Miss Unkon looking for interns!!

Please see internship deatails for Miss Unkon below or click HERE.

I know a lot of my readers (especially the beautiful ones who email me) are looking for courses, jobs, experience opportunities and are testing the waters of the Austrailan fashion industry to see what they like and where they can get. I do try to give you guys the best advice I can, however I'm no guru and can only speak from a few years worth of experience.

But I have learnt one thing. Good things DON'T come to those who wait.

Good things come to those WHO WORK THEIR ASSES OFF!

I used to sit back and wish that I had that internship or that job. I'd blame my lack of involement and experience in the industry on simply not being at the right place at the right time. I'd convinced myself that you only got jobs by being introduced to someone fabulous by someone fabulous, and that when the day would come for me to meet someone high-up, they'd swoop me up under their wing and offer me the world (and a free pair of Louboutins)...

But that day never came, and I don't ever think it will. It does for some, yes, but in reality you have to work your ass off (for free) for a long time to establish yourself enough for anyone to even slightly consider paying you to work for them. You have to send countless emails and make endless phone calls to total strangers asking for the opportunity to explain why you're worthy of their knowledge. You have to haggle, hassle and weasle your way in. Be it fake media passes at fashion shows, making excuses to "bump into" those you admire or having the courage to simply ask for help. But if one thing is for certain, never sell yourself short. Convince people that having you around will be beneficial. Even if you're just at the beck and call of someone who orders you around all day to fetch coffee and stand in the sun for three hours holding a reflector board on a photoshoot, you need to let them know that it will be their loss if you aren't there. Because the fashion industry operates like a two way street and (usually) goes by the you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours mentality.

It's a tough gig. The fashion industry is almost one of the only industries that doesn't have regulated and paid internships. There's no union looking after it's workers. There's no one to get the people at Vivienne Westwood introuble for starving their interns and forcing them to choose between either working an 18 hour days or risk losing their position (yes, this happens. I was told numerous horror stories in my fashion internship subject). But it's the choice we make. We choose to be here, we want to be here. We love fashion and we'd do anything asked of us to be involved. So we suck it the hell up. We accept the shitty hours, we sacrifice the money, and thank God that we are where we are and even have the opportunity to work for free. Because if we aren't appreciative, we move over and let the next girl in the line of 1000 hopefuls take our position. If you don't love it (even more than eating out, getting you hairdone or shopping online), then you're probably not cut out for the industry in the first place.

 Share