Fashion School
Beeta Jafari and Lindsey Reid belong to that rare breed of girls posessing an innate sense of what’s chic.
The two USC undergraduates, who are also majors in the university's tough Marshall School of Business, also sit at the helm of USC’s Fashion Industry Association, the only fashion-related group on campus.
On a weekly basis, more than 80 paid members look to Jafari and Reid to provide them with sartorial stats, news and connections. “It’s the only outlet for people on campus who love fashion,” Jafari affirms one recent afternoon over coffee (make that iced green tea; these girls are toxin-free). “I fell in love with it my sophomore year because it gave me access to the industry.”
It’s fitting that Jafari and Reid themselves are success stories of USC’s club, which launched in 2004. “Every single internship I’ve gotten has been through FIA,” Jafari recalls. The two young women cut their teeth in fashion with some of the most coveted names in the industry: Jafari at Women's Wear Daily and eM Productions, and Reid at Thakoon, where she worked closely with Panichgul Thakoon himself.
Their fashion pedigrees make them superstars to the students who religiously attend their meetings, but outside of the FIA bubble, the rest of the USC community has trouble understanding the struggle the two girls go through in order to break into their dream industry. “People ask me if I’ve ever gotten my hands dirty, being in fashion,” Reid says. “And I’ve replied, ‘That’s all I’ve done!’”
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT: A look from student line Formative at last night's FIA show.
The daily fashion grind is old hat to students attending FIDM and Parsons, but the juggling act required of students of the liberal arts is a different matter altogether. Jafari and Reid spent multiple semesters and summers living the Hannah Montana-like life of business students by day, fashion assistants by night. “It’s very hard work,” Jafari says with a smile. “I’ve seen people lose themselves in it. WWD was challenging, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. You just have to love to be a part of it.” For her part, Reid was thrust into production at Thakoon in the midst of market week. “It was definitely a crash course,” Reid recalls.
By all accounts, the girls have done everything right. And yet like hundreds of thousands of other seniors graduating this year throughout the country, both Jafari and Reid find themselves asking the same question of What next?. “I’ve reached out to every human being in the industry I’ve ever spoken to,” Reid says, “and now I’m waiting. Someone will notice.” She pauses, then adds wryly, “I’m being optimistic.” As for Jafari, she is currently waiting to hear back from the law schools she has applied to, planning on utilizing a joint MBA-law degree to jumpstart her own fashion company in the near future.
ANGELIC: A look from student designer Kathleen Coltman at last night's show.
But for now, there’s FIA to think about. Full-time careers, in fact, have been the last thing on the girls’ minds as they thrust themselves headfirst into preparing the annual spring FIA fashion show. The process began almost a year ago when Jafari and Reid interned together in New York and spent their spare time brainstorming. For FIA’s sixth installment of its hallmark event, Reid and Jafari kept two keywords in mind: bigger and better. They held a designer call last fall, ultimately selecting a group of dynamic student designers spanning colleges across the city, from USC to Otis to FIDM. The duo received a stroke of good luck when Paige Premium Denim’s Paige Adams-Gellar, herself a USC alum, offered to sponsor the event. “She spoke at one of our meetings, and then suddenly she said, ‘We’ll give you lots of cash,’” Reid says. “We were like, ‘Sounds good!’”
“We always find that USC alums have been very willing and helpful towards us,” Jafari adds. “Paige loves USC and always will. The school gives so much to us while we’re here that when we leave, we want to give it back to them.”
And give back they have. Sunday’s FIA fashion show proved a success by any standard, drawing crowds of more than 500 into the university’s elegant Town and Gown auditorium. As fresh looks from the likes of student designers Tania Taiwo, Michael Ward and Kathleen Coltman hit the runway alongside commercial lines such as Paige Premium Denim, Moods of Norway, and i.am by Will.i.am, Jafari and Reid surveyed the scene with pride. “I really hope everyone enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and I’m actually sad it’s over,” Jafari says.
The same can be said for Jafari and Reid’s college experience as a whole. Here’s to the next chapter of these girls’ lives, USC’s Fashion Industry Association, and all young hopefuls everywhere looking to break into the at-times grueling, but unfathomably rewarding fashion industry.