Today we’d like to introduce you to Janet Igah. We love seeing non-corporate media outlets thrive and so we encourage you to check out The Doe.
Hi Janet, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started as a production Assistant at Dennis Basso back in 2009. That was the first-ever thing I did in the fashion industry. My dream was to be a fashion designer. That year we were working on the MBFW show and the stylist was the legendary Patti Wilson, that whole experience gave me insight into PR, and Styling, both professions I had never heard or thought of before but I was intrigued.
I immediately decided to intern as a fashion stylist for various stylists and then eventually joined the editorial team at Raine Magazine. In the five and a half years that I was there, I worked my way up to being the Style Editor. It was during my years at Raine that I really learned the business, made a lot of my current connections and friendships, and really knew that I wanted to Create from a marketing standpoint.
I joined the founding team of Cool America Magazine as the Fashion Director and worked for two and half years building a magazine from scratch and realized what I wanted to do hadn’t been done yet. So in March of 2018, I started Doe Media & Publishing, which comprises The Doe Online ( digital & print magazine) and Doe PR. The Doe is a platform for elevating and educating Creatives on what it takes to get to where they want to go. We tell stories through beautiful imagery while building community.
In 2019, we launched a Fashion showroom in the Flatiron District of New York and then began working bi-coastal with Stylists and PR firms in LA to bring stories and projects together for our clients. During the pandemic, we closed our showroom temporarily but continued working virtually. Most recently, we produced a sustainable, digitally printed capsule collection and show at Kornit Fashion Week LA with our menswear client Dreu Beckemberg.
This year, we plan to reopen our New York Offices as well as one in Los Angeles.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth ride. I’d say I had a lot of personal struggles trying to build a business as a Black Woman in America. Financing was probably one of my biggest obstacles. Access to funds that would be able to provide working capital was not easy to come by.
I also have a family and at the time that I first launched the Doe, I lost my full-time retail job and a year later was separating from my husband when I launched the showroom. Becoming a single mom of three really kept me on my toes, and in 2020 once the pandemic hit, my business had to take a backseat to make sure I and my children were okay.
I am grateful for my support system, my team at The Doe and everyone who supported me while the chips were down, but having to sacrifice that time that I felt could have been spent building my business was the only way that I could power through. People have told me that it is not possible to have a family and build a successful business, and I definitely let that fuel me when I feel like giving up.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Over the 17 years that I have been in Fashion, I am most known as a Stylist and Publicist. I am very proud of the work that I have created with some of my many clients, Colleagues, who are all for the most part now my friends. The work that I am the proudest of was the tenth issue of The Doe Creative Brief.
It was a ten cover special that I worked on in the midst of the Pandemic and at the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. I named it The Black Book paying homage to one of my favorite writers, Toni Morrison, who Created a Black Book of her own in the early 70s. I told 10 Black stories through a Black lens, and everyone that I worked with on that was a person of color.
It was also extra special because I had just come from having such a tough year, losing a lot of friends and confidence in my creative ability. My ability to focus was eclipsed by everything happening around me, but it came together in the 11th hour even better than I had hoped. To this day, it is the most special piece of work that I have created.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I really love how freeing LA is. It feels like you can become anyone you want out in LA. But that also comes along with the things that I dislike; like people lying about who they really are and the access to hard drugs being so pervasive. I think if we are legalizing marijuana, good, but the use of something without knowing what or how to control it then becomes abuse and may lead to other addictions.
That really concerned me while I spent time in LA. Our addiction rate is so high in America, and subsequently, so is death by overdose, I think education needs to be followed up with the legalization of anything. While I think this happens any and everywhere, it was my first up-close and personal experience with this sort of feeling.
Pricing:
- 11.90 Digital Creative Briefs – https://www.thedoeonline.com/bookstore/the-doe-creative-brief-no-10-the-black-book-issue-x-special-edition-black-dreamers-cover-digital
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.thedoeonline.com
- Instagram: @thedoeonline
- Twitter: @thereeljanedoe
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/thedoeonline
Image Credits
Young Paris for the cover of The Doe Creative Brief #09 Photographed by J. Monroe The Black Book: ‘Black Family’ cover, Creative Brief #10 Photographed by J. Monroe Rose petal Editorial Photographed by J. Monroe Gift Wrapped Doll featured in The Doe Creative Brief photographed by Anna Strange Kalmes Liana Bank$ Photographed by Jesus Baez The prodigal’s Son featured in Cool America Photographed by Vaughn Eric Stewart On the red Carpet: Nova Lorraine, Jane, Halima Jane at Doe PR showroom in New York, NY
