With a burgeoning crop of Websites, magazines and TV shows, fashion media has never been more in style, and exciting new careers beckon for the lucky few with the talent and skills to break in. Leading trend-setters and commentators reveal how they have put their stamp on the fashion industry.

Beth Charleston , Adjunct Professor, History of Fashion, Department of Fashion Design, Parsons The New School of Design
Felix Mercado , Celebrity stylist and style commentator, Style Guide, FOX News
Marie Griffin , President/Owner, Griffin Marketing & PR
Robert Verdi , Stylist; TV Personality
Suze Yalof Schwartz , Executive Fashion Editor at Large, Glamour

Available on NYC-TV Channel 74. Center Seminars are available online (www.cencom.org) via video streaming! Click on seminar pages to view videos!

Duration : 0:9:50

Technorati Tags: Center, City, communication, fashion, for, Glamour, Griffin, Industry, Inside, media, Mercado, Police, Stylist, The, Verdi, Week

Duration : 3 min 22 sec

Technorati Tags: The

Heidi Montag (born September 15, 1986 in Crested Butte, Colorado[1]) is an American reality television personality best known for appearing on the MTV reality television series The Hills. Montag works as an event planner for Bolthouse Productions and is also an aspiring singer.

In the summer of 2005, MTV began filming the lives of Laguna Beach cast member Lauren Conrad and her college friends for her spin-off reality show, The Hills.[2] Montag’s reality TV career began with a few appearances on season two of MTV’s Laguna Beach. Montag’s friendship with Conrad led to a featured role in The Hills, which premiered on May 31, 2006.[3] Montag was featured in the series sharing an apartment with Conrad while studying at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. Montag left the Fashion Institute in fall of 2005 when she was hired as an intern at Bolthouse Productions.[4] According to Montag, she dropped out because she “did not find the school challenging”.[5] Within two years, Montag was promoted from intern to event planner at Bolthouse, and has no plans to return to fashion school.[6]

Montag appeared in every episode of seasons one and two of The Hills, and appeared in season three, which aired on MTV on August 13, 2007.[7]

The nature of Montag’s role in future seasons of The Hills is unclear since she is no longer living with Conrad and no longer speaks with her because of conflicts which occurred during their time as roommates, which surrounded Montag’s relationship with Spencer Pratt. Despite a major role on the show, she did not appear on The Hills: Finale After Party, broadcast live from MTV’s New York headquarters or The Hills: MTV Canada Finale After Show (filmed at MTV’s Toronto studios).[8]

At The Hills: MTV Canada Finale After Show, cast member Audrina Patridge made it public that she no longer speaks with or sees Montag.[9]

Montag has discussed taking acting classes, saying she hopes The Hills will help her jump start a film career. She has expressed a desire to have appearances in “some movies” in addition to “a couple of hit albums”.[10] In a recent Blender magazine interview, Montag revealed her intentions of one day winning an Academy Award.

As of February 2007, Montag is working on recording an album with producer David Foster.[12] Montag danced as a child, thus reportedly plans to do “a lot of performing” in connection with the album. Additionally, she indicates that a lot of her songs “will be very sexual.”[12]

On August 16, 2007, Ryan Seacrest premiered Montag’s song, “Body Language”, featuring Pratt rapping, on his KIIS-FM radio show. Both Montag and Pratt denied the song was her intended first single with Pratt telling Us Weekly that the tune, “was a song Heidi and I were doing for fun. Never would I rap on her first single!”[13]

It was also reported that Montag is on a one-song contract with Warner Bros., not a full studio contract as both Montag and her then-fiance, Spencer Pratt, had claimed.[13]

In December 2007, another track by Montag and produced by David Foster entitled “Touch Me” was leaked online.[14]

On February 5, 2008 Montag’s first single, “Higher” received an online-only release on iTunes. Along with the single, the accompanying video shot by boyfriend, Spencer Pratt, was also available to purchase. The song and the video received a negative response from websites and readers across the internet, to which Montag responded, “I appreciate people taking the time to write any comment.” [15]

On March 25, 2008, Montag released her second single, “No More” through iTunes.

Despite dropping out of fashion school in 2005, Montag has reportedly been signed as the new spokesperson for Anchor Blue Clothing Company and will also design her own line for the company. The line will be called “Heidiwood” and will be priced between $10 – $60. [13] She debuted the line at a fashion show at the Hollywood and Highland shopping center in Hollywood on April 11, 2008.[17] Shortly after, she promoted her line in New York City, at MTV’s TRL, among other places.

Montag began dating Jordan Eubanks in 2005 and their relationship was featured on season one of The Hills. Montag broke off her relationship with Eubanks in the spring of 2006, a move that she has described as “the best decision of [her] life” and “something that [she] should have done earlier”.[4]

In the summer of 2006, Montag started dating fellow Hills cast member Spencer Pratt, a former manager of Brody Jenner. Season two of The Hills (which aired from January through April 2007) focused on Montag’s relationship with Pratt and its effect on her friendships with Conrad and Patridge.

Duration : 0:10:32

Technorati Tags: Beach, Heidi, Hills, Jimmy, Kimmel, Laguna, Live, Montag, Pratt, Spencer, The

Duration : 0:0:31

Technorati Tags: Art, Chicago, Design, fashion, illinois, Institute, media, of, school, The

Enter The Art Institutes Passion for Fashion Competition 2008

The Art Institutes Passion for Fashion Competition offers students interested in Fashion Design or Fashion Marketing, Merchandising or Retail Management an opportunity to compete for a full tuition scholarship to study at one of The Art Institutes.

Open to high school seniors across North America, The Art Institutes Passion for Fashion Competition was created to encourage and reward young fashion design and fashion marketing, merchandising and retail management talent at the high school level.

Since it began three years ago, interest in the competition has taken off. Says Bruce E. Dempsey, istant Vice President of Academic Affairs for The Art Institutes, “We have seen the number of students entering the competition just explode. There are so many wonderful fashion courses in high school today, and many students see a career in this industry within their reach.”

The competition consists of two categories, (I)Fashion Design and (II)Fashion Marketing, Merchandising and Retail Management. The grand prize in each category includes a full tuition scholarship to The Art Institutes school location with a Fashion program at which the student entered the competition.

Duration : 0:3:46

Technorati Tags: 29060, Art, Competition, Design, fashion, for, Institute, Marketing, Merchan., Multivu, Passion, The