With Friday last week I have finally completed my two weeks of internship with Evening Standard Magazine. The second week was different compared to the first one and I have made and learned from mistakes. Each week I explored another desk and while it was the features desk in week one it was the fashion desk in my final week.
Fashion Desk
It’s the place to run wild about fashion in every way. Whether you got an organisational skill for the fashion cupboard or fancy fashion shows and weekly studio or outdoor shoots; this is what the fashion desk is all about. Last week I mentioned that I had the chance to assist a stylist at a studio shoot, which was my first experience that I had as a styling assistant. With this week especially I got to know more about the fashion side and so I spent hours daily in the fashion cupboard. It is also known as the notorious place in fashion that every intern is assigned to in the beginning. I was lucky enough to have the perfect balance between cupboard and features and this helped me to get an idea of how the system works. This includes the confusing world of PRs, call-ins as well as returns. It’s not an easy environment that’s for sure and it’s more about being organised and being well aware where things are ie. a Marni coat that has disappeared in a sea of plastic bags and shoes.
The fashion cupboard asks for flexibility, a clever mind and supervisory talent. Although I knew a bit about it before from friends, without experiencing it myself I couldn’t really imagine the intensity and stress level that was awaiting me. Besides the fashion desk, I had been assigned to a few tasks from the feature desk.
Features Desk
This is the home of writers and creative minds. My daily tasks included transcribing interviews, doing research for the editors but also attending Monday meetings. Monday meetings were kind of my thing. I loved the idea of sitting next to the deputy editor and other people from the team in the conference room to discuss the next week’s issue and flat plan. It’s amazing how coordinated and how well informed each team member is about everyone’s task, story or photo shoot. I found it quite difficult to follow the conversations in week 1, so week 2 was easier since I was better informed than the week before.
It’s been a while since I’ve done an internship, actually 8 years ago, but this one was by far the most versatile I had in the fashion industry. I must say the two weeks went by so fast that I didn’t even realise that Friday had been my last day in the hallways of the Northcliffe House. In fact, I miss it already a little bit, especially the routine that I got used to over time. Now you might wonder if this placement switched up my mind during the two weeks; It hasn’t and I will still be going down the writer’s route. What I have realised is that I have a favour for both, photo shoots and styling as well as writing. I am hoping to one day merge these two passions into one, a day job that I never get bored of and that pushes my creativity beyond the boundaries. But for now, let’s stay on track; my next internship is just a few days away.
x
