To help you decide whether a fashion & beauty internship might be worth your while, we spoke with the following interns.
*The fabric assistant job is a part-time job that could be done by a student, so we include it as an internship.
Let's dive in!
In fashion & beauty, you'll often see "(product) development" roles. These are essentially project management roles.
Once the designer has an idea, they'll pick the fabrics and colors. They'll then hand off the idea to a development person or team, who'll take the idea from concept to reality. They'll coordinate with everyone (the factories and sewers, for instance) to make sure everything is being done according to schedule.
On my LinkedIn, I ended up changing "product development" to "project management" to make it easier for people in other industries to understand my roles.
– Fashion design & development intern @ evening wear company
Beauty internships are paid more than fashion, where you're usually not paid anything at all.
– Product development intern @ Coty
All my fashion internships were unpaid. That's an unfortunate reality if you're going into fashion. The only internship I saw that was paid was in Abercrombie & Fitch in Ohio.
– Fashion design & development intern @ evening wear company
Like in any other industry, fashion & beauty companies offer plenty of roles beyond design and development. For instance, you'll find internships and full-time roles in accounting & finance, operations, marketing & sales, IT, supply chain, manufacturing, quality control, and more!
As mentioned above, typical fashion & beauty roles focus on project management, where your main job will be to coordinate and keep track of things to make sure they get done.
60% of the time I was in meetings, shadowing my managers. I had two managers and I also worked with a director. I would go to whatever meeting they went to and take notes. I did get to lead a project by myself, but mostly, I followed my managers around.
These meetings would mainly involve coordinating with people in different teams that were working to make a new product – supply chain, marketing, packaging, testing, formulation (the scientists who actually make the perfumes) and so on.
For example, you know that a product can't be tested until it's been developed. You know that marketing and advertising can't start until the product's been packaged. You want people who are waiting to know "This is coming up, here's something you can work on right now." Or you want to give them a heads-up, like "This is when this item will come in. Manage your workload around that time."
The meetings were really boring. You'd go and ask people "Where are we in our timeline?" "How are you doing?" "How much time do you need?" "Who's holding you back?" It's basically project management.
30% of the time, I was at my desk, mostly updating project trackers. Project trackers are like Excel sheets with timelines and task lists where you keep tabs on a project and all its moving parts.
I would work on my managers' trackers, adding in notes in case my manager missed anything. For example: "This person needs more time" or "They want to go for this fragrance more than that fragrance."
I'd also update my own tracker for my own project.
– Product development intern @ Coty
As interns, we would help update a physical board to keep track of the 50-100 styles being made that season. There would be statuses like "In-progress," "In sewing," "In cutting," "In fitting," and so on.
We also had floor-to-ceiling boards that are covered in inspiration pictures and sketches and fabrics. For example, there might be a picture of the dress that's being made on a board. We'd research design trends and put ideas on the board.
– Fashion design & development intern @ evening wear company
Michael Kors is big enough to have a fabric team separate from their design team. I mainly organized binders full of swatches and lab dips.
There were hundreds of binders for each season, and we worked on multiple seasons at the same time. (Lab dips are little pieces of fabric in different colors. Imagine five samples of fabric labeled A, B, C, D, and E and they're all just a little different, stapled to a piece of paper. Say you ask for "seafoam green." The supplier will give you a 3-4 different custom-dyed fabrics, and you'll pick whichever is the closest or ask for more samples.)
I updated Excel spreadsheets to keep track of which lab dips were approved. Each lab dip submission was a line in the spreadsheet, which mentioned the date we received it and whether we approved it. Because of all the binders we had, we used Excel to keep track of them.
I also checked prints that came in. I checked to see if they were the right colors and whether they were clear (and not blurry). I'd send comments back to the people making them in the factories in China or Hong Kong.
It was honestly very boring and I finished everything I needed to do by lunch.
– Fabric assistant @ Michael Kors
Like in any internship, you'll do some work to support the people above you. In fashion, this might mean running around, transporting things.
There were a couple other unpaid interns while I was there, and we basically helped out the designer, the product development person, and the creative director.
The internship was a lot of running around in the New York garment district, picking up and dropping off zippers and buttons and fabrics, color matching, and all. It's what you think of when you think of fashion in the "Devil Wears Prada" kind of way.
