Midway through an informal talk with FIT students on April 9, Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, recalled a dramatic moment in his career. It was during his 2006 interview for the CFDA job, a position he says he “accidentally fell into,” since he had no prior experience in the fashion industry. Diane von Furstenberg, president of the CFDA, who was co-conducting the interview, asked, “What’s your sign?” “Libra,” he replied, and immediately “they all shut down their computers.” Kolb was worried, but later wrote von Furstenberg an email thanking her for the interview. Her three-word reply was auspicious: “I. Love. You.” (The job was his.)
Kolb’s talk, part of the Love Your Library lecture series, concerned his career path, goals for the CFDA, and a bit of the organization’s history. He worked at the American Cancer Society, Design Industries Foundation for Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) and, briefly, at MTV before landing the position at CFDA. “The CFDA was founded in 1962 by a woman named Eleanor Lambert,” he told the students. “She founded fashion week and created the [now-legendary 1973 fashion event] Battle of Versailles” in Paris. She was also the first person, he said, to promote designers as celebrities. Under Kolb’s leadership, the CFDA has grown from a $2.5 million to $20 million association. Kolb has encouraged the organization to shift its focus, concentrating less on design, more on business, including initiatives to bring manufacturing back to the Garment District.
One student asked, “What advice would you give a young designer just graduating from FIT?” “Find a job,” Kolb replied. “Don’t try to start your own brand right away. Work for someone else first, and network.”