In Fashion Part 19

a.s.sistant to the fashion editor. If you want to be a stylist (see Visualizer, Stylist), this is the best training. Organization is key. Being flexible and happy to travel on a moment's notice. A roll-with-the-punches kind of personality. Love to pack (and repack) trunks lovingly for photo shoots? Have the ability to work slave hours compensated with some fun location trips, late dinners with models and photographers?

a.s.sistant to the market editor. If you want to learn the business of fashion, this is a nice seat to occupy. When you are not filing expense reports or lugging garment bags around town, you may have the opportunity to visit designer showrooms and to attend some standing-room-only (SRO) fashion shows.

a.s.sistant to the accessories editor. Because accessories is a higher-margin business for most brands and it is the most-status category for women, this is among the most coveted starter spots in fashion.

While the personalities supporting an editor in chief must function as a team, their competing interests are rarely far from the surface.

FASHION PUBLICATIONS AS SPRINGBOARDS TO COOL CAREERS.

"Your Last Day Is Friday"

Getting fired is commonplace and more of a rite of pa.s.sage than a shame or an embarra.s.sment. The conversation we need to have is how to take control of your own situation-when to walk and how to be a survivor, not a victim. In magazines, the average editor in chief lasts less than three years, and when your editor is ousted, you'll be expected to try out for the job you thought you already had. Within a year, much of the staff has changed out. a.s.sistants call their parents crying. The wise know to leave in the weeks and months before anything happens. In advertising, ad agency heads and creative directors typically last longer. While it sounds brutal, it's true that as a copywriter, you are only as good as your last great ad-line. If you wrote that line more than six months ago, that's not good. A creative business education offers learning opportunities so huge that you could launch a brand, agency, publication, or a website with the know-how you gain. Or once you've lived the madness, as my life shows, you're likely at some point to be "revived" and swept back into the fold.

WHERE YOU CAN GO FROM HERE: FROM EDITORIAL TO REAL LIFE MAGAZINE BEGINNINGS SUBSEQUENT CONQUESTS.

Jennifer Jackson Altano Vogue, Bazaar, fashion writer, editor Jennifer Alfano, handbags, designer/founder Fabien Baron New York Woman, GQ, Bazaar, graphic designer, art director, creative director Baron & Baron, founder ad agency; graphic and editorial director, industrial designer; photographer; Interview Luella Bartley British Vogue, Face, Dazed & Confused, fashion journalist Luella Bartley, fashion designer Beth Blake Vanity Fair, stylist Thread (bridal collection), Thread Social (dress collection), designer/founder Michel Botbol W, Bazaar fashion editor, creative director Polo Ralph Lauren, creative director Aimee Cho Vogue, fashion writer Gryphon, founder/designer Francesco Clark Bazaar, fashion a.s.sistant Clark's Botanicals, founder/CEO Nicole Colovos Bazaar, fashion a.s.sistant Habitual, then Helmut Lang designer, with husband Michael Colovos Lucy Wallace Eustice Mirabella, Bazaar, Elle accessories editor M Z Wallace, designer/founder (with Monica Zwirner) Alex Gonzalez and Raul Martinez Graphic designers, art directors at t.i.tles like American Vogue, German Vogue, GQ, Mirabella AR New York, founders Thakoon Panichgul Bazaar, fashion a.s.sistant Thakoon, founder/designer Amanda Ross Self, Marie Claire, Bazaar, fashion editor Lipstick Jungle, fashion stylist, film, TV, celebrity stylist Richard Sinnott Bazaar, accessories editor Accessories designer, Michael Kors Kate Spade Mademoiselle, accessories editor Kate Spade, founder/designer (acquired by Jones New York) Mary Alice Stephenson Bazaar, fashion editor On-air fashion TV personality, celebrity stylist Vera w.a.n.g Vogue, senior fashion editor Ralph Lauren, design director, then Vera w.a.n.g, designer/founder Lauren Weisberger Vogue, a.s.sistant to the editor in chief The Devil Wears Prada, author

The Interview

Q. What should I wear to my interview?

A. We suggest that you wear professional attire appropriate for a first interview.-from www.CondeNast.com.

Gee thanks. That's hugely helpful. The right answer is wear something so that you will fit in, which changes in nuance every millisecond. In fact, there is no answer to this question. But if you feel comfortable and pretty, you'll project confidence and competence. That's a very good place to start.

