Hi there, it’s Giada here! Today you’ll read someone’s else tips and experience in the fashion industry! Let me introduce you to Eman Alami, one of the Break into the fashion industry and The Freelance Fashion Writer Boss alumni who proposed to me this article idea about how she made it as an introvert in fashion. As both introverts, we believed many of you will find it helpful to read that it’s possible to network and get a job in the fashion industry even if you are not an extrovert.
Enjoy it!
Growing up, interacting with my classmates was difficult. I was the shy and quiet girl who did not have many friends. I often wanted to live inside of my head and flipping through magazines was an activity where it would appear like I was actively doing an activity, but in my head my eyes were coordinating to the images of models wearing the coolest trends in strong poses, making the mental realizations through my hands flipping the glossy images it made me want to join in the fashion bubble.
As I got older, the more I became more fascinated with fashion, I wanted to involve every aspect of my life to the field by connecting with other fashion lovers in college, attending Sophia Amoruso and Giovanna Engelbert and watch Project Runway. It was fun Michael Kors with a full breath of expressions to express his likes and dislikes from the fashion contestants. But then it hit me, the one thought of doubt, “how can I succeed in fashion if I don’t talk nearly as much as these people?” All of the people I’ve been equated with in fashion had personalities that seemed as loud and expressive as the clothes they wore.
I made it a goal to find a deeper breath of more fashion personalities who fit on the introverted spectrum. I wanted to prove the myth wrong, that fashion was all about chatty creative people who spend their free time partying. I started looking at personalities in fashion who didn’t talk too much and who had private lives. I was soon introduced to Raf Simons after watching the documentary Dior and I, where the former Christian Dior Creative Director has cameras following his career at Dior. Throughout the film, Simons didn’t speak much to the cameras. It’s like he forgot they were there. Simons seemed like my perfect match to finding my inner confidence to begin a career in fashion because of his creativity and talent that presented itself in his collections without his voice taking the main lead. His work spoke for him. It was a lead that I wanted to follow, to be a mastermind of my own future without having to describe it or have all the attention of the room because of the volume of my voice. After seeing Simons, it motivated me to believe that introverts are capable of having leadership roles and succeed in the fashion industry.
Making the first step after that realization was the most challenging as it is for many people trying to make connections in the fashion industry. I took to LinkedIn to find industry professionals in fashion publications that interested me. At first, seeing the amount of experience editors had intimidated me because I thought how I don’t compare to their level of their publishing expertise. I did not know how to start the conversation directly after adding them because my initial mentality was how I might be a waste of time because of the lack of experience as other people in the industry and as an outsider without working on them with projects I couldn’t start off simply with a simple “Hello” and “How are you?”
Instead I focused on my own social media accounts and merged my personal life with a mix of fashion and art articles, social-justice posts, anything one level up intelligible instead of posting fashion selfies like my competition. Just so that if they reached out to me after I make the first move they can find something to ask about me. After I edited my profiles, I felt confident in sending the cold emails and messages to publications and editors so they can understand a better picture of who I am, my values, interests and personality without exclaiming it during an informational interview and email conversation. To my luck, editors did take an interest in me, one Editor-in-Chief sent me her magazine via email (free of charge), one editor and I had a chat over our interest in fashion and print. Something about creating an organized persona online made it easier for me to reach out and send the cold-emails and messages.
It built my self-esteem. I thought about it like this “What do I got to lose?” The worst response is not getting one and I can move on to someone else who is willing to chat about their job or an interview for an internship opportunity. I went from having doubts to sending at least 10 emails a week about article submissions and internship opportunities.
I finally got the chance for what I had wanted all along, an internship interview. I was excited and nervous at the same time. The first battle of emailing behind a computer screen was completed, now it was back to my initial fear of interactment via Zoom. I had nerve-wrecking anxiety because I didn’t like how a screen limited the full effort of my outfit and my body language. Those little gestures come in handy as an introvert to get attention from the interviewer. To conquer my fear of my interviewer not knowing who I am, I had a reverse state of thinking- what if I made the interview more about the interviewer instead of myself?
I wrote a bunch of questions as I wanted my interviewer to talk about themselves as much as they could. This helped because it showed that I was interested in them as people, the position and the company. I did everything in my power to answer the questions quickly and with clarity too. The more time passed in the interview process, it felt more like a conversation more than an interview helping me get over my anxiety of getting the job. It became more of a mode to figure out whether the position was right for me too regardless if I got called back for the internship. It turns out that the method worked to the best of my advantage when I got accepted into the L’Officiel and CR Fashion Book editorial internships. Leading to my decision of choosing CR.
After a few months in the position as an introvert the job is completely doable. As a writer, I have the opportunity to network with industry professionals mainly via email from various aspects of the industry from PR to consultants. At the end, everyone from CR to the brands who reach out care about the daily tasks completed and well executed articles. Speaking up when appropriately to either ask questions about a brand or pitching a new article idea is valued.
It didn’t really matter that I spoke a lot or very little because all that mattered was the end result for everyone to be happy.
It worked out in the end, I did not have to sacrifice a single aspect of my personality for the fashion job, neither do you.Â
Want to learn more about informational interviews, cold emailing fashion companies and people to ask for a job and more uncommon strategies to break into fashion? Register for this free masterclass about 3 unconventional strategies to get a job in fashion quickly!
Words by Eman Alami
