When talking to people about working in fashion, most immediately think of The Devil Wears Prada. And where I definitely enjoy a good movie night looking at Meryl Streep saying „That’s all.“, the reality of it certainly does not quite look like that.
Therefore, I thought I would share some insights into what my experience of working at a fashion company has been like during the past semester.
I did my internship at the Munich-based luxury e-commerce company Mytheresa, assuming the role of one of their womenswear PR interns.
There were several responsibilities connected to this. Firstly, just like most PR positions, one of my main responsibilities was to look through the print and online coverage which Mytheresa receives and saving those so called „clippings“. Each month, those results would help evaluate the PR efforts of our team.
Apart from that, the internship gave me the opportunity to be in contact with numerous editors and stylists, often working at renowned publications like Vogue, Elle oder Harper’s Bazaar which was a great chance to extend my professional network and also just interesting in terms of seeing what kind of people work in the industry I can imagine working in in the future.
The editors/stylists would contact me in case they would like to receive samples for one of their shoots. It would always be particularly intriguing to then see how the shoots we supported actually turned out, when receiving the clippings of the final results.
What fascinates me most about working in fashion is seeing how the industry is such a vast one, yet manages to retain an inspiring and inspirational core.
Seeing this in practice during my internship was a great experience, and this certainly leads to one of the recommendations I have for anyone looking for an internship – really question what interests you and then refine your search accordingly.
To be completely honest, internships can be quite tough (and I am sure anyone who has ever done one would agree with me); it can be really stressful, there’s tight deadlines resulting in long working hours and not all tasks are that much fun, but it really gives you the chance to gain extensive insights into the workings of certain industries and career paths, and if you are generally enthusiastic about what you are doing, the internship will be much more enjoyable.
To me, this aspect became particularly clear when there were capsule collections launching. Those collections are smaller – often exclusive – collections created by a brand which transcend the typical seasons in fashion and are focusing more strongly on conveying a particular look. Here, I would be able to be part of the meetings in the beginning attended by all departments who would be working on the project. This gave me the chance to gain an understanding of the entire process, but I could also obtain insights into what different teams within Mytheresa take care of and work on on a daily basis.
As a PR intern, I would be preparing the coverage report giving an overview with all clippings received in the end, so I really had the chance to witness all steps along the way.
Before wrapping this blog post up, I would like to still share my main takeaways from my internship at Mytheresa with you.
The first two were already mentioned before – really try to find out what you are interested in and look for a position accordingly and, once you are working at the company, use the time there to build your professional network (needless to say, it is advisable to always be nice to everyone – you never know where you will meet them again).
Next to that, I would suggest trying to get in touch with people from other departments as well. Where it is great to be able to gain in-depth insights into the domain you are working in, I still found it invaluable to also talk to people working in other teams, since I could learn a lot about numerous fields of work which might not be that well-known.
Lastly, I think it is important to push the boundaries of your comfort zone a little. Take on new tasks (or ask for additional ones, if you have some spare time on your hands) and start conversations with new people – I am certain you will be able to learn something from them.
Overall, I considered my internship at Mytheresa to be a valuable learning experience and I am glad I had the chance to work there for almost six months.