Internships

In the first week of the Summer Holidays I had an amazing opportunity to do a week long internship at Tank Magazine. Even though this may conjure up images of The Hills’ glamorous stars, Lauren and Whitney, interning at Teen Vogue, People’s Revolution and DVF, do not be mistaken. As incredible as it was, it was probably up there as the most stressful week of my life. Tank Magazine has been described as a magazine which “straddles the world of art, architecture, culture, literature and fashion”. I was an intern to the fashion editors whilst glimpsing all the other teams in the magazine.

The Tank office is situated on a side street off Oxford Circus, about five minutes from the tube station, so about as central as you can get in London. I had been to the Office for my interview so even though the first day I was apprehensive I at least knew one friendly face when I got there. I was introduced to all the editors, contributors and other interns, one a year below me, another who had a lot of experience (working at The London Paper and CountryLife in Vogue house) and one girl from Paris whose parents are renowned handbag designers in France.

My first job as an intern was to clean the meeting room as there had been a photoshoot the Friday before and it was full of accessories, jewellery and make-up. I had to prepare the room for a meeting for the editors about the upcoming issue. The next highlight was finally being shown the fashion closet, which was literally the closest I have been to heaven. Chloe Kerman had just arrived back, that morning, from a shoot in LA and my task was to sort out all the clothes from two massive trunks and get them ready to return to the designers. The clothes included mini dresses from Versace and tweed suits from Chanel Haute Couture.
At fashion magazines, all the clothes used for the photo-shoots are samples sent from the designers on loan so a lot of packages arrive throughout the day and there are a lot of returns to be done. So a big part of my week was spent sorting and labelling up clothes that had to be sent urgently back to the designers. I had reps from designers like Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood on the phone frantically waiting for the return of the samples that were needed to be sent to the next magazine in Paris or New York. As it was only a few weeks until the next issue of Tank was published, the whole team were pretty stressed out and it was constantly busy so ended up only taking about a 20 minute lunch break throughout the 9 hour day.
Some of the more stressful parts of the week included trying to find a “lost” Alexander McQueen diamond skull ring, probably worth more than my house as well as taking about 14 bags of returns across London, including walking down the crowded and bustling Oxford Street carrying a bag of Chanel Haute Couture when my shoes broke. Yet there were also some amazingly exciting parts of the week, for example on my first day I got to prepare all the clothes for the cover shoot with Claudia Schiffer the next day and when I got the latest issue I got to see all the clothes the stylist chose, including a beautiful Dior embellished dress that I must have spent a good hour holding wishingly in the fashion closet.

When doing returns, I got to go to showrooms like Miu Miu, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Prada; a massive highlight of the week as I got to see the new collection samples hanging around the room. Vivienne Westwood’s showroom was my favourite as, for one, it was an amazing room with crazy, typical Westwood wallpaper, slogans on the walls and a massive chandelier in the middle of the room. The woman working there was really nice and I had to go there a couple of times so got to know her quite well! Throughout my week at Tank, I had to greet visitors and offer them drinks when they came in. Visitors included two women from Agent Provocateur, and lots and lots of models. Both male and female models would come in from all agencies with their portfolios, which either Chloe or Pandora (fashion editor and vice editor) would look through. Sometimes Polaroid’s would be taken. Two Russian girls had flown in at six in the morning and had been on castings constantly around London ready for London Fashion Week. I took phone calls from agencies like Storm and Select and also representatives from Milan and Paris. Tank does a “models world” feature every issue where they follow supermodels like Caroline Trentini and Iekeliene Stange to see their model style as they go about their everyday life.

Other jobs included, looking through all the new collection look-books to find a select few designers for Pandora for an article she was writing. I also had to do a couple of typical “internship” jobs such doing the coffee run across the road for the editors and getting the editor in Chiefs Prada jacket dry-cleaned. I actually met Masoud Golsorkhi, Tank’s editor in Chief in the kitchen one morning and he was so friendly. He is Iranian born and very passionate about his roots (he often writes about the political situation in Iran in Tank and also for the Guardian). He started Tank magazine and O magazine after being a photographer for magazines such as Italian Vogue and The Guardian. As well as editor in chief of Tank he is also a Consultant Art Director for celebrated designers like Christian Lacroix and Swarovski. Alongside Masoud is the beautiful Caroline Issa who owns Tank. She studied business in Philadelphia and then moved to San Francisco as a strategic management consultant, working with fashion retailers and consumer brand companies on their business strategy before meeting Masoud and becoming part of Tank. She has an amazing style, especially her shoes, and has been featured on style blogs such as Garance Dore and The Satorialist.

