re just not what pays my bills and gets me up every morning.

Growing up I added a few more subject matters to the aforementioned as ones I could see myself building a career – geology, environmental law, media/journalism, theater, to name a few… In Middle School my family shot down the idea of moving to New York to study theater as that would be ludicrous for a little boy from small town eastern Oklahoma . So, I performed as leads in my High School plays and competed in state-wide drama “tournaments” on weekends. While I loved the theater, I settled into the idea that this would just be a hobby of my youth.  So then off to college, what a struggle that was picking a major! My freshman year I battled internally between picking a major in one of my favorite subject matters as a child – what would that be- history, art history, geology, political science or something very practical like business administration. I knew if I picked business administration, the only specialty I could choose would be marketing as that (in my opinion) was the most creative part of business. Accounting and all the other business major sub-sets bored me to death and unfortunately, this was a time before the field of public relations had taken off or become a legitimate subject matter to study and get a degree in. So I struggled…

I finally chose political science as a major, I just felt like that probably had more promising career potential over history, and while I’m not a political scientist by trade, I have used my college studies in political science as a part of my professional journey. The job I had prior to my current one utilized a mix political science, public relations and event planning/management, so I felt like I had found a perfect mix of things I was interested in to pay my bills. I absolutely loved the combination, every day was different and I used all three simultaneously or in different parts and I thought that I had found the miracle formula for creating a happy and rewarding career I could practice for years-to-come. The only part that was new and unfamiliar was the event planning side of my three-columned job. I was basically thrown into the job and told to start finding speakers and topics to create multiple events on technical subject matters and have six-months of events scheduled within two-months. I was a little worried (to say the least) as I had never planned a formal event in my life, much less recruited expert speakers to talk about technical subject matters that I had no clue about. Long story short, I completed the task and over the next seven years produced nearly forty corporate events a year, including a very large trade-show, multiple conferences, including the creation of a conference on a subject matter that I saw niche to fill. The point of all this is that because of those professional challenges and experiences, some that I had no reference in my past, has become a rewarding profession. I took those experiences over those years and created a company focused on planning, managing and marketing corporate events – I love what I do and I’ve been in business for myself for just over-a-year and like all new business owners, I deal with the joys and struggles of building a brand and client base that will sustain the professional goals and personal lifestyle I hope to achieve.

So what does this all have to do with New York Fashion Week?!?! This all brings me to the point I want to make about this entire topic – I recently attended an event in New York City the first week of September, it’s an event I’ve dreamed of attending for years, and this event/experience quite literally changed my life. It changed my life in a way that I see greater hope and possibility to make my business and personal life what I want it to be. That one event opened my eyes to my potential and made me realize that my career and life can be even greater than I was imagining. The event was New York Fashion Week, or Mercedes Benz Fashion Week as its called now – it was soo inspiring, or as I refer to it, “life changing”. One – because I’m an event planner wanting to expand into luxury travel and meetings, and Two – I’ve been obsessed with fashion since I was a child. I got the opportunity to sit in the stands of several fashion shows and watch first-hand the drama and spectacle of seeing those creations walk down a runway. The thought of that week still gives me goose bumps! So, after my return from NYFW, my wheels were really turning on how to amp-up my events business and combine yet another one of my loves, fashion. I’m not sure how to exactly make-it-all-work yet, but I’ve added a new fashion blog in addition to my travel/tourism blog with the hopes that I can parlay that into my current career. For me, my trip to New York Fashion Week last month was just that -filled with hope – it instilled me with inspiration and got me thinking of how I evolve into bigger-and-better while walking down this current path.We will see how this goes, but I’m very hopeful…

As a huge colonial history buff, Thomas Jefferson was one the figures I really admired in my childhood, not because of his views on politics or questionable personal practices, but because he was truly a Renaissance man who had vast interests, multiple careers (sometimes simultaneously) and spent his entire life in the pursuit of those passions. I try to live a life (albeit far more humble), like Thomas Jefferson! and one dear person in my life that lives a modern version of Mr. Jefferson’s is the man that made my trip to Fashion Week possible! He did that because he wanted me to experience something I’ve always dreamed about and to see the possibilities in “what could be”. Even with the struggles that come with a new business, I’m lucky to have a job that I love and people in my life like him who enrich me, challenge me and inspire/help me grow. My point is, don’t let society, a job or your fears dictate what you think “has to be”. Hopefully you will have an experience like mine where a person or event like this one impacts you to make your life better and more rewarding. That’s what happened for me, an
d that is “How New York Fashion Week Changed My Life”.

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