How does a Bermudian girl grace the style pages of a major fashion magazine and then become the first black publicist in Yves Saint Laurent?

Was it luck? Was it being in the right place at the right time? Or was it a strong work ethic?

Shiona Turini, 23, would say it was all three. She would say that nothing has come easy, and it has all been and still is about hard work with a little luck tossed into the mix.

Most days you will find her in the office by eight-something in the morning and leaving when the building shuts at 10 p.m.

Ms Turini was on a path at Hampton University to become an economics major, but she discovered that she wanted a bit more fun in her career life. So the undergraduate, much to her parent's questioning minds, switched to English, and then switched again to major in public relations.

Ms Turini ended up in New York City through an internship at Lou Hammond and Associates, which provides public relations services for the Bermuda Department of Tourism.

Lou Hammond offered her a job, but she did not want a career in travel, she wanted a job in the fashion industry.

So she left and found an unpaid internship at Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), where she stayed for seven months.

“They were disappointed that I didn't take the job, but a girl that I worked with knew that I wanted to work in fashion and her sister worked for a fashion company,” she said.

“So when I needed to do a work shadow for university I went to work-shadow her sister.

“My parents were like, ‘you are working for this PR firm and they are going to pay you, but you are going to take this free internship'. But it was just me at work during that time and I would arrive at 8.30 a.m. and stay until 8 p.m. and it was as if I was a full-time employee.

“In fashion you have to really prove yourself before you get the really good offers, so I was the hardest working intern and it led to other things.”

After being with YSL for seven months the job came to an end and they offered Ms Turini a post as a receptionist.

“I refused the job as the receptionist, not because I thought I was better than that, but because I felt that I could offer a lot more because I had a lot more experience,” she said.

“So they found me a freelance job working with another PR firm, where we did public relations for Victoria's Secret, GAP and Versace.

“When I was there I was helping out with the shows and the accounts I worked on were Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs. I did a really great job there and there was a girl going for a job in Paris and they asked if I would cover for her for a month.

“After that I got a job offer at Harris and & Shriftman and they do Land and Juicy, all the stuff for young people and they have exciting parties at the Hamptons. They also work with Mercedes and Puffy (Puff Daddy). They have a lot of good celebrity contacts, but I didn't love it as much.

“So when this job opened at YSL, the human resource girl at Gucci knew me, they didn't interview me they just offered me the job right away.

“So my path to where I am has been lucky, but I have had to prove myself.”

Ms Turini was invited to grace the pages of the November issue Glamour Magazine after a stint working at Harrison & Shirftman.

“I worked with the girls at Glamour Magazine because I had to try and get my clothes into their magazine,” she said, “And I think they thought I had a cute style and they called me up and told me they were doing a style page.

“At first I said well I am not a model and they said, “No, we really want you to do it”.

“I have been asked to do it before, but I like my job because I tell the models what to do, how to stand and what to wear.

“I've never really wanted to be on the other side.”

When she was a student at Hampton University she produced fashion shows.

“I think I was in one,” she said, “I was like I don't want to walk out there, I want to tell you how to do it.

“I am really good friends with the girls from Glamour now.”

At YSL as a public relations officer she is the sample coordinator. Whatever YSL clothes you see in a magazine have probably been placed by her.

Ms Turini said: “You have to have really strong relationships with the editors of magazines so they can think of you when they remember that they saw this dress, so let me call Shiona and get it down.

“If I am having a slow day, I will look at the stories that different magazines are doing and then I will try and pitch items to them.

“Oh, I know you are doing a safari story and I have this or that item. So, then they will shoot it and I'll get the credit.

“It is exciting, but it is a lot of work and I work a lot of hours, for instance this week I was getting in at 8.45 a.m. and leaving at 10 p.m. and that is only because that is when the building closes.

“It is also a lot of pressure because the magazine people are phoning and they are on deadline and if they have a last minute deadline, or a last minute shoot and I need to get a dress back, but if I have already booked it out - it involves a lot of juggling to try and make people happy.

“It is hard when you have 50 million people screaming at you because their boss is screaming at them. Everyone has to understand everyone else in the industry, because they might ask me for something and I'll be like, “I just don't have it - I would love to help you, but I can't” and they don't want to hear that because that's not what their boss wants to hear.”

She also rubs shoulders with some of Hollywood's A List and celebrities from the music industry.

