That's the fashion world, its crazy.
I
found myself struggling with who I was, what I wanted to be in life, and what I
wanted out of my life. At the time I was in school for Fashion and Retail Management
for two years at the Art Institute of York, PA (August 2010 – June 2012) and
while my time there I started to get really bored and unfocused in all my classes.
In between studying for test till 2 in the morning with coffee in my hand, cutting
pictures out and putting together a book for a homework assignment for class
the next day at 4am it was hard for me to remotely gain any interest in what I was
doing. I couldn’t see myself working inside a store all day getting paid just to
help people pick out clothes and fold them when they were a mess. I couldn’t do
that. I always had an image of myself living in Los Angeles and become successful
with what I wanted to do and just being really happy in life. I didn’t feel
happy while I was going to school for retail. I was still lost with who I was
and what I wanted to do. So it was always hard for me to find myself.
When
I had free time I found interest with uploading fashion pictures on my Facebook
page. It wasn’t anything special and I wasn’t looking to gain any attention by any
of my friends from uploading pictures, but it surprisingly did. I would go on Google
and upload pictures that were all fashion related and a lot of people would
give me feedback with liking a picture or either commenting on them. I looked
at all of this and thought to myself and said, “All I am doing is uploading pictures
and getting responses from everyone, this is awesome.” I later then created an
album for all the pictures and titled it “That’s the fashion world, its crazy.”
I would upload pictures at least 1 or 5 at a time and would do this every other
day or every other three days. I started to get the hang of this and realized all
I was doing was a marketing frenzy. It was at the same time when I came across my
first fashion blog, “Shervins World.” All this person was doing was taking
pictures of herself and others and people were responding, that’s so cool and I
wanted to do the same.
I wanted
to put myself out there so someday I could find a job in the fashion world out
on the west coast. I didn’t just want to go to school I wanted to stand out and
be different then the next person. So in February of 2012 I started to build a
portfolio and ask a lot of my friends on Facebook if I can use their pictures
for my work to chase my dream from New York to Los Angeles, and everyone was
okay with it and said yes! New York was the closest city to me so I thought I
could start there with finding a job then head out to Los Angeles after. So I
began by taking my friends pictures off of their Facebook pages and turning
them into fashion advertisements and later I started to take pictures of my
friends on my own and do photo shoots and turn them into fashion advertisements
or even magazine articles. A few months later I called my work Mahipal SoCal
turned it into a blog to show case all my work. That way people can find my
work easier, I even made a like page where people can follow my work and
portfolio. As the months went by I started to see I was getting so much traffic
through my work and began to realize I was working with something that can
become full time. I started to realize this is what I wanted to do – a lot of
marketing and fashion blogging. I wanted to become a fashion blogger but more importantly,
I wanted to make a difference in the fashion world. So I stuck with the name
Mahipal SoCal and took the blog more seriously.
I later
transferred to a school for fashion marketing, The Art Institute of Philadelphia,
PA. I began covering Philadelphia Fashion Week and created a few social
projects. I started to build a name for myself and an image that was different
then the other fashion bloggers. The social project I created was “Follow your
dreams.” My life changed and who I was became more noticeable to me and I started
to become happier in life. I was chasing my dream to live in Los Angeles not
searching for a job, but to be able to fashion bog out there. So at the same
time while I was chasing my dream, I wanted to inspire others to chase their
dreams too. So I took an empty board in my college dorm and wrote ‘Follow Ur
Dreams” on it, once I had a picture of me holding it, I posted it to Facebook
and everyone fell in love it with. As I was walking down the streets of
Philadelphia late one night with my friends we all were hanging out and taking
some pictures, we stopped by a church and took some pictures and the same time
a lady walked by and stopped to talk to us. She asked me what we were doing and
about my sign. I told her my story and how I am chasing my dream to LA and I asked
her if she wanted to hold my sign, she said sure. I took the picture and she
told me her dream was to be cured of cancer. I thought to myself, wow that’s
such an amazing story. I later had the idea of having more strangers hold the
sign and tell me their dreams and do the same with their picture on Facebook;
the response was awesome.
A few
months later someone who worked with Project Runway picked up my work. We did a photo shoot in NY and she later asked me if I wanted to work
with her during fashion week. I didn’t know much about fashion but I was sure
willing to learn. It wasn’t until my second season at New York City Fashion
Week where I took some pictures of a lady with a handkerchief around her neck,
a multi-colored handkerchief. Her name goes by Leandra Medine. I really didn’t
know much about her or that was a fashion blogger (which later I found out) all
I knew was she was front row at fashion week wearing a multi-colored
handkerchief around her neck. I later saw her picture online and was like, “Oh
wow, I took that lady’s picture.” So I began to do research on her and found
out she too is also a fashion blogger. Who’s sitting front row at fashion week
and is very known! I did more searching and came across some interviews and
articles and saw she also started her work as a portfolio to help her get a job
which turned into something that she has taken on as an everyday thing and she has
a unique way of expressing her blog. “The ManRepeller.”
Thanks for reading everyone.
Be sure to follow me chasing my dreams for more updates.
Facebook & Instagram
Mahipal SoCal & @mahipal_socal
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