Experience

My Journey at LAU

Cynthia El Masri ’22

In my first year at university, we (the LAU Fashion Club), hosted seminars by Lebanese designers such as Rami Kadi and Emma Boutros on campus. This gave me an early boost in terms of networking and understanding the fashion world.

In spring 2021, I did a three-month internship at ELIE SAAB, starting with the atelier and pattern making to the embroidery departments. While there, I became close to some of the staff, who mentioned that they were looking for interns to help out during Paris Fashion Week this year.

I interviewed for the job and got accepted based on my knowledge and internship experience. The fact that I am an LAU fashion design student certainly gave me an advantage. For six full days, we worked backstage, assisting the stylists and photographers, organizing the collection from A to Z, and managing a specific number of models.

The experience gave me a big sense of accomplishment.

Although working backstage at the LAU graduate fashion show had given us a glimpse of what to expect, Paris Fashion Week was a huge-scale, international, event.

I would advise current and future students to take up every opportunity they get — especially internships, which they should actively pursue while at university, instead of waiting for their final year. These experiences can help introduce them to the different sides of their field. Fashion is a huge industry that opens so many opportunities beyond just design — from fashion buying to marketing and management; they might not even understand the richness of the field unless they experience it firsthand. I, for instance, learned about fashion sales during an internship with Lebanese designer Sandra Mansour.

The highlight of my LAU experience came a few weeks before graduating, when Mr. Saab described my collection as “genius” at the fashion jury and called me “a perfectionist.” Along with my professors, he gave me invaluable advice to apply to my collection before the upcoming fashion show.