How to get a fashion internship this summer

Are you looking to start gaining some work experience in the fashion industry? Internships are the best way to get your foot in the door and summer is the most popular period for internships in fashion. You can take advantage of your school break and fully immerse yourself in a fashion internship this summer.

As we are already in the middle of June, you might think that it’s too late to apply for a summer internship, but it’s not as summer internships run until the end of August/beginning of September. While it’s true that most fashion internships start being posted in January-March already, companies are still looking for last-minute interns in June for new opportunities. Companies know that summer is one of the best times for students and other fashion enthusiasts to take an internship, so they tend to offer more opportunities during this time of the year.

So if you decided last minute to do a fashion internship this summer, and you are looking for advice on how to get one to not miss your shot, you are in the right place, my friend. In this article, we are going to guide you through everything about how to get a fashion internship this summer.

How To Get A Fashion Internship This Summer

Things to consider before applying for a fashion internship in the summer

Even if we said it’s totally possible to find an internship in fashion last minute, there are many things to consider if for some reason you couldn’t prepare for it in advance. So buckle up because if you want to get an internship this summer, you need to act fast. 

The first question to ask yourself is whether you have to do an internship as part of your study program at university, for school credit.

In this case, you need to look for summer fashion internships that are reserved for students. Hey, the good news is that most of them are 😉 They usually last from a few weeks to a couple of months (especially PR internships) which means you can still make it on time and end this summer with a fashion internship. 

If you are unable to find internship opportunities with school credit, or if it is your personal decision to do an internship – for example, if your degree program doesn’t require one or you recently graduated or you are changing careers -, it doesn’t mean that there are no internship opportunities! There are, but you have to ask for them by emailing your favorite brands or magazines directly. We will explain this unconventional strategy in a few minutes. 

Another thing to consider is the location of your internship.

Do you already live in a fashion capital? (most fashion companies are based in New York, London, Milan, and Paris but you can also find internship opportunities in Germany, Spain, China, Hong Kong, Dubai…) If you live in a small town, are you ready to move to another city for your internship, or you prefer to do it remotely? 

If you have always dreamed to do a summer internship abroad, you can still do this but it takes more time to prepare all the documents, find an apartment, and so on. So the possibility to find a summer internship abroad now, in the middle of June, depends on many factors, like whether or not you need a visa, how well you know the local language, and how soon you can leave your home.

For example, if you are an EU citizen and want to get a fashion internship in Paris, and your level of French is good, you can make all the necessary preparations quite quickly. But if you live overseas and you need a visa, and you don’t know the local language well (unless it’s not required for the internship) then you may want to postpone it till the next summer to get everything ready in advance. The same rule applies if you live in Europe but want to intern in New York or Shanghai, for instance. In this case, you are probably not leaving 2 weeks from now, and you need more time to prepare.

What you also have to take into account is your current financial situation.

I say this because many internships – especially the ones that last a few weeks or months – are unpaid or pay a little. Therefore, you have to decide how you will support yourself financially during your internship, and whether you can do it full-time or settle for a part-time internship while doing another job on the side. 

Now that we have gone through important things to consider before finding a summer fashion internship, let’s answer another important question: what type of internship do you want?

What Is A Fashion Internship

Whatever department you choose, as a fashion intern, your role will mostly be supporting someone else’s job with the most practical tasks. The nature of your tasks will depend on the department and the specific role you’ll be interning at. Interning at a fashion magazine means working in the fashion cupboards organizing pr samples, and assisting the editors (sometimes even with personal errands…). Fashion PR interns take care of packing and unpacking PR samples to send to editors, stylists… assisting with some events if there are any. Interning in fashion buying, marketing, and merchandising means helping your boss mainly with organizing and analyzing data on Excel sheets. In any case, an internship will offer you a look into the everyday life of a given career and learn in practice what it’s like to be a writer, social media manager, etc.

What kind of fashion internships are there?

Summer internships are offered in the different departments in the fashion industry: PR, editorial, styling, marketing, design, buying, merchandising…. So you have a lot of choices, but how do you decide what type of internship to do? 

If you already have a dream department in mind it’s better to look for an internship there to gain experience in your chosen area. However, if you are unsure about what career is made for you, internships are a great way to clarify your career doubts so you could do a couple of different internships to see what works best for you. 

