When I came to NYU, I had many unrealistic ideas about the fashion industry. For starters, I didn’t know my Zac Posen’s from my Marchesa’s; my Carine Roitfeld’s from my Anna Wintour’s. I had to google who Karl Lagerfeld was during my freshman year.
My first Fashion Week outfit was horrific. I was covering a show for Washington Square News and wore a $15 chiffon, black and cream dress I had gotten from Marshall’s. The pearl buttons on the collar fell off so I had to reattach them with a hot glue gun. I was embarrassed when I first stepped foot in the Lincoln Center. After the show, I was no longer sure that I had what it takes to succeed in the magazine industry (mainly because I didn’t understand what made a chic outfit versus what made an “average” one). I pictured my whole closet as the equivalent to Anne Hathaway’s infamous cerulean sweater in The Devil Wears Prada.
Up until reading Amy Odell’s Tales from the Back Row: An Outsider’s View from Inside the Fashion Industry, I thought I was alone in this sentiment. Did I not just get fashion? Could I not succeed in the magazine business if I didn’t really, truly understand the art form that is designer clothes?
As an alumna of NYU Journalism, Amy Odell’s perspective into the fashion world is the most relatable one we could ask for. She manages to call out the ridiculous nature of the fashion industry without belittling anyone, because she understands that, at the end of the day, most people want to look like the best versions of themselves (even if they won’t admit it). Amy isn’t afraid to simply just say, “I don’t understand everything about the fashion industry, but I’m going to try anyways.” Tales from the Back Row isn’t just hilarious – it’s real.
Amy went from buying a pair of discounted, trendy Alexander Wang sweatpants while high to wedding dress shopping drunk after she interviewed Chelsea Handler over margaritas. She knows that boyfriends, and most fashion outsiders for that matter, just don’t understand how certain things you wear are considered “stylish.” Such as the time when Amy’s Alexander Wang sweatpants almost ruined her relationship when she wore them out to dinner, I’ve approached family parties in leather, calf-length midi skirts and had people wonder if I was trying to covert to the Amish lifestyle. In a totally not-cheesy way, Amy just gets it, you know?
When you read Tales from the Back Row as a college student, you learn that success just doesn’t come as naturally as some fashion people make it seem. Throughout the book, you follow Amy as she gets fired from her first job to being a party reporter for New York Magazine to starting up their fashion blog, The Cut. She makes you realize that you don’t just get to be the editor of Cosmpolitan.com by learning to put together a nice outfit and showing up with a resume. You have to shove recorders in celebrities faces and ask them awkward questions, and you have to wear fur sandals and pretend to be a street style star in the sake of Fashion Week. You have to do things you aren’t comfortable doing, and when you see Amy’s progression as she struggles with both her shyness and her style as a fashion journalist, you feel okay knowing that that may be you, too. And maybe you’ve already had those moments where you think “I might be too awkward for this industry” or “Maybe I’m not stylish enough to wear designer clothes.” But if there’s anything Amy tells you in Tales from the Back Row it’s the one thing that most fashion insiders won’t: everyone feels this way at some point.
Amy’s debut book is more about being human and less about trying to fake someone you’re not in order to fit into the crowds of fedoras and Met Gala tickets. Most of all, she enjoys fashion in her own unique way – whether that be finding the most perfect Reem Acra wedding dress or having to borrow a Michael Kors dress from the fashion closet before her Vogue interview. She learned the industry one step at a time.
By the end of the book, Amy gets to the moment where she has that ultimate ‘ah-ha’ moment and thinks, “I can’t believe this is my job after all those years of struggling.” If you too want to get to that point in your life (and get a good laugh along the way), this book is a must read.
Purchase Tales from the Back Row for $13.75 on Amazon.com
Images: Lucy Helena Photography; Instagram/instamyodell