Who

Julie Mannion is the co-chief of KCD, a major fashion industry PR and event production firm. Her partner at KCD is Ed Filipowski.

Backstory

Mannion grew up in St. Louis and joined KCD right after graduating from college at the age of 23. Founded in the early '80s by former Vogue editor Kezia Keeble, her husband John Duka, and her ex Paul Cavaco, the firm became a fashion PR powerhouse, responsible for championing the likes of Steven Meisel and Bruce Webber. By 1991, Cavaco had left the firm and Keeble and Duka had fallen gravely ill (both eventually passed away); Mannion and her partner Ed Filipowski assumed leadership of the firm and eventually changed the name from Keeble, Cavaco & Duka to KCD. Today they operate one of the most formidable PR firms in the fashion biz and regularly put together some of the biggest events in town.

Of note

KCD has produced shows for just about all the elite fashion labels: Versace, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Zac Posen, Louis Vuitton, and Helmut Lang, to name just a few. The firm has choreographed some of the biggest events of the year (like the CFDA awards) and has metamorphosed Central Park, the Armory, New York Public Library and Grand Central Station into temples of glam. At KCD, Mannion handles the nitty-gritty production issues and takes care of locations, lighting, and music; Filipowski serves as more of the front-man, dealing with the firm's fickle fashionista clients. Both Mannion and Filipowski tend to lay low, generally deflecting press (about themselves, not their clients).

Drama

The elite PR shop itself received some bad PR in 2008 when it surfaced that, in order to guarantee access to the Lexington Avenue Armory for Marc Jacobs' shows, KCD had bribed the government bureaucrat who controlled access to the site. The bribe was allegedly a mixture of cash and goodies—$40,000, computers, a Bowflex machine, and more.

Personal

Mannion lives in a penthouse apartment on East 81st Street.

True story

After former client Gianni Versace was murdered in 1997, Mannion and Filipowski immediately went to Miami to make funeral arrangements. Mannion was given the task of watching over Versace's body at the morgue until sister Donatella could fly in from Italy.

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