Fashion interns I've talked to about interview outfits make things very clear: If you are interviewing for an internship, wear dark trousers, a shirt, and a cute jacket or trench coat, and high heels or boots. The look shouldn't be head-to-toe matching but, rather, items pieced together in an original way. Shop for your outfit at H&M, Zara, or J. Crew as well as vintage stores. If you have one nice designer piece, say, a Marc Jacobs jacket or an old Coco bag, throw it on with the same ease you wear the H&M. If you have completed your internship and are interviewing for an a.s.sistant-level position, most interns say it's time to wear a skirt. To snap things up a bit.

"There was this gorgeous girl who came into the Glamour offices interviewing for a fashion job," says Serena, an intern from Florida. "She was wearing head-to-toe Dior. The fashion editors basically rejected her the second she walked through the gla.s.s door. Like she 'doesn't get it' or she has 'no natural style.' The outfit cost thousands of dollars but didn't show any creativity."

There are interviews and there are interviews. If you are meeting someone in the human resources department, this is likely to be a general "screening" interview: No specific job is at stake. In this situation, you must articulate what you really want to do at the company without pigeonholing yourself too narrowly. You need to seem open to all possibilities. If you are asked to see someone inside the company-a business manager or managing director, for example-there may or may not be an opening. It would be appropriate when you are there to ask if you are being considered for an opening and, if so, what it is. If the interviewer is not forthcoming with this information, don't push. Someone is probably about to be fired or give his or her resignation, and the powers that be want to be prepared with potential candidates all lined up.

If your interview is the result of your sending in your resume for a specific opening, then actively following up, congratulations: You've made it into the pool of ten or fewer candidates being considered for the job. Remember, however, that among those other nine people are the art director's first cousin, the star intern from two years ago, and the son of the president's next-door neighbor. I say this not to discourage you, but to toughen you up to the reality. Your foot is in the door. You have an interview. Even if you don't s.n.a.t.c.h this job, if they like you, you'll be considered for other positions.

How do you usually perform in stressful situations? Like taking the SAT? Serving at match point in a tennis game with lots of friends watching? Speaking in front of a cla.s.s? If these things don't faze you, you're lucky. That's rare. If you crumble under scrutiny as do most humans, remember that you wouldn't be asked in if they didn't want to see you. Admit to the interviewer that you are supernervous; he or she will instantly want to put you at ease. Some of my favorite hires of all time were the worst possible interviews. Yale graduate Rebecca Onion sat in front of my desk with her head hanging, avoiding eye contact, and mumbling because her hand was covering her mouth. All cardinal sins. Yet I saw beyond those things to her gentle, wise personality and wonderful writing voice and ear. She got the job as my a.s.sistant over all the spiffed out, perky girls because I felt Rebecca's potential. I'm usually suspicious of people who are too charming or smooth because I'm not convinced that they seriously and sincerely will do the work.

Colleagues report that Cathie Black, CEO of Hearst Magazines, likes it when candidates practically "jump over the desk" to get a job. Her preference may originate in her sales or business background. That level of hunger, however, might put off people who grow up on the creative side of the business. This is a lesson in itself. More often than not, the top bosses come from sales, marketing, and/or administrative backgrounds, so it's important that you, a creative type, learn to speak their language and, most important, know where the money comes from.

Staying a Step Ahead

Is it vulturistic to swarm when something is about to blow up? Yes. But there's a proper, calculated, and smart way to swarm. I think it's good basic business smarts to know who's up and who's down. When the papers started gossiping about Liz Tilberis possibly coming over from British Vogue to run Harper's Bazaar, I was all over it. At this point in my career, I knew I was never going to be a Great Anointed One at Conde Nast. If I wanted to do my swan dive into serious fashion, I needed to find my place and ride with it. This was my moment. I decided I would work for this woman. This was it.

