February 10, 2011

Fashion Internships – the Way to Know your Fashion Dreams

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For some, the New York Fashion Week may be a reminder about how much you would love to be involved in the fashion business. Sometimes it’s even hard to specify what your fashion dream is. Would you like to be a magazine writer, editor? Cover fashion on TV? How about being involved in the fashion shows production? If all this sounds wonderful to you and you don’t have a specific goal in mind, the easiest way to find yourself and your dreams in the fashion world is to apply for fashion internships. Being involved in the temporary position could make you discover what it is that you would want to work towards. Having a specific goal in mind helps attaining it.

First, let’s look into where to find an internship.

I’d recommend starting with sites such as internships.com, fashionjobs.com or just craigslist.com. After every trade show I get emails from students asking if we need an intern. So leafing through the trade show catalogs including the info of all the exhibitors can be a good idea.

Now how do you select an internship?

I’m sure most of you reading this, who would like to find an internship are going to answer they the ideal solution would be landing it at Vogue. Every year hundreds of thousands want to work at Vogue. Does this super woman, her assistants, and the assistants of assistants need that much help?

anna-wintour

I bet the Vogue office could not even fit a fraction of those applying. I’m not writing it to discourage you from applying for an internship at Vogue. By all means, go ahead. However, you probably should not just limit yourself and wait for the answer from Vogue. Try to broaden your options, apply to different companies, consider applying for different positions. You may be surprised to find out that positions you have always thought of as your dream jobs are not really that interesting and you may find your fashion dream job is not at all what you thought it was going to be before starting your summer internship.

Even though most fashion internships are unpaid, getting one can still be a challenge. Yuli Ziv, editor of an online magazine MyItThings and co-founder of a blogger network Style Coalition offers some fashion interview tips. The tip that got my attention is "don’t be a fashionista, be an expert." Be familiar with the key players – brands, designers in the industry. "The love for shopping and putting together outfits isn’t enough to make it in this industry" says Ziv.

Also make sure you are very familiar with the company you’re applying to – know the topics they cover, things that are important to them. And lastly, make sure you’re memorable – whether it is by showing your presence all over social media networks, your blog (highly recommended) or by preparing a custom made application. Sending an unusual handwritten thank you note is always a good idea. One of the most memorable thank you notes I have heard of was the one written by a friend of mine, who applied for a position at the New Yorker. After her interview, she managed to find a postcard with the New Yorker office building on. And she did get a job.

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