Any experience is valuable in fashion when you are starting out, and your current internship is not going to be the job of your life so while it’s useful to already intern in the department you are interested in, keep your eyes open to similar opportunities. For example, if you want to work in buying, consider a merchandising internship. If you want to work in design, something like product development could be an interesting experience. Finally, if you want to become a stylist, you could find a styling internship at an online retailer rather than assisting a celebrity stylist and this is fine as well. 

So how do you get a fashion internship this summer? 

Start with your Resume.

Even if this will be just an internship, your CV is still important. It represents you. But don’t worry, if you can only add what you’re currently studying or your recent degree, that’s fine, as when you are applying for internships,  recruiters know that you don’t have experience, otherwise, you would apply for a full-time job ;). However, a lack of experience is not a reason to not care about your CV at all. Despite the fact that you can only add a little information to it, having a clean and polished template still matters and it’s something recruiters look at.

Your CV is not just a list of skills and experience. The way you structure it, the font you choose, the template.. all of these things say a lot about your personality. Actually, since recruiters cannot base their decision considering the experience you have, the design of your CV is something they will really look at. How you structure your CV shows how you care about the job but also like I said, it represents you. A flat simple CV will make you look like a flat and simple person as well; a bold yet professional resume will make you look like someone who thinks out of the box but that is still very professional. So think about this when building your resume. You can read more about it here.

Cover Letter

Your resume is not the only document you’ll need to get your fashion internship this summer. Write a powerful cover letter that showcases your passion for the brand and the position. Since you are still at the beginning of your career, recruiters will look at your cover letter more than your resume because through that they can see if you are really someone passionate about the job, smart, and able to learn quickly inside the company. So write a strong cover letter to express all your motivation and passion. 

Portfolio

Finally, we recommend including in your application a portfolio of your past work or even drafts that you keep for yourself on your desktop. This document will be relevant whether you are applying for an internship in a creative department (for example, as an aspiring fashion photographer you could include in your portfolio some shoots you took) or a digital and/or business-oriented role (for example, for a social media management internship you could share some posts you created for your clients, your blog, or even just for fun). 

Where to find summer fashion internships

Many summer fashion internships can be found online. So what you want to do first is to visit the official website of the brand to see if they have any open vacancies in its “Work with us” or “Careers” section. 

Another way of searching for job offers is to go directly to the websites of fashion groups: LVMH, Kering, Prada Group, Inditex, and OTB. The good thing about this type of platform is that all the opportunities are posted in one place. So you don’t have to look at each brand’s website one by one. 

If you don’t have a preference for a particular fashion brand or group, you can also go directly to Linkedin. Many companies post their job offers there. The best way to find internships is to go to the “Jobs” section. Once you are there, you can either type as a keyword the role that interests you. For instance, “stylist”, “fashion designer”, or “social media manager”. And add the filter “internships” or “entry-level jobs”, which are both used to post internships. Or, you can just type “fashion intern” “buying intern”, “PR intern” etc…and the country or city where you want to work, and add the same filter. 

Each Friday we send a special newsletter “Your Fashion Jobs Date” with a list of fashion jobs and internships updated every week. So if you want to receive this list straight in your inbox click here to register for our newsletter.

You can read our article here to find out more about where to look for fashion internships.

While of course, you can look for fashion internships on different career websites, I believe the best and most effective strategy would be to email directly recruiters, editors, buyers, pr, stylists… asking for a summer internship. 

Emailing directly to companies work:

1. When you can’t find any opportunity that suits you so you don’t have to waste time waiting for an internship that gets published

2. To impress recruiters by proving that you are someone who thinks out of the box and that instead of passing from the traditional application, you are finding a more resourceful way to get in contact 

3. It showcases you are really passionate about that specific company and that you are not just applying to many internships online just to get one

4. There is less competition as you are not applying online like anyone else

When you write these emails, you can already write your cover letter in the body of the email and attach your resume and portfolio if you are applying for internships in creative departments such as fashion design, photography, or graphic design. 

We hope after reading this article, you feel more informed and motivated to look for a summer fashion internship. But don’t wait and start applying the tips we shared with you asap. 

If you want to learn more in detail about how to apply for fashion internships, register for my free masterclass here.