Sometimes you meet people with a future you can feel.  What they do and the way they do it, the way they carry themselves, it just seems inevitable that they will be influential.

Sarah Nicole Prickett is like that.  She is a young fashion writer/assistant, who walks and talks like a fashion editor.  She has attitude and opinions.  Her pieces provoke reaction.  When I read her work, I find myself identifying with her and disagreeing with her on a regular basis.  That is good.  If I sound a little envious, I might as well admit it.

I asked her a few questions about starting out as a fashion journalist.

You’re a journalism student who has already collected an impressive portfolio of published work. How do you find ways to get your writing out there?

I’m actually not a journalism student, as of September. Does that make it less impressive? I did go to Ryerson for two years, 2006 – 2008, and I learned a lot about how I don’t want to write. (Kidding. Great school.) Then I got an internship at FASHION Magazine, and started writing for them pretty quickly, and now I’m sort of a contributor-slash-assistant. Hyphenated jobs are very post-millennial. I’m also a contributing editor (weirdly, I don’t do much contributing or editing) at Torontoist.com; I’ve been writing there since October 2007, which is three decades in blog years. As for freelancing and “getting it out there,” unless you’re moneyed or connected–and I am neither, proudly–it’s like being an amateur cook. You’re throwing batches of spaghetti against a wall and hoping one sticks.

How did the opportunity to review shows for FASHION at London Fashion Week come about?

Um, I leaned over the cubicle divider and said “I think I’m going to England in February. Is that ok?” (I have family in Oxford; also, thought it was about time I took my first solo trip to…anywhere, actually.)

And Leah Rumack, my editor at FASHION, said “Oh, you’re going to be there for London Fashion Week.” I said, “Well, yeah, I was kinda thinking…” So half an hour later she came back and was kinda like, “OK, off you go.”

The magazine wasn’t going to send anyone to London, and I would have gone on my own anyway, so it was a bit of luck.

How would you define a well-crafted runway review? Who are the masters of the craft? Do you compare your own reviews to other writers reviews of the same shows?

I’ve never really thought about how to review a runway show. I just started doing it one week (L’Oreal Fashion Week, actually; it was the first thing I covered for Torontoist). That’s a terrible answer. In general, good reviewing comes from an intuitive mix of adoration and wariness about a subject.

I was talking to my friend Terese about reviewing art, and how out of my depth I feel in that field. She said it’s just a matter of adopting the language. And that’s a good point: every subject has its own lexicon. Either you can speak fashion, or you can’t.

The best show reviews are usually on Style.com, and of those, my favourite are usually by Sarah Mower. Cathy Horyn is a genius, though not always a good writer. Hilary Alexander of the UK Telegraph is both. I read every single one of her reviews when I was in London. Those and The Moment (NYT blog) twitters. And that’s it. There’s no point comparing my scrambled and rambling blog posts to the cohesive thoughts of experienced pros, so I don’t bother.

Anyway, for FASHION, I wasn’t even supposed to be *reviewing* as such. They just wanted a first-person take on the action at the shows. But I find it hard to shut my critical eye.

(I’m dying of pretension right now, I think.)

What are you looking forward to at LGFW? Has your experience in London changed the way you think of fashion in Toronto?

I’m looking forward to new designers and student shows, because London was so insanely new-new-new. It totally shifted my view of what’s “out there.” I’m craving a little shock again now.

The devil-may-care experimentation of young London was inspiring, almost terrifying at times. You wonder: is this the future? Or a crazy little time capsule to be marvelled at or mocked someday? FASHION EAST was one of my favourite things: three young female designers, each with a very sharp and separate attitude. (Natascha Stolle, Maria Francesca Pepe, Holly Fulton. Google!)

Here we have uniforms. In London they have costumes. That’s how I’ve started explaining it to people, because everyone asks me this question.

I don’t think designers in London give a shit about the recession; that’s why designers have PR people. There’s not a Central Saint Martins grad who’s opened a Financial Times in the last year. I guarantee you. And that’s kinda cool, if foolhardy.

Anyway, I hope to see some of that brazen creativity here too.

What are your favourite websites and blogs? What magazines do you read?

I read all my friends’ blogs every day, or try. Beyond that I’m not very good at internet voyeurism anymore. Besides, all these new style bloggers are so tiny! And not in the size two way. In the “I’m turning 13, and here’s the Commes des Garcons-inspired ensemble I’m wearing to my bat mitzvah” way. I wish I were secure enough to say it’s not depressing.

The only magazine I religiously read every single word of is Interview. In Canada, I like Hobo (from Vancouver) and this little Montreal quarterly called Maisonneuve. My favourite fashion mags, besides the one I work at, are mostly French I guess. Purple is the undisputed best. The international Vogues are getting awesome: Italia and Nippon, especially.

I also read the New York Times Style Magazine (my boyfriend and I got a New York Times subscription for Christmas this year, and honestly, it’s better than Jesus) and The Moment blog.

And I brought back one very precious copy of Katie Grand’s LOVE, her new biannual adventure. It’s like a British fashion yearbook. Loud and uncritical.

Of all the things you have written, what are you proudest of? Why?

Through one of those serendipitous internet connections, I got to interview a Japanese illustrator named Makiko Sugawa for the latest issue of Nico Magazine, a Luxembourg-based international quarterly. I knew nothing about her, and she barely spoke English, so it was a spectacular challenge. But I loved it and I loved her work. And it ended up being the cover interview, and that was a thrill.

What are your career goals after graduation? What is your dream job?

Well, um, I’m not graduating. So this is it. My dream job is to have my own magazine, so I can hire all my friends and live in a loft above the office and write looong letters to a faintly interested readership every month. That’s not unrealistic, is it?