Fashion Career Building Activities if you are Still in High School

[voguelover94]

I keep procrastinating about it

 

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

In America i dont think you can work at
high end stores most stores like that you hav to be 18
like H&M

 

[a_brightspot]

exactly.
i recently applied for an internship with Indonesia's Voice Of America, but i was too young. my resume my impressive! but i was still too young. and i don't doubt that you know more about fashion than the average 14 yr. old, you probably do. but companies can't seem to look past age. which sucks, i know. argh but there also might be legal work issues for their reason of not hiring such young people?

well i'm even younger than most of you, i'm 14! i've emailed nearly every magazine i know but all of them said you had to be 18. i even tried magazines aimed at my age and my local newspaper but even they wouldn't take me on. i know i'm young and that's why they wont let me come. if they looked past my age, they'd see that i'd be just as good (well i hope) as a 16/17 year old. i am quite mature for my age, i am very determined and enthusiastic. I used to run my own magazine and give it to my friends. I now have a fashion blog. i know a lot more about fashion than most girls my age who just say they do. next year i get to do two weeks work experience with my school. i want to do something fashion-related, but nobody will take me on because i'm young! what am i supposed to do?

 

[a_brightspot]

i'm having the same dilemma.
i go to a school concentrated on math/science.
there really aren't that many kids excited about fashion, or clothes for that matter..hahahah.

i'm still determined to start one though.
and all i can think of doing right now is a charity fashion show..
but besides that, i'm clueless.

well, retail doesn't really help that much because mostly you are doing customer service right? what other ideas do you guys have about the fashion club thing becuase I really want one, it'll build experience and what not, but have no idea. i don't know if people will be that commited to it. any ideas?

 

[FashionCapital]

So, over the summer, I was lucky enough to receive a Youth Communications Manager/intern position somewhere local. It wasn't really fashion-related, but I was able to write some press releases and get some awesome clips in general.

What I'm wondering is, does anyone know which NY-based magazines offer internship positions for high-schoolers?

 

[parkereloise]

Okay, let's attempt to bring this thread back to life here. Right, so I'm sixteen, and I have absoutley no desire to do anything with my life other than work in the fashion industry. I have applied for alot of internships but that just doesn't happen for me, I take classes at FIT on sundays and saturdays as part of their highschoolers program but still I find myself totally screwed as to my future career. Should I go to a regular collage? Should I spend my time trying to get into an Ivy League school, Should I go to FIT? Should I go to RISD, Should I go to a college in the city and just get a bunch of internships and attempt to work my way up, should I do anything now to try to improve my odds? I really wish I could just skip high school....

 

[homeboy]

Okay, let's attempt to bring this thread back to life here. Right, so I'm sixteen, and I have absoutley no desire to do anything with my life other than work in the fashion industry. I have applied for alot of internships but that just doesn't happen for me, I take classes at FIT on sundays and saturdays as part of their highschoolers program but still I find myself totally screwed as to my future career. Should I go to a regular collage? Should I spend my time trying to get into an Ivy League school, Should I go to FIT? Should I go to RISD, Should I go to a college in the city and just get a bunch of internships and attempt to work my way up, should I do anything now to try to improve my odds? I really wish I could just skip high school....

Fashion is such a broad term for many areas of work. Before you make a move you should decide exactly what you want to do as fashion is 20% glamour and 80% hardwork. Contrary to the belief of youngsters, fashion isn't about drinking starbucks coffee while working with stylist who's picking out an outfit for Eva Longoria to wear at the Cannes film festival. There's no such thing as working in fashion, what ever you do is a proffesion and not a hobby as it is sometimes perceived as.

You can be a journalist, stylist, wardrobe stylist for movies, pattern cutter, designer, photographer, makeup artist, editor, tailor and even a buyer. The list can go on until forever, so all you need to do is research in an attempt to figure out what you want to do.

 

[gius]

parkereloise what's in this high school program at FIT?

 

[parkereloise]

saturday/ sunday and summer live it is basically like taking classes i have taken fabric styling and fashion art for fashion designers 1 and 2 there are many other classes too the next semester starts pretty soon if you want to sign up in fabric styling we made mood boards and had to pretend to style a celebrity and in fashion art we did figure drawing and drawing clothes and accesories

 

[gius]

OMG! I've been so curious about their fabric styling course
Could you post any samples of yours in this thread?
I would love/die to see!
Mood Boards & Scrapbooks
http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f90/mood-boards-scrapbooks-2939.html

If you are taking this course and the fashion art, then you must be interested in design? I think as an intern, you would be useful to a designer if you could do some technical things like assisting sewing or pattern cutting, since design would be left to the designer or persons who've worked there longer. It also shows you are able and willing to do possibly tedious jobs

 

[parkereloise]

i only have one that is finished, i can take a picture of it later. thank you! yeah making mood boards is tedious. im not really interesting in designing myself, i would be awfully crappy at it but basically in my fashion art illustrations i would draw out outfits kinda like styling.

