I bought a bunch of manuals on how to ‘write a best seller’ and ‘writing for dummies’… that kind of thing. I loved writing but I had never written a novel. I was never motivated nor inspired by that.Īfter many attempts to re-write my content to please everyone, I decided I had to tell the stories that I was familiar with.

I could not write about the clichés and caricatures, the frivolity and love of the surface. I also wanted to explore the transformative power of fashion, as a tool of self-expression and identity, which is at everyone’s reach. With my novel I wanted to underline that aspect of it: the multi-billion and very professional industry I knew. There is nothing repetitive about this industry, it is in a constant flow, using and then discarding collateral damage, the show must go on. While living and working in Milan, London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles, I have encountered hundreds of kids who were drawn to the industry for the right reasons: their passion for the art of fashion, the fast creative pace marked by the eight seasons each year, the unique collaborations. Their vision was the extreme opposite of what I had experienced since my first internship at age nineteen at the press offices of Yves Saint Laurent Couture. At these meetings I would always be told: ‘Why fashion? No one cares about fashion,’ or ‘your content is too dark, could you make it light and funny’? In 2013 I found myself writing and pitching fashion fiction content to Hollywood digital platforms and TV. The industry is a dangerous but exciting world where youth and innocence are easily exploited by the predators that roam.

We had our share of magical moments and crappy ones too. But like them, I was very young.Īspiring talent, hopeful dreamers, unique but reckless personalities, ready for anything in order to further their careers. Dozens of kids came to me and I took them under my wing. I began my career as a model and then became an agent for fashion photographers and artists in music and dance. I wrote Wildchilds because I wanted to delve deeply into that other side, the one which, as a player for four decades, knew so well.

Is fashion only about beautiful women in stunning clothes? The fashion industry, as seen from the outside, has a bad image and reputation.

Wildchilds by Eugenia Melian