Industry Voices Live: The Stories Behind Fashion Careers
Join Fashion Friends Collective for Industry Voices Live, an intimate NYFW conversation exploring the stories behind fashion careers.
We’re bringing together Caroline Zimbalist and Emma Gage of MELKE for a candid conversation about the paths, risks, turning points, and passions that shape creative careers. Expect real stories, thoughtful perspective, and the kind of insight you usually only get from talking to someone one-on-one.
Come for the conversation, stay to connect with fellow members of the fashion community over drinks in SoHo.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
CAROLINE ZIMBALIST
Multidisciplinary Artist + Designer
Caroline Zimbalist is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist and designer working across fashion, art, material experimentation, and technology.
Known for her sculptural approach and experimentation with biomaterials, Caroline creates one-of-a-kind pieces that push beyond traditional ideas of what fashion can look like and what it can be made from. Her practice brings together material innovation, craftsmanship, experimentation, and the body, creating work that exists somewhere between fashion and art.
Caroline will share what it has meant to develop a creative practice that doesn’t fit neatly into a traditional industry category, the experimentation behind her work, and the choices that have allowed her to carve out a path of her own.
EMMA GAGE
Founder + Designer, MELKE
Emma Gage is the founder and designer behind MELKE, an independent fashion label recognized for its playful perspective, craftsmanship, storytelling, and thoughtful approach to sustainability.
Building MELKE has required Emma to move between the creative and practical sides of fashion: developing collections and a recognizable point of view while navigating the realities of growing an independent brand.
She’ll share the story behind building MELKE, how she has developed and protected its creative identity, the realities of entrepreneurship, and the decisions, challenges, and unexpected turns that have shaped her career along the way.
JEFF KARLY DROUILLARD
Creative Director + Stylist
New York-based creative director and stylist Jeff Karly Drouillard works across fashion, culture, and image-making, with a multidisciplinary practice spanning creative direction, styling, casting, and storytelling.
His career has been shaped by moving between disciplines rather than staying within a single creative lane. That perspective has given Jeff an intimate understanding of the collaboration, relationships, and many different forms of creative work that sit behind the images and ideas we see in fashion.
As moderator, Jeff brings that experience into the conversation, digging beyond accomplishments and traditional career timelines to explore how Caroline and Emma built their paths, the choices that shaped them, and the parts of a creative career that don't always make it into the polished version of the story.
WHAT WE'LL TALK ABOUT
There is no single way to build a career in fashion, and some of the most interesting careers are the ones that don’t follow the expected route.
The conversation will explore creative identity, career pivots and turning points, building something of your own, navigating uncertainty, taking creative risks, the role of relationships and community, and what each speaker wishes they had understood earlier in their career.
And because this is Industry Voices Live, the audience will have the opportunity to join the conversation during an audience Q&A.
THE EVENING
Join us from 6:00–9:00 PM for an evening of conversation and connection in SoHo.
We’ll begin with cocktails and time to connect, followed by Industry Voices Live and an audience Q&A. After the conversation, stay for drinks and the chance to connect with fellow members of the fashion community.
WHO CAN ATTEND
Attendance is open to Fashion Friends Collective members, including Community Pass members. Not a member yet? Join FFC at https://fashionfriendscollective.com/membership before registering.
We can’t wait to welcome you into the room.
Follow @fashfriendscollective on Instagram for event updates.