Since the increasing popularity of the Fashion Business, many believe that those on their climb to the top of this industry must endure rain, sleet, snow, and the Devil in order to make it. But, is this theory in fact true; is this career all blood shed and tears? Here is a look into my experiences as an aspiring Fashion Designer while interning for numerous Designers abroad and within the United States.

     There is one word that can be used to describe all of my internship experiences thus far, varying, and at a fast speed. But, I use the word not in a way as though each internship varied one from the other, instead, varying more in a way that each day was so different from the one before. In those variations, you have “good” days and “bad” days.
     The “good” days, for me, were days when I was given tasks that I actually was able to utilize the knowledge I had learned in design school as well as practical artistic knowledge of my own. On these days, I was kept busy by being given tasks to design dresses for the next season, or even challenges to design garments made for certain circumstances (such as a garment to be worn on a bike in the city for a woman over 30). Other times I would make a pattern, cut fabric, or sew prototypes of garments for the next season’s collection. These were also days that I didn’t have my boss (be it the actual Head Designer or an Assistant Designer) standing over me and watching my every move. On the “good” days, I didn’t mind being at work from 9am-7pm and staying later to make me “look good and dedicated”, I didn’t mind only getting 30 minutes for lunch (normally eaten in the atelier while working), and I didn’t mind having no contact with the outside world (cell phones off), I was a Fashion Design intern, doing what I loved.

     But, on the “bad” days, those days, were different. On the “bad” days, I was given very little to do, and when I was given things to do they were tasks I would rather not be doing. On days such as these, my tasks would be to something like unpacking tons of boxes of prototypes, going to the stock building and counting and converting yardage for samples or shipments, sending faxes and emails, getting coffee or lunch for the Assistant Designers, etc; these were the “bad” days. But, nothing tops off a “bad” day like making a mistake, and making it while your boss is around.

     The days when I made a mistake like not sewing a sample garment to perfection, or miscalculating the amount of buttons needed for next season’s production of a coat; these were days when a glimpse of the Devil were seen. When you realize that for a company, a mistake (like miscalculations) cost money and time it is easy to see why the Devil visited you that day. On those days the clock seemed to be treading water each hour, and the eyes of my boss seemed to never leave my back, and there were times when I received phone calls or emails after I had left work only to remind me of my mistakes and how I cost the company time and money, and not to make them ever again. Those days, what the Devil wore, I am unsure, but what was said, I will never forget.