The Project

The six-year-old girl who says "I’m going to be a rich and famous fashion designer" has a glossy image of her future. The same girl, 15 years on, is an intern for a fashion atelier and sees things aren’t quite so glamorous. Panorama, The Hills, and the Ethical Trading Initiative have all made the industry more transparent to the public, and now it’s my turn to deliver the inside scoop from the lower realms of fashion. Soon, when I head to New York to intern at Donna Karan, I’ll be able to see how the Americans do it, too.

The last few months have taught me a lot. Firstly, I realised it is an industry and, like every other, the recession affects it. After offering a 10% discount on sales to Alice Temperley, I was asked: "You do know it’s the credit crunch?" Yes, I do know; I’m working for free for a small business. However, you, Ms Temperley, are loaded (there’s no denying it – her lavish apartment, equipped with camera crew, shows no sign of cutbacks), and run a fashion empire.

Secondly, my six-year-old self was more naïve than I knew: there is little glitz and glamour here, since most people working in fashion do so for free. Alexander McQueen’s empire is mostly interns, few of whom have been working for more than two years, and all juggling paid jobs in their ‘spare’ time. It’s not slavery, but thirst for experience – oh, and aspiration for a real job.

ZOSIA MNICH
COLUMNIST