The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA

News

June 22, 2009

Selinsgrove grad in Vera Wang’s closet

Intern is ‘closet girl’ for famous designer

The names Vera Wang and Abigale Hoke go together like NYC and “the Grove.” Or like “Everyone knows her” and “Who?” But Hoke, a 2005 Selinsgrove High graduate, is living her dream in Vera Wang’s New York City-based fashion house, rubbing her Susquehanna Valley elbows with Manhattan’s finest.

“Working in the fashion industry has been a dream of mine forever,” said Hoke, now a senior at Hofstra University. Since last May, she has been interning at Vera Wang, starting out with menial projects like “closet girl” and gradually taking on more responsibilities.

Hoke was lucky enough to get contact information for the internship from a college friend’s sister who works there. From the day of her interview, it’s been a learning experience.

“I was so nervous, and it was funny,” she recalled. “They were so nice, and I was so overdressed.”

She wore a business suit, as all college job seekers are told to do, but everyone there was wearing “trendy dresses,” and every interviewee she’s seen since then has worn a trendy outfit, too.

“That was a huge eye opener for me because I just assumed anytime you go for a job interview, you should wear a suit.”

Hoke had to “kind of talk them into” giving her the internship because they felt she was overqualified. The ambitious 22-year-old is a marketing major with a double minor in fine arts and economics. She hopes to eventually become a fashion magazine editor.

When she landed the internship, she stood on 39th Street in Manhattan and called Selinsgrove.

“I went downstairs, out onto the street, and called my mom and dad and my grandparents,” she laughed.

As a closet girl, Hoke pulled pieces of each type of clothing from a collection to fill requests from fashion magazines and public relations departments for photo shoots.

But “now I have way more tasks that I’m actually doing on my own. I’m working directly with one of the graphic designers,” she said.

She helps with editing and photo shopping the “look books” — each model at a fashion show wears a “look” on the runway, and designers compile the 200 to 300 pieces in each collection in look books, which can then be sent to fashion editors and department store buyers.

You can tell from the excitement in her voice that Hoke is having the time of her life.

“A lot of the people I work directly with are in their twenties. It’s kind of a young business, and we all have a great time together.”

She’s been right there in the thick of things at the fashion shows, with the pounding music, the models, photographers and “tons of energy.” Being involved with putting on the huge fashion shows “was just something I’ve wanted to do my entire life,” she said.

And has she worked directly with Vera Wang herself?

“I haven’t been, quote/unquote, introduced to Vera Wang,” Hoke said. “But I’ve been in the same room with her a number of times.”

It seems the small-town girl has really made it.

“The biggest thing that I’ve learned through all of this is that I really can kind of make my own way into any career that I want,” she said. “Even though I am from a small town because that intimidated me so much because I didn’t have any connections, and it is so much about networking.”

Hoke accepts challenges and builds upon her successes, she said. She recalled her high school music teacher, Kathy Bartol.

“She was just totally behind me. She boosted my confidence.” And her experiences at Vera Wang have been “a huge boost of confidence,” too.

Elated at the way her hard work is paying off already, Hoke expressed something Vera Wang herself might have felt when she was first starting out.

“Instead of sitting back saying, ‘Oh, someday this could happen,’” she marveled, “it actually is happening.”

-- Cindy O. Herman lives in Snyder County. Send e-mail comments to her at Cindyherman1@yahoo.com.

Text Only
News
  • Jerry Sandusky charity to shut down and transfer programs

    PHILADELPHIA — The charity for troubled youths started by Jerry Sandusky more than three decades ago — and through which the retired Penn State assistant football coach met the boys he is charged with sexually abusing — said today it is seeking court approval to shut down and transfer its programs to a Texas-based youth ministry that serves abused and neglected children.

    May 25, 2012

  • memorialday25a.jpg Memorial Day Observances

    Here is a listing of Memorial Day events this weekend in the Central Susquehanna Valley.

    May 25, 2012 1 Photo

  • 10 Things to Know Today

    Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (times EDT):

    May 25, 2012

  • Privately-operated Dragon capsule arrives at space station

     

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space station astronauts have captured the Dragon. The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station today, making history as the first commercial delivery truck in orbit

    May 25, 2012

  • Man pleads guilty in 2006 Penn State student death

    STATE COLLEGE — A man whose murder conviction was previously thrown out in the fatal beating of a Penn State student six years ago has pleaded guilty in the killing under a deal with prosecutors.

    May 25, 2012

  • Streaker at Phillies-Cardinals game last night lost a bet

    ST. LOUIS — The streaker who ran naked onto the field during a Cardinals game says he did so because he lost a bet.

    May 25, 2012

  • Jokester cop tased intern at station

    NORTHUMBERLAND — A Northumberland police detective claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday he was wrongly blamed after an officer shot an intern with a Taser gun while fooling around at the police station in December.

    May 24, 2012

  • Midd-West taxpayers face increase of $109

    MIDDLEBURG — The Midd-West School District on Thursday night announced an average property tax increase of $109 to help offset its $1.8 million budget deficit for the 2012-13 school year.
    Midd-West will also close two elementary schools, consolidate two middle schools, cut programs and furlough seven teachers and 23 other staff members.

    May 24, 2012

  • LARA: Charred bridge sound

    LEWISBURG — The fire-damaged railroad bridge crossing the Susquehanna River at Lewisburg is structurally sound following the March fire that discolored steel and charred roughly 400 ties, the Lewisburg Area Recreation Authority said at its meeting Thursday.

    May 24, 2012

  • StatDay Stat of the Day: $2.6 million

    Stat of the Day: $2.6 million.

    That's what President Barack Obama has spent on advertising in Iowa, which may be a battleground state in November's election against presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

     

    May 24, 2012 1 Photo

  • Northampton County jury sentences man to death in officer killing

    EASTON — Jurors in eastern Pennsylvania have sentenced a man to death for fatally shooting a police officer last summer.

     

    May 24, 2012

  • 'To Do': Ambulance Anniversary

    DANVILLE - The Danville Ambulance Service will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a free pig roast open to the public starting at noon May 25 at the service on A Street.

    May 24, 2012

The Daily Marquee
Local Video
Stocks
Parade
Magazine

Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.