by Amy Odell
10.Put your cell phone down and enjoy yourself. This is a fun-ass business. You will spend a lot of time around the world’s most beautiful clothes and the world’s most beautiful and eccentric people at superfun parties with lots of free, delicious champagne and itsy-bitsy cupcakes. Enjoy yourself. Eat the cupcakes.
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I. Unless you’re going for a job interview with Anna Wintour, in which case you should put this book down and get your ass to a museum right now.
Acknowledgments
Thanks, first of all, go to my parents, whose kindness is immeasurable. I owe so much to my father, the funniest person I have ever known and will ever know. Thanks for passing down your sense of humor. I owe equally as much to my mom. Your amazing strength has always been an inspiration. Thank you, also, for passing down your proclivity for strong opinions, which I am told from time to time I’ve inherited. Thanks to both of my parents for being there for me every time I felt discouraged, and being more excited about this book than anyone, except for maybe my husband, Rick.
Rick, thank you for reading countless drafts and your ceaseless encouragement during my frequent bouts of self-doubt. Thank you also for coming around to my sweatpants, seeing as if you hadn’t we might not be happily married, here, in the first place.
I am also incredibly grateful for the support of the rest of my family, especially my sister, Holly (who helped me pick out my wedding dress) and brother-in-law, Mark (who carefully steamed it the day before my wedding). Thanks also to the Goldbergs, Montis, and Friedmans for continually expressing excitement about this project over the several years it took to complete.
Many people tried to force this book to be something it wasn’t. Gillian Mackenzie and Karyn Marcus were not among them. Thank you both so much for believing in this project and sharing my vision for it. You were hard to find in my quest to publish this book, but the wait was well worth it.
Emily Graff edited this book with not only diligence and skill but also a lot of care and thoughtfulness. Thanks so much, Emily, for all your hard work and dedication to this project, bringing out the best in these essays, and making this book what it is. Working with you was a joy.
Finally, thanks to all my colleagues and various bosses who have believed in me over the years: Ben Williams and Adam Moss at New York mag; Troy Young, Joanna Coles, Kate Lewis, and David Carey at Hearst; and my entire team at Cosmopolitan.com.
And finally, I am incredibly grateful to all my friends who have been there for me over the years. Without so many of you, I’d not only be kind of miserable, but also, much more poorly dressed.
About the Author
Amy Odell is the editor of Cosmopolitan.com, the largest community of millennial women on the Internet. In 2015, Odell was named to Forbes’ list of “30 Under 30” in media and featured in Adweek as a “New Publisher,” one of fifteen young innovators who will change the magazine business. In 2014, she appeared in Crain’s “40 Under 40.” Prior to Cosmopolitan.com, Odell was an editor at BuzzFeed from 2012 through 2013. Odell began her journalism career in 2007 as a party reporter for New York magazine, where she ultimately became the founding blogger of the magazine’s fashion blog, The Cut, in 2008. A native of Austin, Odell graduated from New York University and lives in Tribeca with her husband and very sassy cat.
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Copyright © 2015 by Amy Odell
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition September 2015
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Interior design by Joy O’Meara
Jacket design by Janet Hansen and Christopher L in
Jacket illustration by Janet Hansen
Author photograph by K athleen K Amphausen
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Odell, Amy.
Tales from the back row : an outsider’s view from inside the fashion industry /
Amy Odell.—First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
pages cm
1. Odell, Amy. 2. Clothing trade—New York (State) —New York—Biography.
3. Clothing trade—Social aspects—New York (State)—New York. 4. Fashion—New York (State)—New York. 5. Fashion design—New York (State)—New York.
I. Title.
TT496.U62N763 2015
746.9'2097471—dc23 2015018051
ISBN 978-1-4767-4975-4
ISBN 978-1-4767-4977-8 (ebook)