“We do celebrity dress-ups and we have to be very, very selective about what type of magazines shoot the stuff.

“We don't want to be a snobby company, but we must maintain this image,” she said.

“Of course everyone wants their things to be in Vogue on Nicole Kidman or Halle Berry, but you have other people that you have to try to accommodate.

“I also do a lot of New York social dressing. Everyone thinks that celebrities and rich people buy all these things, but they use our showroom as their personal closet because when they want to go here or they have an event it would be silly for them to go and buy a $100,000 dress when they can just borrow it. “So they get us press and they get to look glamorous.”

Ms Turini finds that model casting is both interesting and disturbing.

“I think modelling is such a hard field, because we are strict about the ones we choose,” she said, “They all have to be a certain height and our dresses come in certain sizes and they have to be thin.

“It is very distressing to these girls, because that are already like 5' 10” and stick skinny, like a size two and they don't fit the sample.

“You feel bad for them and it is so competitive to being very, very thin and to think they are now going to be thinking that they are not thin enough for this job, as our samples come in a 0.”

There are days which are not much fun, and Ms Turini said, you need to be thick-skinned.

“For instance, two magazines will want the same dress and they get very, very mean and you can't be sensitive,” she said, “Like, if I was sensitive I would have cried so many times at work. I have tough skin and I think they hired me because they thought I could deal with that.

“I am like, ‘I understand - I know what you are going through, but you have to understand my position as well and I would help you if I could'.”

Ms Turini thinks that being a Bermudian helped in part for her becoming the first black person to work at the YSL corporate level.

“I think that being Bermudian kind of helped a bit,” she said, “It was like she was from Bermuda and she has an accent.

“But when you first walk in there, you are a black person to them. And then they were like, ‘Oh, you're Bermudian, OK'.”

“I think it helped me out, but it didn't pave my way. YSL is getting involved with Hip Hop and it is very new to them. “Maybe they didn't know who Beyonce or Mia Long was and I can say, “oh, she is really cute and she gets photographed”.

“I felt like I was the Black Panther Princess, always pushing the black stars.

“I think being a Bermudian helps out in being black, but it doesn't really help in the industry because a lot of these girls or their families are really well connected or they went to fashion school.

“So being Bermudian is like going in there alone, I have to make these connections myself, and I have to find myself, because I don't have ‘the I grew up in New York'.

“This is my work ethic and I was willing to work for free and for very little to do it. (Now) I have the experience and I've proved myself.”

Living in the Big Apple offers an exciting life with new friends and hot parties, but sometimes she becomes nostalgic and misses the simple aspects of family life.

“I miss home a lot, but sometimes I am so busy I don't miss it,” she said, “There are times when I call home and all of my family are together and those are some of the times when I think, is it worth it being out here.

“But I have always been career focused and I know this is what I have to do right now.

“It is such a tough industry and I feel that I am lucky so I have to stay there, but I need to make it work and then when I come home I can work it out.

“You have to take that chance. I knew I wanted to work in fashion and in New York. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to do it if I didn't have such a supportive family.

“When I first turned down a paid job for an internship I couldn't do it without my parents supporting me and they still support me a lot. Sometimes they don't agree with the choices I am making and they don't really “get” my job or what it is.

“But they still support me. I also have a cousin who I call collect several times a week if something is stressing me out at work, because she understands.”

Her love for fashion began at a very young age when she watched her mother shop, wear fine clothing and sew.

“I was fascinated and I wondered how could she walk in those shoes,” she said, “And my mother and my godmother both sewed and she enrolled me in sewing classes and I always made my clothes.

“But I knew that I wanted to take it a step further and do it as a job, but I didn't know what I wanted to do in fashion.

“When I was in college I was an economics major, but I thought this isn't fun - I like to have fun - and organise parties. So I thought I have to find a way to do this and make money.

“Then I was an English major and one day I was looking at a fellow student's text book and it was all about event planning and I thought, ‘they do a major for this' and she told me it was public relations and that day I went and switched my major.”

My mother said: “If you switch your major one more time ... !”

“I know that I am good with economics, and I know that I can write, so if I need to do it I can develop it,” she said.

She was warned that in New York she had to be careful of the friends she made because the industry is cut-throat.

But she said: “I think I have been fortunate with the friends that I have made since I've been there.

“And I know that after a stressful day I can say let's meet for a drink. It feels good.”