It was all going well to begin with. We used the photographers house as a base, and while the model was having her hair and make-up done the stylist was getting the looks in order. I was given the tasks of ironing all the shirts and blouses so they looked crisp and new on the model. Easy! I thought. After being given strict instructions to use no water in the iron and to iron everything through a special sheet I was slightly puzzled but ready to go. It took a lot longer to iron things with no steam and so one shirt was taking about 20 mins. The stylist also had specific instructions about what parts of the clothes to iron. She was going for the androgynous look with a lot of buttoned up shirts and so special attention had to be paid to the collars.
It was all going fine until I reached one particularly tricky £200 leopard print blouse. I was ironing away and then all of a sudden the sheet moved and I accidentally ironed directly onto the blouse. Oh well I thought and lifted the iron up without thinking. To my horror, when I lifted it up a giant iron-shaped hole was left in the blouse. I looked at the iron and saw the leopard print had completely stuck to it. Shit! I started to panic as I realised there was nothing that could be done to fix it and there was no way I could or should try to hide my mistake. I called over the stylist and thought for sure she was going to go ape shit. She'd probably want me to pay for the blouse and then tell me never to contact her again. My interning days were numbered.
Remember no matter how scary someone may seem - they're human too!
image from fuckyeahdevilwearsprada tumblr
To my relief however she was calm, cool and collected. She told me not to worry and that everyone has an ironing horror story - its a fashion intern right of passage. She made the model try the shirt on again and tucked into trousers it was fine, and so the look was sort of saved!
The fashion industry is often portrayed as bitchy and ruthless, but you just need to remember that everyone started as an intern once and they understand what its like. If you accidentally break or ruin something the chances are they've seen it happen a hundred times before, and have probably done it once themselves too. As long as you tell them as soon as it happens, apologise lots and make sure you never do it again, they should forgive and forget...