The week of experience was so rewarding and has, hopefully, really helped me towards the career that I want to pursue. I think that internships are a really great way to learn how to work in a team and gain invaluable skills for general life. Also I really recommend buying the new issue of Tank which features articles with Vivienne Westwood’s about culture and also a highly publicised photo shoot of Claudia Schiffer where the 39 year old “bares it all” in photographs that were not airbrushed. Also features an editorial in LA and an article about Christian Lacroix’ new collection. Also check out my name under 'interns' on the contents page!!
*Also check out previous issues where cover stars have included Mary -Kate Olsen and Kate Bosworth.
 
http://www.tankmagazine.com/
http://tankmagazine.tumblr.com/ Tank Magazines amazing blog!
 
Plus these were my actual Tank diaries if you are interested!!
 
 
I started my work experience at Tank Magazine today. I was greeted by Leonora who showed me round and I met all the editors and the other interns. I think it may have been one of the most hectic and stressful days of my life, as well as amazing and so interesting.


10AM Shown round the office, met the editors and saw where all the magic happens. Everyone

was so friendly. I met Augusta, another intern who had been there for two weeks.

Leonora gave me my first job, to clean up the meeting room, as they had had a

photoshoot there on wednesday, and prepare it for a meeting.

11AM I was then shown the fashion closet (my heaven) and as Chloe Kerman (the fashion

editor) had just arrived back from a shoot in LA, we had to sort out all the clothes to

be sent back to the designers. All the clothes had to be sorted and labelled, but we had

companies like Alexander Mcqueen, Stella Mccartney and Vivienne Westwoon franitcally

calling wanting their samples back. The whole fashion team were rather stressed out as

they were preparing for the new issue of Tank to come out shortly. Crisis' included not

being able to find 2 Alexander Mcqueen skull rings and trying to find a pair of Gucci

trousers.

1.00PM As the day was so busy I only took about 15 minutes for my lunch break. Then came

back to sign in about 50 bags of clothes for a shoot of Claudia Schiffer on the cover

tomorrow. I got to handle and check all the Chanel and Miu Miu dresses and

accessories that tomorrow, Claudia will be wearing.

2.00PM I was sent as a courier to Starworks to take back a bag of clothes and shoes. The bag of

clothes was worth about £20 thousand in total so I was extremely stressed, walking

down a very busy Oxford Circus trying to find the building.

Throughout the day, models came in for Chloe or Pandora to look through their portfolio's as they hoped to be in the upcoming issue. Two very tall, very blonde models had only just arrived in London from Scandinavia.

When I arrived back from my Courier duties there was a further 20 bags of clothes and accessories to be sorted for tomorrows shoot.

I am so so tired but looking forward to the rest of this week!

DAY 2

- I started by replying to emails (there were many!) from designers amd modelling agencies and doing returns. I went to Old Bond street which is beautiful, a row of streets full of designer shops. I had my hands full of about 7 bags but it was worth it to see Miu Miu, Prada, Alexander Mcqueen and Vivienne Westwoods showrooms. They were beautiful, with all the returns clothes hung up on big rails and chandeliers decorated many of the showrooms.

- When I returned to the office, said hello to the lovely man on the desk at Princess House, I cleaned up the fashion closet and put the shoes into order. My favourites were these thigh high boots from MiuMiu.

- I then cleaned and prepared the meeting room for Chloe's meeting with two women from Agent Provocateur. I moved all the accessories and jewellery from a shoot on Friday and managed to find the Alexander mcQueen skull earrings we had been searching for!

- As I was getting cleaning things from the kitchen, a man was making coffee, he starting talking to me and told me he thought I was beautiful, he then asked about where I was planning to go for university. I explained about my hopes to study fashion, possibly at Central St Martins. It turned out he has lots of contacts there and he offered to write me a personal reference! As he was leaving I asked his name, he said Masoud and I suddenly put name to face and realised he's the editor in Chief of Tank!!

- I took a delivery of Tank magazines to Indigo Hotel in Paddington.

- Pandora aked me to find all the lookbooks for Resort 09 and Autumn/Winter 09 which took ages but was fun to look through all the looks, especially from Mark Fast who is a newly found designer that I love.

The day was pretty stressful and I have to say my feet have never ached so much before, from doing all the returns around London, but it was pretty exciting to have met the Editor in Chief of Tank.

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Please e-mail me any comments or questions to: caroline@druitt.com