Spotlight: Ashley Biscan, past Little Red Book member
Ashley Biscan pictured with Lauren Finney, The Atlantan Editor-in-Chief, and James Aguiar, Modern Luxury VP of Creative and Fashion Director
Before there was Rouge, there was Little Red Book. UGA’s only fashion magazine published its first issue in 2008 and has been giving students at UGA a place to express and explore their individuality, their personal style, and the world of fashion ever since.
To celebrate the rebranding of the magazine as “Rouge”, we wanted to take a look back at Little Red Book and the members that came before us. This series highlights the work they did with Little Red Book and where they are now.
Our first profile takes us back to 2013, the year that Ashley Biscan started at UGA with a Journalism major and a Fashion Merchandising minor. Today, Biscan works in Atlanta for the media publishing house, Modern Luxury as their Director of Marketing and Events. Back when she was a UGA student, she interned with Modern Luxury and always hoped to come back to work for the publisher, which has over 84 magazine titles across 24 cities.
Ashley Biscan was a top five finalist for the National Retail Federation Scholarship in 2016. Pictured here with fellow recipients and Mindy Grossman, former president of HSN.
A big distinction that Rouge is proud to tout to its members is the power of presenting work done at Rouge on a resume or in a portfolio. On the phone with Biscan, she was quick to attest to this, saying that seeing Little Red Book in her portfolio drove a lot of the attention when she interviewed for an internship with Women’s Wear Daily. Her experience managing spreads in the campus magazine, coordinating with stores downtown to borrow clothes for fashion shoots, and writing editorial copy all gave her strong talking points to help her land an internship with a major magazine in New York City.
“It’s all about how you present it,” said Biscan. “I put it front and center and made it sound like the amazing thing that it was. You can leverage the work that you do in any way you want. Present it in the way it should be valued and an employer will value it too.”
The cover of Little Red Book magazine in Fall 2014
When Biscan was at UGA, she was the Fashion Editor for Little Red Book. At that time, the only other executive positions were the Editor-in-Chief, the Art Department, and the Beauty Editor. While her job as Fashion Editor was filled with creative expression through directing photographers and models on set and developing a vision, it also meant that she had to learn to manage a timeline. “People will drag their feet and need encouragement to collaborate and participate,” she said. A lot of her experience involved collaboration, working with different departments and ideas and figuring out how to do what’s least expensive but also most impactful.
“It’s a very real experience,” she said of her time at Little Red Book, now that she works for a national media conglomerate and gets to “live and breathe the idyllic and less idyllic moments in magazine culture.”
For current Rouge members, she says to take advantage of everything UGA has to offer while you can. Biscan’s passion for working with the magazine came from the opportunity it gives to shape the content that people are consuming. The magazine is an embodiment of not just fashion in general, but “what UGA is living and breathing right now.”
“You get to shape your own story and perspective, and that’s really powerful”
As someone who really made her experience work for her and is familiar with the job market of fashion magazines, she advises current students that you only get what you ask for. “If you don’t apply because you don’t think that you have the skills, you’ll never know. Volume is key — the more you put out there, the more answers you’ll get back.”
Little Red Book 2014
Ashley Biscan created copy and spread titles, cast the models, styled, led the editorial team, scouted/booked locations, booked photographers, edited the copy for two editorials, and wrote the opening copy for this editorial, titled “Wanderlust.”
Looking through the work we do at Rouge now and how it has grown since Biscan’s time, she described it as progressive, without taking people too far out of their comfort zones. It’s exciting and pushes boundaries while remaining approachable. “We didn’t have a brand style guide back then,” said Biscan, adding that she loves the aesthetic of the Rouge brand now.
Biscan loves people who have a strong “brand” of their own and aspires to one day nail her perfect “signature look,” although her style is much more minimalist than some of the people in the fashion industry she’s interviewed, like Stacey Bendet, the alice + olivia creative director who is never caught without her intense, black eyeliner.
Even though she deems her signature look is a work in progress, she does have wardrobe essentials like her Bobbi Brown rouge and her ride-or-die wardrobe piece, an oversized cheetah-print faux fur coat from our very own Athens shop, Atomic. Not only is the coat fabulous, and right on trend now, it brings back memories of her time in New York and college days at UGA.