By Lauren Pichler, senior, public relations
As models from all over the world strutted their stuff down New York runways showing off the newest lines in the world of high fashion, Lindsay McCallum had a front row seat.
McCallum, a senior in public relations at the University of Texas at Austin, was there strictly for business, covering the event for Brilliant, an Austin-based luxury lifestyle magazine, and FashionWindows.net, a unique fashion site with an emphasis on designers and haute couture.
Of her four days in New York, McCallum watched a total of 17 shows, giving her an appreciation for the instrumental role public relations plays in the fashion industry.
Having been to fashion weeks in Paris, Los Angeles, and previous ones in New York, McCallum was able to compare notes on the role of public relations in these meccas of fashion culture.
"In the end, public relations serves the same purpose: to get people to the shows, make the show happen, and help it run as smoothly as possible," said Lindsay. "Whether in New York or Paris, designers from all over the world want their shows to be publicized, and PR makes that happen."
But she also notes some differences.
New York's shows were more commercialized and emphasized the setting almost as much as the runway performance, according to McCallum. She also notes that New York public relations practitioners were not as accessible as the French, and there was a larger celebrity and socialite presence in New York.
While in Paris last summer, she helped dress models for Paris Fashion Week and was introduced to French PR firms representing the designers. Compared to firms here, she says, they were much smaller, encouraged more intimate relationships with the designers, and placed more focus on the fashion, the buyers and the journalists attending.
McCallum's fashion journey, from Austin to the fashion capitals of the world, started when she joined the University Fashion Group her freshman year. There she made contacts that landed her at fashion week in Los Angeles.
"It was a dream come true, the end-all-be-all in my mind," said Lindsay. "It is also the one thing I credit for having opened all of the dozens of doors for me since then."
From there, she travelled with the University Fashion Group to New York to dress models and help backstage at its annual fashion week. Unexpectedly, McCallum ran into the designer she had helped in Los Angeles, which led to an offer to assist the editor-in-chief of FashionWindows.com in Paris the following summer.
"She mentioned to me that she covers Paris Fashion Week and offered me an internship to assist her there, if I wanted to," explains McCallum. "If I wanted? I would have been crazy to decline."
McCallum has since been back to New York twice.
To read more about her fashion travels, her blog can be found at www.brilliantmagazine.com under the "Blog" heading. And www.fashionwindows.net is home to her other fashion editorials, ranging from Paris in the summer of 2008 to New York this February.