In our long-running collection “How I am Making It,” we discuss to folks making a residing within the vogue and sweetness industries about how they broke in and located success.
When Gia Kuan was a regulation pupil in Melbourne, Australia, she wasn’t organizing samples at a vogue home or crafting pitches at a PR company. She’d go on to do these issues, in fact, however not but. As a substitute, an 18-year-old Kuan was working at a nightclub, first as a promoter, then as a “bottle woman,” serving champagne set ablaze with sparklers.
“In Australia, the consuming age is way youthful, so it was quite common for school college students to work in nightlife,” says Kuan, who grew up between Taipei, Santo Domingo and Auckland. “And actually, it was a simple job and you bought paid in money. Little did I understand any of that will apply to my profession sooner or later. However now, enthusiastic about what I do when it comes to occasions administration and PR, a number of what I had carried out early on set a basis for the way I may function the way in which I do at the moment.”
On the time, Kuan wasn’t precisely angling to interrupt into the style business. It took her working one other part-time job — this one at a luxurious vogue retailer — for all of the items to click on into place. As a result of although she was at all times involved in vogue, she explains, she by no means envisioned truly working within the discipline itself.
Kuan made a reputation for herself within the PR house at Comme des Garçons, Dover Road Market and Nadine Johnson (the place she took a hiatus from vogue altogether to give attention to artwork), earlier than launching Gia Kuan Consulting (GKC), her eponymous consultancy that reps the likes of Telfar, Space and Concern of God. At the moment, vogue includes simply half GKC’s roster, with the remaining being a cocktail of arts and tradition purchasers. The place GKC is totally different from a conventional vogue company mannequin, she argues, lies in that combination in and of itself: No two purchasers are alike, so neither are the methods during which GKC helps them.
“Discovery is a really massive factor for us,” she says. “We do a ton of analysis on folks and the press so we’re not regurgitating the identical context again and again. That is an enormous no-no for us. We’re at all times enthusiastic about what strikes the needle, and what the brand new communities are that we are able to construct upon.”
Beneath, we caught up with Kuan about her childhood rising up throughout three continents, producing blockbuster vogue reveals and amplifying rising designers to uncharted heights.
Inform me in regards to the origins of your curiosity in vogue, earlier than you pursued it as a profession.
It has been an attention-grabbing trip. Intrinsically, I used to be at all times involved in vogue, but it surely was simply a kind of aspirational jobs. I did not come from a household who labored in inventive industries, nor did I actually acquire publicity to vogue. I had zero model consciousness. Till the tip of highschool, I simply did not perceive what luxurious manufacturers signified. Solely once I went to varsity in Australia — once I was hanging out with youngsters who went to non-public faculty and had the technique of having the ability to eat higher-end vogue — did I begin to uncover what vogue meant on a model stage.
In school, I labored at a luxurious vogue retailer in Melbourne known as Assin, and that was my first step into luxurious vogue. They stocked a number of Belgian designers, from Ann Demeulemeester to Rick Owens, and Japanese designers, like Junya Watanabe and Comme des Garçons; that impressed me to pursue it extra. After I lastly made the transfer to New York in 2010, I got here to pursue a correct profession in vogue, so I enrolled in a brief vogue advertising and marketing course at Parsons.
You had been born in Taipei and raised between Santo Domingo and Auckland. Did your international upbringing affect the way in which you concentrate on creativity and self-expression?
Rising up in Asia, popular culture was very closely impressed by Japan. My grandma knew the right way to communicate Japanese as a result of there was Japanese occupancy in Taiwan throughout her period. I used to be influenced by that, and it nonetheless resonates at the moment. Like, this concept of Kawaii, the tradition of cute issues. My fashion may be very a lot that.
Then I moved to the Dominican Republic — my mother and father had been Spanish translators — and lived there for 3 years, once I was between 5 to eight. I simply keep in mind carrying these super-vibrant ensembles, and that was additionally my first foray into late-Eighties, early-Nineteen Nineties Americana. That is how I discovered my English. That is why I’ve an American accent. [Laughs]
Afterward, I moved to New Zealand. I do not know if I embraced vogue as a lot throughout that point as a result of I would not say it was like, a modern place. It was very suburban. My fashion was extra knowledgeable by practicality and uniform tradition. At college in New Zealand, it’s a must to put on a uniform more often than not. It wasn’t just like the American faculty system the place you possibly can put on no matter you need, so solely on the finish of highschool did I begin to discover fashion.
Stroll me by way of your profession path from the time you graduated from College of Melbourne to your time at Comme des Garçons, Dover Road Market and Nadine Johnson. What classes did you study in these early days that you simply nonetheless carry with you at the moment?
Parsons was very a lot catered to the truth that they’re anticipating you to do internships. So I did a number of totally different internships, my first one at PR Consulting. It was a number of pattern trafficking and working errands. That was my intro to studying the map of Manhattan as a result of we needed to lug garment luggage all over the place. I obtained my first style of what a PR company meant as a result of while you’re learning PR, you haven’t any concept what PR really is till you are working in it. I additionally interned at Tom Ford when he debuted womenswear, and thru that, I began to study the massive names within the business. That is once I realized that relationships are every thing.
