After studying French, English and Art A Levels at a grammar school in Belfast, I did an Art Foundation Course at Central St Martins in London, specialising in fashion, before completing my MA in English Literature at St Andrews University. I knew from a really young age that I wanted to work in fashion – my Mum claims that I would change my outfits three times a day as a toddler. Throughout my teens I thought I wanted to be a fashion journalist so my degree and internship choices were very much based on that. I decided to do a Foundation Course as I felt this would give me a good insight into the creative side of fashion and then, during my time in Scotland, I would learn how to write well, play with words and develop my own writing style. Throughout my studies I did internships with various magazines before interning with Ogan Dallal Associates, a PR company in New York, during my final year. After that I knew I wanted to work in PR and luckily my studies held me in good stead – a good knowledge of fashion, and fashion history is important for my job now and being able to write creatively is absolutely crucial in everything I do. PR wasn’t something I knew a great deal about growing up though. I had my eureka moment while I was interning at a magazine, dealing with PRs all day, and I remember thinking ‘I want to be on the other end of the phone’.
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After university I took a few months out to travel and then moved to London, where I got an internship with MiH almost immediately. This became a full-time job as PR Assistant very quickly. I was lucky to join the company when I did – it was very small, with only three employees, and thriving, which meant I was able to get involved in every area of a fast-growing business and really carve out my niche. I am a big believer in internships – I did one every summer of my degree, in Belfast, London and New York, using each one to work out a little bit more about what I ultimately wanted to do. I learned so much from my internships and am so grateful for having had the opportunity to do them. In my current job we look for interns who are driven, eager and have done at least minimal research about MiH for their interview! We want interns who really want to be here and really want to learn everything they can. During my internships I learned to work really hard, always ask if you can help (especially when it is obvious the team is really busy), always ask if you need help and never think something is not your job – the person who says it isn’t their job isn’t going to get very far. Always be willing to get your hands dirty and pack the boxes!
I have learned everything I know on the job, working for and with some truly brilliant people. A well thought out strategy is an important part of everything we do in the PR department – whether it is an event, a product launch, unveiling a new collection, or working on our internal communications, which is a big part of my role now. Communication is the absolute key, both within my team and in working with the whole company. Every department needs to be working together and communicating continually for everyone to be able to work efficiently. You also need to be able to justify everything you do – a lot of what we do is a lot of fun, but there has to be a good reason for it!
Developing real relationships with journalists and stylists take time. Face-to-face time is absolutely crucial to building a rapport with someone when there are hundreds of people like me vying for someone’s time. I have a lot of meetings over breakfast and our press days are a great opportunity to meet with all the journalists we spend the rest of the season emailing with. Meeting with press is my favourite part of the job – getting to know them, working together on PR initiatives and learning about the other side of the industry.
A PR needs to be enthusiastic, outgoing and willing to chat to anyone. A genuine love of the job and the product is crucial too – you couldn’t do this job if you didn’t like the product you were talking about all day every day. Organisation is key. There is so much going on that you need to be able to connect all the departments within the company to make sure everyone gets what they need, when they need it.
PR right now is more than just working with print press. Brands cannot afford to ignore their digital presence – it is so important and becoming an integral part of everything we do at MiH. There is always a balance to strike between being commercial and being on brand; to get across the values of the brand, and our inspirations, whilst retaining the direct contact with our customer which is so essential. The content for our social media platforms comes from our design team; that genuine inspiration is very important to us.
There is so much opportunity in the digital sphere that it is important not to be drawn in every direction. Choose to work with the platforms, websites and bloggers that truly resonate with your brand, and to join the conversations, events and activities that are relevant – everything you do must be genuine and a natural fit, not forced. The brand values must always be at the forefront of a brand’s communications.
When I am in London I am very much office based, with external meetings usually happening in the morning. What I do in the office each day varies hugely – at the moment we are streamlining our internal and external communications across all departments, and focusing on aligning our copy across everything we do, whether in press releases, internal documents, our website or social media. This is an important time of year for us to unveil our latest collection to journalists all over the world. We have just completed our autumn/winter 2015 press days where we travelled to our key markets to show journalists the new collection. This season that included New York, Los Angeles, Oslo, Stockholm, Paris and Amsterdam.
I’ve been working at MiH for seven years but both the brand and my role have changed beyond recognition. There were three of us when I started with the company and since then MiH has become a globally recognised brand with an ever-growing team. I started as PR Assistant, assisting the PR Manager, and have moved through many phases to reach the position I am in now. In the beginning I was very much PR-based, working mainly on sample requests, and today I work on a strategic level, planning our communications for the coming season. I still always like to know how send outs and editorial confirmations are going though!
It is important to me to have a work/life balance. Sometimes it is inevitable that I will be working until midnight for a week when we have an event coming up or when we are travelling for events and my inbox is full. But on a normal day I work hard during working hours and have a life outside the office too. If it is a really busy time I will spend a Sunday catching up so I can start the working week feeling in control.
Image by Paul Whitfield for The Lifestyle Edit. This interview has been edited and condensed.