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Susan Huston - 02 - Family history in fashion
Father owned tailoring shop and mother made clothing and had interest in fashion, projected onto Susan, served as mother's "fit model" which she lated did with Kim Dawson Agency
Susan Huston - 01 - Bio and introduction
Grew up in Arkansas, studied interior design and fashion design at Bauder Fashion College in Arlington, interest in fashion illustration at an early age and took courses in it at Bauder, encouraged by Neiman Marcus professional to attend art school if wanted to pursue fashion illustration, instead decided to stay in DFW area and find other fashion avenues to pursue, grandmother and grandfather also sewed but Susan doesn't sew much beyond home economics class training
Tracy Achor Hayes, First trip to European fashion weeks
Two figures standing informally, on the right is Tracy Achor Hayes in punk t-shirt and Ralph Lauren prairie skirt
Annette Becker - Headshot
Annette Becker standing in the storage facility for the Texas Fashion Collection
Tracy Achor Hayes - 32 - Shifts in industry during career
"I hope there will always be creative people who find a way to express their creativity through clothes; what a wonderful thing!", career paralleled shifts to digital and online and ecommerce and imagining what future might hold
Tracy Achor Hayes - 31 - Thoughts for future of fashion
Current discussion of sustainability in contrast to flying to Paris Fashion Week, reading Business of Fashion but not Vogue or Women's Wear Daily, opportunities for sustainability course correction but only some changes
Tracy Achor Hayes - 30 - "Unplugging" from fashion industry
After leaving fashion editorial work and now spending more time in Wyoming have "unplugged" from fashion world, "stuff that seemed very very important to me at one time now seems a little silly...whatever bridge that is, it has been crossed," shop with little places that are more personal rather than interest in latest "it" pieces, more interested in intellectual and historic perspective of clothes
Tracy Achor Hayes - 29 - Forty Five Ten
Missed being part of a more "nimble vehicle," moved to Forty Five Ten as editorial director for 1.5 years
Tracy Achor Hayes - 28 - Designer purchases
Employee discounts and sample sales offered new opportunities for purchasing designer pieces, donated many of them to the Texas Fashion Collection
Tracy Achor Hayes - 27 - eCommerce, Corporate environment
Moving from print to online work, telling the story of a brand, great team of people at Neiman Marcus
Tracy Achor Hayes - 26 - Leaving FD Luxe, joining Neiman Marcus
Became "fried" because of constant flow of work, started working part-time with Neiman Marcus to edit what later became "The Book," pace and autonomy very different from newspaper, had internal issues and project never got off ground, came back to Dallas Morning News, then became "Editorial Director" of Neiman-Marcus creative services team though thought would be "the last one to turn out the lights" working at the Dallas Morning News, worried about "cool" factor with changing jobs, challenge of managing workflow in new environment
Tracy Achor Hayes - 25 - AIDS and fashion industry
AIDS decimating industry, including ending Perry Ellis's life and career (including putting runway models in commercial photo shoots), pushback at Dallas Morning News, tension with sharing queer-lead fashion television shows including plans to put "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" team on cover of fashion section but told that it was "too gay," previously given total editorial freedom and "given a lot of support" but lost this battle "but won the war...maybe"
Tracy Achor Hayes - 24 - FD Luxe magazine and LGBTQ support
Proud of mentorship during career and "early showing of the realness and validity of everything going on in the LGBTQ community," in 1980s in Fashion Dallas did Valentine's issue featuring couples and included male couple that sparked controversy, "little by little things changed, and we were on the right side of it," issue featuring DIFFA denim jackets, used models who were HIV-positive or impacted by AIDS to break stereotype of it only impacting gay men, "if we can't be leading the way, who can?"
