Caroline Phipps - South Hampstead High School

Fashion Styling and Journalism

If you love clothes and fashion but also enjoy being creative this is a very rewarding job. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication and unfortunately is not financially rewarding until you climb to the top of the career ladder but the people you meet and the clothes you get to work with make it an exciting and friendly career choice.

Although an arts degree might be recommended it is not necessary. I attended a course at The London College of Fashion – an Access to Fashion Promotion Media. It was meant to give you a taster, so you could go onto a degree course. It included photography, journalism, sociology, history of fashion, visual studies and styling. The main criteria for a job within this field is experience and the sooner you can gain work experience on a magazine or newspaper the better.

During my one year access course I organised to do work experience at the company that does the PR for London Fashion Week. I learnt very quickly how shows are put together and what PR means. After finishing my course I got a job at London PR company that represents mainly fashion clients. I took the advice of my tutors – they had said by working in PR I would make contacts and they were right. This industry is all about who you know. I met the fashion teams on every major magazine and newspaper through the clients I was representing – Models 1, Jasper Conran, Iceberg and Christian Lacroix. I also got to travel – as the PR for major fashion brands I had to organise invitations for the British fashion press for catwalk shows in London, Paris and Milan.

By working on this side of the industry and working with the fashion press I was always one of the first to know what jobs were available. Unfortunately unless you have the right experience you can’t just walk into a fashion assistant’s position. The only way to get there is doing work experience – it’s hard and it doesn’t pay but everyone has to do it. You have to prove yourself as an organised team player with initiative. I remember my Fashion Editor phoning me in the morning one day and requesting Afghan hounds for a shoot the next day – I had to find them, and I did. You need to be resourceful and quick thinking and of course you have to have an eye for what makes a good look or outfit. You need to keep your finger on the pulse – what the celebrities are wearing, the high street trends, films and music have a huge influence on fashion.

I moved onto a 3 month paid placement at GQ magazine. Working within the fashion team I helped them get clothes for shoots amongst other things. With my PR experience I understood how it all worked however I was now on the other side of the industry and I had a chance to find out which PR companies represented which labels.  I learnt how a fashion shoot is organised, choosing a story (theme) finding a photographer, then a location, casting a model, choosing a hair and a make up stylist and finally getting the clothes to shoot.

From here a Fashion Editor (a contact from my PR days) phoned me up and I was offered a Fashion Assistants position on a women’s glossy monthly magazine. Jobs come up few and far between and often patience is needed. You have to wait for one person to leave a position and then everyone moves around in the industry and gaps are left for fresh new faces.

On the magazine, as well as styling fashion pages and features I was also given the chance to write. I am now a freelance fashion stylist and journalist.

Fashion always sounds glamorous but it’s not. It’s hard work, long hours and low pay to begin with but if you really want it and love putting outfits together it’s the best job in the world.

I am happy to be contacted via the Minerva Network Development Office but since I am freelance I will be unable to offer work experience.