Meet Emily Regan: Fabulous Magazine's Fashion Assistant

Have you ever wondered if the fashion world is really as ruthless and intense as portrayed in The Devil Wears Prada? To find out, we sat down with Emily Regan, fashion assistant at Fabulous magazine, to ask her about her day-to-day duties and how she handles being in the fashion industry. 

The 25-year-old from London, has been working for Fabulous for nearly two years. Now confident in her fashion media ambitions, she was unsure about her career path as a sixth former.

“I originally didn’t know what I wanted to do, whether it was visual merchandising or styling etc.,” Emily tells me. All she knew was that she loved fashion and wanted to spend every penny she had on clothes to improve her own style.

University did not appeal to her, but then she came across the Fashion Retail Academy where she gained her Level 4 Diploma in Fashion Marketing and Business and a BA Honours degree in Marketing and Communications.

Emily’s love for fashion and “making people look good in clothes I don't think would suit me”, pointed her in the direction of becoming a stylist. This led to a number of marketing internships, which was not her first choice in terms of experience. However, as she says: “You have to do things you don't enjoy to know what you do enjoy.”

Eventually, Emily gained an internship opportunity at Fabulous and after a making a good impression she was promoted to fashion assistant.

When asked what her typical day involves, Emily says: “The thing I most enjoy about my job is that no two days are the same.”

From spending all her time in the office on her laptop, responding to emails and liaising with brands and PRs, to assisting on fashion photoshoots, helping the stylists with their models, steaming clothes, and ensuring every runs smoothly, she has plenty on her plate no matter the day, and adds: “Your day could change in very short notice.”

Emily can go from returning samples upon samples in the fashion cupboard, to attending a PR event, to being called in for a last-minute shoot, all in one day.

She admits this can become an issue when trying to balance her work and social life. “Christmas especially, can be really a really busy period, and it can be hard for your family to understand what you are doing.”

Emily explains how during the festive season, many opportunities arise to attend various PR lunches and events, which may not look like work to some people. However, “they are essential for networking. They help with gaining coverage and press samples which are so important for the magazine.”

A big portion of Emily’s job is preparing for photoshoots and fashion spreads. Every magazine is different however, and the Fabulous team tends to plan their weekly editions a month-and-a-half in advance. This can make it hard to keep up with the constant changes in fashion trends, especially micro-trends. Emily is constantly trying to do this by following the seasonal catwalks and regularly asking her interns for trend reports.

”It is difficult with micro-trends that go really viral really quickly. When this happens, we cannot cover it in a shoot as by the time it comes out people are already over it.”

However, this does not mean that readers miss out as Emily explains how in that case, content would be published in the Fabulous newsletter instead which they work on all the way up to its release.

The main part of prepping for photoshoots is, of course, finding the clothes. There are three ways Emily likes to do this, and the first is booking store appointments on Oxford Street to select the clothes in-person.

For online brands you can send links of the items you like to their PRs and they will send it for you, or you can send a “round robin” to all brands and they will send anything they have that matches the description you send - although you may end up with some odd floral printed ski goggles when you are shooting for summer...

Emily's favourite way is to select in store as nothing beats seeing the product in person, “You’ve seen it, you’ve felt it, you’ve touched it,” she says.

Despite all the good bits that come with Emily’s job, there are also challenges. For example, as the Fabulous print issue has grown in popularity, so has its social media presence.

When she first started at the magazine, her responsibilities were strictly assistant based. “I was making sure the fashion cupboard was always tidy, sorting samples, returns, etc.”

Although she still has those responsibilities, she also has become one of the faces of Fabulous on social media. “The most challenging part of my job is that I am on camera a lot more now. I am not someone who likes having my picture taken, but with the nature of my job it is something I am having to embrace.”

Emily recognises that the fashion industry has its issues. “In general, it is massively underpaid,” she says.

She adds she has met women who want to be a part of the industry but have not had the opportunities available due to not being able to afford to commute to or live in big cities.

Despite this, she aims to move up within the company, hoping to one day become a fashion director.

“I was really, really lucky that I got my dream job. My one bit of advice to everyone would be that if you really want something enough, you can make it happen.”