Fashion is an industry where the best education and resume doesn't always guarantee you a good job. You have to start at the bottom rung and work your way up and prove that you're actually worth a damn. A 4.0 won't help you here. A lot of people who want to get into the industry typically start as fashion assistants, which is basically an umbrella term for "the person who does all the shit no one else wants to." Vice talked to a bunch of people working as assistants during Paris Fashion Week to get an impression of what their job is actually like behind all the superficial glitz and glamor. SHOCKER: It's pretty fucking horrible.
Mostly it involves doing all of the work and receiving none of the credit, according to the assistant of a famous stylist: "Once, on a Friday night, my boss changed all the themes that had been chosen for a shoot taking place the next day. I had to call in favors from all my PR friends, beg, and shout and run to create new looks from scratch. Of course I didn't sleep a wink all night." And what happens if you mess up? "If you fail, you're fired. What you can never forget is that you have a job everyone wants, so you are totally replaceable." Uh, fuck that.
Sometimes it involves not even doing anything related to fashion: "I started as the second assistant of the designer—to sum it up, it was like being the assistant of the assistant. I spent my time paying bills, buying Coke Zero, picking up laundry, walking the designer's dog, buying pens, sharpening pencils, changing flowers, and making Italian coffee (he only drank Italian coffee). Basically, I did everything but design."
Okay, so I guess the moral of the story here is: DON'T WORK IN FASHION. If anything, skate by on the outskirts of the industry like us so you don't experience the soul-crushing insults and pressure that real fashion people have to. We just hang back in the cut and talk our shit. It's way better. For real.
