Interning at London Fashion Week SS16

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram may know that I was interning throughout London Fashion Week this season. Now that those 5 hectic but amazing days are over, I thought that I would blog about my time to give more insight to anyone who is thinking of doing it in the future or is just interested to know what it involves. 

First things first, I found my internship through the website Fashion Workie and it was with a fashion and beauty PR agency called POP PR. Two weeks prior to LFW I went to London for a briefing at their office (along with around 10 other interns) to be given all the details that I'd need to know before starting. Some people didn't attend this and I don't think it is 100% necessary if you can't make it, but in my opinion it's nice to put a face to a name prior to starting and it definitely reassured me and calmed my nerves.

Soon LFW was upon us and I was ready to begin my internship. I had to wear all-black (kind of a blessing in disguise as it meant I didn't have to think of a great outfit each day) and arrive 2 hours before the start time of each show. Typical tasks that I did as soon as we arrived included taking rails of clothing backstage and placing press releases/magazines/leaflets on all of the seats in the venue, making sure it was set up correctly. As there were many interns plus actual staff, these jobs got done relatively quickly so there were times that we spent feeling like spare parts, but this unsureness soon disappeared after the first day once everything became more familiar.

When guests began arriving we all got assigned different roles. For three of the five shows I was working front of house checking people's tickets and organising them into two queues (one for priority and seated tickets, one for standing), as well as filtering guestlisted people through the crowd to the front so they could be seated first. This was probably my favourite job as it meant that I was in the midst of things and got to talk to people, but it could get quite chaotic when more and more people started arriving and there are certain people who have a tendency not to listen to you. For example, people who did not have the correct tickets insisting to be in the priority queue. For the other two shows, I was assigned a section of the front row which I had to ensure was filled up with the correct guests who held priority tickets. This was slightly more nerve-wracking than working on the door but the people I had seated in my section were really sociable towards me and did not live up to any bad stereotypes of what important people in fashion can be like! Once everybody had arrived, we were allowed to go in and either fill any empty seats or stand at the back and watch each show.

Fashion International - Day 1

Fashion International - Day 2

The five shows that I worked at were spread out across 4 days and located in two different venues. On the first two days it was multi-designer shows held in a hotel in Charing Cross as part of Fashion International, which showcases a variety of new, emerging, and established designers. These shows were around 30 minutes each and seeing a number of different collections on one catwalk meant that there was something for everyone. My favourite was the show on the second day which included designers Forever Devine, Aga Couture London, Yuvna Kim, and more.

Mimpikita SS16

Marko Mitanovski SS16

Belgrade Fashion Week

For the remaining days of LFW, the shows I was working were located at Freemason's Hall in Covent Garden as part of Fashion Scout. This venue felt a lot more important and fashion-week-like with it's buzzing atmosphere so I really enjoyed working in this environment and getting to observe the various behind-the-scenes happenings that take place before the shows. On the Sunday was the Mimpikita show and the collection included lots of wearable, sophisticated designs suitable for the everyday woman. Apparently the prices started at around £50 as well, which was quite a refreshing change from the high end side of things which you usually see on the catwalk. In complete contrast to the light and airy collection from Mimpikita was Marko Mitanovski on Tuesday. It was an amazing show which proved that fashion really is a form of art. The designs were dark and dramatic with an injection of glamour - I have no idea how the models successfully walked in some of the pieces. Lastly was Belgrade Fashion Week, another multi-designer catwalk showcasing the collections of 5 Serbian designers. My favourite of the 5 was probably Budislava as I liked the monochrome pieces but I also loved seeing the more extravagant and out-there designs as they were unlike anything else.

To bring this post to an end, I would say if you want to intern at London Fashion Week you need to be extremely motivated and determined to work in the industry as most of the work is unpaid. I think that if you choose to intern for a PR agency specifically you need to be pretty confident too because you will have to talk to people and get your voice heard as you need to ensure that people are in the right place and the venue looks full or else it looks bad on the company. Finally, I would say that you can't expect it to be glamorous - you're working, after all. Yes, you'll be on your feet for hours, and yes, you'll be tired, but getting to watch the shows is the ultimate reward and I haven't been put off the industry at all. Instead, I really appreciate that I got the opportunity, I made some lovely friends, and I would definitely do it again in the future.

If there's anything I have missed that you'd like to know about or if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or email me! I look forward to next season, LFW...