Fashion internships are still the most common way into the industry, and still the place where the industry is most tempted to cut corners on pay. A placement at a fashion house, a magazine or a showroom can open doors that a degree alone will not. It can also mean months of steaming samples and running returns for nothing, which in many cases is not just unfair but unlawful. This guide covers where fashion internships are advertised, when to apply, and the legal tests in the US, the UK and the EU that decide whether an intern must be paid.
Short answer: Apply for fashion internships through brand career sites, fashion job boards and university careers services, ideally three to six months before the start date. In the US, a for-profit company can leave an intern unpaid only if the intern is the “primary beneficiary”. In the UK, interns who count as workers must get the minimum wage, and France requires pay after two months.
Key takeaways
- Most fashion internships are filled through company career pages, specialist job boards and university networks, and summer placements are often decided months ahead.
- US law asks who benefits more. Under the “primary beneficiary” test from Glatt v. Fox Searchlight, an intern doing a regular employee’s job must be paid.
- Condé Nast agreed in November 2014 to pay $5.8 million to about 7,500 former interns, after which unpaid magazine internships largely disappeared in the US.
- In the UK, an intern who is a worker is owed the National Minimum Wage, £12.71 an hour from April 2026 for those aged 21 and over.
Where should you apply for fashion internships?
Start with the companies themselves. Large groups run their own recruitment portals: LVMH lists job openings and early career programmes, including graduate programmes and its INSIDE LVMH programme, on its careers site, and other large groups and retailers run similar portals. Smaller labels rarely advertise widely, so a direct, well researched email to a studio manager or press office can work, particularly in the run up to a show.
Specialist job boards come next. BoF Careers, run by The Business of Fashion, and FashionUnited’s jobs board both list fashion roles, and filtering for internships brings up placements in areas such as design, buying, marketing and PR. University careers services and fashion school networks are often the best source for placements tied to a course, which matters legally because course-linked internships are treated differently in the UK and France. If your interest is the legal side of the business, FLJ keeps a fashion law jobs and internships board, a guide on where to find a fashion law internship, and weekly picks of roles in the FLJ Insider newsletter.
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Think beyond the design studio. Buying, production, sourcing, visual merchandising, compliance and brand protection teams all take interns, often with less competition. FLJ’s look at what a fashion designer actually does shows how much of the job sits outside sketching. For creative roles, your portfolio does much of the talking, so read why fashion students need more than a PDF portfolio before you send anything.
When should you apply?
Earlier than feels necessary. Structured summer programmes at big groups often open in the autumn or winter before and can close well before spring. Studios and PR agencies hire around the show calendar, so roles linked to the February and September womenswear seasons in New York, London, Milan and Paris tend to be advertised in the weeks before each season. FLJ’s ranking of the fashion capitals of the world explains why so many placements cluster in those four cities.
A practical rhythm is to build a target list three to six months before you want to start, set alerts on two or three job boards, and apply within the first week a role goes live. Ask at interview whether the role is paid, how many hours a week it involves, and who will supervise you. The answers tell you a lot about whether the placement is a training opportunity or unpaid labour.
Is it legal for a fashion internship to be unpaid in the US?
Sometimes, but less often than companies assume. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires for-profit employers to pay employees at least the minimum wage, and the question is whether an intern is an employee. The Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #71, updated in January 2018, adopts the “primary beneficiary” test used by the courts. It lists seven factors, including whether both sides understand there is no expectation of pay, whether the training is similar to what an educational setting would provide, whether the internship is tied to a formal education programme through coursework or credit, whether it fits the academic calendar, whether it lasts only as long as it is useful for learning, whether the intern’s work complements rather than displaces paid staff, and whether there is no promise of a paid job at the end. No single factor decides the case.
The test comes from Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, decided by the Second Circuit on 2 July 2015 and amended on 25 January 2016. Interns who had worked on the film Black Swan or at Fox’s New York offices claimed they were unpaid employees. The court rejected the Labor Department’s older six-factor test and held that “the proper question is whether the intern or the employer is the primary beneficiary of the relationship.” It sent the case back for further proceedings. Unpaid internships at public bodies and non-profit charities are treated more leniently, but a fashion brand is a commercial business.
What happened in the Condé Nast and Hearst intern cases?
The fashion media cases show both sides of the test. In June 2013, Lauren Ballinger, who said she earned about $1 an hour organising accessories at W Magazine, and Matthew Leib, who was paid around $300 for a summer at The New Yorker, sued Condé Nast in the Southern District of New York. The company ended its internship programme soon after. In November 2014 it agreed to a $5.8 million settlement covering about 7,500 former interns going back to June 2007, with expected payments of $700 to $1,900 each.
