Students at some of the world's leading fashion schools have something in common with Kanye West: They all want to work at luxury labels.WWD surveyed students at The Fashion Institute of Technology, Savannah College of Art and Design, and London College of Fashion, among others, to find out where they'd like to find employment after graduation. Chanel ranks number one, followed by LVMH; labels like Dior, Burberry, and Prada also appear near the top of the wish list. Hermès, Kanye's fantasy place of employment, ranked eleventh. The lone non-luxury name in the top 10? Fast fashion juggernaut H&M.
Chanel also came out on top of a simultaneous survey conducted over social media. The perks of landing a job as a designer or merchandiser there are pretty obvious: prestige, bragging rights, the chance to say that, technically, Willow Smith is your co-worker. For some fashion students surveyed, though, it's the famous footsteps they'd be sewing in that makes it the stuff of dreams. "Gabrielle Chanel"—that's Coco Chanel to the rest of the world—"is my icon and I love her work, and what she did with fashion," WWD reports one respondent said when asked to explain their top choice. "And let’s not forget Karl." No, let's not forget Karl Lagerlfeld, Chanel's creative director: He almost didn't pursue a career in fashion because he was afraid he'd never make any money.
He eventually did make some cash, and even went on to have a cat with nearly 100K Instagram followers and its own agent. So maybe Chanel actually is a decent place to work? According to Glassdoor.com, a mix of current and past Chanel employees rate their experience 3.2 out of five stars. That's lower than H&M's 3.6 stars, but better than the 2.9 rating 7-Eleven received on the site. Sounds good to us. We say shoot for the moon, fashion students; even if you miss, you might end up at Lululemon (ranked number 25).
