How I Got A Fashion Internship With No Experience
I never studied fashion.
Actually, my major couldn’t be any further from fashion. I’m an International Business student in China. Even so, I got an internship at Harper’s Bazaar and Elle magazines and then worked as a fashion assistant.
Now, I’ve always been passionate about clothes and the stories behind them. Like many fashion enthusiasts, I watched fashion weeks and followed the industry news. But I never allowed myself to even imagine that this hobby could turn into a career.
I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in fashion and where to start.
Then I stumbled upon this amazing styling course on The Business of Fashion. I immediately fell in love with the way Lucinda Chambers was talking about the industry and the styling career. That was exactly what I was looking for. It made me realize that the fashion industry wasn’t an unreachable destination.
I could be a part of it too.
That said, I still didn’t know how to break into the industry with no work experience and no fashion education.
I come from a relatively small and poor city. We have no luxury brands, no fashion events, no magazines. No real interest in fashion. People here learn about new trends when the whole world already calls them vintage. So if I wanted to get that fashion experience, I had to be in Moscow. But I wasn’t and at that point didn’t consider moving there only for an internship.
So I bought another styling course (courses and books are my sort of procrastination). It was a big investment for me. It meant that fashion was more than a hobby now. I couldn’t give it up — I had to get the value I paid so much money for.
Well, guess what!
A year later I still didn’t finish the course but I did benefit from it in a different way.
Here’s how.
A part of the program was a real life workshop where we had to style a photoshoot. I couldn’t miss the chance, so I took a flight to Moscow.
This decision became a turning point for me and my fashion career.
Not because I learned a lot or met some important people. But because I realized that what kept me from entering the fashion industry was my mindset.
As always, all the limitations are in our head.
I knew a long time ago that I wanted to get an internship in a magazine and it would only be possible in the capital city. But I imagined that it’s too complicated to move so far away without savings and a solid plan. Because of that I didn’t allow myself to even consider it a possibility. Coming to Moscow for some workshop changed my understanding of what was difficult.
If I found a way to stay there for three days, I could find a way to stay longer and get a good internship. It didn’t seem impossible anymore.
When I allowed myself to believe that, I started looking for the opportunities, instead of excuses, as I did before.
So after coming back home I was determined to find an internship in a fashion magazine.
I started with Condé Nast.
I knew they posted internships for their magazines all the time so I checked their website every single day.
I was lucky!
At that moment they were actually looking for an intern for the fashion department of Tatler. Now, it’s not that I was a big fan of Tatler. Of course, I would prefer an internship in Vogue but I was happy to apply for Tatler as well.
Spoiler, I got an interview but I didn’t get the internship and wasn’t upset about it. As I said, I wasn’t that interested in the magazine, though I’m glad I got this interview experience. It gave me more confidence and motivation to keep looking for another internship.
So I kept looking.
I wrote a list of the magazines I wanted to work in.
There were about 10 magazines but my top 3 choices were Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Grazia. My plan was to apply to the ones I wanted to work in the most, and then if I get rejected I’d go on to the ones I’m less interested in.
For some reason I was super obsessed with Harper’s Bazaar. I honestly don’t even know why. I guess it’s all about the history of the magazine that I adore. (In case you didn’t know, it’s the first fashion magazine ever and one of its great contributors was Russian.)
So for me it was obvious that I wanted to work in Harper’s Bazaar the most.
I found the emails of the people who worked in the Fashion department of each magazine and added them to my list. But I wasn’t ready to send them my resume yet.
I had no experience working in fashion and I don’t have a formal fashion education. I did take some online styling courses, yes, but they couldn’t compare with a solid fashion degree. That’s why I didn’t care about my resume as much as I did about my cover letter.
I thought that a cover letter was the key to being noticed. After all, a resume doesn’t show your personality, nor your real interest in the company you’re applying to. But a cover letter can, if you do a little research and make it personal.
I spent several days researching everything I could find about Elle and Harper’s Bazaar.
I read the history of the magazines. I read about the people who worked there and watched their interviews (there weren’t many). I learned about their work through social media.
What’s their aesthetics? Favorite styles? Photographers? Models? Makeup artists?
I wanted to know all that and make it impossible not to notice how passionate I am about fashion and the magazines. Plus, I had to be ready for a potential interview.
I know this might seem a little too much, but you can’t come to the interview not knowing who the Miranda Pristley of the magazine is.
It’s impolite, to say the least.
Do your research. Be in the context of what’s happening not only in the fashion industry in general but at the company you want to work or intern in.
Only after I did the research and read the last issue of the magazine (haha) I wrote my cover letter.
So I had a resume, two different cover letters (for two different magazines — Elle and Harper’s Bazaar) and 3 pictures from that photoshoot I styled at the workshop. I sent them to the fashion editors and fashion assistants whose emails I could find.
Two days later I got a response from an Elle editor.
She gave me the phone number of the Fashion director. I texted her immediately introducing myself. Again, she answered quite quickly and set up a phone interview for the following day.
It was super exciting and stressful at the same time.
I mean, I didn’t expect to hear from the magazine so fast, if at all, much less from the fashion director. Besides, it’s always a bit scary to talk to someone when you know your knowledge of the topic is not as deep as theirs.
But then that’s the whole reason I was applying for the internship, right?
The interview lasted for an hour.
The director asked me about my favorite stylists, photographers, brands, designers, current trends and my thoughts on the latest fashion week.
It turned out our tastes were absolutely different. She literally said she hates the photographer I love the most. But even so she appreciated my enthusiasm and curiosity, so …
I was welcome to become their intern!
She told me more about the intern’s duties and gave me time to consider if I was sure I wanted to move to another city for it.
I got an internship in Elle magazine! I couldn’t believe that!
But guess what? I didn’t accept the offer. Why?
When I received an email from Elle, I also got one from Harper’s Bazaar. They invited me to come to the interview at their office in Moscow. It was great news! After all, Harper’s Bazaar was my number one magazine I wanted to intern in. There was only one little problem — I was 1000 km away from Moscow and I had to be there in 10 hours. There was no way I could make it there so fast.
I told them about it but I never got a response.
A couple of days later, when I was mentally ready to accept the internship in Elle, I sent my resume to the fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar.
After all, what did I have to lose? Why not try for the last time?
Believe it or not, she replied immediately making sure I knew that the internship was unpaid. Of course, I was aware of that.
The following morning I had a Zoom interview with the assistant that hadn’t replied to me earlier. It was super easy and quick. He didn’t even ask me anything fashion related. It was more like a regular interview where you talk about your experience and education.
I got the internship.
A week later I arrived in Moscow barely knowing what to expect. What came after was definitely worth it.
What I learned from my story:
- From afar, things often seem to be more complicated than they actually are.
- To try and fail is better than not try and “not” fail.
- Convincing yourself you can’t do something and suffer from it is easier than proving yourself otherwise.
- When you put your mind to achieving something, you start seeing the opportunities where you haven’t seen them before.
- When you believe you’re not good enough, you only see obstacles and miss good opportunities.
- Anybody can break into the fashion industry if they work on it.
Thank you for reading! Don’t forget to clap and follow me if you liked the article. If you have any questions or a similar story, I’ll be glad to hear from you in the comments. Have a good day!
:)
