Photo by Marcus Loke on Unsplash
Landed your first major fashion internship? Great! Congratulations!
Here's what you need to know before you start:
1. PICK UP'S & DROP OFF'S- Most of these internships demand you to do a lot of errands. There's a high chance you will have to do several pick ups and drop offs of fabrics rolls, trims, etc. Best you could do is accept this with grace and try to learn more about the available fabric and trim types. After all an internship is meant for you to learn more about your field right?!
2. COMFORT BEFORE FASHION- Okay, so yes you are working in a fashion house where you should be well dressed and stylish but that does not mean you need to wear fancy shoes to work everyday. Since you'll be running a lot of errands, you really should get a comfy pair of shoes like neutral colored sneakers for summers and a good pair of boots for the winters. They tend to go on every outfit and don't wear out easily.
3. YOUR BEST FRIEND- GOOGLE MAPS is your new best friend especially if you are new to that city. If you have multiple pick ups you can always feed all the addresses on it and it'll guide you through the pick ups in the least amount of time. Make sure you have enough internet data on your phone though!
4. SOURCING- Knowledge of the local fabric and trims market will make your life so much easier. If you are new to that city make sure you do your homework before you begin your internship. With the help of fellow interns or your supervisor make a list of shops, fabric houses, trims stores, embellishment shops, etc as specific as possible so that you can source from the right place.
5. FOOD- The lunch breaks are usually for half an hour. If you carry your own lunch, make sure it doesn't smell a lot since there are people from various nationalities having lunch with you and you wouldn't want the clothes to keep smelling like food. Secondly, if you get food allowance or prefer to eat outside, make sure you do your research beforehand and keep a list of places to eat near your office ready as you don't want to report back to work late. ALWAYS keep Energy bars in your bag as you have to work a lot as an intern and you'll need all the energy you can get.
