Fashion Career Day 2011

Meeting the One and Only, Carmen Marc Valvo

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Career Day 2011 sponsored by Fashion Group International of Houston. Every year they have an event where high school and college students design garments and compete for scholarships by having a fashion show. Along with the fashion show, there are several workshops available to attend such as Behind The Runway and Making It Into The Fashion Business. Also, they have guest speakers who have goals to share their stories and inspire young students. This year the speakers were Janet Gurwitch and international fashion designer Carmen Marc Valvo.

When I first learned of this event the main thing I was excited about was getting to hear Carmen Marc Valvo speak. His talent is one of the best in my opinion. I did a post a few days ago about New York Fashion Week and even wrote about how incredible his clothing was. So anyway, I made sure that my friends and I had front row seats to hear and see him up close so I dashed up by the runway as soon as the doors opened!

When Carmen finally came out, I was amazed, as well as everybody else in the room. His story is so inspiring. It was interesting to hear how he went from being forced into a career of plastic surgery (which he never intended to fully pursue) to becoming one of the world's most talented designers today. I learned a lot from his speech. Go for what you want, take school seriously, and a couple of other secrets that I think I want to keep so they remain special.

Stepping through the doors of the U of H Hilton, the thought never even entered my mind that after I walked out at the end of the day, I would actually get the chance to meet one of my true inspirations. Sure enough, when we came outside, there was THE Carmen Marc Valvo just standing on the sidewalk talking on the phone. My friends and I kindly went up to him to ask for a quick picture and he nicely offered his time to take a few with us.

I feel miraculously lucky to have met Carmen and I'm so glad that I got to tell him that his work is great and amazing.

This was the highlight of my trip to Fashion Career Day 2011, but there is definitely more to come, so keep up!

Thanks for reading,

-B