Never Judge a Book by it's Cover

A few months ago the folks from Glamour Magazine approached me about participating in a nationwide internship contest they were conducting in association with Correlle, Inc. Originally I was a bit skeptical as I thought to myself, “Why would anyone in their right mind want to schlep all the way to New York City to intern for a relatively unknown designer.” Listen, this isn’t me doing the humble routine - it’s that I pretty much get my deal and my place in the fashion food chain. Unless you are a diehard fashionista and/or an avid reader of the gossip pages, the name Mal Sirrah isn’t really ringing any bells and/or whistles in your world. And for “now” that is completely fine with me. Not to mention, nothing against Glamour Magazine, but I don't believe until this contest entered my life that I had ever made it past the cover of a single issue since my early 20's. Glamour in those days was like what Lifetime TV is to today's gay man. Anyway, after a bit of encouraging from both the folks at Glamour and one of my staff members, I agreed to participate in their little intern contest “thingy”.

Well to my surprise and disbelief, in less than a one month period Glamour.com had received thousands of emails and contest applications for the internship at lil’ol Mal Sirrah. It was at this point that I realized maybe the whole Mal Sirrah "thingy” was starting to catch on. However I was even more thankful that all I needed to do was to take a look at the narrowed down list of potential interns and not the entire batch. Glamour Magazine actually made the final decision on their own based on the contestant’s submitted application and essay. They finally chose a winner at the beginning of December and forwarded me the selected intern’s bio and winning essay. Her name was Vi and she was from Houston, Texas. Not to mention, as cute as a button.

Glamour Magazine Contest Winner - Vi

Through Vi’s essay, bio and application, I could feel this young woman’s enthusiasm and excitement for wanting to be in the wonderful world of fashion. Therefore, I immediately began to panic. I panicked mainly because we had already decided that Mal Sirrah would not be showing during fashion week (one week before Glamour Magazine's internship winner was to arrive in NYC), nor were we going to be hosting a big “blowout” to mark the one year anniversary of Designers For Darfur. Instead we had chosen to host a very low key event strictly for supporters of DFD and for those looking to “truly” become involved in our efforts. But imagine trying to explain this to an intern that was coming all the way to New York City from Texas to work for a “real-live New York City designer”. I kept thinking to myself, “I will never be able to live up to these expectations.”

As luck would have it, the winner’s one week internship would also take place during the same exact time that we were scheduled to pack-up our Harlem showroom in order to move downtown. The showroom was a disaster area and this poor girl from Texas was truly doomed.

At this point, I will not provide you with the details of her trip. I will however allow an excerpt forwarded to me from an editor at Glamour Magazine taken from Vi’s own personal blog “le petite coquette”. This entire experience truly proved to me that sometimes all we have to do is simply show up – 100% ourselves.

Excerpt from Vi's "Le Petitie Coquette"

Pre-arrival, I actually am ashamed to say that I had not heard of my chosen designer, Malcom Harris (a.k.a Mal Sirrah). After looking him up online, not only was I excited, but of course nervous at the same time. I was actually worried I'd end up running to get cigarettes for an insane and egocentrical "designer" (ahem, Kim). I'd rather not name drop, but there are tons of talentless or "designers" I'd steer clear of. I fell in love with his Spring 07 line, from a link my fiance found and sent to me:

Malcolm Harris [Mal Sirrah]

Not only were the clothes beautifully designed and made, but the message that Malcolm sent out made it even more meaningful. He is actually a philantropist, devoted to helping spread the message about saving Darfur [ http://www.savedarfur.org/ ]--Please take the time to learn about the serious crisis currently occuring in Darfur.

Buy Me!

Everyday of my trip from around 11:00-3:00pm, I was "interning"; although I'd like to say simply soaking up valuable information from Malcolm. Not only was his advice beneficial to my decision, but I had the opportunity to see New York in a differently "non-tourist" manner. I am just extremely gratful to have had such an amazing experience with a real designer. For the most part, I was at his office in Harlem, which is not as bad a train ride as I originally was prepared for.

Mal Sirrah's Office

Malcolm took me to the garment district of New York on the second day we were there. It was actually pretty amazing to see so much fabric selection. It was definitely an experience, and not even comparable to what we have here in Houston.

Another trip outside of the office was at The Met. It was "inspiration day", and we took a brief trip to the museum to see The Costume Institute of New York's exhibit called Blog: Mode. I'm not sure whether most of the exhibit was related to technology, but it was inspiring nonetheless. To see the garments displayed as art rather than fashion, up close as opposed to in the pages of VOGUE and Style.com, was breathtaking to say the least.

The Met

To say I enjoyed my mentorship with Malcolm is a true understatement. I couldn't think of a more perfect fit for my personality and view of the fashion industry. He is a truly humble and a true talent, which is so extremely rare these days. He truly has seen and done it all, is successful, and will continue to make a positive mark in the world of fashion. For more information, just google Mal Sirrah, and you'll find a slew of articles on his successes [his first line, Katsumi & Malcolm, was actually backed by Madonna!]. He also has a blog called 'Cut, Sew, and Blog', which is also an interesting read: http://www.cutsewandblog.com/