Text Juliana Vasconcelos, ECOM/IDP Advertising student
With almost 5 thousand followers, Rachel has shown that Fashion Journalism has only grown in recent years and will not stop there. Her posts talk about fashion history, the most important news of the week and lots of catwalk analysis. Furthermore, what makes your profile very successful are the almost weekly interviews with super special guests, such as mother and daughter Costanza Pascolato and Consuelo Blocker.
We did an interview with the communicator and she shared her stories and several tips for those who want to know more about fashion and also become a professional in the field.
Juliana from ECOM: Tell us a little about yourself and what you have been doing lately.
I have a degree in Journalism from UnB (2019), but I've been working in fashion communication for 5 years, which has always been what I wanted. I entered journalism already knowing what I wanted to do, since I was a teenager. I chose the course because I have always been communicative and liked writing and I ended up finding myself in fashion communication. I spent 2 years at Correio Braziliense, while I was still studying, but I had a lot of freedom to write about Beauty, Lifestyle, Behavior and Fashion. After that I went to a brand, where I had the opportunity to be a content creator. So I was able to work with 2 different types of writing, in the newspaper, which is more informative and in the brand, on the other advertising side, because a fashion show, for example, is not just about watching, it's about knowing how it will be sold, how it will be convert and is related to what is happening around you, in the world. After graduating, I joined the brand, continuing what I was already doing. When I decided to leave CLT and start freelancing, it was a lot of fun, taking advantage of the opportunities. I started with GPS and then joined the "Fashion Talks" section of Brasília Shopping. That's when I started to get more clients, through Content Marketing and with my Instagram page @rachelsabino_. Through a friend, I joined Agência JABOT (@jabot.agency), in January 2021, which just opened its physical space. There I work as Director of Content and client texts, but I am also part of various processes at the agency, such as styling and whatever is necessary. This month I'm going to London to do my Master's degree, but I'm still going to stay at the agency, but for now my professional life will have more focus on the academic part.
Juliana from ECOM: And where did this taste for fashion come from?
I have always had a very artistic profile, different from my family who are into medicine and law. Since she was little, she was very extroverted, liked to pick up the microphone and had dreams of working in the field of communication and arts. I dreamed of being an actress too! When I was little, I went to the salon with my mother and always read CARAS Magazine, which had a Fashion column, and in a special edition of the magazine, which was just about fashion, I bought it and fell in love. I cut out the clothes of models from the magazine and made sketches. I even became interested in clothing design, taking a drawing course. I realized I wanted to be a fashion journalist my first time writing about a fashion show. Then I found myself in the profession, while I was doing it. My parents have always supported me a lot, even though they were public servants and lived a completely different life. What journalism offers today is mainly this rotation, diversity of activity, especially brands looking for journalists to be able to communicate something to their audience without needing a specific means/communication vehicle.
Juliana from ECOM: On your Instagram profile, you already mentioned that being editor-in-chief of Vogue was a dream, but recently you also said that that's not all, why?
What stays in the fashion professional's head is very much the stereotype of "The Devil Wears Prada", which may exist, yes, but not only that, of being transformed from day to night, living in a glamorous world, working in magazine and wear branded clothes, etc. This world exists, of course, but the world of fashion is 99% sweat and 1% glamour. 10 years ago, magazines were still on the rise, because the focus was not yet on social media, until mid-2012. However, when you analyze magazines from 2014 onwards, they began to migrate to digital, which began to grow a lot and began to get rid of too specific professionals. A brand nowadays will no longer post just fashion clothes. So there is no longer any way to just have social media, you need a whole team. They [the brands] started to invest in content production, opening doors for journalists. Digital has greatly opened and expanded the market. So Vogue is no longer the only option. If the opportunity arises, great, but it is no longer just what exists, it can serve as inspiration, precisely because of these opportunities that digital is giving to the profession. It is also interesting that knowledge has changed. Unlike in the past, journalists need to know about metrics, understand whether the content is arriving and reaching people. Even in the production of scripts, because the visuals are very heavy. Remove the stereotype of the printed magazine and see the options that are available on the market. Examples of professions are social media, screenwriter, reporter, and so on. There are several possibilities through social networks. Vogue's perspective hasn't changed, it's still a dream, a possibility, but it's a type of magazine whose quality has fallen a lot, so it's our generation that will change that to rebuild the empire that once existed.
Juliana from ECOM: And how did you start building your incredible career on the rise?
I particularly matured very early, I couldn't act like an intern, because I needed to take advantage of opportunities and when I was at Correio Braziliense, I carried the name of a newspaper, so I threw myself into the opportunities that came my way. It is necessary to create opportunities too. What was there to PRESS TRIP Rachel tried to get involved. I went to SP for a course and asked to participate in SPFW with 3 posts a day, 8 pages of material and also coverage on Instagram to make the posts I wanted. I took advantage of the fact that Instagram was somewhat abandoned to create content. And it was crazy to walk around SP for a whole week, because the parades are in several different locations. The moment you sit down for the parade, the room goes dark and you have no idea what is going to happen and in a few seconds you have to capture what message is being conveyed. There is no way to end physical parades, because it is a unique experience, which completely transcends the virtual experience . This stereotype of the person who appears at the parade to criticize everything is already in decline, it doesn't exist much in real life, because it's more than that; is to decipher trends. It goes much further than revealing an outfit. There are trends, culture, a whole meaning that the parade carries. Understanding the message is very important. In Brazil, the fashion market is such a mess, you need to have a very good network to get into places, because you can't go alone. I went to every event there was to create connections. The fashion sector in Brazil is an INVESTMENT, you have to pay out of your own pocket to be able to create opportunities too.
One of the opportunities I had was to go to Manaus and cover the Parintins festival, which is like a sapucaí in Amazonas. I even stayed on a boat. It was a chance to open my mind outside the bubble. It was really cool to see that the entire city is divided between Garantido and Caprichoso, where the culture is so strong that brands adapt completely to be part of the festival. What ended up becoming a matter of behavior, and no longer a matter of fashion. Through this trip, I was able to meet someone who is part of the Teçume Project and we did voluntary training in order to understand how the digital world works. To be able to cover a parade, a story, it is necessary to have a repertoire of clashes of realities that go far beyond what is in the bubble. A profile of taking risks, accepting challenges, creating goals and putting your face forward to make it happen. On the cover of the magazine, together with Teçume, there were two more projects, including another volunteer work I covered inside the prison, where we featured interviews with handcuffed inmates. All of this while still an intern, opportunities that really helped me mature. EXPAND THE REPERTORY. Experiences that were NECESSARY to cover FASHION better, because covering fashion is much more than going to Paris, you need to have a sense of the world. Fashion doesn't exist if it doesn't have people, because you need people to make fashion happen, because it's an industry that is linked to time, to a specific era and because it has people, because there are people involved. Everything involves fashion, even if people say they don't care about fashion, because it is present in people's lives all the time. Coverage involves being able to read people, what they are feeling, what the world is experiencing. Understand what happened in the past to try to discover what will happen in the future (trends). Fashion is a reading of what is happening in the world, it is not just beauty, it is being willing to go to the interior of the Amazon, for example, to understand what people and culture are saying, living, and understanding the minds of these people. people.
Even though she is so young, Rachel still has a lot of stories to tell, so be sure to follow our column, because next Thursday there will be a lot more 😉
We know you already love us!
With affection,
InfoModa IDP 💋
Please Post Your Comments & Reviews