Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Another Side of the Fashion Industry

I had the amazing opportunity to intern at the Chanel corporate offices located in New York this summer. This was my second summer working with them so I was highly confident and optimistic. Little did I know, this year I was working in the Public Relations offices which is a totally different and separate atmosphere to what I experienced last year with their Watches and Fine Jewelry team. PR in a high-end fashion house can be one of the most exhausting and unpredictable departments one can ever be part of. This was the total opposite to what I experienced during my first summer internship—but I’m so glad I was able to since I truly got to understand the many sides in the industry and learn valuable tactics to grow inside the world of fashion.

Maintaining the image and exclusivity of a brand like Chanel is not an easy task. This is why we worked hand in hand with the top editors of the most prestigious publications in order to target the specific market for this brand. But it doesn’t stop there—special events, VIP clients, and the large wholesalers like Saks and Bergdorf are a huge priority for a luxury brand like Chanel. So, our job as inters was to stay on top of everything and manage to be one step ahead of the work because there is no time to waste. Sending samples to editors at Allure, receiving “Haute Couture” pieces and sending them to shoots in Japan, and even sending some fierce pieces to stars like Madonna or Emma Watson so they can wear them at public events were part of the responsibilities that needed to be handled on an every day basis. The difficult part is to deal with hundreds of tasks at the same time and getting them perfectly done. The slightest error can change a person’s image of a brand, so perfection was always our aim. This is true for everyone at the firm, but knowing that you could send the wrong thing to Anna Wintour at Vogue puts much more pressure on us than just entering the wrong number on a spreadsheet.