Robert Plotkin

“As the owner of a retail business, listening keenly to customers' wants and needs enabled me to match them with the appropriate products in my store,” says Robert Plotkin, now an Elliman agent who specializes in luxury homes and condos in the Miami area. “Similarly, my years working as a fashion designer in New York City and abroad prior to that instilled in me a strong sense of attention to detail.” These two qualities in particular, he believes, have proved invaluable to his success as a real estate agent.

Upon his graduation from New York's famed Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in Fashion Design, Robert worked at Polo for a year before moving to St. Petersburg, Russia, to set up his own line. Within two years, he had not only successfully launched his own company, but had also won Best New Show at St. Petersburg Fashion Week twice and begun selling his collection internationally.

A couple of years later, he moved back to the States, made the cast of Bravo TV's fashion competition reality show Project Runway, and claimed the fourth runner-up position in its first season. After the show, he returned to fashion, shifted briefly to portfolio management, and finally invested six years in running his own retail store.

Born in New York City to Russian émigré parents who came to America with just two suitcases and $300 cash, Robert was drawn to the fashion world while still in grade school, an attraction that eventually inspired him to earn his B.A. in Fashion Design. A frequent visitor to Miami over the years, he currently resides in Sunny Isles, where, he says, “Being able to be on the ocean with my wife and two boys 365 days a year is the best.”