Internships from G.o.d

May 15th IM to Posse: "Going 2 Teen Vogue 4 July!!!! Kat + me both @ 4 Times Sq. Italy in Aug. Must shop 4 amazing work clothes!"

The images in a bright worthy young fashionista-to-be's head and the reality of a magazine office rarely overlap. Nevertheless, the best first step in is to work for free, which, for me, was about as far away from the epicenter of fashion cool as you can get.

Cruising the funky music bungalows on my way to Heard Library one day, I discovered that CBS records had a division in Nashville, Tennessee, where I was in exile attending Vanderbilt University, awaiting graduation and my chance to break from my parents' grip and finally go to New York City. I flew to New York the day after graduation, and despite the fact that my summer sublet was teeming with c.o.c.kroaches (so many that you could hear them clattering over the counter in the kitchenette), that my Amelia Earhart fabric luggage and Lilly Pulitzer sundresses seemed all wrong, and that within weeks I was mugged at knifepoint in an elevator, I've never looked back.

During my senior year, I had worked a couple of afternoons each week in the publicity department at CBS Records for two ladies who were neither very helpful nor very friendly. I Xeroxed stacks of badly written press releases about country artists I cared little about (I was more of a Ramones/Blondie girl, myself) except for the totally cool and talented Rosanne Cash, whom I got to interview so that I could update her bio. I had revered her dad, Johnny, but I had been intimidated by him since I was a young girl watching June Carter and him on TV. The "prison" thing was just too scary. Hearing Rosanne's voice on the phone for my first-ever interview was thrilling. I knew I'd found my thing!

C - B - S.

Those three gleaming letters on my resume impressed everyone who interviewed me for years to come. Did they know I was doing donkeywork and no one even spoke to me or barely knew my name??? No. Didn't matter. I had been there, and that's all that mattered to them. It's almost bizarre to consider how much that helped me. It's true that magazines, publishing houses, ad agencies, and TV shows need interns, tons of interns, but the "education" aspect of the experience is dubious. Will you have a desk? Doubtful. Will you have a phone? Not for personal calls and only to be answered in a clearly scripted manner. Anyhow, you'll have your cell. Will you have a chair? Not one that's yours alone. Computer? Shared.

Imagine what you, Ms. or Mr. All Important Intern, will be doing all day. Sitting in meetings with Anna Wintour listening to the senior editors debate the merits of the fall Chanel couture collection? No. Meeting the models and photographers and writers who bring the magazine to life? Unlikely. Writing, even the smallest captions, from time to time? Highly unlikely. Submitting your brilliant ideas to the powers that be? You can try, but they had better be original; otherwise you are wasting their time. Weighing in on photographs and layouts of future stories in the art department? Not unless you are asked, and the person really seems to want to know what you think.

Fashion magazine interns' key purpose is to ease the workload of a.s.sistants working there. Even though corporations profess to have sensitivity trained the staff overseeing interns, the reality is this: Your immediate "boss," so to speak, is a girl who might be a year or two older than you and is so stressed with her newfound responsibility and intelligence that she can't help but make you feel like a fashion moron from another planet. Your summer job responsibilities typically include stuff she doesn't have time for, or the inclination to do-that is, the bottom of the to-do list that she keeps postponing: Fetching the right caffeinated beverage for her boss.

Fetching the right breakfast for her boss.

Fetching the right lunch for her boss.

Serving lunch in the right way.

Packing clothes and sending them back to the designers after photography shoots in the small, dark, dirty, smelly fashion closet.

Cleaning out and organizing the beauty closet.

Fetching prescriptions (not your own), Aleve, the right size and strength, and so on, at Duane Reade.

Fetching or picking up clothes (not your own, most likely samples) at the dry cleaners' or seamstresses' shop.

