LA or NY?

Post Numero Uno- for the POST FIDM life. Let me tell you, being "done" with school isn't a whole bunch of twinkly Hollywood or New York lights. The Pap have other hot messes to worry about and you, a straight A, student council, Mode Magazine contributing alum is sitting in a cubicle, in a job you don't like, making only enough to fill your gas tank. Not you? Yeah, that's because this is me. Precisely 8 months of being a FIDM alumni and 1 month from turning my tassel I am here, square -1 with 60 Thousand in school debt, making the same, if not, a tad less than the 18 year old, who took down my lunch order, at the fast food joint in Santa Monica. Interning has gotten me no where but alas, my heart is dreaming my next scheme. Am I cut out to rub elbows (or in some instances rub lotion on the legs of the models for the magazine I interned for) with LA celebs? Or am I the same 17 year old with the Big Apple shining through my eyes, hoping and envisioning my life as the next Anna Wintour? Who am I kidding? I'm now 24 with just a FIDM degree and a pocket full of fairy dust and dreams.

As I saw myself board the plane 2 months after my 18th birthday from NY back to OC (where I'm born and raised) I made a vow to return one day with a better plan.

Maybe I should begin this first entry with an intro on why FIDM? Growing up where most girls saw the fashion industry portrayed in the glam life, living in SoHo or Beverly Hills, I saw Karl Lagerfeld, a then husky yet intriguing Chanel mastermind. I too, wanted to rule the scene, not just the front page of every glossy magazine. Mix in my Rolling Stone Magazine Editor of an aunt and Marjaneh, fashion journalist was born. I wanted to portray the fashion in WORDS, where you saw and felt the glamour in a different way, than a price tag or hung as decoration on the frail bodies of models. I read books on Anna Wintour's life, where most girls where flipping the pages of her magazines. I was going to work for Vogue, I told myself that everyday. Packing just a suit case I moved to New York, to study journalism and learn fashion the amateur way, through the many racks at Bergdorf Goodman. After 3 months and ONLY ancient literature being taught, I realized this path wasn't as "creative" as I had hoped. Returning to Orange County, I enrolled at FIDM. Mind you, this was about the same time the infamous 'Hills' began and every where I went I was being compared to Lauren Conrad. Sorry but no! If you knew me, you'd know that wouldn't fly. Being neighbors with that girl was enough, but being compared? No thanks.

When MTV decided reality was better than music, a whole generation of culture died. Please don't chime a Hillary Duff or Natasha Bedingfield tune my way sister. If I had a "show" based on my life, I'd choose a better theme song like Gwen Stefani's Tic Toc. Yeah, that'd be perfect. Time was ticking and so was my career. Now here I am, done with FIDM, a decision I don't regret. I've learned the aesthetics, the business, the marketing, the definition of fashion, this is what and all I needed.

Now enter 2010. Recession, lay offs and people closing their wallets and even their subscriptions to Fashion Bibles, such as: Vogue, Bazaar, and WWD. The pages were now more of a high end JCPenny catalogue, than a 'Voice of Fashion.' The most words you could find, were the tag lines of an advertisement. Now what FIDM? Where do I go from here? I've done the styling, the event planning but what about my dream? What's next?

Here my friend Tharry and I (along with other Alums) give you a chance to follow our "Pursuit to Happiness" and our versions of the Post FIDM life. Welcome and enjoy.

XOXO,

M