Lunging into the Fashion Biz

Need a boost?

It’s not like all of us future aspiring magazine journalists needed another reminder of our competition. But, low and behold, when I opened The New York Times Thursday Styles late last night, I was confronted with “Looking for a (Long) Leg Up.” Good thing I’m 6’, and have that 33 inch inseam.

Jokes aside, Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Amy Astley comments on the shift from youth aspiring to be models to striving to work in the fashion industry.

Times reporter Eric Wilson asserts:

“But this wave of Anna Wintours and Michael Korses in training is coming at a moment when the industry is shrinking; retailers are collapsing; several magazines within Teen Vogue’s parent company, Condé Nast, have closed; and jobs, of any sort, are scarce. A report last month from the NPD Group estimated that 12 percent of fashion companies will not survive the recession.”

After a series of the usual assurances that the world of fashion isn’t really all that glamorous, and that success requires hard work, the article glosses over the power of connections. I say glosses over because said point is made in a parenthetical paragraph. But, if my experiences as an intern at various magazines say anything, it’s that who you know is too important to render a side note. Astley, the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue is quick to say that “connections are not required at a publication that employs as many as 40 interns at a time.” I’m equally quick to wonder how many of those 40 interns had some kind of leg up.

The Marie Claire Fashion Closet

I’m in the early stages of a story on those completing post-graduate internships in the magazine industry. No less than five people have sent “Looking for a (Long) Leg Up” to me in the past twelve hours. They may be forwarding the article because they know of my own career aspirations. However, several read-throughs of it have supported my hypothesis about the kind of sacrifices college grads are willing to make simply to get one foot in the door of the Condé Nast building. Sometimes that price is no salary at all.