Visiting Vogue House On A Short Fashion Course with CNC
As part of our short courses in Fashion Journalism, Styling, Creative Direction and Fashion Business, attendees had the pleasure of visiting Vogue House for a special talk from the editors behind their favourite brands.
Students on our immersive short courses in fashion visited Vogue House to hear from leading Condé Nast executives, editors and CNC alumni who are now working for Condé Nast.
This event aims to shine a light on the sheer breadth and variety of roles across Condé Nast. Simon Leadsford, Bianca London, Eilidh Williamson, Thalia Metallinou and Charlie Jukes gave insight into what their job roles entail and what they actually do day-to-day. Here, we have the benefit of their expert advice to fast track into a career in fashion…
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Simon Leadsford – Chief Business Officer,
Travel & Lifestyle, Publishing Director: Tatler, Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Traveller
Simon began his career at Condé Nast on Brides Magazine, and although Brides was not his first choice, he learned different skills during his time there, which gave him the tools to use in his future roles. He then went on to land his dream job at Condé Nast Traveller, where, he said, the sophisticated audience adds to the allure of the publication.
His current position includes liaising with the travel teams on all Condé Nast brands, to ensure world-wide editorial briefs are understood. Simon loves Condé Nast because the creativity and “the world made local” excites him. “We tell stories better than anybody and we have a strong footprint worldwide”. When incorporating advertisers and working on campaigns with luxury brands, the focus is on how to tell the story to the Condé Nast audience, fitting both consumer experience and brand messaging.
Bianca London – Website Director, GLAMOUR
Glamour’s audience is growing every month, and Bianca told the students how affiliate marketing keeps readers engaged with Glamour’s recommendations. All members of staff get to pitch their ideas in an inclusive culture, and Glamour looks for the story behind the news. What are the unique angles? What stories can be told from underneath or inside the ‘main’ headlines? Working closely with the sister Glamour brands, articles can end up on any of the other publications all over the world. “Keep it current” is the advice from Bianca, and keeping focused on the content readers are searching for. As a fully digital title, analytics are a key indicator in what their readers are interested in. Beauty accounts for most of their traffic, alongside hair and fashion trend pieces, shopping guides and body positivity. Glamour has great trust in its content from its readership.
Eilidh Williamson – Associate Art Director, British Vogue
Eilidh loves visual design and graphic design. She started her career interning at Cosmopolitan and Elle, where she learned a lot. Her dream was always to work at Vogue, and she has been part of the Vogue Art Team for eight years. As Associate Art Editor, Eilidh is responsible for the Trends section in the “front of book”, commissioning teams of photographers, talent and hair and make-up artists, and developing the visual ideas and art directing each shoot. With so much experience she says “You just know when you get the shot”. When the photographer sends in the images, she edits them and uses the ones that work best on the page and works closely with the Shopping Editor to ensure the featured clothes are correctly credited, and ensures the layout is visually consistent with the style of the section and on brand with the other Vogue pages.
Thalia Metallinou – Fashion Market Coordinator, British Vogue
Working behind the scenes, Thalia’s job as Fashion Market Coordinator involves maintaining relationships with brands and PRs, and checking credits on the fashion pages. Her role is about developing great relationships across the industry, discovering new brands and ‘cool hunting’ new designers and key pieces. Most importantly, she has to be keenly aware of what is happening in fashion and keeping a close eye on the trends. Thalia started her career as a fashion assistant but realised that the role of Fashion Market Coordinator was more suited to her passions. Her advice is to keep your options open and try new things. Her best piece of advice is to “…be nice and work hard because people will remember that. People remember if you have good energy”.
Charlie Jukes – Events Manager Style Events: Vogue, GQ & GLAMOUR and Graduate of BA (Hons) Fashion Communication
Condé Nast College graduate, Charlie Jukes works on some of the most exciting events in the industry for Vogue and GQ. Creative problem solving is top of the list when it comes to her role, as well as working out how to make ‘GQ Men of the Year’ more exclusive.
Charlie explained the difference in the industry between ‘influencers’ and ‘talent’ and how to solve the challenge of how the event will look, finding the right venue, booking talent and celebrities, managing budgets and how to bring the creative editorial vision and ideas to life, and moving GQ into the future with the new GQ vision. She notes the importance of the editorial content and how the events are key for generating content. Charlie hadn’t previously considered going into Events, but she is so glad she did as they are the most creative areas and one of the most profitable revenue streams for Condé Nast. Her advice is to be open and keep trying new things!
Eva. Lisa Tay, studying on the 5 Days of Fashion Journalism course, said of the experience, “The industry speakers were exceptional, the fact that they were sharing their experiences so willingly with us, inspired me very much. The learning experience was phenomenal and the visit to Vogue House was the icing on the cake.”
Short Courses in Fashion
Looking to book a short course in fashion? Our next 5 Days of Courses start in September. These include subjects such as:
Book directly via our website.