Meet Leslie Campbell | Model, Moviestar & Mutt Maven!

We had the good fortune of connecting with Leslie Campbell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Leslie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

I should begin by saying “businesses!” In my 4 adult decades on this planet, I have successfully reinvented my career multiple times. I call my working chapters: Models, Movie Stars and Mutts…in that order. My life has been anything but ordinary as I was raised in Liberia and Somalia from 6 months to 9 years old. I had a creative father and a successful financial business mother…and I got a bit of both.

I have always been creatively passionate and determined to do things my own way. I had no formal training or idea, “what I wanted to do when I grew up.” So, I let life take its course and was open to suggestions and opportunities. Along the way, I discovered the power of saying, “yes, I can do that,” and I did!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

My first opportunity came in 1980 when I was hired out of an exercise class at LA City College to teach classes at the California Apparel Mart…and that is where my journey begins!

The California Mart houses over 10,000 wholesale fashion labels and is the industry hub on the west coast. One thing led to another, and soon I was offered a job in the Cal Mart’s Fashion Office. I had no experience or training and was plunged headfirst into the world of high fashion. I was 20 years old and over the next 5 years, we produced up to 150 fashion shows a year and invented Los Angeles Press Week; which was the west coast’s version of Paris’s Pret-a-Porter. We literally put California fashion on the map! I lost my youth over those hard-working years, but I gained knowledge and lifelong relationships that are, to this day, irreplacable! I absorbed everything there was to learn in the fashion industry and acquired an unwavering work ethic that I practice to this day. Besides coproducing the runway events, I created my own niche in the Fashion Office, and specialized in accessorizing our shows. My nickname became Access-a-Les and my license plate read: XS A LES.

After 5 years of working with the top fashion producers and models, I was ready for a change. That change came by way of an invitation to go horseback riding in Malibu! I agreed to go, and it changed my life…again.

Also invited on that ride was the Editor in Chief of SHAPE magazine. After a perfect afternoon of riding, she told me she was looking for a new Fashion Editor, asked if I could write and would I want the job? Again, with no real experience writing or with magazines…I said “yes, I can!” Two weeks later I was the Fashion Editor for an international magazine and given the task of providing the wardrobe from cover to cover, including 12 pages of fashion and editorial, per month. For the next 6 years it was “location not vacation” but WOW, was it fun! I was packing up garment bags and helicoptered onto Alaskan glaciers one month for a skiwear layout, then off to Jamaica the next month for a swimwear layout…then Italy, then Hawaii, then Mexico! That is when I transitioned from models to celebrities while honing my wardrobe and writing skills.

During my 6 years at SHAPE, I got to work with the leading photographers of the time, including Herb Ritts, Greg Gorman, Francesca Scavullo, Charles Bush, and Harry Langdon, etal. When these notable photographers started asking me to do independent jobs with them, it was time to go freelance. I then launched into an incredible career that took me from fashion, to advertising, to commercials, and eventually to live television! Over the course of the next 20 years, I got to travel the world with incredibly talented people and a very long list of celebrities! Along the way I was head Costumer for 11 years on Ed McMahan’s Star Search, as well as the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars. Eventually I ran the wardrobe department for the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen pageants. And in 1986, I was featured in Cosmopolitan magazine as, “Stylist to the Stars!”

Somewhere along the line, I was also offered an editorial position interviewing for an LA entertainment magazine called VENICE. Between both careers, I got face time with the Who’s Who of musicians, actors, and sports legends of the time, and even Iron Chefs! Some of the celebrities I have had the pleasure to work with include: Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Mick Fleetwood, Michael McDonald, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, Beyonce (as Destiny’s Child), Usher, Christine Aguilera, KD Lang, Whoopi Goldberg, Betty White, William Shatner, Weird Al, Roger McGuinn (The Birds), Roger Clements (baseball) and Oscar da le Hoya (boxing), just to name some of the fun ones! In the end, I have amassed a very unique autograph collection that may someday become my retirement fund!?!

I followed this path for almost 30 years, both here and in Australia. In between gigs, I volunteered in wildlife parks- caring for koalas, fruit bats and wombats! Then later at Pet Orphans, in Van Nuys, where I walked rescue dogs, did their public relations and serving on the Board of Directors. I got so much pleasure working with animals that it finally donned on me what I really wanted to do…“when I grow up.” Then one day, while working with Martha Stewart, it hit me that I wanted to work with a different kind of bitch!

At 48 years old, in 2006, I answered an ad on Craig’s List that read, “DOGS, DOGS, DOGS…will pay you to train you to take over my business.” Two weeks later I quite show biz and went into the dog biz! I left my wardrobe career with enough money to set myself up and do it right. Six months after my training began, I bought part of her business and a van, and opened “We Let the Dogs Out,” in Pacific Palisades. That was 17 years ago and my bow wow business is booming! I provide 24/7 boarding, weekly day care, I provide in-home pet sitters and individual dog walkers, and my motto is, “every day is a good day with dogs in it!”

I am currently 65, and actually tired from schlepping clothes around the world and dogs around the westside of LA, and I’m ready to start the next chapter. Anyone want to buy an amazing dog business (next year)? What will I do next? A LOT!!! I have writing projects including a children’s book about reinventing yourself (basically an autobiography) and I want to edit my 60,000 photos–mostly of dogs and sunsets–and do something fun with them. I also have a brother who is a world champion free diver and underwater photographer; he tours with a collection of Ansel Adams work, and I want to promote him. My father, who died when I was 10, was also an accomplish photographer, for USAID in Africa in the 50’s and 60’s. Compiling and presenting his brilliant work is yet another project.

So, that brings us back to my first paragraph…from Liberia and Somalia to Pacific Palisades, with a whole lot of life in between!

It’s never, ever been dull and I’ve always been open to challenges and opportunities. I could have easily failed these opportunities, but instead, I embraced them and seemingly excelled. The bottom line is, you can be handed a silver platter (opportunity) but you have to be able to keep it and, most importantly, be invited back!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

Actually, I do have a friend from “way back” coming to visit! I like to be spontaneous and try not to plan too far in advance. We will see what is going on that week and who’s playing at my favorite LA music venue, McCabe’s in Santa Monica. Go to some of the old “haunts” from when she lived here, like Chez Jay’s and The Golden Bull. I like the funky side of LA as much as the fancy. We have to “cruise” up the coast to Malibu and beyond. Lunch at the Malibu Pier and see who’s playing at Aviator Nation Dreamland. Check out a few museums if she wishes. The Getty (both), The Broad, the Motion Picture Academy Museum is a must. See what she wants to see or do but most of all, hang out at my house on PCH and listen to the ocean and some good Memory Lane music! Have a gathering of favorite friends, a lot of whom are also my neighbors, and have cocktails and appetizers at our oceanside Tiki Lounge that I basically created (with others) from furniture that rich people leave on curbs and alley ways of the Palisades! It’s my own slice of paradise! Lucky…

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

SOOOO MANY! My high school mentors Lucia Baker and Jim Owen, Pam Roberts and the entire Cal Mart Fashion Office, Christine MacIntyre and all the jolly Shape magazine crew: every photographer I ever worked with, Paula Shugart for the live TV years, Nancy Bishop for the entertainment writing years, Diane Scripps with Pet Orphans and Colleen Steckloff for my mutt biz years. And, all my creative friends and family that have taken this journey with me.

Instagram: Leslie Campbell Dogladyla

Other: I have never created a website as I’m too busy doing the jobs. Everything my whole life has been word of mouth and referrals.

Image Credits
Johanna Seigmann Photography Wanelle Fitch Photography