Phenomenology of the Assistant 

Once upon a time there was a young intern working in the backroom of fashion, far away from the spotlight, in the shadow of his superiors, to increase his experience and take his first steps along the slope of hard work. There was and there still is that intern, but the story has changed. 

Get out of your mind the image of assistants bringing coffee to the whole office and making photocopies; nowadays their role is taking a different and, maybe, unexpected turn. If at first to be an intern at a company was a must, but with no appeal, now things seem to have changed for the better. A position as intern or, even better, as assistant is craved from anyone who wants to move his first steps into the merciless world we call Fashion. 

The reasons for this change are clear: if you want to go somewhere, you must start from zero. In other words, it is clear for everyone that to pay one’s due is a fundamental starting point, the first brick in our CV and, if well-aimed, it will bring its results. All your teachers’ speech about the importance of making experience on the field, starting from the bottom, being humble accepting the first jobs and blah blah blah... maybe were not that wrong. 

However, there is another aspect not to be underestimated in the process of reassessment of the role, that is the hype media gave in launching the figure of assistant before the eyes of the audience. Lets face the truth: how many of you here watched Lauren Conrad's life in The Hills? And how many of you get passionate about her adventures as intern for Teen Vogue? And, above all, how many of you dreamt about being an intern in a fashion editorial office? I raise my hand, I’m guilty. 

After Lauren Conrad, that undefined world of assistants and interns into the fashion system started shining of its own light. A further evidence is the movie The Devil Wears Prada - I hope there is no need to tell you the plot - which certainly helped emerge the role of the assistant. A professional who gained visibility and appeal, given the upcoming movie The Intern with Robert De Niro in the role of an intern working for Anne Hathaway’s e-commerce business. 

So, the hard job as assistant doesn’t seem that ungrateful and unknown anymore, but rather it is now widely honored with its true value. It is no coincidence that a lot of fashion designers – but not only – recently vie with one one other for define who has more past experienze as intern than others, before reached the Hall of Gods of Fashion. 

No one is safe from the phenomenon, everyone want to tell their romance about their beginning, when they were a nobody employee of a big brand, putting in public square their humble beginnings to be proud of. The list is wide, just to name a few: Alexander Wang for Marc Jacobs and Derek Lam, stylist Micaela Erlanger working as assistant for Annabel Tollmann, Tom Ford who moved his first steps at Chloé, Rodolfo Paglialunga as intern for Prada and Isabella Blow as assistant for Anna Wintour; even Kanye West declared to have spent four months as intern at Fendi. In many cases the student surpassed the master, as Sarah Burton, Alexander McQueen’s assistant, becoming creative director of the brand after his decease, and Alessandro Michele, ex-assistant for Frida Giannini now neo-creative director for Gucci. 

What shall we learn from all of these happy ending? To work as assistant bears fruit and satisfactions, even the greatest fashion designer of the moment certainly spent part of his career as simple - not in a negative way - intern in some blazoned maison. 

But, on second thought, is the role of assistant that “easy”? I don’t think so. As I said at the beginning, who works behind the back of great names certainly has an important, even fundamental, role in the engine of Fashion. To organize, assist, be available at any time to satisfy any request, and to attend to all those tedious tasks happily bounced to the interns. 

Xim Ramonell and Brais Vilas share my opinion and recognized the value of fashion assistant to the point of dedicate them a magazine, Assistant indeed. The magazine wants to showcase every assistant working in this area, collecting their experiences and points of view, to give the right space to this position, to show fashion from another point of view. 

In the first issue they interviewed Elia Quadri and Bruno Bugiani, respectively assistants for Giambattista Valli and ex-assistant for Gianni Versace, Brendan Burke, assistant for Demarchelier, and Earl Steinbicker, ex-assistant for Richard Avedon. 

So, not only tiny names in the last page of a fashion editorial, not only a right arm behind the back; assistants are new names to be taken in mind, to follow and know almost as - or even more? - their superiors. Many of them accompany their work as assistants with freelance side projects worthy of attention and often attract the attention of the audience, becoming themselves trendsetter to take inspiration from. 

An example is Ursina Gysi, assistant for Camille Bidault Waddington, a real streetstyle star acclaimed and beloved from the Web who, inter alia, creates her own clothes. A case that demonstrates how assistants are no longer anonymous helpers, but they can capture the attention of the public still before consolidating their career. 

The awareness of his own role, appeal for the audience, and a pinch of romance “American dream” style: these are the characteristics that marked the growth of the image of the assistant. So, thanks to the growing attention from the media and regulars of the industry, 2015 has definitely consecrated this professional, which became a first-rate job recognized, praised and, why not, aspirated by those who want to appear in the fashion industry. 

An employment that, among other things, seems to loose the status of temporary job, becoming a long-lasting partnership between those involved. Obviously, sooner or later, everyone should exit the safe zone, but the jump often seems postponed and being an assistant becomes a good point of arrival, not only a beginning. 

If you still have doubts in reevaluating a position as intern, I would like you to remind you that even Kim Kardashian began as assistant for Paris Hilton.