Want to Be a Fly on the Wall in the Fashion Closet?

Here's your chance! Indulge me, Edsters, while I take you on a journey through my 12, yes I said 12, hour day at The Fashion Mag.

7:30 A.M.: Stupid, annoying, dun-da-da-dun-da-dun-dun iPhone alarm goes off...
7:31 A.M.: I scroll through Twitter on my phone to see what people were saying in the Twitter-verse while I was sleeping.
7:36 A.M.: This is the point in time where I have to make the biggest choice I will make all day. I'm at that point of waking up where I'm juuussstttt enough awake to pull myself into the bathroom or just groggy enough to pass right out and pretend I'm Ferris Bueller and play hookie. Unfortunately, I don't have the hutzpah of Mr. B so I muster up enough energy to pull myself out of my comfy bed and into the bathroom to be rid myself of the monster that is morning breath.

7:40-8:00 A.M.: I decide to dilly dally a tad here and there but eventually brush my teeth, wash my face, and make myself look pretty with eyeliner and mascara and possibly do my hair (unless it's hot outside, then what's the point? It's going to end up looking like Cousin It anyway).

8:00-8:20 A.M.: I pick out an outfit. Sometimes, ok all the time, I never do it in 20 minutes. I'm too fickle. I can never decide what to wear because I either have too many good options or too many bad ones. Oh, to be a shopaholic...

By 8:32 I am out the door and on my daily trek to work. I like to walk because it gives me a chance to see the early morning side of Manhattan. Plus, I think it's funny to walk into a sea of suits wearing a funky, vibrant outfit; it makes me feel like my life is more exciting than a suit job.

8:57 A.M: I make it to my building, scan my glorious intern I.D. at the turnstile and make my way into the office to start my exceedingly long day.

9:01 A.M.: I'm officially 60 seconds into my day of checking in and out samples, returning them to designers and public relations companies, and of course getting coffee. If this world ran the way I wanted it to, I would have chosen the latter at 7:36 this morning and pretended to be Ferris and fall back into a dream-filled slumber (if you haven't already been able to tell, I'm not a morning person).

10:47 A.M.: A big rush of samples come in from the messengers (the people who go and pick up the clothing editors call in for various stories). I get to sign for them. I like doing this because its this electronic thingie that I can sign my name on and for .2 seconds I pretend I'm famous signing autographs. Anddddd we're back to the stack of UPS packages at my feet. Alright, where's the box cutter?

12:03 P.M.: Finally a little break. The closet atmosphere is always inconsistent. It's always, well almost always, a good vibe from everyone and positive attitudes even during the most stressful situations. But it's inconsistent in the sense where we're never always busy and we're never always in a lull. There's just this up and down sensation so everyday is one big ball of unpredictability. So right now, we all check blogs, listen to Pandora, read issues of magazines, chit chat, and all that jazz. I enjoy the lulls because I get to know the other interns better. I like asking questions about other people, I learned a lot about the other people I work with today and boy, they all have such interesting stories about things they've done and where they've been in their under 22-year-old lives!

1:22 P.M.: Coffee run! Yay, getting out of the office. I learned to speak Starbucks recently because I am more of a Coke person than a coffee one. But, nevertheless, magazine people view Starbucks as a cult-religion thing in New York.

2:32 P.M.: Another batch of orders coming right up! More garment bags, more boxes, ai ai ai more clothes! Today we're packing for a big photo shoot so we have to send out the trunks that we pack everything in by 7:00 tonight, so we all know in the back of our heads it's going to be a long night. Reason being that every editor has the looks they want to come in, but then there's correspondence to be done with PR firms and designers to get what we want and if it's available and all this other stuff. Regardless, some interns take lunch. I felt like it was too busy to leave in the midst of craziness so I tried shutting up my stomach with a few Starbursts.

4:58 P.M: Another lull. Tottallly fine by me. I'm going to grab lunch dinner linner (?) now. The cafeteria is closed so I have to face the heat and go elsewhere for food. Sitting in an empty cafeteria watching other people from other offices in the building rush out of there right at 5:00 was depressing. But, I press on to packing more clothes!

6:57 P.M.: 90's pop music playing, cameras flashing and interns sweating. We're all trying to bust our butts to get all these clothes packed so we can go home! More looks are still coming in but we do what we can while we're waiting.

Andddd finally! It's 8:32 P.M. and all the trunks are labeled and shipped out. We all let out a collective sigh of relief, happiness, and gratification that it's all another day in the life of an intern. Even though the air conditioning may or may not have been shut off on us and my feet feel like they're falling off, it was actually a great day. And I really never thought I'd say that from working for the last 11 1/2 hours. By 8:45, I'm out the door and starting my walk home.

Even though today was long, even grueling at times, when I replay the day in my head it went by so fast! That's how I know this is the industry for me; work doesn't feel like work. The days fly by even though the hours are long and the job is tough. But hey, we all have to start somewhere don't we?

Ciao until next Monday! What are your hours like?

xx,
Fashion Intern