Understanding the Power of an Outsider Mentor

Mentorship in the fashion industry is broken.  If you didn’t start with the unpaid internship or an entry-level role and pay in sweat equity, many people will keep you at arm’s length. The unwritten law is that if you are willing to (and can) submit to those conditions, in exchange, you get compensated in other ways — clothing, lunches, and entrée into the club. As a result of these expectations, the opportunity to come up in the ranks on the corporate side of fashion in the U.S. has excluded many for decades — if not completely, then certainly for promotions, raises and executive roles. Moreover, because of intense competition for a handful of roles, whether you will truly find support can be another thing entirely. Sadly, in an industry dominated by women, it’s historically been incredibly tough to transition into what I would call balanced motherhood if that’s your chosen path. For my formative years, I deified fashion and designers, runway shows, and the flash of the industry. It held a powerful pull for me but it also scared and intimidated me. Although I worked in vintage shops in college, my early career was in tech and start-ups. My view of the fashion industry

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