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Anissa Jaffery began her career with a law degree from the University of Westminster — a decision driven by her parents before she followed her aspirations to work in fashion, in PR and communications, in London.

“I think I emailed Karla Otto and Purple every day for about three weeks in a row — which I so don’t recommend necessarily,” she shared, during a BoF Careers’ LinkedIn Live: Building a Career in Fashion with Anissa Jaffery.

After landing an internship and her first full-time role at Purple in London, discovering “how to check for press coverage, how to pitch to journalists, […] how to do runway shows,” she moved in-house at luxury e-tailer Net-a-Porter and at highstreet giant Topshop. In 2020, Jaffery then relocated to Amsterdam to work at Calvin Klein.

Since living and working in Amsterdam over the last five years, Jaffery has also worked at e-bike company VanMoof as global head of brand partnerships, where she ushered in partnerships with the likes of Lil Sims and Jacquemus, and headed up PR at G Star Raw.

Now, Anissa works at ASICS Sportstyle as PR and brand collaborations lead. Below, BoF shares her career advice for talent starting out or moving into fashion PR today.

For the full interview, watch our LinkedIn Live, Building a Career in Fashion with Anissa Jaffery.

How did working at an agency set you up in your career?

For anyone going into PR, I do highly recommend starting at an agency because it helps you fully understand the ABCs of PR. It taught me really basic things like what a showroom is, how clothes end up on a page of a fashion magazine, how to check for press coverage, how to pitch to journalists — all of these basics.

Over my first years there, I learned how to do runway shows. I did my first fashion weeks, seating charts — so many events running around London delivering invitations, you name it. I found it so valuable because you can work across such a diverse range of brands, across different categories. It allows you to dive into womenswear, menswear, footwear, eyewear, jewellery, whatever it might be, and you get the opportunity to figure out what you like the most or what fits you the most, and it keeps your network quite broad.

How does this differ from starting out in-house?

If you start in-house, you’ll find that the teams are very small in PR brands. There’s usually no more than six people if you’re lucky. Whereas at an agency, you’re going to start at the same time as quite a lot of other people your age, also coming out of university. That camaraderie that you can have so early on in your career, making those connections with people who you can grow with together, is so important.

What you need for PR, especially when starting out in it, is quick-thinking, being able to be flexible, being highly organised [and] having a level of sociability.

Going in-house for the first time was a big learning curve of understanding how our strategy connected to the overarching brand’s goals. You end up also working with so many more departments, from buying, merchandising, the stylists, the producers, the creatives, and then together you are building the story as one unit.

Is a degree necessary for a role in PR today?

I definitely don’t regret my law degree, there’s so many transferable skills from what I learned then that I use today in my role. To give one example, contracts are a really big part of PR, like it or not — not to mention, negotiation skills, also public speaking and writing — so it ended up being very useful in my career in the end.

I would never discourage someone from continuing into further education because everyone is different and some people find it incredibly beneficial. What I will say though is I definitely don’t think you need a degree in fashion or PR to get into fashion or PR. A lot of people I’ve worked with in the industry, from managers to chief marketing officers, have come from a wide range of backgrounds, studying things from languages, psychology, English literature and history.

Ultimately, what you need for PR, especially when starting out in it, is quick-thinking, being able to be flexible, being highly organised [and] having a level of sociability.

How might someone outside the fashion industry transfer into it?

Diverse hiring is happening more and more within the industry. A lot of worlds are colliding between sports, fashion, music and the arts. I do notice that a lot of strong teams are hiring from different backgrounds and different parts of the industry within it.

Showing enthusiasm for the role and ensuring that you have a creative and smart brain that applies to the specific role you’re looking for [is important]. In the end, it’s just about knowing who your end consumer is and if you can really prove that within the interview process, there’s no reason why you can’t transfer.

