It’s the tail end of a typical work week for Karen, having shot a Stella McCartney fragrance campaign in New York, consulted for the design team at Nike headquarters in Portland and styled a cover story in Vancouver for Style.com Magazine. Karen Langley manages to squeeze in a visit at Canada’s top fashion school before jetting off to the coveted front rows of Paris Fashion Week.
Long time best friend and colleague of BMC Fashion Director Tyler Udall, Karen Langley is currently the Fashion Director of Dazed and Confused Magazine. This past Tuesday she made an impromptu trip to visit our downtown facilities and speak with Tyler’s class.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Karen Langley’s extraordinary career, she works at the highest echelons of fashion. To put it mildly, her successes and influences are echoed around the globe.
Karen’s introduction to the fashion industry wasn’t a deliberate one. A chance meeting had her working backstage during London Fashion week nearly ten years ago. Her hard work and genuine interest for the job caught the attention of Love Magazine’s Katie Grand and Vogue Russia’s Simon Robins. The two fashion mavens offered her an internship at Dazed and Confused where Katie was Fashion Director at the time. Within a matter of weeks she found herself assisting legendary stylist and Alexander McQueen Creative Director Katy England.
“I was working with Katy on the McQueen runway show which was a crazy experience in itself. I had no idea what a stylist was or that it was even a job. I saw Katy and Lee working with all these incredible designs. I said to myself “I don’t know what she is doing but whatever that is, I want to be that.”
Karen rose through the ranks of Dazed and Confused all the while amassing a client list that would make any fashion insider green with envy: Burberry, Chanel, Diesel and Prada to name a few.
Her international reputation as a leading style aficionado has her creative signature gracing the pages of every major magazine on the planet: AnOther, Vogue, W, Harpers Bazaar, Purple Magazine; working with virtually every known supermodel and fashion photographer and styling a celebrity list that is too long to even mention. Lets simply say that Beyonce, Snoop Dogg, Kristen Stewart and Britney Spears are just some of many.
When asked by the students “How did you know that you had finally made it?”, the ever humble and grounded Karen immediately replied “Oh, I haven’t! And I don’t suspect I ever will. I always have to believe that my best work is still inside of me. Otherwise what’s the point?”
When talking to the students about the industry Karen preached the importance of instincts and seizing opportunities. “Now is your time. Intern as much as possible. If that means you don’t sleep, you don’t sleep. When I was finishing my degree at Central Saint Martins I was interning full time at Dazed, assisting Katy England, doing my thesis and working a bar job to pay the bills. Just listen to your gut. Loads of people will tell you what’s good and what’s not but ultimately you need to believe in yourself and trust your inner voice. If something feels right, run with it.”
While in Vancouver shooting the upcoming Style.com cover story, Fashion Merchandising grad Brittany-Ann Whitney (who incidentally is forging a very reputable name for herself as a stylist) had the opportunity to assist Karen.
Working over two days with a team from London, New York and LA, Karen got to know Brittany-Ann well. “Brittany was amazing! Super on top of all the details. She was organized, calm and just a really wonderful person to be around.”
If ever there were proof that dedication, a positive attitude and a love for your work pays off it, would be Karen Langley. Despite her epic success she couldn’t be more down to earth. The piece of advice given to our Merchandising students that both Tyler and Karen believe in and practice whole-heartedly “Work hard, be a good person and you will end up exactly where you are meant to be.”
Karen is represented by Total Management in New York, Paris and LA. To view her portfolio, click here.