 

[gius]

We also have a Fabric Styling thread if you have any advice/experience you can offer
http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f90/fabric-styling-what-71152.html

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I must agree with homeboy, the best thing to do while in high school is to figure out the career you'd like to go into, as it's still free... I tried several programs only after graduating, in college, so I had to pay ... It really pushed me anyway to figure out what it was. In the end I find I am interested in more than one thing and can pursue all of them simultaneously since they are related I think that is just a fact anyway with creative endeavours

 

[voguelover94]

Well you're pretty lucky, you're in New York already. I'm in the same situation as you but I do a lot of designing and dress making in my spare time, and I'm taking loads of fashion and art related classes in an out of school.

You are so lucky to be in FIT!

 

[tuttyfruit]

i'm still in high school. i'm a senior and already 18. i want to work in the fashion industry one day. definitely not designing but probably marketing.. either fashion, sports or entertainment.

i didn't apply to any fashion schools as i want to receive a broad liberal arts education as an undergraduate. i will probably get into business and major in economics and perhaps minor in international relations/studies. i have quite an international background since i was born in another country and i speak four different languages. if i decide to pursue sports marketing, i will have connections due to my dad's networks & connections.

i volunteered at the mercedes benz l.a. fashion week last year (spring 2009). there will be no more l.a. fashion weeks anymore due to the bad economy so i'm glad i got to volunteer at the last fashion week.

i plan to apply for an internship at american apparel as i live in the L.A. area. my parents own and run a sewing/garment manufacturing factory in downtown L.A., not too far from the american apparel factory, and i've been helping them since it opened (and it's one of my most important extra-curricular activities). i have experience in the production level.. mostly finishing the garment like trimming, packaging and price-ticketing. it's hard and laborious but it feels great to come home after a tired saturday's work knowing that i contributed to our family. my parents work very hard and with my help, i make their lives a little bit better.

i have taken a ROP retail marketing class last year and managed to score an internship at tj maxx as a sales associate.

other than that, i've got no experience. i've never really applied to any internships as of yet due to my age but since i'm 18 now, i'll try.

i wish everyone luck. some of the content of this post is quite irrelevant but oh well.

 

[Kristenbrister]

I live in Memphis,Tennessee and there is nothing here besides Elvis and rap so I got really lucky when a new local teen magazine let me intern for them. I go once a week and basically enter names in a spreadsheet and stuff envelopes for 4 hours after school, but it is so worth it. I was once told that Fashion Magazines and others won't ever look down on any Internship or job in a related field as long as they can see you worked hard so don't turn something down becuase it is not fashion related...anything helps!!

 

[ezmenelik]

fashion career question?

I know that with Fashion you pretty much have to work your way up unless you know someone already.
My question is what is 16 year old boys best route, or best thing to do to get involved and get that "advantage?" Because it's become very competitive and nowadays everyone wants to get involed in fashion. Any advice? Oh, and I want to enter the field of public relations in fashion if that helps...

 

[BetteT]

I merged this with the ongoing thread about this topic ... so there might be some good ideas already here.

Some thoughts about preparing yourself for a PR career:

PR is about writing press releases, organizing events to promote your client's products, getting the word out via the net and just creating general public buzz about the product in any way you can think of.

So anything that will help you write better will help hone your skills for later.

So make sure you study writing, English, literature, composition all of that. And write ... blogging is a great start ... or write for your school newspaper (maybe you can suggest a fashion column or a shcool street style feature) or the yearbook.

And get involved in planning and organizing things. Maybe join a club at school that has activities and volunteer to be the organizer. Or or volunteer somewhere where they might need someont to organize a project. It doesn't have to be fashion ... you are just building your organizational and team working skills ... which will look good on a resume, later.

And a really daring experiment .... do publicity. If there are students or friends you have who are trying to start a small business ... like making and selling something ... see if you can get involved and be their publicist and practice "getting the word out". Or, if you have a Junior Acheivement club in your school (where the students start up and run a small business for one semester) they will need someone to handle publicity ... so you could volunteer for that.

Then check with your school counselor to see if they have any internship programs or anything like that. I know that in the L.A. area they used to have something called R.O.P. (Regional Occupational Program) where high school students could intern in various businesses, depending on their career goals. If not, contact local PR companies (even if they dont do fashion, because PR is PR ... it's the same skill set) and ask if they have internships and ask about the requirements. Most likely if they do, it will be available only to college students for credit .... but occassionaly a small firm might take an intern who is still in high school, if you impress them. You can impress them with all the activities you have been doing ... above ... writing, organizing, publicity for a student company, etc.

 

[IAmLordZen]

wow, thanks BetteT. I just came to this thread and I learned a lot from your post. My best friend and I are planning to start a magazine-like style blog. He's always been egging me to start the project with him but always the pessimist I said it'd be a waste of time since our blog wouldn't get famous anyway. But reading your post made me change my mind. Thanks

 

[BetteT]

You are welcome.

It's not about "fame" ... it's about getting experience, developing your skills and having something to add to your resume when you are just starting out to look for a job or to add to your college application.

 

[ezmenelik]

Thank You!! I'll read all the other posts in this thread too.