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Towards the tip, I began working at Comme des Garçons, and it grew to become my first-ever job. I used to be there for six years. After I first joined, it was a really small crew of solely 4 or 5 folks within the U.S., together with gross sales and PR. The primary adolescence of working at CDG encompassed a extra conventional PR function — pattern trafficking and once more, studying who’s who. I discovered to be hyper organized, working with a Japanese headquarters, which is simply the way in which the corporate works. There was a extremely, actually robust work ethic throughout, and that trickled right down to their retailer employees.
At Dover Road, we nearly operated at an company stage as a result of we needed to perceive the ins and outs of a lot of the distributors the shop was carrying. It was identified for championing a number of younger and rising designers, and that is what impressed me to get excited in regards to the new expertise that exists inside the U.S. and past. We arrange a help system for these designers, making connections for them with the press contacts we knew, and on the finish of the day, that is what felt probably the most rewarding. Quick ahead a couple of years once I began freelancing, serving to pals who’ve vogue strains get began, and it was the identical course of: They did not have any assets, so with my data, how may I bridge that hole between them and the press?
After Dover Road, I exited vogue and began working at Nadine Johnson, which is that this iconic boutique company primarily based in New York Metropolis. I labored together with her arts and tradition accounts, which means all of their galleries, artists, museums and nonprofits, which I discovered actually refreshing.
And I believe Nadine took an opportunity on me as a result of I used to be like, ‘Effectively, I studied artwork historical past in school and I’ve a superb understanding of up to date artwork, however I’ve by no means labored in artwork.’ And he or she was similar to, ‘In order for you it badly sufficient, you possibly can catch up.’ I used to be so grateful to her for that. We each believed on this concept of, why invite somebody you discuss to on a regular basis to dinner? That is so uninteresting. She was at all times into this concept of a spiced-up visitor checklist, and so was I.
How did you determine to embark by yourself, with your individual consultancy?
I’ve at all times been a curious individual. Rising up, I did not eat vogue the way in which a number of different folks did, and if I did, I wished to know the ‘why’ behind it. The product itself is not sufficient. So I used to be trying to have the ability to really feel a bit extra linked to the model and the individual behind it. On the time, a few of my older friends had been beginning their very own tasks. Eric Schlösberg, who was one among my previous colleagues, had his namesake model and requested me to assist him join with a couple of folks. These little e mail introductions had been how it began. I used to be simply serving to a buddy right here and there.
Truthfully, I used to be additionally simply going out lots. That is how I met Kim Shui and Raffaella Hanley from Lou Dallas and Carly Mark. All of our lives simply got here collectively whereas going out within the New York partying subculture. It was what I imagined New York may very well be, however I do not suppose I discovered it once I moved right here in 2010. Style week was a lot about, I do not know, Lincoln Heart and Style’s Evening Out. It was only a totally different aesthetic. There was this uncooked vitality I felt was lacking. However then I began to fulfill all these folks, like Telfar [Clemens], and it simply began from there.
Your agency has been acknowledged for its illustration of unbiased designers and a democratization of vogue reveals. How do you go about constructing out your portfolio, and what are your priorities in your purchasers as soon as they signal on with you?
After I suppose again to the sooner days, I wasn’t so purposely curating it — however I suppose it was. I felt devoted to giving designers a platform to speak within the press and even simply to letting folks remember that these pals of mine existed. It was a egocentric self-fulfillment factor. I wished that New York, American dream that I moved right here to pursue.
I imagine that as a result of vogue may be very a lot an artwork kind, you do not essentially need to have formal coaching to have the ability to have an viewers, nor do it’s a must to have this super-commercial imaginative and prescient. So it is about believing in that and persevering with to combat for it for others and inform their tales. That ethos may be very a lot central to what we do once we take into consideration the manufacturers we work with, which spans past vogue now. The manufacturers I am drawn to are those that do not match the mould. They create their very own path.
In the event you had been to undergo the spotlight reel of your profession, what could be the massive moments that stand out to you, and why?
I imply, Telfar has positively been an enormous second for me. We have not carried out a kind of massive reveals shortly, and to be sincere, I do not know if I am mentally prepared for it simply but. [Laughs] However within the earlier days, we did these massive, massive reveals, like on the helicopter pad or at Irving Plaza. It was loopy. It was clearly traumatic, but it surely was so rewarding to see everybody come collectively, to see the categories of people that got here by way of.
I keep in mind doing the White Citadel occasion a couple of years in the past, and that was one of many bigger events we had carried out as a result of we needed to go so huge with that visitor checklist. To today, I keep in mind so many individuals who had been like, ‘That is my first Telfar occasion, and I totally perceive the vitality of Telfar at that occasion.’ They remembered Telfar and have adopted it since. I used to be happy with having the ability to deliver worth to the model by way of that. And naturally, now they’re so profitable they usually have their very own platform that may attain so many individuals straight. It has been wonderful to see that evolve.
What’s one thing that is thrilling to you in regards to the vogue business proper now?
There’s extra of a way of liberation within the business now versus once I first began. Style is not as tied to business requirements because it was once. And in my little utopian mindset, that was what I had at all times wished it to be. After I first moved to New York and entered vogue, there have been rather more inflexible requirements we needed to work by way of only for younger designers to be acknowledged. However prior to now few years, I believe folks have began to comprehend that in case your model is robust, when you have a powerful voice, you possibly can pave your individual manner towards success with out having these restrictions anymore. That is actually, actually thrilling.
There are extra creative methods for manufacturers to speak on to their audiences. There are methods for them to create their very own content material and use their very own voice. I am excited to see what’s coming subsequent.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
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