Tracy Achor Hayes - 23 - FD Luxe magazine scope
Expanded from clothing and beauty to lifestyle content, created lots of income through advertising compared to political reporting, previously had "separation of church and state" by keeping advertising and reporting separate but that changed with FD Luxe and its accountability to advertisers, wanted to create focus group for advertisers, "unspoken" shift to working with marketing team and working with advertisers, "less purist...more commercialized and monetized" echoing shift in entire fashion industry
Tracy Achor Hayes - 22 - FD Luxe magazine history
Fashion advertising interested in more niche audiences, magazine offered better image reproduction, 2003 magazine started as quarterly and then increased frequency, staff divided time between newspaper section and magazine and contributing to other news sections too, in later 2000s resources contracted and publication day for weekly section changed
Tracy Achor Hayes - 21 - Magazines vs. newspapers
Magazines had higher production value and staff with niche specialties, at newspapers did everything - traveling to cover collections, worked on photo shoots, interviewed designers - along with Tammy Theis who worked more with styling and photography as shifted more to writing
Tracy Achor Hayes - 20 - Favorite fashion moments
Favorites driven by designers rather than trends, appreciation for anti-establishment designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and Stephen Sprouse, Martin Margiela's first show gave plastic disposable shopping bag made into shirt, appreciation for Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto, fashion journalists divided between avant garde and "old school ladies...who took things so literally and never looked for the meaning behind it," Romeo Gigli with beautiful aesthetic creating fleeting moment in byzantine collection, Ralph Lauren show with Southwestern theme with "beautiful imagining of that world," never aspired to wear Chanel but impressed by season after season of Karl Lagerfeld's work
Tracy Achor Hayes - 19 - Individual sense of style, self-fashioning
Not much disposable income to spend on clothes as a journalist, did most shopping in Europe and New York while on the road, minuscule amount of designer clothing early on, for first Europe trip in February 1980 leaned into Texasness wearing punk t-shirt with Ralph Lauren prairie skirt and cowboy boots and jacket, loved music scene in London with Vivienne Westwood and New Romantics, "I never met a trend I wasn't ready to embrace...Norma Kamali, how big can my shoulder pads be?...never a second of boredom...I live for change, that's what fashion is!"
Tracy Achor Hayes - 18 - Relationship with Todd Oldham
Newspaper journalists trying to maintain "separation of church and state" but still covered him, Todd Oldham and partner Tony Longoria started career in Dallas, held sample sales in warehouse in Dallas, then got backing and was able to show in New York City, everyone excited about someone from Dallas who "had something to say...was capital "F" fashion," "he always had a clear point of view...we don't just need another skirt or shirt or pair of pants...it has to be about something," appreciation of craft instilled in Todd Oldham by mother, first NYC show included scouts to cover it, ramped up work very quicky and became "hot ticket" within a few years, top models wanted to do shows for free and designers lining front row wanting to see what he was going to do, Billy Beyond as first trans model, one collection inspired by Texas State Fair, even though Oldham no longer in fashion his work is still informed by that point of view, cohost of MTV "House of Style" with Cindy Crawford
Tracy Achor Hayes - 17 - Deciding what to cover
Balancing what was important and making news with what was available, for example Jean Paul Gauliter only sometimes available at one store in Dallas (Carla Montenego) but still covered because it was important, smaller quantity of shows to cover so anyone with a show was fairly prominent, in Milan four or five shows a day so easier to determine what merited coverage, "more silk than dross"
Tracy Achor Hayes - 16 - Professionalization of fashion coverage
Wrote stories when returned from fashion shows, gradually process got "slicker," photographers moved from sides of runway to end with huge telephoto lenses,
Tracy Achor Hayes - 15 - Fashion show swag
In 1990s fashion designers shared makeup and shirts and swag as part of marketing, brought those materials home because weren't allowed to keep anything over $5, toted all of it home and had employee sale and gave proceeds to charity
Tracy Achor Hayes - 14 - Working with fashion show photographer
Editing film for coverage, worked with Dan Lecka (spelling?) who worked extensively in New York City, met in photo lab to select images with slides over a light table with a loupe, only shared a photo with one client so worked hard to get best shots, even worked on slides with plexiglass over a lamp in hotel room, carried film in order in slide sheets in "full and heavy" carry-on through the airport, made sure to follow order ensembles went down runway
Tracy Achor Hayes - 13 - Day-to-day work covering fashion shows
Some people had to file stories daily by visiting Associated Press office and sending teletype messages and transmitting one photo, because Dallas Morning News had a weekly section and decided could wait the spreads were a bit later and very robust with some color photos
Tracy Achor Hayes - 12 - Covering New York Fashion
Week of "ladies designers" like Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta, then sportswear like Michael Kors and Donna Karan and Anne Klein, and then "cool" designers like Stephen Sprouse and Willi Smith and Todd Oldham, covered all three weeks of shows with robust spreads, height of that coverage was 1980s and 1990s