The networking challenge
Before jumping head first in to this subject, it is important that you do your homework. But before doing your homework, you need to know what to study. All magazines of repute have a very specific hierarchy. It generally goes as follows. Publisher, Editor in Chief, Creative and or Art Director, Fashion Director, Beauty Director and Fashion and Beauty Editors.
To add to the mix, most of these magazines use outside sources of Fashion ad Beauty Editors who work freelance for several of the Top Fashion Magazines. It is your job to decide which magazines you want to scope out and research who does what and with whom. It is also important to know who they work with on their home turf and who they collaborate with when they shoot in the different cities of importance to them. To know this, you will have to know when all of the Fashion Weeks take place and who will be there and which Stylists are wring with which magazines. Stylists for all intent and purpose are considered Fashion or Beauty Editors. You may call them Fashion and Beauty Stylists as well.
To get the above information is readily available on sites dedicated to Fashion, like style.com, the fashionspot.com, fashionista.com etc. Many of the freelance stylists are also found on many of the major agency rosters like Jed Root, Art List, MAO, Art & Commerce, Art Partner etc. You can also do a Google search of Fashion and Beauty Editors and Stylists to find relevant information.
Knowing the background of these artists is very important, as you don’t want to approach a stylist for a specific theme or present your work to them if they do not correspond at all to what you are doing. That would be embarrassing to say the least.
Before going any further I suggest you do this homework and do it with diligence and seriousness, as they are very powerful in the industry and could hold the key to getting you your first big break.
I will discuss the Editor-Art Director dynamic in the next part and how that relationship has in my opinion changed considerably over the past few years.