Hearst won. In Wang v. Hearst Corporation, decided on 8 December 2017, the Second Circuit applied the Glatt factors to interns at Hearst magazines, including Cosmopolitan and Esquire, and affirmed summary judgment that they were not employees. The lesson for brands is that a well designed programme, tied to education and focused on training, can be lawful. The lesson for interns is that a placement where you replace a paid assistant, work fixed hours and learn little is the kind the law treats as a job.
What are the UK rules on unpaid internships?
The UK does not have a separate legal category for interns. What matters is whether the person is a “worker”. According to government guidance on interns, an intern who counts as a worker is entitled to the National Minimum Wage, and an employer cannot avoid that by calling the role voluntary or getting the intern to sign something saying they are not a worker. An intern promised a contract of future work is also treated as a worker.
There are exceptions. Students doing an internship of less than one year as a required part of a UK further or higher education course are not entitled to the minimum wage, nor are school-age work experience pupils. Pure work shadowing, where the intern only observes and does no work, is also outside the rules, as are genuine volunteers at charities and voluntary organisations. Under the rates from April 2026, workers aged 21 and over must be paid at least £12.71 an hour, those aged 18 to 20 at least £10.85, and those under 18 at least £8.
What about France and the rest of the EU?
France matters because Paris hosts so many luxury houses. A French stage is a placement under an agreement with a school or university, and the host must pay a minimum “gratification” once the placement lasts more than two months in the same academic year, consecutive or not. According to URSSAF, the minimum is €4.50 per hour of placement from 1 January 2026, and placements with the same host cannot exceed six months per academic year.
At EU level, rules are still patchy. The Council says that in 2019 almost half of the 3.1 million trainees in the EU were unpaid. The European Commission proposed a Traineeships Directive in March 2024 to stop regular jobs being disguised as traineeships. The Council agreed its position in June 2025 and Parliament agreed its own in October 2025, but the Parliament’s legislative tracker described the two positions as still wide apart in its September 2026 update, so national law continues to decide pay.
| Jurisdiction | When an intern must be paid | Minimum pay | Main source |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | When the company, not the intern, is the primary beneficiary | Federal minimum wage, or a higher state rate | DOL Fact Sheet #71; Glatt (2d Cir. 2016) |
| United Kingdom | When the intern is a worker, unless an exception applies | £12.71 an hour (21 and over) from April 2026 | National Minimum Wage rules |
| France | Placements over two months in one academic year | €4.50 per hour from 1 January 2026 | URSSAF guidance |
| European Union | Depends on national law; directive still under negotiation | No EU minimum | Traineeships Directive proposal (2024) |
How can you tell if a fashion internship offer is fair?
Get the terms in writing: dates, hours, pay or expenses, who supervises you and what you will learn. Be wary of placements with no end date, roles advertised as unpaid but requiring full-time hours, or descriptions that read like an assistant’s job. Check whether a course link is real, since several legal exceptions depend on it. And take the same care you would with any unsolicited approach: FLJ’s guide to red flags in modelling jobs applies to internships too, and the culture of glamourised overwork is examined in FLJ’s labour law reading of The Devil Wears Prada.
Frequently asked questions
When do fashion internships open for applications?
Structured summer programmes at large groups often open in the autumn or winter before. Studio and PR roles tied to fashion week tend to be advertised in the weeks before each February and September season, so set job alerts early.
Are unpaid fashion internships legal in the US?
Only if the intern, not the company, is the primary beneficiary under the test in DOL Fact Sheet #71 and Glatt v. Fox Searchlight. An intern doing the work of a paid employee at a for-profit brand should be paid.
What did the Condé Nast intern lawsuit decide?
It settled. In November 2014 Condé Nast agreed to pay $5.8 million to about 7,500 former interns, with expected payments of $700 to $1,900 each, after interns claimed they were unpaid employees.
Do UK fashion interns have to be paid the minimum wage?
Yes, if they are workers. Exceptions include students on a required placement of under a year as part of a UK course, work shadowing with no actual work, and genuine volunteers at charities.
How much must a fashion intern in France be paid?
If the placement lasts more than two months in the same academic year, the host must pay at least €4.50 per hour of placement from 1 January 2026, according to URSSAF.
Where can I find fashion law internships?
Look at in-house legal teams at brands and retailers, IP and commercial teams at law firms, and specialist boards. FLJ’s jobs board and the FLJ Insider newsletter list current fashion law roles and internships.
This article is general information on internship pay rules in the US, UK, France and the EU as of October 2026, based on government guidance, court decisions and official rates. It is not legal advice; whether a particular intern must be paid depends on the facts and the local law.
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