We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rudy Reed a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rudy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you manage your own social media?
As a wardrobe stylist, I find it somewhat important to manage my on social media accounts. The duties and tasks related to my job change quite often, and in order for me to share my days in and outs, I feel that I’m the best to do that. And because I work in the fashion and beauty industry, I’m more critical of my presentation and posts. I don’t think another personal can truly capture my life and points of view other than myself.
So many of us are so consumed about the numbers of likes and followers they generate. I say post the things that make you happy and want to share with the your existing followers. Unless you’re doing it to promote a business, I urge people to just be themselves. It’s more relatable and believable.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
For those who may not know of me, let me start by saying that never in a million years that I would be doing what I’m doing today. The road of life is truly fascinating. I moved from Atlanta, Georgia to New York in efforts to continue my education. I was going to school for Broadcast Journalism. Needing to find work, I ended up working in retail. Living in a fashion capital, many people assumed that I had other ties to the industry aside from working in the boutiques. I didn’t.
It wasn’t until I was recruited by a gentleman that invited me to move over to the store he managed. The owner of the store just so happens to be Patricia Field, the award winning stylist for Sex in The City, Devil Wears Prada, Ugly Betty, the list goes on.
Deciding to join his team, little would I know this would be the opening into a completely different world as well as the start of my career in fashion .
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the best reward for being a creative is that I’m allowed to be myself. I’ve worked in “corporate” settings related to my field of work, and although I’ve enjoyed my previous jobs, there is always a certain percentage of BS that came with them.
Now working for myself, I have to ability to pick and choose what projects, and even individuals that I want to work with. I value my happiness and don’t care for stress.
Have you ever had to pivot?
My slight pivot with work came during an uncertain time. Especially for New Yorkers. It was one year after 9/11 and America as a whole didn’t know what to expect. Not having any family in NYC, I made the decision to move back to Atlanta to be closer to family.
This decision turned out not to be so bad. As I continued paving my way in the fashion industry, I was also given the opportunity to go back to my first passion-Writing.
I started a blog Fashion Forward Men, and also had a monthly fashion column for student of AUC (Morehouse, Spelman, Clark Atlanta University).
Contact Info:
- Instagram: rudyreednyc
- Facebook: Rudy Reed
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudyreed
- Twitter: @edgyfashionguy
Image Credits
Photographers: Kira Bucca Sinem Yazici