Name: Amber Lopez
Hometown: Nice, France
Year: Junior
Amber Lopez, a junior at FSU, was born in the south of France in the city of Nice, where she grew up around rustic architecture and Mediterranean waters. After moving to the States when she was 10, Amber got a glimpse into the life of glamour. Her dad introduced her to the fashion industry after creating a clothing line for Elite Modeling Agency (think Cindy Crawford and Tyra Banks). “He managed the designers and models. . . he went to show-rooms in Vegas and sent me pictures and that’s kind of when it hit me that it was what I wanted to do.”
Connections are everything in the fashion industry, and luckily for Amber, she had just the right ones to land her a styling internship for Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) in Paris this past summer. “I found the internship because of my dad,” said Lopez. “He worked with a guy whose nephew was the president of Yves Saint Laurent Europe. I found a way to get this guy’s email address and sent him a message introducing myself with a three page cover letter telling him about my passions and where I wanted to go in life.”
Six long months later, she got a response and a flight to Paris for an interview. “It was the scariest interview I’ve ever done in my life,” said Lopez. Feeling defeated after the meeting, Amber didn’t have much hope for an offer. After two more phone interviews, she got the position at a YSL boutique!
The shopping culture was different than most. “It’s very client driven. When someone is going to come in, you’re going to talk to them for hours and you’re going to drink champagne with them. It’s very intimate; that’s the kind of thing I wanted.” Amber’s day-to-day tasks included morning briefings to stay up-to-date on what was going on in the industry, as well as what was going on within the fashion house itself. The transition to a new artistic director, Anthony Vaccarello, occurred only a couple weeks before Lopez’s arrival.
Unfortunately, there were some rough patches for Amber during her experience. “I personally learned a lot about myself this summer. It was a very difficult time because I was all alone in this city that I’ve never lived in before, so it was super scary. There were so many times in Paris where I just broke down because I missed my family and my boyfriend; it was very tough. It was a very rude awakening, This summer, there were times where I was treated very harshly, but other times they would say, ‘oh my god you’re so talented!’ so there were a lot of ups and downs.”
Amber’s coolest client was French pop-star, Louane (equivalent to the United States’ Ariana Grande). She came in looking for something badass for her EuroCup performance the next day. “I pulled a bunch of clothes for her and different styles,” said Lopez. “She ended up trying things on for an hour and a half while talking to me and treating me like a normal person.” The next day, Amber turned on the TV to see the internationally televised performance and saw that Louane was wearing a YSL outfit styled by none other than herself the previous day. “I literally bawled. It was crazy; she was on stage wearing the clothes I had pulled for her.”
When Amber wasn’t busy styling celebrities, she would sit outside at one of the many Parisian cafés. “No matter what time of day it is, the patios are packed with people just sitting and having a glass of orange juice or wine; just chilling and enjoying life.” Amber’s biggest lesson was to learn how to be hard-headed and to not let anyone stop her from following her passion of working in Public Relations. “I just learned how to control my emotions and I know that the more I work, the faster I will achieve my dreams.”