Restocking the sitting editors' (the ones who style the photo shoot) kit, which contains things like thread, body stockings, tape for bottoms of new shoes, clamps to cinch too-large clothes, chicken cutlet bra fillers, black marker, white marker, double-sided tape, pins, photography release forms, pens.

Answering the telephones exactly the way you've heard the other a.s.sistants do it, in a professional and timely manner. Then magically sensing when to interrupt your boss with personal or professional calls. (Ask another a.s.sistant for the short list of "put-through" callers.) Writing or e-mailing phone messages in a clear, timely, thoughtful way when you are stuck at the phone so that the a.s.sistant doesn't need to decode them.

Running to an art store without being asked to buy the sketch books, pens, and pencils that are preferred by the Boss and are not available as general issue from the storage closet. (Just any blue Bic is NOT the Pilot navy fountain pen she prefers!) Updating contact lists (and this is a truly monotonous, truly essential task that could suck up your entire internship) by calling all related businesses and checking names, spellings, t.i.tles, e-mails, and cell phone and office numbers of all people a.s.sociated with your business.

Opening the mail, endless stacks of press releases from the Cotton Council, the Diamond Council, the Halitosis a.s.sociation, and Nine West, as well as every book publisher, movie studio, and trade group on the face of the earth.

Filing stacks of press releases into a system that you've yet to devise, a task undertaken with the understanding that NO ONE will ever thank you.

Of all the listed duties, one seemingly monotonous intern function stands apart. One of the tedious tasks offers true education, opens doors of power and knowledge, and is a job that practically no one else will want to do. You should volunteer to do so as enthusiastically and perkily as possible and perform your services tirelessly and without complaint.

Yes, even the FILING. An outdated concept, it might seem, but it's not. Filing gives you access to key names, key companies. Who does the public relations for whom? By reading the endless stream of launch announcements and "breaking news," you will learn by osmosis who matters and who doesn't. What is important and what isn't. How to speak the language. You will begin to see what fraction of 1 percent of information that is sent into the office is actually noticed by or important to your office.

"Don't be afraid of filing!" a.s.serts former West Coast Women's Wear Daily intern Kim-Van Deng. "It's the most important job in the office. You get to read every piece of paper. You get to see what is kept and what is put in the garbage. When I was at WWD, I reinvented the filing system, and because of that, I was controlling of all the information because, AHA! only I understood the system. So I very quickly made myself indispensable."

Okay, so ring ring. You answer the phone because everyone else is out or on deadline. It's Suzy Smith on the phone. You already know her name from one of the press releases you filed from the endless stack. You chat briefly with her to learn about a cool event that's coming up to showcase a new fiber. And, guess what, you'll end up attending the event, and probably writing about it. Instead of simply taking a message, you make a job for yourself. That's how you put your knowledge to work for you so that you can move on up from the steel filing cabinets.

"Once I got the filing system down cold, then it was a matter of maintenance filing," Kim, now a freelance writer and beauty consultant, continues. "I came every day to the office, scheduled my cla.s.ses around it, even though I wasn't expected that often. When I first got there, there were two thousand pieces of information to file. When it became maintenance filing, one day there'd be ten pieces of mail to file, the next day, twenty. It would take me only five minutes, so then I'd become a nudge: 'Is there something I can do for you?' 'Something I can help you with?' 'Maureen, don't you want me to go with you on the photo shoot so that I can steam the clothes for you?' At some point they would let me out of the trailer, because I had steamed everything in sight. Then I would stand there quietly watching the shoot, not saying a word. Finally one day the French photographer, Pierre, said: 'Hey, KEEEM, what do you think of my shoot?' I said, 'Don't you think it would be better to take the picture in front of that palm tree?' He said: 'Oh, Keeem, it's so cliche. Not everything in California must be next to a palm tree, you know, darling.'"

So, guess which picture the New York bureau ran? The picture next to the palm tree. "Next time I'm steaming clothes in the trailer, Pierre comes to find me: 'Keem!!! Where should I do the next picture?'"