[At ASICS], we’re not necessarily looking for people who have worked at sports brands, and we are also not necessarily looking for people who worked at fashion brands. The ASICS team is actually made up of people who have worked at [companies like] Spotify, Netflix, but also brands like Speedo. I’ve come from an e-bike brand and I think that really helps when you have all of those minds in a room with lots of different experiences of how it is to do PR across different categories. That’s where the magic happens.

What are some common misconceptions about working in PR?

I think it’s a misconception sometimes that PRs are the final stop of the train — that we get delivered a package of, “here are the assets, here’s the imagery, good luck.” When you work at a brand, you notice that PRs have a seat at the table when you’re having those first conversations around the strategy, around what a brand campaign should look like — because we know what will resonate to the wider audience.

[…] It’s far more than attending parties and pushing out press releases for new collections — PR is a fundamental part of the business for building and sustaining a brand’s identity. Our job is to shape and maintain the brand’s image, ensuring that everyone fully understands its point of view — guiding the public’s perception of it. So it’s not just about promoting the brand, it’s about crafting and telling a cohesive and strong narrative, which involves much more than just spotlighting products.

We wear a lot of hats in PR — we are organising events, we are helping build strategy, we are building profiles internally for spokespeople. But at the end of the day, we are all about ensuring that we’re gaining good visibility, ensuring that the story is right and that it resonates with the end consumer.

What did you learn from relocating to a new global city for work?

The relocation reinforced that in reality, in a world of big global brands, flexibility is key. Brands like ASICS, we’re in Amsterdam, Nike is in Portland, New Balance is in Boston. If you want to work for IKEA, you [might] move to Malmo. If you want to work for Lego, you [might] move to Billund. These are not necessarily the sexiest capitals of the world, but I do think that the cities offer invaluable learning experience. You get to work with world-class, global talent, and international teams. That kind of level of expertise and diverse backgrounds is really important for growth in the industry.

Be as open-minded as possible about the possibilities, and [do] not narrow yourself too much so early on in what you want.

Relocation was definitely a leap at the time and I didn’t have a strong network in the Netherlands. The role at Calvin Klein was quite a significant one. I joined a tiny team of four, navigating 20 countries across 10 PR agencies and I got to work across countries I’d never done the PR for before — countries like Turkey, Greece [and those in] the Middle East, alongside all of the core European ones like Germany, France, Spain, UK.

But just five weeks into moving there, COVID-19 hit and the brand underwent quite a dramatic shift. What was once a very dynamic team hosting events all the time, traveling constantly, now making a real pivot into a digital and influencer-first approach. So, it was quite a strange transition, particularly since I had to meet and collaborate with my teams virtually — but it was also an exciting opportunity to navigate a very social-first landscape.

What do you look for in junior talent today?

When I’m interviewing for my team, I love it when people show great enthusiasm for the role and have done research on the brand. That for me is really important. It’s not enough to show that you can do the job.

Show examples of the work that’s been done that resonated with you. Maybe you can even give feedback — I really love it when people show initiative, especially in PR. You’ve really got to hit the ground running in PR and just try things. It’s totally fine to make mistakes, especially in this fast-paced environment. Kindness also goes a really long way.

In a job interview, you’ll know your background pretty well and you’ll know how to pitch yourself. But I always do this [exercise] where I’ll write three words down before doing an interview of how I want to come across. So I’ll write things like “be excited” — to come across as a positive person who is excited to join the team. That sounds like a given, but it’s really not — especially in our industry, myself included — we have the tendency to moan a lot or complain even though we’re so lucky to work where we are.

What is key to breaking into the fashion industry?

What’s really important, especially if you’re at the start of your career, is to be as open-minded as possible about the possibilities, and [do] not narrow yourself too much so early on in what you want. For example, in terms of the category — don’t tell yourself you only want to look at luxury fashion straight out of university.

Give yourself the opportunity to test out other brands, even a brand you might not have heard of, because I really do think that every brand has the potential to be iconic — I truly believe that, with the right storytelling and approach, if you approach the job with creativity and passion, there’s no reason why it can’t happen and you can’t turn it around. Keep your options as open as possible because no matter where you end up, it will only help you drive success in your career.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.