Making It in Manhattan: The Beginner's Guide to Surviving & Thriving in the World of Fashion

by Caroline Vazzana

From a modern-day Carrie Bradshaw comes an insider’s guide to making it in the fashion industry.

From a young age, fashion editor, stylist, and writer Caroline Vazzana knew the fashion industry was where she belonged—but gaining access to the amazing and mysterious world of fashion in the city that never sleeps takes countless hours of hard work and dedication. After making it to some of fashion’s biggest publications, Caroline’s finally pulling back the curtain and telling us her secrets. In Making It in Manhattan , Caroline sheds a bit of light on her journey and guides fashion hopefuls to stand out from the crowd and land the job of their dreams.

Written in conversational style, in a format reminiscent of a journal, complete with pictures and illustrations (and a little bit of name-dropping), Caroline shares what she’s learned about pursuing a career in fashion and the resources that helped her land jobs at Teen Vogue , Marie Claire , and InStyle magazines. Making It in Manhattan topics From how to get your foot in the door, to making fashion your full-time job, Caroline’s insider advice gives you everything you’ll need for breaking in and making it in Manhattan.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 2021

Reviews

[VickiAmaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written with great energy but the information is only useful if you follow a specific path, right from college into NYC. As a UK reader, I can take elements of this book and use them, but not much practical advice.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars | 12+
A great book about the fashion industry for anyone interested in it! Caroline makes the book very personable, talking about her ups and downs in the industry in such an endearing way!

[Skylar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never written a review before but I felt it necessary so no one else wastes $16 on this book. While it was marketed as a “how-to” guide to breaking into the fashion industry, there was only about 5 helpful tips that could’ve been summed up in a 30 second Tiktok. The other 100 pages were filled with clichés you could find on a poster at Hobby Lobby (“Be Yourself!”, “Dress to Impress!” and some overused Coco Chanel quote) and the same 3 stories repeated over and over (spoiler alert - she had to carry garment bags on a subway). Additionally, it was pretty poorly written for someone who has worked at some of the top magazines in fashion, not to mention the part where her editor forgot to delete a note written to her in parentheses. Overall, don’t waste your time, it’s pretty much the same advice for every other job: make connections, make good impressions and work hard. The superiority complex of those who are already in the fashion industry prevents them from giving newbies any actual advice.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought there was going to be more substantial advice in this book. Instead, it was more of an autobiography with a lot of generic advice that could apply to anyone in any sutuation.

[Dahlia Raz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! As someone who wants to work in fashion I learned so much and it was really inspiring 💖💖💖💖💖

[Shirley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shallow with some interesting anecdotes. Wouldn't read twice, wouldn't recommend.

[Rachel K · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This was a fun read for me, I have always been interested in the fashion industry since I was little, but this was my first time grabbing a book based on the topic.

This book recolects Caroline Vazzana's experiences in the fashion industry, with tips and insights on how to land on fashion, of course do not take this as the ultimate guide to do so, as its title says is the beginners guide, so is very well oriented to people in their high school years or college years, still it is very interesting, many of the tips in here are very useful even if you are not pursuing a career in fashion, in other words, it can serve for general purposes.

I really enjoyed CV's storytelling and the illustrations found in the book, probably is not perfect but it was engaging, really worth the reading!

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here’s the thing, I didn’t hate this book. It was a cute story with cute drawings to pair with the authors journey. But that’s the thing. The books is marked as a guide to helped you through the world of fashion, and give you some real advice. However, I felt like I was reading more of autobiography, then a guide. Most of the advice given I could have learned from watching a quick tik tok or a ten minute YouTube video. At one point, the author even dedicates a chapter to how her friend sneak her into a fashion show but then advices the readers never to do that. It was a fun chapter but had nothing to do with making it in the fashion world.
Again overall not a bad book, but if it had been labeled correctly, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

[Priyanka Yadav · Rating 1 out of 5]

Should've been a blog post not a book.

[Kayleigh M]

I finished 2 pages in, this book was not captivating and felt like a 13-year-old perspective of the fashion industry and felt too romanticized.

[Sophie Buntin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting memoir about working in the fashion industry in NYC.

[Isabelle | Nine Tale Vixen · Rating 2 out of 5]

(I received a free eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.)

I think this book has the potential to be a helpful guide, but it needs a lot of editing first. Even ignoring the countless comma splices, typos, and excessive rhetoricals (“don’t we all?”) a lot of the personal anecdotes seem like fluff: entertaining to read, but told in much more detail than necessary to prove the point. (That said, Vazzana is a pretty good storyteller!) A lot of the advice and transitions are presented with cliched phrasing — “be yourself“ features prominently, as well as multiple reminders to dress to impress, plan ahead, network on social media as well as IRL, no risk no reward, etc, etc — all summarized neatly at the end, leaving me wondering why I took the time to read the book in full and whether I really got anything beyond some entertaining mini-stories.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an advanced reader's copy and I am familiar with Caroline's work in Marie Clare magazine and this book should be a woman's ultimate guide to fashion. I love the tips and tricks she shared with the reader's and there were a lot of images displayed throughout the book that correlated well with the chapters and topics giving the reader great insight on how to apply these fashion tips to their real-life. I also liked the way Caroline wrote the book as being more interpersonal and conversational with the reader leading to a laid back, easy understanding reading style. We will definitely consider ordering this for our non-fiction collection. 5 stars!