ello reader(s)! I’m hoping there’s more than one of you, but optimism isn’t really my thing. Welcome to the inaugural edition of IMHO – a column by an opinionated and not-so-humble swug on all things ~fashion~. That’s right, I’m one of those people who uses the squiggly dash (or what Google calls the “tilde”) in every other sentence. Get used to it. I will be ranting about anything and everything in this column – from fashion news to designer drama to heinous trends (culottes, anyone?)
You’re probably wondering, who is this chick and why does she think she’s qualified to tell me about fashion? Well, I don’t. I’m a PPE major who until last year was utterly convinced I was going to law school. Like every other pre-professional loser at Penn, I had planned my life to a T. I concentrated in Distributive Justice, joined the John Marshall Honor Society, met with pre-law advisors, blah blah blah. And after all that I was like, wait… law is boring… I’m going to work in fashion! Shockingly, this change of heart did not go down well with my family, who pays a measly $60,000 a year to send me to Penn. My 16-year-old brother was particularly distraught, at one-point exclaiming, “What’s the point of going to an Ivy League school if you’re just going to work in the fashion industry?!” Zing.
Hence, it became my quest to make it big in the world of fashion. This summer I was lucky enough to land an internship at Marie Claire, where I did super intellectual things like haul $10,000 dresses through the subway and girl-flirt with PR reps. Just like your IB internship at Goldman, right?! It was equally the most relaxed and challenging summer of my life. I’ve never been happier.
So when I dragged my ass back to campus this fall, I made the decision to go for it. To not tentatively explore the field of fashion publishing, but to actively pursue it as a career. I’m now an editorial intern for Philadelphia magazine’s style section – and I write this column! So please read it. If you have a ~passion~ for fashion, read this column. If you want a break from OCR to see how the other half live, read this column. If you’re nervous to see how an average Penn girl fares in an industry of mini Anna Wintours, read this column. I will try not to disappoint.
– Allison Litt