Oct. 23, 2013 was a sad day for all of us fashionistas who want to lead a successful career in the fashion industry. Condé Nast who owns Vogue, Teen Vogue, W and many other fashion magazines decided to end their internship program starting 2014 due to many law suits surrounding interns.
Due to labor laws, interns were not considered employees since they weren’t on the payroll of the company and were virtually invisible in the system. Since they weren’t employees, sexual harassment charges can’t be filed if an intern felt that he/she was being harassed and the regular labor laws couldn’t extend to interns as well. This issue caused a lot of lawsuits in the fashion industry of Condé Nast.
So what does this mean for those whose dream job is to work for Vogue magazine? I’m not really sure because obviously Condé Nast’s decision to end their program has hindered college students, but it also has hindered their company in a big way too. How are they supposed to hire employees with tons of experience in the fashion industry when choices have been limited? Sure there are plenty of other fashion magazines who give out internships, but the biggest companies are under Condé Nast.
Those of us who aspire to be Anna Wintour will have to find another way around this roadblock. I feel like this could come out as a good thing for college students. Maybe it will inspire some of us to be entrepreneurs and start our own fashion empire, or maybe we’ll help other smaller fashion companies grow by flocking to them in search for internships.
It will only be a matter of time to see the effects of Condé Nast’s decision to end their internship program. I hope the results will be in favor of a college public relations student, such as myself.
Is there light at the end of this dark tunnel? Check out CNN and see what college students are saying about this news.