The runway was the most exciting and challenging part. I volunteered for fashion week, and it was round-the-clock. You're at the office from 9am to midnight.
There's models everywhere, and you need to get everything ready. There's lots of last minute changes, with people scrambling to add finishing touches to a dress for instance.
As an intern, you're getting the supplies (buttons, zippers) and keeping everything organized for the show. You're keeping track of what each model is going to wear – all the clothes have to be organized by model and transported from the office to the show. It's easy for things to get lost so we try to keep everything organized.
– Fashion design & development intern @ evening wear company
At bigger corporations, you'll also have intern events to attend.
10% of the internship was fun stuff like socializing. We had intern events where would share what we were doing over food. I took a French class at the company too (There's a lot of French people in beauty and fragrance).
– Product development intern @ Coty
You might also work on some side projects.
I worked on a side project for my manager, where I talked to a lot of people within the team, asked them what their jobs were like, and I'd share what I learned with my manager.
– Product development intern @ Coty
Our interns felt their internships were worth it.
Interestingly, as soon as I had Michael Kors on my resume, I got a lot more attention from recruiters. At least 3-4 different recruiters reached out while I was there. And that's how I landed some full-time roles afterwards.
It's strange to me because I was just organizing binders, but everyone was like "we need her on our team." I learned that name brand does matter!
So if you feel like you're having trouble finding a job, it's because people in fashion are very biased. If they see some brand they've never heard of, they'll be like "next."
– Fabric assistant @ Michael Kors
My internship taught me so so much, was super exciting, and I had so much responsibility.
For instance, I learned the value of getting things done and pushing past any lack of confidence. So many things needed to be done that I very quickly got over any shyness or feelings like "I don't know if I can do this." Because it needs to get done.
– Fashion design & development intern @ evening wear company
I'd say my internship was worth it, as it allowed me to see how bad the industry was. I learned what to look out for.
For example, I learned that companies in beauty can be very clique-y and I definitely didn't want to work for any like that in the future.
- It's easy for a white sorority girl to fit in, but if you're not, you'll get "You can't sit with us" Mean Girl vibes. For instance, I'd try to talk to other interns, and there were these girls who just wouldn't talk back to me.
- They also tend to have valley girl accents so it was hard for me to understand what they were saying (I remember this one girl pronounced "Guess" as "Gas"!).
- They'll also badmouth someone's taste and style behind their back.
I also had a few rude awakenings about the industry.
- I always thought fragrance was a very artisanal process, but I learned it's not like that at all. I thought you'd need to go to school in France to develop fragrances. But they just had marketing people (with no nose-training whatsoever) smelling the fragrances. There are fashion houses that take a more artisanal approach, but we had three suppliers who literally made all our fragrances. So now I can identify a mass-manufactured fragrance a mile away.
- Trends are overrated. 80% of the itme, the company was following trends. Marketing would be like "We need to make this more squidgy because that's what's in." They had no other basis to what they were requesting besides "this is what's trendy." I always felt a little bad relaying these types of silly requests to the scientists who make the perfumes.
– Product development intern @ Coty
Our interns recommend networking as the best way to land (or even hear about) an internship in beauty & fashion.
I would say the best thing you can do is network! I got all of my internships through referrals and they weren't posted anywhere online. Talk to your professors, let them know you're looking. Reach out to alumni networks, and join any clubs related to fashion on campus. Go to networking events.
Also, when I was in charge of hiring interns, I strongly valued a referral. You'd be surprised how often companies struggle with interns who don't show up on time or at all. I have seen interns who come from prestigious schools with an outstanding portfolio who lack basic common sense. If you have someone to vouch for your character, it makes all the difference.
– Fabric assistant @ Michael Kors
It's really hard for me to say accurately, but my impression was that most interns got in through connections, like a mom's friends or sorority connections. So I'd say the key is to really network. I was able to get in since I had a more technical role.
Also, internships during the school year are less competitive than summer internships.
If anyone really wants to get into the perfume world, read the book, "The Perfect Scent."
– Product development intern @ Coty
You can find plenty of internships on Prosple. We have a vast selection of internships curated for students like you. Just filter 'til you find the right fit!