CHLOE MAGAZINE
For the last few years, Elise has been building a career that so many
who covet all things sartorial would kill for. Based in New York, she
works for one of the most iconic British fashion labels, Burberry.
As a business student in university Elise worked hard to achieve
everything she desired. She interned at Walt Disney and went on an
exchange to the UK. After graduation she worked at a not-for-profit,
a sportswear company and a handbag company. Soon she began to
realize that her dreams were bigger than the Toronto fashion scene.
Elise decided to set the bar high and get some training in one of the
world’s most fashionable cities, Milan, where she completed her Masters in Fashion Brand Management. During a visit to see a friend after completing her program, Elise decided that she was meant to live
in the hustle and bustle of the New York fashion scene and secured an
internship in the “Big Apple.” The hard work and countless unpaid
hours at various internships were starting to take their toll when fate
seemed to step in. Elise notes that, “when I landed the internship at
Oscar de la Renta, I knew it would open doors to something big. I
knew my career in fashion was about to take off.” The internship at
Oscar de la Renta led to a full time position as a sales assistant working on the New York and Paris markets, where she stayed for three
years.
More recently, Elise has been managing working relationships with
vendors and buyers alike as an account executive for handbags and
footwear at Burberry. Working with upscale department stores such as
Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and El Palacio; she conducts business analysis reports and develops competitive shopping strategies.
She provides training and product knowledge for employees, as well
as partnership events with ready-to-wear collections.
Like all of us, Elise is so much more than her career. She is wise
beyond her years. She playfully juxtaposes this wisdom with a bubbly
personality that is as charming as it is contagious. She is an account
executive with the fashion world at her fingertips. She is daughter.
Elise is a best friend and a sorority sister. She is nearing a decade of
work as the founder of the Pink Pearl Foundation. Elise Gasbarrino is
a cancer survivor.
Before the store visits, all the shoes, the handbags and the numerous
fashion events, her future didn’t always look so bright. During her
third year of university, while on a co-op term in Ottawa, Elise found
herself feeling out of sorts. “I remember feeling abdominal pain for
quite some time and I recall my mom and my doctor commenting
that I was sort of walking funny,” she explains, “I went in for a number of tests and they came back that I had a tumour—it was ovarian
cancer. I was 21.”
While performing surgery to remove the cancer, doctors found a
tumour roughly the size of a v