Ten Things I Don't Put On My Cv Cindee Smith
The Age
Saturday September 8, 2007
Cindee Smith is founder and CEO of The Fashion Incubator, a not-for-profit venture for designers.She has no patience with label junkies.
1 I love op shops. Most of my clothes are remade every season. I add a bit, take a bit away. 2 I worked for a pious man once who ran 1-900 sex lines at night . . . It taught me not to take things at face value.3 I worked in my parents' restaurants when I was five, standing on a milk crate stacking dishes. I progressed to washing dishes for 10 shillings a week. 4 Typical Gemini. I was always thinking of a new career. At one stage, I wanted to be an archaeologist, then a pathologist. I actually started studying psychology for a very brief time but ended up in fashion.5 Being made redundant from a very senior position in a retail chain was a blessing in disguise. It made me realise there were lots of other options. Sometimes you keep doing what you're doing out of habit, and to pay the bills.6 Buyers and people who only want a "famous", well recognised label leave me feeling pretty uninspired.7 Telling someone to do or not do something, would be my least effective strategy. You have to let designers try things and learn the hard way. It's tough: you know it's going to set them back, or cost them a lot of money, but it's far more effective. 8 One of my most challenging days was when four models and one MC did not turn up for the parade. I really had to improvise! 9 I'm a workaholic . . . I never spent enough time with my children, both adults now. I very much regret that I did not get to that rugby match, or school event.10 If I could change anything about this industry, I'd bring new seasons' clothes into stores in line with the seasons . . . and not have to ask the designers to tidy up the work room and take the bin out! -- LISA MITCHELL
© 2007 The Age
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