Landing My First Internship

In fashion, as in life, there is always a bit of luck (or divine intervention, if you're a person of faith as I am) involved.

When I got back home after my first year at college, I compiled a list of designers I would want to work for. I cold-called all the companies and found out where to fax my resume in hopes of obtaining an internship. (This was the summer of 2001, and the fashion industry was a bit behind in terms of e-mail.) I quickly realized that many of the companies I wanted to work for were based in either Paris or Milan (i.e. Prada, Christian Dior), which meant I wouldn't be able to get a studio/design internship with them.

However, I was most intent on interning at Marc Jacobs, who was probably my favorite designer at the time. (Currently, my favorite designer is Nicolas Ghesquiere over at Balenciaga.) When I called the office, the receptionist kindly informed me that they got tons of applications for design interns but not many for production interns, who did pretty much the same thing as the design interns.

Since I didn't have a design school background, I decided this was a good idea, and applied for a production internship. To my delight, I was called in for an interview and they gave me the internship. I was so ecstatic and thought I had received my lucky break. I was on the road to fashion superstardom! I would intern and they would love me and give me a job when I graduated and it would all be roses.

However, I quickly learned that the fashion industry was not as glamorous as it seems from the outside.