This Week’s Guests

Tonya Kinsey

As Merchandise Manager of Accessories and Footwear for Directives West, Tonya Kinsey is one of the country’s most respected and influential consultants in the accessories business. A 13-year veteran, she has advised major retailers and specialty stores on all issues affecting the accessories category, including the competitive and current fashion landscapes; trend, color and lifestyle forecasting as well as marketing and promotions. She regularly meets with designers and executives of major accessories lines to develop jewelry, hair, handbags, sunglasses, belts, scarves and cold-weather items and assists in merchandising these collections. Kinsey is energetic and passionate about accessories and believes that accessorizing is an art form. She travels extensively and attends major markets and trade shows in Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas to identify future trends and emerging classifications. Kinsey graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in Apparel Merchandising and Design. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Dina Cherchione

Dina Cerchione, one of television’s top wardrobe stylists and designers, is probably best known for her work as the costume designer on NBC’s prime time hit “Deal or No Deal”. Week after week she worked her magic on 26 of television’s most glamorous models as well as creating the signature sleek look for host Howie Mandel. She has also worked on shows such as X Factor, Mobbed, The Tonight Show, and Dr. Phil to name a few.

With almost 20 years of experience, Dina has been recognized for her work on various entertainment television shows such as Access Hollywood, The Insider and The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. She has been written up in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Emmy magazine and The Hollywood Reporter to name a few.

In addition to styling celebrity clients for everything from the Emmys to album covers to press tours, she has styled over 1000 non celebrity clients and has a passion for doing so in her personal styling business.

Alyson Dutch

From the moment she left high school, Alyson Dutch knew she’d be in the marketing business and it only was due to her family’s arm twisting that she landed an education in advertising before setting out into the wild world of public relations. Today, the product launch PR specialist has an uncanny knack for extracting the most newsworthy aspects of any product immediately. And oddly enough, she sees everything from personalities, pet acupuncture, high tech services to eco-luxury hotel properties as “products.” Her superhero level x-ray vision for this was developed by a high flying and adventurous career that started in her native Los Angeles at the famed Rogers & Cowan Agency. Somewhere along the way, she arrived on the Paramount lot where she scandalously absconded with job requisitions that led to providing the publicity for the Miss Universe, USA and Teen USA Pageants for CBS-TV, several trips around the world (and a few to Wichita). Dutch became an international specialist working in cities from Taiwan to Bangkok, a highlight of which was in South Africa representing Sun City during the fall of apartheid.

When the internet was still young, she was the first to book talent for online “celebrity chat rooms” for AOL, and Oldsmobile. Since then, she has touted the newsworthy attributes of clients such as Mrs. Fields Cookies, Tokyo Coca Cola’s Green Tea Terrace, Perrier Jouet, Taittinger and Mumm Champagnes, Metabolife, Swatch, the legendary Beach Boys, an actress who designed a bra to eliminate back fat and even fingertip toothbrushes.

At the helm of Brown + Dutch Public Relations since 1996, Dutch authored the “PR Handbook for Entrepreneurs” in 2008 and launched Consumer Product Events the following year. Just for fun, she wrote a book called “The Pageant Diaries: Confessions of a Beauty Pageant Publicist,” and more seriously is also working on the story of her father’s life, “Poopsie,” a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.

Dutch is as straightforward, genuine, and savvy as they come. She is just as adept at handling snowboarders as dignitaries, CEO’s and stars. She possesses an innate knowledge of how to position companies, people, and products to gain a specific objective, whether it be to attract economic investment, to find distribution, or to handle a public relations crisis. Her passion for her work drives her to apply her knowledge in a creative, yet methodical manner. In addition, she has a keen understanding of the cultural sensitivities that rule the marketplace and knows how to command the media’s attention.