12 Fashion Internships for College Students
Fashion internships for college students bridge the gap between the academic and professional worlds, allowing you to enhance your resume and build industry-relevant skills. These internships often include mentorship, which can be valuable to understand how one gets full-time roles in the industry. They can help you gain practical experience and boost your employability after graduation. You can even secure a permanent job offer at an organisation if you impress them during your internship.
Fashion internships for college students can also allow you to build essential skills such as communication, critical thinking, time management, and more. If you’re looking to explore the fast-paced, creative world of fashion before you graduate, fashion internships for college students are worth considering. Here are 12 fashion internships for college students that offer meaningful experience:
Location: New York, New Jersey, Kentucky, Rhode Island
Program Dates: June 2 - August 8 (10 weeks)
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Depends on the internship
Stipend: $25/hour
Amongst the most iconic brands in the global luxury jewelry market, Tiffany & Co. offers several fashion internships for college students, including a 3D Visualization Architectural intern position. In this opportunity, you will have a 2-day orientation at their New York headquarters, after which you will explore the various facets of their business. You will be responsible for supporting the Store Design 3D Visualization team in design development, project management, and visualization that enhances the customer experience and aligns with the brand’s vision. A benefit of this internship is the networking opportunities as you will interact with leaders and fellow interns. You can also look for other U.S. summer internships in store design, product development, retail, marketing, and more.
2. Ladder University Internship Program
Location: Remote
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year, including Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Application Deadline: May 11 for Summer Cohort. Multiple deadlines for other cohorts throughout the year: Spring (January), Fall (September) and Winter (November)
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
Stipend: None. Cost starts at $1,490 (financial aid available)
Ladder Internships is a highly selective program that will connect you with a high-growth start-up or non-governmental organisation from a range of industries. They also have various business and fashion internships for college students.
In this program, you will work with an organisation to develop a real-world project. You will have weekly meetings with a supervisor from the start-up to ensure that you can meet your learning objectives and successfully complete your project.
3. Product Costing Intern - Skechers
Location: Manhattan Beach, California
Program Dates: Not specified
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: You must be pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business, fashion merchandising, or a related field, and be proficient in computer applications and Excel
Stipend: $25/hour
Business-related fashion internships for college students can give you insight into the administrative or accounting aspect of the industry, and this particular position at Skechers is particularly beneficial in that regard. Your responsibilities would include communicating comparisons, costing information, analyses, and more to the cross-functional teams within the organisation. You will work closely with the Asia team to support the product development pre-cost and production costing processes. This opportunity will enhance your ability to multitask and challenge you to follow up and solve multiple issues across various seasons. You will also learn to communicate clearly and precisely as you generate margin reports, cost component breakdowns, etc., and report them to various teams. Skechers has various other fashion internships for college students.
4. Personal Shopping Intern at Mytheresa
Location: New York
Program Dates: Not specified. In-office days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: You must have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, attention to detail, strong organizational skills, experience with digital sales, and the ability to work under tight deadlines.
Stipend: $15/hour
Mytheresa focuses on high-end luxury shoppers and is one of the leading global platforms in digital luxury shopping. They offer fashion internships for college students worldwide. In this particular opportunity, you will work in their New York office to support their international team. Your key responsibilities in this role will include assisting personal shoppers in various tasks such as administrative support, appointments and consultations, creating edits and organizing outreach, set-up and breakdown of events when necessary. You will thus be responsible for ensuring that the Personal Shopper team has all the support necessary to provide a luxury experience to clients.
5. Product Line Management Intern at Saucony
Location: Waltham, Massachusetts
Program Dates: Not specified
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Not specified
Stipend: Not specified
In this internship, you will work with the Saucony teams to manage and optimize product lines to ensure product success from conceptualization to marketing. You will be responsible for supporting the day-to-day needs of the Performance and Lifestyle PLM teams. This includes creating and communicating the competitive analysis and price matrix, managing showroom and storage racks in Boston Hub, updating and building product decks, tech sheets, etc., and researching and building product briefs. You will also update and manage the product lifecycle roadmap, assist in catalog creation and execution, and update and create materials for milestone meetings and team discussions.
6. Store Leadership Internship at Kohl’s
Location: Oxmoor Center, Louisville, Kentucky. Opportunities available in other states
Program Dates: June through July, Sunday through Saturday (40 hours/week)
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Undergraduate juniors who wish to pursue a career in retail leadership. You must have effective verbal and written communication skills and the ability to work independently and in a team. Being highly adaptable and self-motivated, and working on nights and weekends, is also required
Stipend: Not specified
Kohl’s has various fashion internships for college students, amongst which the Store Leadership Intern opportunity is available in various states. In this position, you will work alongside their Store Leadership teams to understand what goes into running a Kohl’s store and what the Assistant Store Manager role entails. As you shadow various leaders, you will learn about the Store Structure and the various roles and their responsibilities. You will also be responsible for executing various aspects of the daily operations and understand how to recognise growth opportunities by gaining insights into business reporting. This role will also require you to set goals and expectations with store leaders and plan and execute activities to drive sales growth.
