A Duchess and a McQueen

I just have to admit something. I'm no fan of the royal family but the wedding yesterday brought tears to my eyes. Mainly because Sarah Burton is a genius...

My month at Dazed & Confused:

Apologies for the massive gap. I have been a busy busy bee. I have just spent a 4 weeks interning for Dazed & Confused magazine!

Natasha and I casually sitting on leather sofas in the car park. Sipping smoothies and 'keeping guard'

It has been a long rollercoaster of activities so I will keep it short. I was with the advertising department mainly but I also got to dip in and out of other offices for whoever needed me. the great thing about the Dazed offices, (which they share with sister magazines AnOther, and AnOther Man, as well as the Dazed Digital website), is that it is all on a single floor office warehouse together. It’s small! You can walk around the whole things quite comfortably and it is simple but modern, with sofas dotted around and frame magazine covers all over the walls. Everyone there is impecibly cool of course, and each department has its own little zany style from the hipstery graphics team, to the polished assistants to Jefferson Hack - the editor-in-chief- in case you don’t know!

Jefferson is one of the coolest people ever. Although everyone says how nice and friendly he is, naturally I was terrified, and he has this smooth low voice, very calm but knows what he wants. I saw him a lot but he rarely spoke to me. I had to tidy his meeting room a lot, after being told things casual things like 'Lily Cole coming in for a bit tomorrow.'

Man, do they work fast. Over my month long stay there, I saw four different issues come in and out. The April edition had just been published, and when I left, June was being sent of to the printers. Here are the editions I worked on!

There was already another long-term intern in my department, Natasha, who happened to be from the same area as me and even had mutual friends, soo coincidental but great, and she instantly welcomed me into the Interns Lunch Club. A great thing about Dazed was that it is very laid back but still professional. Taking a lunch-break early or running out for a coffee and some cigs was no problem, and the offices are also located right next to one of the best food markets in London which the made mid-day break a treat.

As Natasha was already considered one of the team she took the majority of responsibilty, so work load fluttered as times between having late-night work loads and nothing to do. Nevertheless it seems I arrived at a pivotal point in the calendar as they have just launched their first day-long festival, Dazed Live, as well as having a host of events including a fragrance launch for Carolina Hererra.

I had to do a lot of brand and magazine comparisons, which was fun because I was able to read all my glossy mag gossip whilst being able to legitimately call it work! It taught me how intricate and above all expensive brand selling is; Poppy (the assistant to the Assosicate Publisher, and the fantastic woman who gave me the internship, who is also stunning and in an awesome band (!)) herself referred to the office as sometimes being “a scene from Jerry Maguire”.

Another job I became heavily involved in was the organising of Dazed Live. Myself and a girl named Fiona (who became another great friend) had to interview those wishing to work at the festival. Although Fiona took most of the control whilst I took her job, I must say it was interesting and quite amusing being on the other end of the questionning process!

I did some work for the website too, transcribing an interview with none other than the legendary director Luc Besson, about his upcoming film The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec. I was just given a recording and told to write it, I didn't realise who it was until I started listening. Listening to his voice for an hour was quite soothing, I think I laughed once or twice out loud which I didn't realise in my own little headphone-d world. You can read the interview here!

i was made to feel like part of the team, with weekly Thursday expeditions to the local pub for after hours catch up and partying, and on my last day my entire department went on an ‘Ad Team Bonding Trip’... at Shoreditch House Private Members Club! ERR. And with paid for dinner and cocktails, it was swanky. Dazed sure don’t do things by halves. It was great, the whole team came out of work mode and gossiped and laughed for the rest of the night; it was like we were friends rather than colleugues. I have nothing but respect for the Dazed Massive, and would definitely work there again. It’s really made me evaluate what I want to do when I graduate, whether its journalism, advertising, or styling. Life is sweeeet!