IS ANYBODY EARNING ENOUGH TO PAY THEIR OWN RENT?
As growing numbers of fashion-focussed graduates tell us they are working for years unpaid (yes, really), Graduate Fog wonders: is anybody earning a decent wage in this industry? Or is the truth that most people working in fashion are being subsidised by a wealthy partner or parents?
London Fashion Week is well under way, with the well-heeled and expensively-dressed busy drooling over the new collections. But would the event run as smoothly without the thousands of fashion interns toiling day and night for no salary? In the past Graduate Fog has named and shamed Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Balenciaga for using unpaid interns – and we know there are dozens more labels who do the same.
Getting your foot on the fashion ladder without serious financial help it seems impossible nowadays – as internships often last six months or longer, are usually in London and are almost always unpaid (or very low paid).
There are already signs that this is no longer a viable career option for graduates who have to pay their own bills. In New York, Fashion meets Finance parties have sprung up, where men working in financial services can meet women working in fashion (prospective attendees submit their salary and job title when they apply). It is just us, or is this kind of… yuck?
Does the same thing happen in the UK here, too? Boffins calling themselves “evolutionary economists” have noted that London has a weirdly large creative industry, considering how low-paid the work is — and they suspect it is linked to the capital’s large financial services sector.
In other words, is fashion no longer a viable career choice for anybody without a rich banker boyfriend (or daddy) to pay the rent?
*WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Are you trying to break into fashion — and struggling to make ends meet? Are those who have ‘made it’ earning decent money — or is nobody earning a proper wage in this industry? Does the fashion industry need a new business model that doesn’t rely on unpaid interns?
Interesting.. I do think you are onto something! Also do not forget all rich international students coming over to study in London living in rooms for £800-1000 a month wearing the latest designer bag despite being students…
It has long perplexed me how anybody in the ‘creative industries’ can afford to live in London, at least initially. Rent for a small room in a several person flatshare starts at £100 a week on its own, let alone bills and council tax and the other costs of living in the city.
And to answer the last question: “Does the fashion industry need a new business model that doesn’t rely on unpaid interns?”
YES! Indeed. I really want to succeed with in inventing such a business model, showing everyone it is possible to make it without using unpaid interns en masse which they barely know the name of before LFW. I wish I knew the answer, but unfortunately I am just another struggling fashion graduate.
But also let me ask this: Wouldn’t fashion need the designers with less advantaged backgrounds as mush as the journalists need them, or politicians.. or any other industry? Do we not need people in the industry who understand the ones who cannot buy a designer bag every season?
HMRC ran a campaign to get fashion companies to stop using their interns as unpaid workers. Did it work? Not if Peter Pilotto is anything to go by. This interns posted a review of what he/she did, some time after HMRC ran their campaign:
http://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/placement-review/15145/peter-pilotto/studio-intern
Continuing int he theme of ‘why the hell are the creative industries even based in London?’ seriously, this is something worth looking at. Why is it that young creative people, knowing that they are going to have 0 cash for what they do chose to base themselves in the most expensive place in the country?
Why don’t people do as so many do in other nations and establish creative hubs outside of the capital?