Material Miss: A fashion interns life for me...how will I pay the rent?

The fashion is notorious or being highly competitive and difficult to get into, never have I felt this was more true than when I started looking for a job for my placement year out of university, I was no longer simply competing against the girls on my course but from every fashion course in the UK.. I sent out hundreds of email and letter to fashion companies inquiring about jobs, I would say for every twenty I sent I would get one reply and often it was rejection. However all was not in vein I got a number of interviews for the likes of McQueen, Stella McCartney and Alice Temperley.

Every interview was nerve racking as I sat in reception waiting to be called, surrounded by girls who looked like they just step out of the pages of Vogue, dolled up not a hair out of place and not a kind word was ever uttered to me. I couldn’t have felt more out of place. I don’t look anything like the girls in fashion magazines and am a pocket sized 5’3 size 12 who well… wears anything I fancy whether its on trend or not. The interviews themselves where well unimpressive often well short and sweet.

My break came with the Italian luxury fashion power house that is Moschino. I am currently the newest press office intern of the London branch. My role is to send out samples of the collections to magazines, stylists, photo shoots and the odd VIP and then book everything back into the showroom. An amazing opportunity, completely unpaid but well that’s just how the fashion industry rolls, its all had the inclination towards a little slave labour. But I am willing to put up with a lot to gain the experience and connection for me to one day to get a real job in the industry that doesn’t pay me simply in biscuits.