Fabulous

I'm about to wrap up my first week in the fashion department at Fabulous magazine, and it's been going really well so far. My daily routine consists of organising and packing up clothes from the fashion cupboard to return to PR agencies and stores; it sounds like a mundane job, but I get to see and touch press samples from my favourite high street stores which haven't even been released yet, which is alone is a treat for a shopaholic like me. I also get to watch the fashion editors (who are really lovely) prep the wardrobes for shoots, and I've already picked up a lot of inspiration and tips for my own upcoming freelance shoots. I'm hoping for the chance to assist a shoot or two in my remaining three weeks and get valuable first hand experience of working under professional stylists, which will no doubt provide me with guidance for my aspiring career as an industry stylist. Exciting times!

One big downside of interning for a fashion magazine is that I am even more obsessed with clothes than I was previously, yet my funds are running extremely low due to an extravagant splurge on the 'new wardrobe for my internship' (funnily enough I still struggle to find an outfit to wear every morning). Thankfully Fabulous fashion is made up of high street brands including some which I would generally overlook completely (Love Label, Peacocks, New Look etc), and in the four days of rummaging through thousands of items, I have fallen in love with the high street (and it's hidden online gems) again. I have tried to steer myself away from 'cheap' fashion over the past few years as I believed it would be wiser to make investments into more classic, 'luxury' items, but unfortunately I've found that even when I spend £50 on a top, I am bored with it by the end of the week. As a result, I have decided to embrace the throwaway culture of today's fashion and start buying on the high street again, because no matter how much I spend on it, it'll be in my charity bag within six months anyway.

The same doesn't go for bags, as I am currently lusting after this Sophie Hulme box tote, and feel that an outfit that costs under £20 can always be justified by a £400+ bag.

Finally, I have purchased my domain: http://www.aliyastylist.com. There is nothing on there at the moment, but in the next month or so I will have launched my online portfolio and am also considering a daily fashion blog, as I would like my online presence to remain as active as possible. We shall see what happens over the next few weeks!