So I’m finally getting around to reading all of my backlogged emails (there were close to 1000 of them), and I noticed a common thread to several reader emails: a lot of them just wanted to know how I got to where I am right now.
Reader Margaret wrote (all the way back in June—sorry Margaret!!): “I’m currently trying to make a career transition and have been running through my list of childhood dream jobs trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with myself and what dreams are actually realistic to pursue. So, if you wouldn’t mind sharing, how exactly did you get into your career in fashion editorial and blogging?”
So to spare myself hours of replying to multiple emails, I’ll just put it in one concise-ish post. Here it is in all it’s decidedly unglamorous glory:
I thought that I wanted to be an on-air reporter so I started out majoring in Broadcast Journalism in college. I quickly became bored senseless with rewording AP feeds and editing video (a techy I am definitely not), and also realized that having a relatively normal family life at some point was very important to me, and thus a job in which I would be required to fly off to cover wars and whatnot was probably not the right career path. I swiftly changed my major to English with a concentration in Publishing Studies, simply because I’d always been an avid reader, and really had no idea what else to do.
Summer break comes along and my then-boyfriend tells me to get off my ass and do something with myself other than lolling about NYC (I had subletted an apartment for the three months) and conducting unofficial drinking tours of Manhattan. He then goes the extra mile and gets me an internship in the fashion department of Interview magazine. It was really hot that summer. I showed up to their offices in SoHo every single weekday for three months to do whatever they needed. I fetched coffee. I fetched lunch. I delivered clothing. I took the subway carrying 10 lbs of garment bags. I helped out on photo shoots. I delivered clothing. I took the subway. I wrote a bit of copy. I delivered clothing. I took the subway. I got paid $0. You get the point. I got home everyday completely exhausted but completely in love with the fashion industry.
After that internship was over, I decided that I should just launch right into the next one. I wanted more magazines under my belt (and on my resume). So, with the help of my boss at Interview, I secured another internship in the fashion department of W magazine. I went to school three days a week. I interned two days a week. I stopped going out with my sorority, I stopped having flings with boys. I studied. I worked. I delivered clothing. I took the subway. I fetched coffee. And at the end, my network in fashion had expanded threefold. It was worth it.
By then, it seems I was an addict. I signed up immediately for yet another internship—this time, at Harper’s Bazaar. Yes, I was a motivated young thing, getting paid absolutely no money and working/networking as if my life depended on it. At Bazaar, I did more of the same until college graduation day, upon which my boss at the magazine gave a glowing recommendation to a renowned fashion PR firm called Bismarck Phillips Communications & Media, who hired me immediately. I started the very same week I was handed my degree. So, you see, those nine months of (free!) hard work had paid off with entry into the fashion industry, a notoriously hard shell to crack.
After about seven months, I decided that PR wasn’t for me, and through friends and contacts I had made, I got a job at Lucky magazine as a freelance fashion assistant. After three more months, a girl I had interned with at W so many months ago, got me an interview at ELLE magazine where I ended up spending two of the best, most formative years of my life.
After those two years, I started to develop an interest in the rapidly growing online world of blogs and fashion sites, so I moved on up and over to ELLE.com as their Fashion Market Editor.
A year and half later finds me here at StyleCaster, which is pretty much the most exciting thing I’ve ever worked on.
Whew! That was longwinded, I know, but does anyone see a common thread?? Here’s a hint: it’s ALL. ABOUT. WHO. YOU. KNOW.
I get asked so many times by everyone from readers to interns to people on the street how they can break into fashion, and this, my lovelies, is the simple, definitive answer. It doesn’t matter how smart or beautiful or talented you are if you don’t know anyone and if you can’t get people to root for you. This is especially true in fashion, where there is a very limited number of jobs and thousands upon thousands of girls (and boys) applying for them. I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if it hadn’t been for all the people who helped me along the way. And guess what? I met every single one of those people through my internships.
SO. The main thing I would suggest to all the fashion hopefuls out there is to just start working. That means that even if you have to intern for free or write for free or get coffee or lug garment bags around, you should do it and do it with a smile. Because in the end, all that really matters is who you know and who knows you.
The End.
