Cosmo internship (update 1)

I am not sure if I believe in the law of attraction, or whether I am a firm believer of faith. But despite many disappointments I have encountered on my path, some way and some how I always tend to end up where I always wanted to be at. But also always at a most unexpected time. Despite the huge surprise factor these life-changing experiences usually come with, looking back I always know that they happened at the exact right moment in my life. Just keep pushing after rejection, something better is waiting on you around the corner.

I have been reading various Dutch magazines in my life-time, from ElleGirl and Glamour to Tina and W.I.T.C.H., but only one has always had my loyalty throughout all the years. Not in a million years I would have ever thought I would be landing myself an internship at this magazine after reading it for about 10 years. And not just any internship, but one at the fashion department at that!

My first day at Cosmopolitan was guaranteed to be hectic beforehand, because the publisher was going through some tremendous changes. It was decided to merge several departments of different magazines, so most employees had to relocate to a different desk. I was also told that there was a covershoot planned for the end of the week. Because this meant my supervisor (fashion editor) had to run around to get preperations for the shoot done, she handed me over to my fellow fashion interns at ELLE for the day. In between my arrival and the previous Cosmo intern's leave there was a gap of several weeks, and the ELLE girls had to step it up in this period of time. Because they took responsibility for most of the Cosmo closet, it was only appropriate for them to be the ones to give me my first tasks to do.

My first thing to do was definitely an intern must experience; cleaning! I got to clean the hallway full of junk and separate paper from plastic, wohoo. No really, I enjoyed doing this. Why? Because one (wo)man's trash is another (wo)man's treasure, and believe me I found some gems underneath all that mess. After I finished cleaning, I started moving some files, books, and random stuff from the old Cosmo closet to the new one—which is shared with ELLE and RED magazine. Then I helped the girls with some PR returns and cleaning another hallway.

My second day started off really nice and quiet, drinking some tea and checking emails while waiting for the other interns to arrive. Then I left with a bag full of clothes to drop off at Tommy Hilfiger and on my way back I picked up two heavy bags of apparel at UPR. Back at the office I packed some stuff to mail out, put all the clothes I picked up earlier on hangers, and watched closely as my supervisor was busy assembling outfits for this week's cover shoot with Yolanthe Cabau-Sneijder.

On my third day I mostly returned sampled to agencies and finished moving everything from the Cosmo closet to the closet upstairs. On my fourth day I got my first taste of the process of styling for a shoot, as I accompanied my supervisor in her search for samples. I was so happy that one of our stops was at the agency I completed my first fashion internship at a few years ago.

After lunch I had to pick up some samples for the freelance stylist, but unfortunately 2 out of 4 agencies had no clue of my visit. It turned out the stylist did not contact them to brief them about the theme for her shoot, nor that a shoot would take place next week. #andysachsmoment Luckily I paid attention when I watched her styling the other day, so I had a vague idea of what kind of items would be useful, and it all worked out!

The day after, the big shoot with Yolanthe would take place and my supervisor worked on some last touches for the styling while the interns watched closely. While brainstorming about props one of the interns came up with the brilliant idea to have Yolanthe play around with huge balloons. Guess who was put in charge for that with minimum instructions and without a budget? #andysachsmoment

I was briefed to get 10 regular pastel colored balloons and 10 bubble shaped balloons (see very first pic) at a shop downtown and deliver them at the studio in the other side of town by 10AM. I knew that most interns used a bike for main transport, but I always made use of the public transport. Because I knew my way around town I figured I could bring the balloons with me in the least popular vehicle that stopped near the studio. And money wise, well how much could balloons amount to anyways? I could spare €40 and claim them back later...

But no. These bubble shaped balloons costed about €20 each! After much hassle and stress I managed to get the bill to be put on the tab. I showed the store associate a picture to get the size right, and I walked around town waiting for her to prepare them and for the delivery guy to arrive. Because no way in hell would I be able to transport those things by myself. When I returned to the store, however, my jaw nearly fell on the floor. The balloons were blown up a bit too much! I felt bad to tell the lady I wanted smaller balloons and I left with pain and fear in my heart to deliver them with the courier and his truck. #andysachsmoment

When I left the set to head back to the office I had a slight panic attack, because I was afraid that I screwed up. But as you can see on the picture above, the balloons were appreciated by the star of the day, which helped the pictures to turn out great, and that is what matters! See the end result down below :)

When I returned back to the office I helped the freelance stylist with the styling for her shoot next week, and with that I concluded my first week as a fashion intern at Cosmopolitan magazine! I have had a wonderful time up until now, and feel very blessed to have been chosen. If you have any questions about my internship, please leave a comment below!

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Sefanja Rubina