This past Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending a fashion talk with Ken Downing, fashion director of Neiman Marcus, at the Phoenix Art Museum.
Having just come back from Fashion Week, or in his cases all four weeks, Ken focused his talk on the hottest spring trends. Among his favorites was hot, shocking pink color because, "Women are attracted to color." He is also loving, and I mean loving, Prada's flame pumps proclaiming, "You gotta j'adore, you gotta j'adore!" in the way that only Ken Downing can.
Of course there is no doubt that bold, bright, and printed pants, were on the top of his fashion spring trend list. He even came up with a fun moniker for the attention-getting pants calling them "fancy pants."
As much as I loved listening to Ken pour over next seasons trends, the best part of the night was getting to meet him. Some of my favorite Phoenix fashion bloggers and I essentially bummed rushed the poor guy and got ourselves a picture and he was so kind as to oblige. Not only did he take a picture with all of us he even lingered awhile to talk and joke around with us saying, "I love your enthusiasm." {whew! he didn't think we were just a bunch of crazed fashion groupies} I can say he is honestly one the nicest people I have met in this industry thus far.
His kindness toward us went hand-in-hand with what appears to be his affinity for the next generation of fashion industry successes. Saying during the talk and afterwards during the question and answer portion things like "I'm just livin a dream" in regards to his upbringing in Seattle, basically the furtherest place from fashion, and "Work, work, work, and keep working..." speaking to a college student about how to become successful in this competitive industry. He often alluded to the sentiment that there is no reason someone can't achieve their dreams if they are willing to work hard at it.
It was definitely a moment I wont' soon forget... Thank you Ken Downing, Neiman Marcus, Phoenix Art Museum and Phoenix Fashion Bloggers for making it such a wonderful night!
Fun Ken Quotes:
"What Marc does everyone follows." - of Marc Jacobs
"Everything inspires everything." - of design
"I love that a lot of people can play in this world of style and design." - agreed!
"All women want to be gorgeous and if you say you don't you are lying to me." - haha
"Let me tell you there are some tragedies out there." - of fashion seen on the runway
"Black is not a trend it's a constant." - so true!
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