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Fashion and Beauty Writing

Learn to write the haute stuff for beauty magazines.

Course is closed.

WHEN
6 weeks
Thursdays
April 20 - May 25
7-10 pm

WHERE
New York (Soho)

WHO
Ideal for any journalist or writer who is interested in writing about beauty.

PRICE
$425 ($399 for )
more info

Course Details

Fashion and beauty magazines are journalism's glamour gigs. This is where you find assistant editors dressed in Prada and Ivy League Ph.D.s fact-checking lipstick application tips. Where one morning you may commission a big-name author to interview a big-name actress, then, after lunch with a PR person, you spend your afternoon resolving the proper spelling of a pantyhose credit. Where being an associate editor, in terms of job perks, is easily the equivalent of being editor-in-chief of a magazine like Business Week or Forbes. And where being a department head or an editor-in-chief is easily the equivalent of being God.

In this course, you'll learn how to court sources, how to avoid the stilted prose and descriptive cliches that make most fashion writing so awful, and how to thread your way through the minefield of "editorial considerations" and "product placements." You'll also discover why so many "serious" journalists fall flat on their faces when they take a fashion assignment.

In this class, you will learn about:
  • Presentation and pitch methods
  • Captions and merchandise descriptions
  • Press releases
  • Catalog and website copy
  • Designer profiles and fashion histories
  • Writing for trade and consumer magazines
By the end of the course, students can expect to have:
A professional pitch and piece of work, a repertoire of formats and story angles that will get you through almost any assignment, and the ability to critique your own work and function as your own editor.

Admission Requirements:
Because mastering the media is now an inescapable part of mastering the fashion business, designers and fashion professionals are encouraged to take this class (with the permission of the instructor).

Please submit a letter of interest (including a brief work history) and a writing sample (less than 2,000 words).

Instructor Bio

Mary Lisa Gavenas's Courses

No courses available at this time.

Mary Lisa Gavenas
Mary Lisa Gavenas has been a senior editor at Glamour, Mirabella, and InStyle and a columnist for Elle. She has also worked as editor-in-chief of a trade magazine covering children's fashion and editor-in-chief of custom publications. Her freelance work has appeared in Family Circle, The New York Times Magazine: Fashions of the Times, People, Redbook, Travel & Leisure, and a slew of other titles. She has appeared on CBS, CNN, and NBC as an expert on beauty and the media. Most recently, she is the author of Color Stories: Behind the Scenes in America's Billion-Dollar Beauty Industry, published by Simon & Schuster.


Testimonials


I learned a lot from Mary Lisa about writing and the Fashion/Beauty industry in general. I would like to thank her for her time. -- Kate Glum, Intro to Fashion and Beauty Writing alum

"Mary Lisa's Beauty Writing seminar was the better than any class I ever took in college! It was real life experience and invaluable contact information that was meant for anyone thinking of going into this industry." -- Alana Newton, Marketing and Events Coordinator, Philadelphia magazine

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