Fashion internship at Company magazine, week 1

This week, I started my fashion internship at Company magazine. I applied and was interviewed for the position in early January and I have to say, it’s come around quite quickly! The magazine is part of the Hearst magazine group and is based in Broadwick Street, Soho. I’m really familiar with the area anyway as I’ve done work experience at Cosmopolitan and interviewed for Reveal magazine in the past, which are also part of Hearst as well as ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, handbag.com and Prima.

For this particular internship, I am fortunate enough to be staying with my aunt and uncle in Essex, which is great for keeping living costs down and the emotional support from them is really appreciated as I’m not only interning but revising for my final exams and applying for jobs ready for when I finish my course in June.

The journey from Essex to the Company office take around an hour and half each way so I have to leave the house at 7.30am to be in by 9.30am. I’m used to commuting from Swansea to Cardiff every day for uni so the journey didn’t really bother me apart from Monday where there were severe delays on my train from Benfleet to West Ham meaning I was a bit late on my very first day. However, I let my supervisor Sarah know at the earliest opportunity and she was fine about it – phew!

I didn’t feel nervous about starting because I’ve been doing work experience and interning since I was 16 and I’ve been involved with Company magazine before (Style Blogger Awards and the Company Blogger Forum) so I already felt acquainted with some of the staff and Company as a brand in general.

The internship is unpaid but expenses of up to £12 are paid per day. I think this system is brilliant as I’ve done so many internships which haven’t offered any kind of expenses and have cost me a fortune! Endless tea, coffee and milk are also provided which sounds a bit obvious but it’s nice not to have to bring in teabags and milk every day!

The role largely consists of maintaining the fashion cupboard and ensuring it’s kept tidy at all times, looking after samples that are sent in, calling in samples under the direction of the fashion team, returning samples to the appropriate PR companies or in-house press offices, producing merchandise credits/prices for fashion shoots, assisting on shoots, liaising with PR contacts and assisting the team members in general duties as required. There are 2 other fashion interns Hannah and Georgia (yay, name twin!) who are both absolutely lovely girls and are so nice to work with. The rest of the fashion team – Sarah, Laura, Fiona and Oonagh are also really friendly and welcoming!

This week, we were mainly returning samples ready to make room for the clothes intended for the LA and Ibiza shoots over the next couple of months. Between the three of us, we must have prepared, packed and sent over 500 returns – not hard work but time-consuming. You have to have excellent organisational skills (searching through every item and grouping it with certain other items according to which PR company it belongs to), the ability to multi-task and prioritise (calling in samples and producing credits whilst doing returns) and the ability to anticipate and plan ahead for more items coming in or the arrival of the delivery man twice a day.

All in all, I’ve had a brilliant week. I’ve been surrounded by beautiful clothes, shoes and accessories every day which is a dream come true for a complete fashion addict like me. I can honestly say each day has flown by because it’s been so busy and I always had something to do! I’m really looking forward to what week 2 brings…