As a fashion student, getting that ideal summer fashion internship feels like a dream come true as it dictates the trajectory of your career. But knowing the fact that the fashion industry is one of the highly competitive setups, getting that dream internship won’t be that easy.
Multiple fashion interns work in different domains of fashion houses, where later they get trained enough to get hired (or get hired in a similar domain).
While getting a fashion internship is one task, getting hired in the same fashion house is something every intern looks out for.
In this blog, I am going through the key steps that will help you get hired for your fashion internship.
What Will You Learn as a Fashion Intern?
As a fashion intern, you will get an opportunity to learn and develop skills that will help your future projects.
The key responsibility of a Fashion Intern does a variety of skills like Assisting with sewing and pattern creation, setting up a merchandise line, conducting research on season trends, helping with photo shoots, maintaining data, and running errands for little tasks that are conducted the whole day.
Eventually, these skills help you become the next fashion designer, stylist, model, photographer, or editor based on your interest and expertise.
8 Steps to Get Your First Fashion Internship
Getting an internship in fashion could be a really daunting task, especially when you are starting out. The question of “How to get into the fashion industry without experience” is real! Although before applying to any fashion house, here are a few tips for getting that Dream Summer Fashion Internship:
- Choose a domain in fashion
- Apply the companies in a similar domain
- Cover letter/ Resume
- Impressive Portfolio
- Networking
- Creating your own opportunities
- Volunteer at Fashion Events
- Work in Retail
1. Choose a Domain in Fashion
Knowing which domain of fashion you want to work in is extremely important. Simply knowing what you want will help you list out careers you don’t want to work in as getting an internship in a similar domain helps you get industry knowledge.
Some of these options could be Fashion designing, journalism and editing, photography, merchandising, etc.
2. Apply the Companies in a Similar Domain
Of course, the options you choose will have many brands excelling at their work. Do extensive research on different brands and stories they promote, things that inspire, and why you want to be a part of them.
Fashion internships are all about setting those basic skills right so whenever you research on the best companies to intern with, make sure of the skills you want to excel in.
3. Cover letter/ Resume
As you’re starting out, your resume will have a set of skills that you are best at. Having an impressive cover letter helps the brand to connect with you. Giving the required source of contact and clear communication helps a lot.
4. Impressive Portfolio
While your resume will have all your best skills listed, you don’t want the recruiter to be confused about them. It’s always a great idea to have a compilation of your best projects that can help recruiters examine your abilities and skills, hence pursuing you with conviction.
Refer to our Fashion Portfolio tips that we’ve covered to help you if you wonder how to create one.
5. Networking
Networking plays a crucial role while getting that first fashion internship. Most of the students who land the best internships have amazing networking skills. You can also use social media like LinkedIn and Instagram to connect with people you admire from specific job profiles and help you get started!
6. Creating Your Own Opportunities
Sometimes creating your own opportunities help people notice you with your work. With the rise of social media, putting out content and being visible has become easier.
You can start a Fashion blog, promote your portfolio, and set your profiles and designs on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc. Buying and selling have become huge, so if you feel like you want to start your business or work freelance, go for it!
7. Volunteer at Fashion Events
There are many ways you can volunteer at fashion events, working errands backstage helps a lot of styling, make, and hair interns get hands-on getting experience for runway shows. As a fashion blogger and writer, you can try on these little projects.
8. Work in Retail
If you’re confused about how to start in the fashion industry, you can apply to fashion retail brands and work as a design intern, visual merchandiser, or fashion-buying intern.
How to Turn Your Fashion Internship Into a Full-time Job?
Your internship at one of your dream companies might last 6-8 months before they confirm you as a permanent employee. Paid or unpaid, you should never be discouraged if the recruiter says they’re not ready to hire because the chances of you getting confirmed as an employee totally depend on the quality of work you’re providing.
But as a fashion intern, what are the points should you keep in mind so that the chances of you getting hired are more? The secret to getting the fashion job after completing the internship adds to being passionate, hard-working, punctual, having a positive attitude, and constantly having a team spirit goes a long way in any company.
Listing a few crucial habits that will help you land that fashion internship into a job:
- Putting Extra Effort into any task.
- Completing every task on time.
- Being independent on your tasks.
- Do your best even in the smallest of the task.
- Show them the thirst that you really want to be there.
- Ask questions, and get involved in everything around you for a better understanding of other job responsibilities.
- Put your best ideas in while completing your tasks.
- Take initiatives.
Although following these habits might not get them talking about your efforts but will definitely get you noticed.
How Much Does a Fashion Intern Make?
According to Payscale.com, the average salary of a Fashion Intern makes $40,000 a year in the US, depending on different cities. Although if you get unpaid internships at your very first project, it is still advised to pick such internships.
12 Best Fashion Internship Portals to Apply
Wondering where to find the best fashion internships? Here are a few fashion internship job portals to check out for good internship projects.
- Tory Bunch
- Net-a-Porter
- Express
- VelvetJobs
- Internships
- Way Up
- Dream Careers
- FindSpark
- Free Fashion Internships
- Fashion United
- Business of Fashion
Fashion Internship or Fashion Job: Which is Better?
Fashion Internships are a crucial aspect before you actually get into a job situation as it helps you understand the business models and help you explore more on the domains that interest you and work on your skills.
Directly jumping into a fashion job sometimes might end up turning into regret as it bounds you to explore things that you like and work on skills and there’s a constant workload of achieving targets. Hence, it’s always preferable to work as a fashion intern.
If you’re applying for a fashion internship with a minimum experience there’s nothing to be dishearted of. Fashion Internships are meant for you to learn the most and are worth more than any fashion college.
Some additional resources to find the right fashion internships in summer are:
- freefashioninternships.com
- internships.com
- ed2010.com
Although if you don’t land up a job in the same company where you interned, you can always apply to similar brands as the opportunities are endless.
I hope these tips helped you in some or another way, sending you best wishes for your upcoming fashion internships!
