World cities, celebrities, glittering runways … Michelle Lynch has taken a decadeslong tour of the fashion business that’s led her around the world, down catwalks and behind the scenes of some of the industry’s most recognizable brands.
Now, the Atlanta-based owner of creative agency Poshe Productions dresses celebrities, manages models for print, TV and film, and produces fashion shows. Lynch choreographs events like the Georgia Bridal Show, which hosts multiple iterations a year from Marietta to Savannah. She’ll also be in charge of the Faces of Fashion: A Celestial Experience show on Sept. 29; it’s a part of Fulton County’s Fashion, Art, Culture & Education initiative and a kickoff to Atlanta Fashion Week.
“I’m organized,” she says frequently as she describes the circus that is the behind-the-scenes portion of a fashion show. That natural bent has earned her novel professional opportunities, and she’s working now to pass her knowledge on to the next generation of entrepreneurs.
From student to model to Macy’s
Lynch was a student at Arizona State University and attending a fashion academy part-time, learning the ins and outs of dressing models when she accompanied a friend attending a model call. Lynch was just there to support, but organizers zoomed in on her standout looks and height — she’s five-foot-eight.
She started modeling for fun and ended up traveling the world, showcasing creations from top designers: Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, Michael Kors. This was a continuation, whether or not she realized it, of a longtime passion.
“I always loved fashion because I was still playing with Barbie dolls at 17,” she recalled. “I was dressing them up, cutting out their outfits — changing them, making them asymmetrical.”
As the travel and runway experiences accumulated, she eventually felt a need to shift. She took to heart the endorsements of models she’d helped over the years with makeup, and she ended up doing glam for executive headshots for IBM, the international tech company. A decade in, she pivoted again, falling back on her fashion academy background as she turned to clothing styling. She started landing jobs, and Macy’s noticed. Lynch got a call during the fall fashion rush one year: The department store needed someone to run one of its New York shows.
“I was like, ‘Absolutely not … I’ve been in a show, but I haven’t done a show,’” Lynch recalled. “And they were like, ‘You have to do it. We’ll help you as much as possible.’”
Credit: Contributed by Michelle Lynch
Credit: Contributed by Michelle Lynch
So, she produced the show, and she recalls feeling like she was doing the thing she was meant to do.
“Bells, whistles: The sky parted,” she said. “Everything happened, and I’m like, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do.’”
She produced many more events for Macy’s and other big-name stores in a kaleidoscope of cities over the next two decades, amassing people skills and know-how. Along the way, she styled celebrities and performers, too, including Tyler Perry, Martha Stewart, Gabrielle Union, Tracee Ellis Ross, Little Big Town and Jessica Simpson. Her accommodating, prepared brand of professionalism, she said, helped her acclimate to especially exacting clients and to bigger cities where Southern hospitality was a foreign concept.
‘The next level’
Today, Lynch is still traveling managing talent and shows, but she’s also fostering growth closer to home. Atlanta, she acknowledged, is not a major fashion hub, but there are initiatives and opportunities here.
“Atlanta has a strong fashion community,” she said. “And I think everybody’s hungry for the next level, so I’m excited to be a part of that.”
She’s helping the city get to that next level in several ways. She regularly lectures at schools like the Savannah College of Art and Design and to South Forsyth High School students in an entrepreneur-focused club. She’s launched an annual show called “The Rise,” which features four up-and-coming designers, and she’s releasing a master class series on show production soon via posheproductions.com.
Decades in the industry mean there are differences in the way younger entrants choose to work.
“Everything that I do is based on relationships. That’s how I learned from my mentors and developing relationships,” she said. “But this new generation — everything is texting and all of that … We didn’t have social media and Instagram.”
The necessary work ethic in producing a show that looks polished and effortless, though, she said, is a constant, and she imparts that concept to mentees.
“I mean, there’ve been nights where I’ve gone to bed crying (after) picking up clothes, taking them across town, catching Ubers, renting buses, trying to go from one side of the city to the next,” she said. “That’s the hard work that people don’t see … Whatever my team needs when I need to roll up my sleeves and just say, ‘OK, let’s sweep this back up: I’m right there to do that.”
Looking back on her tour of the fashion world, Lynch can see she was gleaning useful knowledge even when she was unsure of her path.
“I was learning all along throughout the process of being a model,” she said. “I was watching everything people were doing to me, and I was picking it up, not realizing that was going to be my pathway … My whole story has been organic.”
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