First glance at Mellany Sanchez and you may think, okay, bright young woman, tons of potential. After all, she was just tapped by shoe industry hot shot Ronnie Fieg to head up women’s for his recently opened New York store, Kith NYC, starting with a collection of tops and bottoms called White Label for Spring 2013. Spend some time listening to the tale of her come up and you quickly realize she’s already light years past the potential phase. Simply put while most of her classmates were enjoying carefree teen times as high schoolers, she was already chasing down real life opportunities in the fashion industry and juggling not just homework but internships and jobs.

At age 15 she cut her teeth as an intern at Luis Colon’s magazine, Kicks, and all female sneaker store, Laces, and then moved on to jobs and internships at David Z, Rag & Bone, and at J.Crew worked her way up to head merchandiser at the chain’s No.2 Crew Cut store. In addition to Kith, she now handles social media for Oak, and Nike has spotted her, too, recently featuring her in a campaign featuring women’s running gear. We intended to quiz her strictly on the White Label drop, but found her story very easy to listen to. See if you don’t agree:

Q: A few days ago Kith’s White Label dropped its first full launch for men, women and kids. As of now it’s sold to the wall. How long did that take?
Sanchez: It took 90 minutes to sell out. Kith has been making menswear for a while, starting with the Mercer pants. Now it has expanded into women’s and kids. Women were asking for it and Ronnie was listening.

Q: What did the collection include?
Sanchez: The Mercer pants in six colors –black, grey, olive, navy, burgunday and khaki, plus two tops—one all black and the other denim with grey sleeves. The denim is raw Japanese denim with selvidge details.

Q: Ronnie Fieg is a friend to HighSnobette so we know he has a very big personality. How is it working with him?
Sanchez: We both respect each other’s work ethic, and even though we have completely different mind sets we have common goals. We have so many conversations about art and they’re completely different. We’re constantly battling over creative decisions. It’s his company but he appreciates and respects what I like. And I’m confident in what I know, I’m immersed in a lot of worlds, whether it’s discussions about the local bodega to what’s taking place in architecture and the art world.

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Read more on the next page about Sanchez’s opinions on Azealia Banks and female rap artists, when she realized the limits of streetwear and her take on the current battle between old media and fashion bloggers.

All images of Sanchez (wearing the Mercer pants) by Rashid Samuel.

Kith continues to roll full speed ahead, this time with a lookbook promoting its apparel brand White Label, with the first official collection comprised of the much coveted Mercer pants, the Varick crewneck and a range of satin jackets made in collaboration with Ebbets. Items have been sized for men, women and kids, as displayed in a unisex lookbook and all will go on sale tomorrow at Kith brick and mortar plus the brand’s online shop.

While we love the line, we’re also excited about owner/founder Ronnie Fieg’s new business partnership with Mellany Sanchez, who has been tapped to head women’s for the new label. And yep, she’s also featured in the lookbook shown above. We have a q&a coming up next week so you all can become better acquainted with this rising star.