Evann, Rakala and I on the red carpet for the Michigan Fashion Summit.
In a perfect world, I’d be living in New York City (or Los Angeles..maybe) writing my blog posts in my studio apartment with my new puppy Domino by my side and my boyfriend working on his follow-up to his Grammy winning Rap Album of the Year masterpiece. But my world is not perfect– yet.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Detroit. I love where I’m from and I will defend Detroit until I die because we are resilient and special. But until yesterday, my faith in pursing a fashion and beauty editorial career here was quite low. And I’ll be honest, I still want to move to a bigger city however Detroit (and Michigan) has promise and I would love to be a contributor to the success of my city.
My media pass for the Michigan Fashion Summit.
That being said, I was invited to attend the Michigan Fashion Summit 2016 at the The College for Creative Studies A. Alfred Taubman Center of Design. The summit was hosted by the team at Michigan Fashion Week to showcase the talent and promise in the business side of fashion in our city and state. Myself and other bloggers, designers, stylists and enthusiasts of the fashion (and beauty) world got together to attend this inaugural conference to see how we can become successful at our craft.
The day began at 8 a.m. (I went to bed at 4 am so this was the beginning of a longggggg day) with registration and check in for the attendees. We were greeted with our name badges and a gift bag full of goodies that surely welcomed us. My name badge made my day, reading: Good Girl Gone Fab. I instantly fell in love with my day. I know it was a small gesture but to have a media badge with the name of my site for others to see was surreal. I took a bit of pride in it.
For the first hour of registration, guests mingled, snacked on the breakfast bar menu items, looked around the venue, took pictures and awaited to see how the day would go. This is where I ran into a high school and college classmate, Rakala, and we instantly linked and raved about our excitement for our day and the event.
Following the registration hour, the event began with the Founder and CEO of the Michigan Fashion Summit, Loren Hicks and the event planning and communications coordinator, Megan Kennedy greeting us all and thanking us for attending. There was a fashion show that featured local designers with and the Loren introduced the keynote speakers, Aki Choklat (yes, pronounced Chocolate, lol) and Char Glover. Both have impressive resumes and interesting stories that were inspiring. Aki is an accomplished men’s shoes and accessories designer who just recently moved to Detroit and is now the Design & Fashion Accessories Department Chair at the College for Creative Studies. Char is women’s fashion designer born and raised in Detroit who got her first fashion break as a contestant on season 13 of Project Runway.
After a moving speech from both Aki and Char, the most exciting part (for me) was about to begin. What initially intrigued me to attend the Fashion Summit was the idea of the five pathways or tracks and curated sessions that were a guide to your personal interest in the industry. You were able to build your own custom training experience with the option of choosing one session from five different sessions every 30 minutes. The five track options included the Beauty/Makeup Track, Stylist Track, Model Track, Fashion Designer Track and the Fashion Business Track. From first glance, it was seemed pretty apparent that I would take the Beauty Track the entire day but as I ready the descriptions for each sessions, no one track was perfect for me. That was the beauty of the conference; there was something for everyone and each session had something special that I could learn from.
But as amazing as each session seemed, I could only be at one at a time. The first session that I attended was called “What’s in your Bag?” and was facilitated by Laura Melissa, a professional makeup artist, based in Metro Detroit. Laura has served as a lead makeup artist for Michigan Fashion Week and has worked at the Chanel Makeup Counter and MAC. Now that Laura is freelance, she does makeup for all events and hosts classes as well. Her session was geared to those aspiring to become a professional makeup artist. I wouldn’t consider my goal at all. I want to be great at the skill of makeup application but I don’t see myself as becoming a professional working to do makeup. Whatever the case, Laura shared a lot of tips on how to apply makeup, which tools to use and tips on how to improve on what we know now.
Mia Ray & I at the Michigan Fashion Summit
The next session was easily my favorite of the day. Mia Ray is an international fashion and lifestyle blogger from Detroit who I’ve been following for quite some time. She is successful, beautiful and always honest in posts. Her blog, Confessions of a Glam-Aholic , is a “down to Earth” blog for every woman. She finds a way to make sure that there is a post for every woman of every demographic. Her session, titled “Active Blogger”, was a everything I needed in my life. Her four basic steps to having a successful blog are: have a Mission Statement, have Knowledge on your genre, have great Content and stay Consistent and to Brand yourself. These are all things I need to improve on but my biggest take away to remain consistent. Mia wanted to ensure that we understood that if blogging is something that you’re serious about, then it’s not just a hobby. Blogging for me is my other full-time job. This is something I want to grow in and be successful at so just like any other jobs that I have, I need to treat it like a job not a hobby. I learned so much from Mia at the Summit and after her session I got to talk to her and thank her for her work and her moving speech. She said that she loved my blog’s named (I mean it’s a super cute name) and I got some tips that inspired me to get on my shit.
The third and final session I attended was “The Polished Look” hosted by Michigan fashion blogger, Grace Liang. Grace is simply inspiring because of her insane work ethic and her passion to get things done. Grace is a full-time teacher and still manages to have a successful and consistent fashion blog. Her husband helps with running her blog but Grace is the force behind Color and Grace, a fashion blog based on her style as an over 40 year old fashionista. Grace has the cutest style and looks amazing everyday and has grown her blog into her small business in a short period of time. During her session she talked about the importance of moving outside of your comfort zone when blogging. This is one key for me was essential because so often I’m afraid of what others will think so I shy away from what I want to do.
By the end of the Michigan Fashion Summit, I had networked with so many people and learned so many tips that I ran home to rave to everyone about my experience. I loved all eight hours of the Michigan Fashion Summit and hopefully one day I can be on the panel of successful bloggers and fashion and beauty professionals talking to people just like me who want to learn a bit more on how t
o make it.
Good Girl Gone Fab will only improve from here and this event was more than enough to inspire me to continue on with my passion. Thank you. Evann (she’s the intern for Michigan Fashion Week) for telling me about the event, you and your team rocked.