Tuesday 15 February 2011

SO I did a placement at LOOK magazine in November last year for a month, and thought you may want to see what duties I had to do, and what I thought. I also worked in New Look as a sales assitant for 3 months as part of my university course...

Company Overview:

LOOK is a glossy high street fashion and celebrity weekly magazine for young women. Edited by Ali Hall, it has a unique mix of up-to the-minute affordable fashion, high street shopping advice, celebrity style and news, plus thought provoking real life stories.
Mission: Your high street fashion and celebrity weekly
Products: Weekly fashion magazine, Website (launched in May 2008)
(Information above is from the LOOK Facebook page.)
Hours:
10am on your first day.
Usual hours 9.30am – 5.30pm, lunch between 1 & 2. 
We operate a smart/casual dress code policy.
We have a canteen in the building which provide hot/cold breakfasts and lunches/beverages or outlets around the building include:
Pret a Manger, Crussh, M&S Simply Food, Sushi, Leon, Starbucks.
Help yourself to free tea/coffee/water making facilities in the kitchen.

Duties:
You will experience the running of a busy fashion department on a national weekly magazine.
As an intern one of your jobs is to ensure that the fashion cupboard is efficiently managed. This means returning samples to press offices and ensuring that the cupboard is as tidy as possible so that nothing gets lost.
You will also be asked to get prices, call-in samples, organise look books, do some fashion/shoot research and on occasion, the opportunity to assist on shoots.
If you should get the opportunity to go on a shoot, you are not permitted to take any photographs.
If we discover this has been done we may ask you to leave your placement with immediate effect.


Returns:

All the samples have to be returned to the relevant press office. Details can be found on Fashion Monitor. If you are not sure where to send anything please ask one of the fashion team
Please be aware that the monitor books can be outdated therefore, if numbers no longer work please check with the team.

Returns are placed in a pile at the front of the cupboard until collected at approx 4pm

When returning samples make sure that every item returned is either crossed off an existing docket (and dated) OR make a new docket with the PR company name, date and a description of the sample.

Make a van list every day of all the bags that are taken by the courier. Photo copy it and give one to him and keep one for our files.

All dockets must be filed alphabetically and Van lists must be filed in the appropriate folder. If the folder gets full please ask for more.

Make sure every returns bag is clearly labelled
The returns will be checked each day by one of the junior assistants before they are sent.
DO NOT LET THEM GO WITHOUT BEING CHECKED

Note: We do not borrow samples from abroad so please do not return anything to an overseas address

Post

FOR ANY ADDRESSES OUT OF LONDON PLEASE DO NOT SEND THESE WITH THE COURIERS. They must be carefully packaged up and sent in boxes/envelopes. Please write REGISTERED POST clearly on the packaging and place them with the post by the fax machine (to the right of Women’s Own office)

If you are asked to take anything to the postroom it’s the door to the right of main reception and it’s the last door on the left down the corridor.


Fashion Cupboards:

At the end of everyday after the courier has arrived please tidy the cupboard to create more space. Just make sure that everything is arranged as neatly as possible but try not to move things from one side to the other as it will get confusing.

Please do not touch the High Street Hottest rail as it's very important that these don’t get mixed up with other samples.
Please do not move anything in the main fashion cupboard as it is often being styled up for a shoot


Prices:

If you are asked to get prices, simply call the press office and say you are calling from Look and you need to get a price. Often the PR’s can not give you the price straight away so wait a couple of hours and then call back.
If you need to email ask one of the junior assistants

Look Books

Behind the fashion assistants desks are some grey cupboards containing Look Book files. When Look Books come in we out them in a plastic box on top of the cupboards. At 4 o’clock everyday please ensure that the Look Books are filed in alphabetical order. We have a cupboard for Clothes and one for Shoes/Accessories.

Other Publications:

Often other magazines will be found in piles on the grey cupboard. Please file these in the room behind - in the correct folders.
At LOOK magazine I will experience the running of a busy fashion department on a national weekly magazine. I was very excited and keen to get stuck into this role as it is something I aspire to do when I grow up (hehe!).

After having this experience with Look, it has given me a small insight into the way in which a busy magazine runs. Unfortunately it hasn’t led me to a conclusive decision as to whether or not this is the right career path for me. From observing how the regular fashion team work, I do feel that styling, photo shoot directing and fashion article writing are areas I am interested in pursuing after my education. However, I feel I would need another placement with a different magazine to see how the experience may differ, and to specialise in these areas.

If I were given the opportunity again, I would prefer to have a varied role within the company rather than doing the same mundane tasks day in day out. I want the hands on experience that Look has been unable to give me. I feel it would be better to try and work for a smaller magazine that would need more input and help, allowing me to gain the real insight I am seeking. Look are not helping student interns gain the right experience and are instead using students to their advantage with many free hands making light work.

Unfortunately after having my work experience, I surprisingly found that my sales assistant role at New Look was more insightful than my time at Look, as I got to experience more of the business, and was made to feel that my individual skills benefited the company. Whilst Look magazine was initially a more attractive proposition, the fact that I felt I was only being employed to do the tedious work without expanding my fashion knowledge made it hard to stay motivated, although I would welcome another placement at the company in future with a more respected role.

1 comment:

  1. This is such an interesting post and really inspiring, I adore your blog and read it really often, your style is so amazing and I am definitely going to check out your ebay store. I am really interested in working in a magazine so do you mind if I email you just to ask you a few questions about CV's and covering letters etc.. My email can be seen on my blogs or in my profile. Keep up the amazing blog...I really love it.

    www.modadelamode.blogspot.com

    www.onegirlswanderlust.blogspot.com

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