I’ve been running Glam Observer full-time for 3 years now. It’s my dream job today. But before this, I was like one of you who want to get into fashion. I dreamed about the top companies and brands and I couldn’t see myself anywhere else but working in a fashion office. And I did it.
As you probably already know if you have been reading my articles, listened to the podcast or watched a video, I was born and raised in the south of Italy where there are no fashion schools and no fashion companies.
So as you could probably imagine, I had no idea about how the fashion industry worked and how to enter it. And I didn’t know anyone I could ask for information.
5 years later, work experience in fashion e-commerce at Ynap and Kering and many consultations with my students, events, interviews and conversations with fashion professionals, books, researches, I know what it really takes to get a job in fashion, in fact I do teach an online course about this and Forbes added me in the Under 30 list in the Education category for this.
I wish I knew all the things I know now when I was in college so I could have made better decisions and entered the fashion industry quickly and with no struggle.
Which brings also to the main reason why I started Glam Observer: to spread the word about how you can get a job in fashion and tell you things and secrets that no one ever talks about. My aim has always been to make the fashion industry accessible to anyone, break down the barriers and dispel the misconceptions about the industry to motivate you to get what you want: a place in the fashion industry. I don’t want anyone to feel the way I felt when I was trying to figure out how to enter this industry, so I’m here for you all.
So today I want to share with you the things I wish I knew when I wanted to get a job in fashion so I hope they can help you make your decisions and save some precious time to enter the industry asap.
I wish I knew that someone can intern while still in school and most of all, without a fashion-related education. If I could go back I’d for sure take advantage of internships during college. Your entry ticket into the fashion industry is not the fashion school you attended, but the fashion internships. Even if you are studying fashion, you won’t enter the fashion industry if you don’t start from internships.
It is not necessary to study something related to fashion to get a fashion internship. I repeat this information so many times because I know that it’s the biggest misconception related to working in this industry that it’s preventing many of you to apply for a job. I wish I knew this when I was in college so I would have not taken my master just because I thought it was my only option to get in fashion. Don’t get me wrong. I think investing in your education is one of best things you could do, but if you take a course (and I mean an expensive master that cost a lot, not an online or short course that is not such a big investment) you want to do it because you like what it’s about, not because you are desperate because you have no clue on how to get a job in fashion.
I also wish I had applied for internships before getting my master’s. I didn’t try at all, because I was convinced that my degree in management engineering was not enough. And you know what? I get so many emails from people who think the same, that they are not enough. That’s why in my free online class I like to motivate and tell you why you are enough even if you didn’t study fashion and have no experience yet. Click here to register for my free online class where I teach 3 unconventional strategies to get a job in fashion.
So If I could go back, I‘d for sure intern every summer during college. Possibly abroad, maybe one year in New York, one in London and one in Paris. Abroad internships are gold on your resume because companies appreciate the fact you challenge yourself to get there, get used to a new place, a new city, new people… . A 2 months internship for 3 years in college means you already have 6 months of internships at your back and grown a quite good network that you can help you get a job once you graduate.
I wish I knew about the existence of the informational interviews: the meetings with industry professionals where you can ask more about their role, how the industry works and any tip you need to get started. I had no idea I could reach out to someone via email and ask my questions on everything I wanted to know about a role or a company. Now I teach this strategy and my students know exactly how to approach the fashion professionals and what to email when requesting an informational interview.
I wish I knew that it’s not necessary to wait for a job to get posted online to apply, but that you have to cold email the brands and people you want to work for and that companies appreciate people who take initiative and get out of the standard path to make it in this industry. With this strategy, Abby, a student of Break into the fashion industry whose you can watch her video on the course page, impressed the recruiter because she emailed her despite the email address of the recruiter is not listed anywhere. This is because in my online course I teach a special trick to find the email address of anyone working in fashion even when they are not listed anywhere online. Cold-emailing people works because you go above and beyond the standard application and because it’s personal and direct.
So yes, these things would have changed my early career enormously and saved me so much time. You can’t have time back, unfortunately, and in fashion, the first you enter the industry, the better. Or you are going to find yourself in an internship when people of the same age, have a senior role because they entered the industry early and already have many years of experience at their back. That’s why I created the course Break into the fashion industry that you can finish in a weekend so you can start using immediately new strategies and acquiring the knowledge you need to stand out and don’t waste time but enter the fashion industry quickly.
