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the story
Maria
HEDIAN
"I didn't get here because doors were opened for me. I got here because I kept showing up until they were."
Show producer. Corporate executive. Educator. Founder. VP
This is how one career in fashion actually gets built.
Show producer. Corporate executive. Educator. Founder. VP
This is how one career in fashion actually gets built.
Show producer. Corporate executive. Educator. Founder. VP
This is how one career in fashion actually gets built.
Show producer. Corporate executive. Educator. Founder. VP
This is how one career in fashion actually gets built.
CHAPTER ONE
01
Mall jobs, mannequins & the change of a dream
I never planned on a career in fashion. As a kid, I was fully convinced I was going to be a performer - voice lessons, dance recitals, acting classes. But alongside all of that, I loved making things beautiful. I made clothes for my Barbies. I rearranged everything constantly. There was always something in me that needed to create, to style, to make a space or a person look exactly right.
Fashion snuck up on me slowly. By 16, I had my first job at a clothing store in the mall. What started as a way to fund my wardrobe turned into six years of real, unglamorous, invaluable experience - sales associate, personal shopper, store manager, visual merchandising stylist. I worked every role there was to work.
The entire time, I was also commuting 1.5 hours each way to take classes at FIT and later LIM, doing homework on the train, and clocking in to close the store after class. It was a lot. It was honestly kind of crazy. But it built something in me that no classroom alone ever could have.
I never planned on a career in fashion. As a kid, I was fully convinced I was going to be a performer - voice lessons, dance recitals, acting classes. But alongside all of that, I loved making things beautiful. I made clothes for my Barbies. I rearranged everything constantly. There was always something in me that needed to create, to style, to make a space or a person look exactly right.
Fashion snuck up on me slowly. By 16, I had my first job at a clothing store in the mall. What started as a way to fund my wardrobe turned into six years of real, unglamorous, invaluable experience - sales associate, personal shopper, store manager, visual merchandising stylist. I worked every role there was to work.
The entire time, I was also commuting 1.5 hours each way to take classes at FIT and later LIM, doing homework on the train, and clocking in to close the store after class. It was a lot. It was honestly kind of crazy. But it built something in me that no classroom alone ever could have.
CHAPTER TWO
02
FASHION WEEK
From model dresser to fashion show producer
The first time I stood backstage at a New York Fashion Week show, I knew. I didn't know exactly what role I'd play or how long it would take to get there, but I knew that world was mine.
I was taking classes at FIT when I got my first taste of it. I showed up as a model dresser, which sounds glamorous and is actually one of the most high-pressure, detail-obsessed jobs you can imagine. You are responsible for making sure the right look is on the right body at the exact right second. There is no margin for error. I loved every second of it.
So I kept coming back. Season after season, I volunteered, I hustled, I said yes to everything. I learned every role from the inside - styling, production coordination, logistics, show direction. I did this alongside whatever full-time job I was holding at the time, because the shows were never just a job to me. They were the thing I built my career around.
Over the next decade, that dedication turned into a production career I'm genuinely proud of. I went on to work on runway shows for Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang, Stella McCartney, Prabal Gurung, Jeremy Scott, Rodarte - among many others. Beyond the runway, I produced large-scale events for brands including Bergdorf Goodman, as well as cultural moments like the amfAR Gala and Tribeca Film Festival.
Each one was its own world - its own pressure, its own magic, its own version of that backstage feeling I fell in love with at FIT. I never took a single one of those calls for granted. And every single season, I couldn't wait to do it again.
The first time I stood backstage at a New York Fashion Week show, I knew. I didn't know exactly what role I'd play or how long it would take to get there, but I knew that world was mine.
I was taking classes at FIT when I got my first taste of it. I showed up as a model dresser, which sounds glamorous and is actually one of the most high-pressure, detail-obsessed jobs you can imagine. You are responsible for making sure the right look is on the right body at the exact right second. There is no margin for error. I loved every second of it.
So I kept coming back. Season after season, I volunteered, I hustled, I said yes to everything. I learned every role from the inside - styling, production coordination, logistics, show direction. I did this alongside whatever full-time job I was holding at the time, because the shows were never just a job to me. They were the thing I built my career around.
Over the next decade, that dedication turned into a production career I'm genuinely proud of. I went on to work on runway shows for Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang, Stella McCartney, Prabal Gurung, Jeremy Scott, Rodarte - among many others. Beyond the runway, I produced large-scale events for brands including Bergdorf Goodman, as well as cultural moments like the amfAR Gala and Tribeca Film Festival.
Each one was its own world - its own pressure, its own magic, its own version of that backstage feeling I fell in love with at FIT. I never took a single one of those calls for granted. And every single season, I couldn't wait to do it again.
CHAPTER THREE
03
What started as an internship became eight years, and honestly, I didn't see that coming when I walked in the door.
Ralph Lauren was the first place I really understood what it meant to work inside a fashion house at the highest level. Not just observe it, not just support it from the outside, but actually be inside the machine. I moved through public relations, marketing, styling, eCommerce, events, and online marketing - and each department taught me something completely different about how an iconic brand thinks, operates, and protects itself.