Location: Fort Myers, Florida
Program Dates: May 19 - August 1 (11 weeks)
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Juniors or seniors at an accredited college or university with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, with experience in Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint, an eye for color, trends, print, and patterns, and strong communication and organisational skills
Stipend: Not specified
Chico’s FAS offers various fashion internships for college students, including in accounting, technology, finance, and merchandising. In this particular opportunity, you will assist the team in organizing and maintaining retail sample racks and the print and pattern library. You will be responsible for managing various trend-related tasks and special creative projects. You will also update purchase samples and purchase print and pattern books with color printouts. This opportunity will engage you in various business procedures and processes to help you understand professional retail roles. You must be authorized to work for a U.S. employer without sponsorship now or in the future.
8. URBN Home Office Internships
Location: Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania
Program Dates: June 2 – August 8 (10 weeks)
Application Deadline: November 4
Eligibility: Not specified
Stipend: Competitive hourly rate. Exact amount not specified
URBN is the parent company of fashion and lifestyle brands such as Urban Outfitters, Free People, and Anthropologie. If you’re looking for fashion internships for college students to help you enhance your resume and provide valuable experience, this may be a good opportunity, as you will gain practical experience while receiving an hourly stipend. This internship will allow you to research the latest styles, study consumer data, and work alongside like-minded peers as you cultivate your leadership skills.
9. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) Leadership Development Program
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Program Dates: Not specified
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Juniors working towards a bachelor’s degree with a minimum 3.0 GPA and proven leadership experience. You must submit your unofficial transcripts and resumes in your application, along with the cumulative GPA
Stipend: $9,000 for the 9-week summer program. Additional non-monetary benefits include housing, merchandise discounts, and use of the A&F gym
A&F offers various fashion internships for college students, such as merchandising, merchandise planning, finance, digital and technology, and supply chain. These extremely competitive internships take a unique entrepreneurial approach that allows you to engage with senior-level leaders. The programs are designed to align with the company’s “promote from within” mentality. They will provide you with the training and experience necessary to work at the company in the future. The program includes classroom sessions and on-the-job training. You will cultivate a relationship with your mentor and benefit from interactive presentations.
10. Pandora Merchandising Internship
Location: New York City, New York
Program Dates: June 2 - July 10 (6 weeks)
Application Deadline: None
Eligibility: You must be at least 18 years old, legally authorized to work in the U.S, currently enrolled in an accredited college/university as a rising junior/senior at the time of application, and pursuing a degree in a relevant merchandising or business field. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite is also required.
Stipend: $25/hour
Participating in fashion internships for college students at Pandora can be a prestigious addition to your resume and help you lay a strong foundation for your professional career. You will work alongside industry professionals and gain experience as you learn, build connections, and refine your merchandising skills. In this role, you will be responsible for sample management, supporting the team with setting up and maintaining items, drafting reports on promotional pricing and competitor analyses, learning about the nuances of merchandising, and more.
11. Hugo Boss Summer Internship - Wholesale
Location: New York City, New York. Hybrid (in-office for 3 days a week)
Program Dates: June 2 - August 15 (37.5 hours/week)
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: You must be entering junior or senior year and pursuing a bachelor's degree. You must have a strong knowledge of SAP and Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
Stipend: $16.50/hour
Working at Hugo Boss is a valuable opportunity for college students interested in fashion. In this position, you will support all aspects of the Wholesale business, including the systems and processes, and support sales and operations. You will typically be involved in organizing and communicating with key accounts on the inventory available as you manage the ready reports. You will also pull weekly sales data and sample allocation for major accounts, and generate ATS reports to send to the accounting team. You be involved in setting up and organizing the showroom, managing contract clean-up and maintenance, and participating in market appointments.
12. Tapestry Summer Store Leadership Intern
Location: Various locations in Austin, Texas, and Orlando, Florida
Program Dates: June 3 - August 8 (40 hours/week)
Application Deadline: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis
Eligibility: You should be pursuing or have completed a bachelor's degree at an accredited college or university, or be actively enrolled in a specialized/technical certification program. An equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered. Note: the company does not provide a Visa or Work Authorization sponsorship
Stipend: $20/hour
In this program, you will be introduced to retail as you shadow the store manager and learn about the intricacies of the day-to-day functioning of the store. You will gain valuable leadership experience and learn about what goes into managing a store, such as setting schedules and learning how to enhance operational performance.