“INTERN” SHIPS: Of all the media companies, it is said that Condé Nast’s employees are the most homogeneous, with their bespoke suits, bobbed haircuts and closets filled with shoes. So is it any wonder that even interns are inducted into the aesthetic from almost the moment they walk into 4 Times Square?
This year’s Intern magazine, a publication produced by interns and for interns in Condé Nast’s corporate summer program, debuted on Friday. The 20-page glossy, distributed to those in the program and to a select group of executives, includes a fashion spread of “Intern Picks” that could just as easily be spotted on any junior-level Condé Nast editor. Featured are chunky bangles, a Louis Vuitton clutch and a floral skirt for women, and black jeans, a dark blazer and a messenger bag for men. Items appear sans credits and prices. (Interns, after all, are unpaid. It wouldn’t be fair to tease.)
There is also a do-or-don’t style poll, asking if interns should mix name brand with vintage (90 percent said “do”) or if they should wear sneakers instead of sandals (68 percent said “don’t”). Layering jewelry, according to 73 percent of them, is also a must. And so the indoctrination begins. (Condé Nast, like WWD, is part of Advance Publications Inc.)
At least one intern did struggle with leaving her old, less-fashionable self behind, though. House & Garden’s Rebecca Moore, who is from rugged Montana, wrote in an essay in the magazine’s “Talk of the Town” section: “Alongside my business suits and hair dryer, I packed my climbing shoes, headlamp and hiker-friendly Chacos — just in case.” A good thing, too. “Soon after I’d convinced myself I would have to suck it up and act Bergdorf blonde for the summer,” she said, “I found that, surprisingly, Manhattan was not lacking in outdoor appeal.”
Sadly there is no accompanying photo of a Plum Sykes lookalike scaling rock walls in Central Park.