prosperk
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- Apr 28, 2005
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Paris is suffering as much as any other Western capital city right now. There may be ten million people living in Paris and its extended suburbs but only a small proportion of them frequent the top bracket of fashion stores.
It's not all doom and gloom, of course. But it is fair to say that when Paris stores are hiring, the pecking order begins with French nationals, moving through EU nationals from NW Europe to those from the more civilised parts of Eastern and Southern Europe to white people from the rest of the world. Good-looking Blacks, Asians and Arabs have a chance but the Ace card is sometimes dealt by good-looking boys and girls who are prepared to go that extra distance with the store owner or manager to get the job. In some cases, a special relationship with a designer whose clothes are sold through the store helps. Of course, this isn't a Paris thing. It's the same the world over.
Regarding assisting, it usually doesn't pay. You might be lucky to get a sandwich and a can of fizz if the 'creative' whom you're assisting isn't pathologically tight-fisted but there are legions of rich kids lining up for such jobs so that they tell mummy and daddy that they're working. I have known upwardly-mobile photographers and stylists to sponge off their moneyed gofers and to touch them for loans...which never get repaid. It's like internships at fashion houses, magazines and so on. The flip side of this system, on the other hand, is that those of you born without trust funds who actually make it past the first interview - on merit rather than your knees or your backs - probably have the charm, talent and drive to make a go of it. The same goes for the trust fund kids who last more than a couple of seasons. So, oddly enough, this dreadfully unfair, loaded system actually functions as quite an effective natural selection process, despite itself.
If you want it enough, you'll just get your working papers, get on a plane and go there. It'll be tough but if it wasn't tough, it probably wouldn't be worth the effort. As for money, do what most of us had to do: work in bars, nightclubs, on building sites etc etc to finance your apprenticeships. This also helps you learn the local language.
PK
It's not all doom and gloom, of course. But it is fair to say that when Paris stores are hiring, the pecking order begins with French nationals, moving through EU nationals from NW Europe to those from the more civilised parts of Eastern and Southern Europe to white people from the rest of the world. Good-looking Blacks, Asians and Arabs have a chance but the Ace card is sometimes dealt by good-looking boys and girls who are prepared to go that extra distance with the store owner or manager to get the job. In some cases, a special relationship with a designer whose clothes are sold through the store helps. Of course, this isn't a Paris thing. It's the same the world over.
Regarding assisting, it usually doesn't pay. You might be lucky to get a sandwich and a can of fizz if the 'creative' whom you're assisting isn't pathologically tight-fisted but there are legions of rich kids lining up for such jobs so that they tell mummy and daddy that they're working. I have known upwardly-mobile photographers and stylists to sponge off their moneyed gofers and to touch them for loans...which never get repaid. It's like internships at fashion houses, magazines and so on. The flip side of this system, on the other hand, is that those of you born without trust funds who actually make it past the first interview - on merit rather than your knees or your backs - probably have the charm, talent and drive to make a go of it. The same goes for the trust fund kids who last more than a couple of seasons. So, oddly enough, this dreadfully unfair, loaded system actually functions as quite an effective natural selection process, despite itself.
If you want it enough, you'll just get your working papers, get on a plane and go there. It'll be tough but if it wasn't tough, it probably wouldn't be worth the effort. As for money, do what most of us had to do: work in bars, nightclubs, on building sites etc etc to finance your apprenticeships. This also helps you learn the local language.
PK
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)) thanks for a very sincere answer! i'll have to work more on that... 
