What Does A Fashion Intern Do

Have you decided to turn your passion for the fashion industry into your career, but you are just at the beginning and wondering how to get started? You should look for fashion internships! 

Starting as a fashion intern is one of the best ways to break into the fashion industry. And understand how it works and learn about a career from the bottom up to the top.

“Okay, but what does a fashion intern do?” you may be wondering. 

Every department in the fashion industry offers internships and provides the intern with insight into a specific career. So to answer the question “What does a fashion intern do”, it really depends on which department you are interested in.

Therefore, in this article, we are sharing with you what fashion interns do in the most popular fashion departments: design, buying, merchandising, marketing, PR, social media, E-commerce, photography, graphic design, sustainability, and the stylist department. 

But before diving into the subject, you probably have questions about what kind of internships are there, so let’s start with that.

What Does A Fashion Intern Do

Are fashion interns students only or recent graduates?

We can categorize fashion internships into two main categories.

The first category of internships is reserved for students, those who have to do an internship as part of their curriculum (in their final year, for instance). The job description usually mentions if the internship is for school credit only, so you should check this information. 

The second category of internships is open to everyone who wants to break into the fashion industry. Regardless of age and whether you are currently enrolled in any school or not. So if you are a recent graduate or someone without (much) experience, this kind of internship is for you. If the job description doesn’t mention anything about school credit – anyone can apply. Plus, you can always land an internship the unconventional way by sending a spontaneous application to the fashion company of your dreams. I teach more about this in my free webinar here. 

When can you intern?

Internships are offered all year round but a popular time especially if you are a student is summer so you can take advantage of your class break to gain some work experience in the field. Stay organized in your internship search, though. Winter internships tend to be posted in September, and summer internships pop up in January. 

How long do Fashion Internships last? 

Fashion Internships usually last from 3 weeks to 6 months. There are part-time and full-time internships. If you are a student, you might consider a part-time internship where you will need to go to the office just a couple of days per week. If you graduated already and have more time, you can consider a full-time internship that runs like a regular 9-5 job Mon-Fri. (Sometimes even the weekend especially during fashion week ;)). Most of the fashion internships are based in the 4 fashion capitals – New York, London, Paris, and Milan. But the biggest brands of the industry have international offices around the world. So there are opportunities in other countries, like China, Dubai, Germany, Spain, etc. 

If you don’t live in a big city, have you considered doing an internship abroad? This can be a great way to live and experience fashion in another country or city, learn a new language (which is always a plus in the international fashion industry), and get valuable experience. Recruiters like seeing internships abroad on the resume. It shows that you are curious, open to the world, and not afraid of challenges. 

How many internships do I need before getting a full-time job?

For an entry-level position, fashion companies require some previous experience, usually at least 1 internship. Yet again, it depends on how much your internship lasted. If you did 1 full-time internship of 6 months, that’s a significant first experience. And you could be offered a promotion to an assistant role after it. In other cases, some people prefer to do 3-4 short internships at different companies. So it’s up to you. But if you want to have all the cards in your hands and enhance your chances of being considered for entry-level jobs, my advice is to gain around 6 months to 1 year of experience. Which you can split into several internships of several months each, or do a long one at one company. 

What tasks are given to interns?

When you search for jobs and you find this cool opportunity for a junior or senior position as a buyer, stylist, editor…, you can get an idea of what type of tasks and responsibilities are involved. Of course, as an intern, you shouldn’t expect to attend fashion shows, style the celebrities yourself. Or get your article published immediately. Instead, you will be supporting your boss with some day-to-day tasks. Don’t worry, you will also be able to take part in cool and fun tasks, as you won’t be (just) making coffee ;). You will be given functions that are still related to the role – just at a lower degree of responsibility. 

The tasks of an intern vary from one role to another, company to company, and where the location is. The type of company is an important factor: is it a luxury brand, a retail department, or a magazine? Your internship won’t be the same at Chanel and Dior, at Vogue and Cosmopolitan, Farfetch and Net-a-porter, and so on.

The range of tasks and responsibilities can also vary depending on the length of your internship.

If you plan a short one, say 1 month, the internship will be like a quick introduction to the role. And you may be assigned simple and short-term administrative tasks. Whereas if you stay for 6 months, you will have time to dive into the role and take part in bigger projects. In addition, full-time and part-time internships also influence the range of tasks assigned to an intern. So the duration and contract type can impact what you will be doing as an intern. 

As you can see, there are many factors that have an influence over what a fashion intern does. This is why in this article, I want to give you an overview of how an intern’s tasks change from one department to the other.

Fashion Intern Jobs

Fashion Design Intern

Let’s start with the field that probably comes first to your mind – fashion design. Design interns assist the design team with day-to-day tasks like knitting, sketching, and hand-sewing. They also research trends and colors, create mood boards and tech packs, photograph samples and mock-ups, and attend fittings to help the designers build new collections from concept to production. But since creativity is not the only driver of the fashion industry – even the one of a fashion designer -, the design internship can have a business side. You can find yourself accompanying the design team during meetings with vendors and buyers. Helping them to source fabrics and control the orders.

Fashion Editorial Intern

As a very popular choice for a first job in fashion, your career at a magazine can begin with an editorial internship, as a Vogue intern, or at any fashion magazine. You will probably be working in the fashion cupboard helping to organize everything and assisting editors on set. And act as a personal assistant to help with the time-consuming tasks or research projects to help things run quickly and smoothly: doing research for the articles, transcribing interviews, and helping the editor with small writing, etc.