There were moments that were genuinely thrilling. There were moments that were hard. There were things I learned about corporate fashion culture that no course, no textbook, and no mentor could have told me, because you can only really learn them by living inside them for long enough that they start to make sense.
I left ready to take the next step. But I took everything Ralph Lauren gave me - every meeting, every email, every campaign, every difficult conversation, every lesson about what excellence actually looks like up close - and it became the foundation for everything that came next.
It was one of the most important chapters of my career, and I didn't take a single day of it for granted. I am a better educator, a better producer, and a better founder because of everything Ralph Lauren taught me.
CHAPTER FOUR
04
Starting from zero. Building from scratch.
Starting over felt like a reality check. Turns out, corporate experience means very little in the world of event production. Nobody cared about my years inside one of the most iconic fashion houses in the world. What they wanted were production credits, contacts, and references. I was starting from scratch in an industry that runs entirely on who knows you and who will vouch for you.
So I did the only thing I could. I wrote hundreds of emails a week. Cold outreach, follow-ups, requests for in-person informational interviews because this was before Zoom, and showing up in person was the only way to make a real impression. I talked about my years volunteering backstage at Fashion Week constantly, because that thread was the only one I had connecting me to this world, and I held onto it.
Eventually, one production company gave me a chance. I stayed with them for years. Projects came in slowly at first - then steadily - then, at some point, they stopped coming from me chasing them and started coming from people finding me. The hustle became a career.
Over ten years in event production, I worked my way from production assistant to production manager to producer. And somewhere along the way, I found myself hiring the same people I had once volunteered alongside as a model dresser backstage. I was building the calls sheets, making the decisions, running the room.
It was the most full-circle moment of my professional life. My training, in every sense of the word, was complete.
THE WORK
A SELECTION OF partnerships, FASHION shows & events
companies
DIZON, INC
BERGDORF GOODMAN
EVENTIQUE.
EYESIGHT GROUP
SOFIA CROKOS EVENTS
JENNIFER ZABINSKI EVENTS
BLUE REVOLVER INC.
RALPH LAUREN
OFF-WHITE
HETRICK-MARTIN INSTITUTE
NIKE
PRONOVIAS
AIR COMPANY
BOB WOODRUFF FOUNDATION
LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY
MACYS
NEIMAN MARCUS
SAKS FIFTH AVENUE
NEIMAN MARCUS
NINE WEST
SEVEN BAR FOUNDATION
TORY BURCH
CHRISTIAN SIRIANO
WISE & CO.
A CURRENT AFFAIR
VEUVE CLICQUOT
MAKE-A-WISH
TICKETMASTER
MERCEDES BENZ
GUCCI
BACARDI
events
JACK TAYLOR WELLNESS EVENT
HUMANE SOCIETY GALA
CCBF GALA
EMERY AWARDS
NY FASHION WEEK
AMFAR GALA
BG HOLIDAY WINDOW REVEAL
BG WOMEN OF DISTINCTION
NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS
FASHION FOR RELIEF
WOMEN IN THE WORLD SUMMIT
NFL FASHION EVENT
TORTUGA MUSIC FESTIVAL
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
JEFFREY CARES EVENT SHOW
STAND UP FOR HEROES
POLO RALPH LAUREN SHOW
LED ZEPPELIN: CELEBRATION DAY
EXPRESS: ROCK THE SIDEWALK
AAFA AMERICAN IMAGE AWARDS
BENEFIT 7 BAR FOUNDATION
BARCELONA BEACH FESTIVAL
AMERICAN IMAGE AWARDS
GUCCI SUNGLASS EVENT – SPAIN
VEUVE CLICQUOT POLO MATCH
STARS FROM TOMORROW
MACY’S THANKSGIVING PARADE
BILL BLASS CHARITY GALA
DILLARDS KENTUCKY DERBY
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD EXHIBIT
UNICEF 70TH ANNIVERSARY GALA
shows
DION LEE
KITH
N. HOOLYWOOD
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
PAMELLA ROLAND
ZADIG & VOLTAIRE
BATSHEVA
CREATURES OF COMFORT
PRABAL GURUNG
NOON BY NOOR
ZADIG & VOLTAIRE
BROOKS BROTHERS
PETER PILOTTO
OSCAR DE LA RENTA
RACHEL ZOE
CELINE
MARCHESA
CHARLOTTE RONSON
THE BLONDS
ERIN FETHERSTON
STELLA MCCARTNEY
LAUREN RALPH LAUREN
MONIQUE LHUILLIER
VERA WANG
MANGO X JCP LAUNCH SHOW
ZAC POSEN
THEORY
MARA HOFFMAN
JEREMY SCOTT
RODARTE
THAKOON
THE CLASSROOM
"The industry kept pulling me toward the
front of the room."
In 2021, while still deep in the work of producing and freelancing, I started teaching at FIT. I hadn't planned it as a pivot, it felt more like an inevitability. Twenty years of industry knowledge has a way of demanding an outlet, and a classroom full of people trying to break in is the right one.
