Alex White, Fashion Director of Elle USA Magazine

On Monday 23^rd September we welcomed back to St Mary’s Alex White, a previous student who has had a very successful career in the fashion industry.

Alex White’s passion for image-making and fashion began as a child, inspired by the strong female role models of her British-West Indian mother and her four aunts. Alex’s exposure to international travel and many cultures from an early age is her creative DNA. Throughout her career, she has envisioned innovative campaigns, editorial stories, product design and special projects with leading fashion and beauty brands that have placed women’s stories and feminine perspectives at their centre.

White has collaborated on product design and runway styling for Prada, Burberry, Chanel and Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton.

Her recent creative projects include the Paper Flowers and Believe in Dreams campaigns for Tiffany & Co, consultation with Nike on a fashion-forward brand initiative, and styling Topshop’s relaunch of their international collections.

Throughout her career White’s aesthetic has been sought after by beauty and fragrance brands worldwide including Estee Lauder, Dior, Sephora and MAC.

Alex White was the Fashion Director of W magazine for over a decade during its trailblazing years, founding US Fashion Director of Porter magazine and is a contributing editor of Vogue Italia and WSJ Magazine.

Alex is currently working in New York as the Fashion Director of ELLE USA.

Isabelle, a Year 13 student interviewed Alex: “On September 23^rd a fashion stylist living in New York working for one of the most prestigious magazine companies in the world. Three of my friends and I interviewed Alex White about her career, journey from school to present day and about her tips on to get into the fashion industry. This talk was extremely beneficial to me especially because I’m trying to work my way up into the fashion industry as well through my A levels and extracurricular activities. Alex went to St Mary’s as a student and from there went on to do an internship at a magazine company. She explained the process post 16/17 she went through to be in the role she is in today. For example, she did an internship at 17 and went onto to be a photographer’s assistant. From there she carried on pushing forward working her way up to have amazing opportunities such as styling the Chanel runway at the age of 25.

Alex gave us insightful tips on internships, apprenticeships and university courses that would be valuable. We also spoke about what her job role entails. Alex’s job is to style the outfits we see on the runway, in picture’s and on magazines. She has worked with incredible brands such as Chanel, Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. Moreover, the way White deeply explained every answer to the questions we were asking has helped me and many other students that I have talked to decide if the fashion industry is the right pathway for them.

From this talk, I learned that I must be determined and open minded as well as having the ability to co-operate with others around me, I learned valuable lesson that I will be keeping with me as I continue to work my way through A Levels and my post eighteen journey such as courses that would be of value to take, the best university and colleges to go to and even how to get in contact with companies if you’re looking to do an apprenticeship. Finally, I learned the secrets into what being in Alex Whites job role entails such as what it’s like working with lots of different celebrities, her opinions on different controversial topics within the fashion community and even how she anticipates the next big trends.

Being able to speak with such an inspirational female figure was such an incredible experience and I learned so many useful tips on how to get into the industry I’ve always wanted to be in.”

Alex White being Interviewed by our Sixth Formers. 

Gatsby Benchmark 5 Encounters with Employers and Employees

Gatsby Benchmark 4 Linking Curriculum Learning with Careers

Gatsby Benchmark 2 Learning from Labour Market Information