My name is Sari Baez and i’m currently the President of sales and Marketing for the streetwear brand Diplomacy Worldwide. My job is to work with retailers to establish a relationship with the Diplomacy brand, to drive profit and promote our products through coordinated marketing campaigns and initiatives.
Growing up n New York, I hav always been passionate about fashion. I traveled to the fashion district in New York every week to purchase WWD and was always curious about the behind he scenes positions in the fashion world. My first breakthrough in fashion came at 18 years old when I interviewed for an internship at Whisper PR, which handled accounts in fashion, beauty, jewelry, and tech. At that point I knew that I wanted to be in this world. After my internship there I moved in-house to work for a baby gift company called Rashti & Rashti as a sales assistant. This would be one of many jobs in th fashion district that I would take on to build up my fashion resume. I knew I needed experience and I was thirsty for knowledge.
Since my first job in fashion, I can say that I went on to take on several other roles in fashion and by 24 years old I was the in-house Public Relations / showroom manager for the lingerie brand Hop Lun USA.
We had distribution at Bloomingdales and private label brands at several stores such as K-mart and other big door retailers.
After leaving that position I landed a position as a junior publicist at FYI PR. This is where I was able to make something else that very important in fashion -media connections.
I would e-mail and call about 100 media contacts a day. Pitch, pitch, pitch and lock in coverage. I would manage events for clients, guest lists, press events and so on – Socializing was also part of the job and I took it very serious. I stayed on the scene and made relationships with everyone.
I personally handled several fashion accounts while at FYI PR which included Ryan Kenny, Sedgwick G-III apparel and Cedar, MTV Cribs (the bedding collection), and The Rocawear / Patricia Field collaboration.
This opportunity led me into my next position which was the PR Director for Signature Apparel Group. It took about 3 months for me to officially land this position but once I did I was there for 5 years.
At Signature Apparel group I handled the Levis loungewear collection, Rocawear Juniors, Artful Dodger, and Fetish by Eve.
At this time Rocawear was a $750 Million Dollar Brand run by Jay-Z and one of the most successful celebrity driven brands at that time.
I moved on from that position in 2011 when I got married and gave birth to my son George Matthew Robles. I then took some time off to be a full time mother.
After about two years I decided that I was ready to get back t work which was actually pretty difficult but I was determined not to give up on my career.
I took on several freelance projects which included working with Harlems Fashion Row, Amanda Seales and London based clothing brand ANZ.
Fast Forward to the year 2021. I’m currently living in California with my son and and I have ownership in the current brand i’m working for.
I’m still interested in opening my own boutique and curating my own shopping experience which would include music, apparel, and art. i would also love to give back to the culture.
My mother is African American and my father is Puerto Rican and I feel like its always been very difficult as a mixed breed to identify with anything 100%.
I hope to one day re-marry as well and possibly give my son a sibling but my advice is to always make yourself happy, stay close to your family, take lots of pictures and take risks in life.
