This week, I had the chance to be part of a dicussion with ELLE Canada’s Editor in Chief, Rita Silvan. 
Her path to editor of ELLE has been quite interesting, to say the least. She first studied medicine at the University of Toronto, went on to study acting, and then worked as a manager in the early 90s for a high-tech company because “that would be the sensible thing to do.”
After much soul searching, she enrolled into Ryerson University and took night courses in Magazine Journalism. All the while, she though to herself, “If I could find a job in a fashion magazine, this would be a very exciting thing for me!”
At that time, FLARE magazine was looking for someone to fill the position of Senior Editor. On landing the job, Rita said, “For the first time in my life, I found something that…gave me a lot of pleasure. It was really a wonderful experience, for me.” After 2 years, she became part of ELLE Canada, where she has since become the Editor-in-Chief. She said it was about “having the right skills at the right time. There is also an element of luck…”
Does this mean there is hope for me?
For more, check out Toronto Street Fashion at: http://www.torontostreetfashion.com/blog/2006/11/working-with-media.html
It’s so awesome that you got to meet with a real live fashion editor (as opposed to a slightly more dead one, lol). I love hearing about people who didn’t follow a straight and narrow path and then ended up right where they wanted to be. They give me hope *tear* *tear* *chuckle* *chuckle*
-Gigi
Thanks for the link…