When it comes to working in the fashion industry the city you live in can make a difference in your career. Unlike all the other sectors that are distributed in almost all the cities, for fashion you have to be in specific cities to build a career in this industry. If you don’t live in those cities, the only opportunities to work in fashion are in store, remote as a freelance or to start your own business. But if you want to work in merchandising, marketing, design, pr … and therefore in the headquarters of fashion companies, you must inevitably move to one of the cities below.
So what are the best cities to intern in fashion?
At the top of the choices, there are obviously the fashion capitals: Milan, London, Paris and New York, where most of the fashion companies’ headquarters are located, especially of the most prestigious and iconic fashion houses.
Moving to one of these big cities greatly increases the probability of finding a job in fashion because the job offer is much wider. At the same level, however, there is high competition. The four fashion capitals have millions of residents and as many people moving, they are also the headquarters of fashion schools, therefore the number of people looking for a job in fashion is remarkably high compared to other cities.
The advantages of living in one of these cities are many. Not only there are located the offices of almost all the fashion houses, agencies, and showrooms, but all the fashion events such as fashion shows, presentations, fashion weeks, launch events, exhibitions … are organized between Milan, Paris, London and New York.
Just walking through the streets of these cities you can immediately breathe fashion and already feel part of this world.
It’s easy to meet an editor on the street or run into a photoshoot in the park or on the roofs of New York. Moving to one of these cities means breathing 360 degrees of fashion.
However, the four fashion capitals are also world capitals, which means that living in these cities is definitely not the cheapest choice, especially for those who are at the beginning of their career and have to face the expenses with the salary of an intern which is often vain or non-existent at all.
On a positive note, I can say that those who manage to make the sacrifice in order to start their career in fashion in one of these cities are always rewarded in the end. Having even a short experience of a couple of months during your study break or just graduating in one of these cities is worth a lot on your CV but it will above all help you to break into the fashion industry.
However, there are other cities to consider that especially in recent years have developed an interesting network in the fashion system. Below are the cities and some examples of companies you can find there.
Berlin → headquarters of Zalando, the e-commerce giant and immediately after Paris and London in Europe.
Amsterdam → there you’ll find the offices of PVH (Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein) with job offers in finance, merchandising, e-commerce, digital …
Monaco → for a much quieter life where the luxury e-commerce MyTheresa has taken root and where you can work as a writer, buyer, finance, customer care, merchandising, marketing…
Florence and Tuscany → immediately after Milan, in Tuscany there are job offers especially for those who want to work in product development. There, in fact, the production districts of the most important fashion houses such as the Kering group and Prada are located.
Barcelona → The giant of Fast Fashion Inditex, group of the Zara brand, has its offices in Spain
Los Angeles → on the opposite coast to New York and with a mild climate and a more peaceful lifestyle, LA is the city of new fashion brands such as Anine Bing.
The competition in these cities is much lower. The number of people who apply for a job is about half of those who apply in the fashion capitals, so the chances of getting a job are higher. Furthermore, the lifestyle is much less frenetic than that of cities like New York, London, Paris and Milan.
How do you choose the city that’s right for you?
There are several factors to consider when choosing which fashion city to move to.
- Where are located your favorite companies? Research on Google where your favorite brands have their headquarters and offer headquarter jobs (therefore excluding the jobs in store)
- Which is the closest city to reach? Your career is important, but your family as well. Do you want to be an hour of flight and get home several times a year even for just a weekend or can you bear to see your family just in the summer and at Christmas?
- What is your favorite lifestyle? Here it is a matter of personal taste and which is your favorite city. Where do you see yourself living? It helps to choose to have visited the cities at least once to see how fast life goes in each city.
When making your choice, remember not to put too much pressure on yourself. If you are moving for a fashion internship, at the end of it nothing prevents you from returning home or moving to another city.
Choose a city to start and if you realize that it doesn’t reflect your lifestyle, change again.
Whichever city you choose, if you want to be more cautious, start applying before moving to see how your applications are going and if they don’t work, work on it: edit your CV and cover letter and try something different: I have a free webinar where I teach 4 strategies to get a job in fashion, register for free here.
When you finally start getting job interviews and you have not yet moved, ask to do the first one via Skype and be ready to leave even after a week for the in-person interview. If your applications work well and you receive invitations to interviews frequently, book a flight and a hotel and stay there for a few days continuing to apply, go to interviews and look for an apartment, it will be much easier to manage everything if your there. When you have your contract whether it is an internship or something else, you can safely lock your apartment for the next few months and start officially becoming a citizen of fashion.
In which city do you work and live? Where would you like to move? Comment below
