We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tiffany Fortson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tiffany below.

Tiffany, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I was introduced to fashion at an early age; and I am so thankful I was able to experience it by someone whom I truly admire. My late mother would design and sew a lot of my clothes from the time I was born until high school. She was my fashion icon and she had impeccable taste. Very talented, creative, and all around classy lady. I always wanted to dress different and unique and I didn’t want everyone else in school to have my outfits. So, I asked my mom to teach me how to sew when I was in middle school. She didn’t hesitate; and purchased me a sewing machine and taught me how to draft patterns and how to use commercial patterns. I enjoyed my new craft so much, I wanted to learn everything that I could. After I graduated from high school, I enrolled into Middle Tennessee State University and I majored in apparel design and minored in theatrical design.

There is a process to apparel design; It takes time, patience, and a lot of practice. In the beginning; if a design didn’t turn out as perfect as I had imaged, I became a little discourage. But, my mom would assure me and say, “you will get there, its going to take time.” Time is an important factor and the only way to become a skilled apparel designer is to practice and to be patient with yourself.

The skills that are most essential to becoming an apparel designer are learning the vocabulary terms, creativity, pattern-making, and sewing. The skills that are essential to becoming a stylist are also creativity, learning vocabulary terms, and staying current on the latest trends, colors, and prints.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Tiffany is a Tennessee native who earned her masters in fashion marketing from the prestigious LIM College in New York. Tiffany is the founder and creative director of her eponymous labels; Tiffany Junnelle and Miss Jerry, that began as a dream with her late mother before her death. Tiffany has participated in several fashion competitions in the past and continues to stay abreast of the fashion industry by attending industry events, networking, and attending quarterly meetings. Tiffany Junnelle and Miss Jerry designs speak to women who are confident no matter their size, height, race, and are eager to embrace their uniqueness through clothing.

The fashion industry is so broad and Tiffany wanted to make sure that she was well-knowledgeable about the different career pathways within the industry. At the start of her career; Tiffany was afforded the opportunity with a national retailer to produce over 30 fashion shows, selected and styled over 50 models, modeled professionally, worked on several ad campaigns, met with buyers, and selected merchandise for both the Juniors and Young Men’s departments for the entire southeast region of the country. Tiffany worked for a bridal boutique and designed wedding gowns and styled bridal parties. Her past experience with producing fashion shows allowed her to continue her experience and work as an assistant with the local bridal trade shows. Tiffany was later offered a position to work as a fashion editor with a national magazine and within months, she was quickly promoted to fashion director. Under her leadership; she successfully created over 10 fashion spreads, represented the magazine at national events, and was recommended to the publisher of the magazine, to increase the fashion presence in the magazine and include more pages within the fashion section.

You can not be timid and shy working in the fashion industry, you will have to make your presence known in every environment. Not being rude or over bearing, but by being confident in who you are. Time-management and communication skills are needed in this industry, and Tiffany executed those skills in a role where she had to work with vendors domestically and internationally. Tiffany did it without hesitation and worked with at least 10 different vendors daily.

Giving back to the community has always been a goal that was included in her business plan. When the opportunity to develop a summer fashion course at a local community college became available, it was a no-brainer for her. Tiffany developed the course curriculum to include many activities to introduce the students to different facets of the industry within a few weeks and taught the course. Being an educator didn’t stop there; Tiffany is currently a full-time fashion lecturer at a university where she teaches courses in both apparel design and fashion merchandising. Some of the courses taught include; Apparel Construction I and II, Basic Design, Fashion Forecasting, Fashion Product Development, Fashion Promotion, and Patternmaking II. With her personality and experience within the industry, Tiffany was voted by the students on campus “Most Influential Faculty” 2 years in a row and has received great reviews on her courses.

Tiffany has lived in Chicago, the DMV (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia), and Los Angeles area.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes, my goal is to stay true to myself. My style has always been different and unique and I am not afraid to stand out. I am able to predict trends and I get inspiration from so many things. So, I like to wear the styles before the market is heavily saturated with those trends. Once the market is penetrated; I move on to the next style or recycle an old one.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Yes, many years ago I was presented with an opportunity to be a fashion editor for a national magazine. I was excited, humbled, and terrified at the same time. I was excited because I would be able to share my fashion expertise and gifts with the world. I was extremely humbled that I was selected to be a part of the company, and terrified because I had never done this before. I have always told myself that I wanted to be well-versed with the different careers within the fashion industry and I had prayed for months for an open-door. This was my answered prayer and I knew that I had to step out of my comfort zone if I wanted to be successful in this new role.

This first step I took before I presented the publisher with my ideas for the upcoming months was that I prayed about the direction I should take, and about the topics to include in the fashion section. Each idea was well-received not only by the publisher but to the audience of the magazine. The positive feedback that I received of the fashion section allowed me to be quickly promoted to the role of fashion director within a few months. Not only did I receive a new role, my section increased in the number of pages per month.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: tiffanyjunnelleofficial
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/tiffany-j-fortson-mps-1b8492a6/