Young Designers Anna Wintour Has Advice For You

On Friday, the queen of fashion Anna Wintour, twenty-two years impervious editor of American Vogue, venerated and feared above all, able to make you feel fear even behind the giant glasses blacks, fell from the upper floors of the palace of Condé Nast in New York to sit together Suzy Menkes, last purchase, for a conversation with the students of Central Saint Martins offering their brilliant advice, obviously fueling the anxiety and inferiority complex of all present. 

Wintour took the opportunity to tell the brutal truth about what it takes to find success in the industry.

Don't start a business straight out of school.

"The first step after college [in Britain] is to go straight into your own business. Whereas in the United States, students are more cautious or their emphasis is more on wanting to work with other designers first. [...] I personally would advise you to think carefully before you start your own business and consider possibly working for a designer or a company whose work you admire."

 Find a partner who's good at accounting and stuff.

"It's unusual, in my experience, for a creative designer to also be good at understanding facts and figures. It's important to have someone to talk to and discuss everything with and bounce ideas off. I have not seen too many successful designers who've managed alone, without their business partner."

Present well.

"In today's world you have to interact. You can't really be some difficult, shy person who is not able to look somebody in the face: you have to present yourself. You have to know how to talk about your vision, your focus and what you believe in. If you can't be passionate about who you are and what you are doing: how can they [your audience] be?"

Presentations are better than runway shows sometimes.

"Please listen to me when I say: an interesting creative presentation is just as effective as a fashion show. I see people who are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars on fashion shows, which I simply don't think is necessary. A presentation gives us all an opportunity to meet you, rather than to go and sit in some dark room somewhere and wait for you to start; then [have] no time to say hello, and rush off to the next one."

You make the cash money designing Resort and Pre-Fall seasons. 

"The basic truth of the matter is that 80% of what sells in the stores are the mid-season collections: resort and pre-fall. So when you're ready, don't ignore it, because it's gonna be something that will help you all to pay the bills."