PR: What is it and why is it essential for fashion?
There are so many people and jobs behind the scenes of the fashion industry. Fashion publicists wear many hats and need to know how to do many things.
What is PR? Public relations is earned promotion for clothing or accessory brands.
PR often get confused with other forms of promotions like advertising. Advertising is when you pay a publication or media to post an advertisement on their platform. This is referred to as "Paid Media". PR is a form of "Earned Media".
For instance, in magazines there are specific pages for advertisements. On other pages, there are articles. As publicists it is our goal to get our client or brand in one of those articles in a publication.
What do fashion publicists do?
-Help the brand communicate effectively to the public
-Help put out fire
-Create brand awareness with earned promotion.
How do fashion publicists get publicity for their clients?
Publicists often pitch their brand or new product to big publications. More specifically, PR professionals typically reach out to magazines or other forms or media and communicate about their brand and the brand's new styles or products. It's up to the editors of the magazine or media to decide if it is news worthy or not.
Another way to create publicity is by hosting an event. Typically for fashion brands, it will be a fashion show. Fashion shows are huge for publicity. This is why brands and publicists try to invite big name celebrities to the shows. I can go more into depth about this in another blog post, because there is so much to say! Fashion shows are my forte'.
Another way to get publicity is to get celebrities to wear their clients clothing. This is why you see many PR showrooms. Showrooms have the new styles from their clients. Typically the looks are fresh off the runway. Then celebrities stylists come into the showrooms and pull the looks for the celebs to try on. The goal is to get the celebrity in the looks and there will be photos taken of them.
What skills do you need to be a fashion publicist?
-Great communication skills and know how to make relationships
-Knowledge of fashion publications
-Up do date on trends
-Knowledge about pop culture and know who is currently relevant
-Stay calm in crazy situations
-Very organized