Irish Silvestre

Welcome to my blog! I'm a graduate student in DePaul University's journalism program. Chicago's my new home and having lived around the world, I love the unique mix that the city has to offer – it's New York with a friendly smile, it's a glittering metropolis but homely neighborhoods are just around the corner.

I've lived in Manila, Dubai and New Jersey and I've spent most of my career working in Dubai. Having also grown up there, I can still remember when it was a dusty little city that nobody had heard of. But I've seen the city literally rise from the desert into the tourist destination that it is today.

And working in such an up-and-coming city is an experience that I truly value.

After graduating with a BA in journalism at Rutgers University, I decided it was time to move back home to Dubai. I became a staff writer at The Media Factory where I wrote for a wide range of lifestyle publications. There were the luxury magazines such as Kempinski (a high-end hotel and travel magazine), Aileron (a luxury magazine for private jets) and The Dubai Mall magazine (the luxury lifestyle magazine for the region's biggest mall).

But my experience wasn't limited to just luxury hotels and fashion – my job allowed me to work on photo shoots and travel to Switzerland, Toronto and islands like Boracay to write hotel, spa and restaurant reviews for in-flight magazines such as Sawasdee for Thai Airways and Oryx for Qatar Airways.

Later, I moved on to Gulf News as a sub-editor for fashion and shopping magazines such as Red Hot and CityLife. As a city that was coming to its own, it was fascinating to watch it develop its own style identity.

And although I'm a journalism graduate student today, I still find ways to write about my first love: fashion. I'm interested in trends but I love micro-trends. In fact, I recently wrote a trend feature on peplums for our university paper, the DePaulia. Although it was a trend that was already making the rounds in the fall/winter of 2011, it was simply waiting for its colorful spring/summer 2012 debut. Working on the story allowed me to speak with people such as Michael Hall, the costume mount fabricator at the Chicago History Museum. Not only did he discuss the trend's Greek origins but it was a conversation that kickstarted my interest in fashion history.

So whether it's a pair of embroidered 'Kitty' flats by shoe designer du jour Charlotte Olympia or Kate Spad