Kim would volunteer for other a.s.signments. "The staff was older and busy with their adult lives. I was the kid," she says. "I'd see an invitation on an editor's desk for a film opening that night and say to her: 'Wouldn't you rather go home to see your baby? I'll go see Tom Cruise on the red carpet or Brad Pitt at his premiere.' I became the red carpet girl, and I was still in school. Still an intern."

The Intern Keeper

As part of her job as deputy fashion director at Glamour, Sasha Iglehart helps her staff vet intern candidates and decide which interns to hire. "Sometimes you meet great intern candidates, and other times they seem to have a totally different sense of ent.i.tlement than we did when we started out," says Sasha.

"I make it very clear that their responsibilities are exactly what I did myself when I was an intern. That it is part of the training. Every fashion editor in the department has done these same tasks-like making photocopies and putting together storyboards, rolling in racks, and returning clothes-earlier in their careers. If you want to see what a Chanel jacket looks like up close, that will probably happen. If you want to go on a shoot with Angelina Jolie, that is probably not going to happen.

"OK. Sometimes you might be asked to drop off clothes for a cover shoot. But, in general, fashion department interns are responsible for the essential task of keeping all samples organized, which contributes to the overall smooth functioning of the entire fashion department. Interns need to be organized. They need to have a place for everything. I don't say this to deter anyone in his or her fashion career. It's just one of the necessary tools they need to begin to appreciate the bigger picture. And they should get satisfaction out of what they contributed in putting out the final product. Seeing how things visually come together is one of the biggest satisfactions for me."

HOW TO BE GREAT IN THE FASHION DEPARTMENT.

"Great interns are relentless," says Sasha. "They go the extra mile to get the sample. They stay that extra hour to help everyone on the trip get to the plane on time. They are team players. They are thorough."

The Tactile Thing (If You Don't Have It, You Shouldn't Be There)

Almost as an afterthought, Sasha mentions the physical handling of clothes as a tactile experience that, for her, is pleasurable and satisfying. I've watched the "touch" of great fashion editors (like Bazaar's Melanie Ward's touching, folding, and organizing the Agnes B. baby clothes I'd bought in Paris ten weeks before the birth of my first child), and it speaks volumes about their appreciation for the art and craft of fashion.

I've interviewed interns who speak about the difference between the majority of their colleagues who just want to cut out for the day and the relative few among them who really get into the craftsmanship of the clothes, taking their time to pack things with tissue and care. Who would you think is having more fun?

So if you wish to enter into this realm and intern in a fashion closet or for a designer, the manner in which you take off or hang your coat, the care with which you fold a sweater or pack a gown sends a message about your appropriateness for the role. If you don't have a pa.s.sion for these subtleties, then it really might feel like donkey's work. And if it feels like donkey's work, well, then it is donkey's work.

WHERE TO INTERN.

OBVIOUS INTERNSHIP TARGETS.

Magazines. Like Elle, W, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Glamour.

Network TV. Shows like the nightly news, morning news, late-night shows.

Cable. MTV, VH1, HBO.

Ad agencies. While the big ones like BBDO Worldwide and ChiatDay (TBWAChiatDay) would be instantly recognizable on your resume, you'll probably get closer to the word at independent fashion agencies like AR New York and Baron & Baron.

Newspapers. In a perfect world, you'd find your way to T, the fashion magazine of the New York Times. But even the style or society pages of a local paper would offer good experience.

Book publishing. Focus on the more visual imprints like a.s.souline, Rizzoli, or Clarkson Potter.

Public relations agencies. Like KCD, a cool PR fashion agency, and LaForce + Stevens, a PR agency specializing in fashion, retail, and beauty shops.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS TARGETS.

Women's Wear Daily. The trade newspaper for fashion business. Or any number of the various Fairchild t.i.tles.

Photography studios. Like Industria (Manhattan); Smash Box (LA); and Seventh on Sixth, the organization that puts on the twice-yearly NYC fashion shows, which is run by IMG.

Booking agencies (who represent photographers, stylists, and hair and makeup artists). Like Art + Commerce; Bryan Bantry.