The following are pieces of an interview from the Philippine Daily Inquirer with Artus Concepcion of Headquarters PR in New York. Read the original here.

PR man to the fashion stars

MANY PEOPLE THINK of the PR world to be all about glitz, glam, and endless schmoozing at cocktail parties among society’s namedroppables. Well, yes it is, but thats only one aspect of it. There is a whole other side to this cutthroat business that involves a lot of hard work, strategic planning and creative thinking for valued clientele.

Meet Artus Concepcion, a Filipino at the helm of the very successful Headquarters PR in New York City. It all stemmed from a passion for fashion (I can relate to that), which led him to the ins and outs of working for such high-end clientele as Calvin Klein and Vivienne Tam.

This seasoned PR man’s resume reads like a red-carpet invite list: Hes done publicity work for the likes of Anna Sui, Isaac Mizrahi, Betsey Johnson, Calvin Klein and Jimmy Choo.

He likewise led PR work for London-based brands Ben Sherman and Evisu Sportswear, and directed activities for hip-hop brand Marc Ecko.

Along with his partner Karina Sokolovsky, who has done global publicity for eight years at J Crew, he heads Headquarters PR, whose services run the gamut of professional PR services, from public relations strategy development to day-to-day press relations, special events, celebrity wardrobing, product launches and philanthropy programs.

Step into his office and find out a few tricks of the trade of fashion PR in one of the world’s fashion capitals.

What kind of publicity work do you do?

I do fashion PR. We do mostly fashion-oriented planning. The clients that we have are Vivienne Tam, Catherine Maladrino, Mexx. We have a few European brands, like Evisu. We also do shows for Oakley and Calvin Klein, which is currently a consulting client of ours.

Are you only US-based?

Our work is mostly centered in New York, but were trying to open a satellite office in London, too. There are a lot of hot new designers there, and so we want to offer our PR and representation services if they need it in New York as well. We are a small PR agency, and we want to keep it that way. We have about 14 clients that we deal with directly.

What is your background? What led you to PR?

I grew up in Pampanga, and then I went to college in UP and in San Francisco. After college I moved to Los Angeles. So I used to work for an AIDS foundation there. And then in 1991, there was an event for Calvin Klein, which was for an AIDS foundation, and Kate Moss attended this. She was really hot and she was the poster girl for Calvin Klein. Then I met the people from New York who produced the show, so I freelanced for them in 1993 and I moved to New York to work for KCD. They had Marc Jacobs, Versace, Chloe, and Anna Sui. So pretty much I started doing PR in 91-92. I have always loved fashion, so I was led naturally into it. It wasnt really my major in college, so I just fell into doing what I really love. I’ve worked for different agencies, I’ve worked in-house for Mark Ecko, and I did PR for Old Navy as well, and then started my own agency two and a half years ago. This is really my baby; its so much better to work for you!

How did you get your roster of high-end clients?

We didn’t really advertise our agency to get our clients, it was mostly through networking. Most of the fashion editors recommended the hot new designers to us. We always work with all of the fashion magazine editors, from Vogue to Bazaar, even men’s magazines like GQ. We also work with international magazines, like ID in the UK, Dazed and Confused, Italian Vogue and British Vogue. Since we also do store events, the bulk of the work is actually the calling of editors, insider TV, fashion segments on TV, celebrity channels, celebrity magazines like People or Us Weekly.

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Jonathon over at My Handbag and Purse Addiction offers a nice glimpse into the role of Fashion PR, commenting:

It is no tall claim to say that effective Fashion Public Relations can spell the difference between a brilliant but unsuccessful fashion house and a good fashion house that is extremely successful!

One caveat – He goes on to state the old maxim that PR is free as opposed to advertising, and that this is one of the reasons smaller fashion companies can benefit from great PR messaging. It’s true that PR is less expensive than traditional advertising, and it is a great option for emerging fashion designers working with smaller budgets. However, the problem with the “PR is Free” idea is that it often translates into less perceived value, respect and yes, less compensation for PR practitioners. As people become more immune advertising, PR offers one of the most credible and valuable means of communicating with target publics. It requires strategic thinking, relationship building, creativity, and a host of other skills. Public relations is not advertising, but it is also never free.

Confession: I used to write down every outfit I wore in a notebook. I’d put stars next to the really good ones (you know, in case I was experiencing closet freeze and needed help). I would spend hours writing down my planned outfits for summer camp, vacations and trips. And yes, I grew out of this – sort of. However, as someone who cannot stop her face from wincing when faced with too-tight jeans and other fashion faux-paux’s in public, but gets inspired, giddy, and jealous checking out the other girls’ outfits at the party, I totally get why sites like StyleDiary, ShareYourLook, and Shoutfit (still in beta-testing), are a dress-obsessed gal’s dream, and a total online time-sucker of the best kind. An article on Techcrunch started a really interesting dialogue about the value of these sites for women and men with StyleDiary founder Patricia Handschiegel and Kathryn Finney of The Budget Fashionista commenting.

Political philosopher and feminist theorist Iris Marion Young wrote in her 1994 article, “Women Recovering their Clothes,” that “in relating to women through our clothes we do not just exchange; we let or do not let each other into our lives,” and that clothes “do not always tell who is fairest of them all, but [are] the entrance to a wonderland of characters and situations.”

There is something a bit magical for me about communities of people connecting via fashion and dress. Young, who died this past August, would have no doubt been pleased to see how online fashion innovators have focused and utilized technology to create opportunities for this kind of shared experience to exist on an expanded, global level.

In PR, there is always concern over the lack of message control, and these sites take us further step away from traditional PR tactics, particularly media relations, because, as the article notes, “the fashion of the users themselves is the primary content of these networks” and therefore brand reputation and exposure is in the hands of individual consumers – and shouldn’t it be? It might take a leap of faith, but by monitoring these communities and highliting opportunities to communicate directly with target customers – PR has an opportunity to develop more open communication systems that value the individual and his/her power as a brand ambassador rather what may be idealized notions of influence.