If you work for digital magazines, you could be asked to write some short articles for the online website of the magazine even just as an intern. In a print publication, it’s more complex to get your name published as you’ll usually need to wait a couple of years until you are promoted to editor. However, you can have the chance to pitch your article ideas. Be proactive and try – your boss may like your idea so much that they could assign you some small writing.

Buying Intern

Ok, you may not be attending fashion shows, but there is a lot you can do as a buying intern: support buyers to analyze the market, trends, customers’ behaviors, and previous sales to help them make buying decisions, control product deliveries, accompany buyers to showroom appointments, attend meetings, and draft reports on Excel (yes, fashion is not only about clothes and buyers spend lots of time on Excel to analyze sales and consumer behavior, oversee delivery and keep track of inventory, etc.) Note that your responsibilities may vary if you intern at a single brand or a department store.

Fashion Merchandising Intern

The roles of a buyer and merchandiser are quite similar. The responsibilities of a buyer at Gucci might be the same as the merchandising at Alexander McQueen. And in smaller brands, the two roles are often merged into one. That’s why if you want to get an internship as a fashion merchandiser, you need to read the job description carefully.

Fashion merchandising is divided into two segments: retail merchandising and collection merchandising. The Retail Merchandiser’s role is very much similar to the role of the buyer. And so are the tasks (see above). On the other hand, a collection merchandiser intern assists with overseeing the whole process of the collection development, reviewing garment samples, analyzing past sales and trends, and helping to develop product messages. 

Fashion Stylist Intern

To start as a fashion stylist, you can choose between editorial styling at the magazines, styling at your favorite brand, or working alongside a celebrity stylist. If you want to work alongside a stylist you need to become their assistant whilst if you want to work at as a stylist for a fashion brand or a multi-brand store such as Net-a-Porter then you need to look for styling internships at these companies. No matter the option at the beginning of your styling journey, you are most likely not going to make styling decisions. But you will assist stylists by doing practical tasks like organizing the looks on racks, ironing garments, managing samples, packing and unpacking clothes, and accessories for shootings, communicating with the brands’ PR to order products, assisting during photoshoots, booking travels, etc.

Fashion Photography Intern

Photography interns accompany photographers in the studio or at the shooting location to take photos of the models, advertising campaigns, collections, product catalogs, and so on. They work either as editorial photographers at a magazine or at a brand. Just like for the stylist, as an intern, you are probably not going to take photos yourself. But your tasks will include communicating and meeting with designers and fashion houses to ensure they are portraying the desired image for the brand, ideating concepts for photoshoots. And helping on the set by checking that all equipment is functioning, setting up appropriate lighting, etc.

Fashion Graphic Design Intern

In this role, you will be creating graphics for the different formats (print, web) and materials – newsletters, social media posts, email, advertising campaigns, etc., making sure all is aligned with brand esthetics. You will be working with the Communications, Marketing, and Design team to ensure cohesiveness in the creation of the resources and the message they convey.

Fashion Marketing Intern

If you want to work in Marketing, there are several opportunities to explore. Marketing is a branch that includes different responsibilities and different roles, with the purpose of promoting products and services to the target audience to boost sales and make profits. As a Marketing intern, you’ll analyze customer data, identify strategic insights for future direct marketing initiatives, conduct competitive/market research, track industry trends, and monitor social media platforms for trending news, ideas, and feedback. You’ll also help with the planning and hosting of marketing events. And contribute to the creation of email campaigns and social media content. 

Fashion PR Intern

PR Internships are the most popular in fashion. So this may be your first job if you are interested in a career in communication or marketing. PR interns help with press monitoring and clippings (aka checking what websites, social media, and magazines mentioned the brand and making a report of these mentions). They manage daily send-outs to the press and returns for fashion media shoots, send invitations to celebrities, press, and influencers for the events, assist on the day of the event by welcoming guests, and maintain organization and inventory of the PR closet. You can work in-house or at a PR agency. In-house means you are employed by one single fashion brand. When you work for a PR agency you could be working on the different brands the PR agency manages. 

Digital or Social Media Intern

Social media or Digital interns can work at fashion brands or magazines to grow their online presence. They propose ideas of what to post, create engaging content, plan editorial calendars, write posts and captions, stay aware of trends to create trendy content, develop social media strategies, and sometimes they work with influencers.

Fashion Ecommerce Intern

Fashion Ecommerce interns work in the digital department alongside e-commerce managers to run the online store of a fashion brand. They manage and monitor daily website performance, provide recommendations on development-related content and enhancement of customer experience, monitor and analyze product and sales trends, traffic, and site (KPIs), coordinate the launch of products on the brand’s website, supervise campaign photoshoots, and collaborate with the Marketing team to effectively drive traffic and revenue to the website.

Sustainability Intern 

Sustainability jobs are more and more in-demand, so nowadays you can find internship opportunities in this field. As an intern, you will support the Sustainability Team with managing the different projects, analyzing data about the brand’s environmental impact. And the progress in the work on the objectives set out in the sustainability strategy, preparing reports, and communicating with stakeholders. 

We hope you understand better now what fashion interns do. Perhaps you spotted a role you like and want to know what to do next? On glamobserver.com, we have many resources for you: 

Skills to work in fashion

What to study to work in fashion

Where to look for fashion internships

How to land a job in fashion with zero experience

Resume and cover letter tips

I also invite you to sign up for my free webinar where I teach unconventional strategies to break into the industry.