Hi, I’m Aliza Licht
I’ve spent my career inside the fashion industry, first in magazines, then as a longtime fashion executive in PR, where I learned exactly how stories are shaped, spun, and sometimes quietly rewritten. Along the way, I created and was the voice behind DKNY PR GIRL, an anonymous social persona that helped pioneer a new era of digital storytelling.
But storytelling has always been the through line. Not just the polished version you see in headlines or campaigns, but the version that’s engineered. That’s what brings me here.
Off the Record: Secrets of a 90s Fashion Insider in New York is my first novel, and I’m releasing it in real time on Substack. It’s inspired by the world I came up in, an era of fashion that was glamorous, cutthroat, and built on unspoken rules.
If you’re here, you’re early. And that’s exactly where the best stories begin.
Why this is different:
Most stories are written behind closed doors, then handed to you when they’re done. This one isn’t. Off the Record is a Live Manuscript being released unedited, incomplete, and in real time.
Here’s what you get as a paid subscriber:
Exclusive early access to the unfinished manuscript.
The ability to participate in the community and possibly influence the unwritten half of the book.
Backstage Pass: behind-the-scenes insights, sharp cultural commentary, and career lessons from more than two decades working in marketing, communications, media, and fashion, along with real-time strategy of what I’m building here.
A front-row seat to a new way of publishing.
For the price of two red lipsticks, you get access to everything you weren’t supposed to see. Or you could pay the $12/month if you want to test the waters.
When we reach the end of what’s been written, your reactions may help shape what comes next. Because the most interesting stories aren’t just told. They’re experienced.
Why subscribe to Off the Record?
I know how the fashion industry really works. I’ve lived it. From my early days in magazine editorial to the executive level of fashion PR, and later into marketing and brand strategy, I’ve shaped narratives, built awareness, created buzz, and managed reputations.
In 2009, as the creator and voice of DKNY PR GIRL, I built one of the first anonymous personas in fashion on social media, at a time when that simply wasn’t done. Now, I’m channeling everything I’ve seen and experienced into something new: my first novel.
In Off the Record, a fashion insider races to expose a rival before her glossy new memoir turns her into a legend. This is not a memoir. It’s fiction inspired by a world I know intimately, one built on ambition, reinvention, and the quiet manipulation of perception.
Since my time in the trenches, I founded Leave Your Mark, a multimedia brand and consultancy specializing in brand strategy, written two bestselling books, Leave Your Mark and On Brand, and built a platform dedicated to career growth and personal branding.
Subscribe to read the story as it unfolds, and to step inside the strategy, the process, and the world behind it.