Masterclasses followed at Parsons, the Amsterdam Fashion Academy, and eventually LIM College, my alma mater. In the Fall of 2024 I joined LIM's faculty, and by March 2025 I stepped into the role of Vice President of Career and Internship Services.
The teaching never stopped - it just grew a title.
FIT
INSTRUCTOR
School of Continuing Education
Principles of Networking
Parsons
The New School
MASTERCLASS
The New School, New York
Amsterdam
Fashion Academy
MASTERCLASS
Amsterdam, Netherlands
LIM College
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
VP, CAREER SERVICES
2024 - Present
FIT
INSTRUCTOR
School of Continuing Education
Principles of Networking
Parsons
The New School
MASTERCLASS
The New School, New York
Amsterdam
Fashion Academy
MASTERCLASS
Amsterdam, Netherlands
LIM College
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
VP, CAREER SERVICES
2024 - Present
CHAPTER FIVE
05
Over twenty years in fashion taught me everything I know. They also taught me everything I wish someone had told me sooner.
I started with nothing. No contacts, no connections, no one in my corner who had done this before me. Every door I walked through, I had to find first, knock on second, and push open myself, usually after it had already been slammed in my face at least once. I was relentless because I had to be. There was no other way in.
What kept me going was the belief that if I could just figure out how this industry actually worked, not the version they teach in school, but the real version, the unspoken version, I could build something lasting. And eventually, I did.
But here's what I know now that I didn't know then: it didn't have to be that hard. The rules exist. They're just not written down anywhere. The people who get ahead fastest aren't always the most talented, they're the ones who found out what the rules were before it cost them anything to learn them.
That's exactly what I didn't have. And it's exactly what I built Into the Fashion Industry to give you.
I've spent over twenty years collecting everything this industry doesn't put in a syllabus — the networking strategies that actually work, the things that make employers remember you, the mistakes that quietly end careers before they begin and I put all of it here. For you. So you can move faster, stumble less, and walk into this industry knowing what took me decades to learn.
You deserve a shorter path than the one I took. This is me making sure you have one.
CHAPTER FIVE
05
Over twenty years in fashion taught me everything I know. They also taught me everything I wish someone had told me sooner.
I started with nothing. No contacts, no connections, no one in my corner who had done this before me. Every door I walked through, I had to find first, knock on second, and push open myself, usually after it had already been slammed in my face at least once. I was relentless because I had to be. There was no other way in.
What kept me going was the belief that if I could just figure out how this industry actually worked, not the version they teach in school, but the real version, the unspoken version, I could build something lasting. And eventually, I did.
But here's what I know now that I didn't know then: it didn't have to be that hard. The rules exist. They're just not written down anywhere. The people who get ahead fastest aren't always the most talented, they're the ones who found out what the rules were before it cost them anything to learn them.
That's exactly what I didn't have. And it's exactly what I built Into the Fashion Industry to give you.
I've spent over twenty years collecting everything this industry doesn't put in a syllabus — the networking strategies that actually work, the things that make employers remember you, the mistakes that quietly end careers before they begin and I put all of it here. For you. So you can move faster, stumble less, and walk into this industry knowing what took me decades to learn.
You deserve a shorter path than the one I took. This is me making sure you have one.
SPEAKING & EVENTS
MARIA
in the Room
Some things don't translate through a screen, a syllabus, or a textbook. The energy of someone who has actually lived the career you're trying to build, who has sat in the rooms, made the mistakes, figured out the unwritten rules and come out the other side, that's something you feel in person.
I speak on the topics that matter most to students and early-career professionals: building confidence, mastering the art of networking, navigating career transitions, developing your personal brand, and the entrepreneurial mindset it actually takes to survive and thrive in this industry. Every talk is rooted in twenty plus years of real experience and shaped around what the people in the room actually need to hear.
Most recently, I was honored to speak at the Women of Impact Summit alongside some of the most driven, remarkable women I've ever shared a stage with. Whether it's a keynote, a guest lecture, a panel, or a masterclass, if there's a room full of people who are serious about their future, I want to be in it.
SPEAKING & EVENTS
MARIA
in the Room
Some things don't translate through a screen, a syllabus, or a textbook. The energy of someone who has actually lived the career you're trying to build, who has sat in the rooms, made the mistakes, figured out the unwritten rules and come out the other side, that's something you feel in person.
I speak on the topics that matter most to students and early-career professionals: building confidence, mastering the art of networking, navigating career transitions, developing your personal brand, and the entrepreneurial mindset it actually takes to survive and thrive in this industry. Every talk is rooted in twenty plus years of real experience and shaped around what the people in the room actually need to hear.
Most recently, I was honored to speak at the Women of Impact Summit alongside some of the most driven, remarkable women I've ever shared a stage with. Whether it's a keynote, a guest lecture, a panel, or a masterclass, if there's a room full of people who are serious about their future, I want to be in it.
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