Celebrity Fashion Interns: Lady Gaga Follows Kanye West’s Career Move

One is only 24 but has already been termed an icon and the “Madonna of her generation”. The other is one of the biggest selling Hip-Hop artists of this decade and has already won 12 Grammy Awards since his first nomination in 2005.

Despite all of their stellar achievements in the music business, it seems the one thing both Lady Gaga and Kanye West most desire is in fact a chance to work in the fashion industry. Together, they may have sold over 50 million records but as far as their ambitions go, the sky is the limit and there just is no holding these two back, even if it means venturing off into unchartered territory.

On Monday, a Philip Treacy representative confirmed with UK Vogue that Lady Gaga has applied for an internship with the world renowned couture milliner. The representative revealed that “the request came through quite a while ago” and that the “Pokerface” singer has indeed made such an application “although nothing has been confirmed yet.”

Like Lady Gaga after him, Kanye West also had similar fashion business aspirations. Last year, the rapper was reported to have done a summer internship stint for Gap in its New York headquarters. Prior to that, he had also expressed interests at starting from the bottom most rung as an intern at Louis Vuitton’s London headquarters, although this never seemed to pan out.

It’s difficult for many of us to imagine personalities as famous as Lady Gaga and Kanye West truly working as interns in a sea of other white-collared, regularly salaried office workers. Once the first day of work comes along, will they actually get tasked with menial day to day activities like making coffee and photocopying like most real interns do?

It’s hard to imagine that will be the case.

In fact, when designer Raf Simons heard of West’s intentions to intern for him, he was “blown away from the planet” and told The New York Times that “I know he’s very serious about this — I don’t take it as a joke — but how can I imagine him being my intern? It’s a very extreme situation”.

Simons’ sentiments present a more realistic account of the situation. Sure, we don’t for a second doubt that these celebrities do in fact have career ambitions outside of what they are already known for and that these are in fact, not just publicity stunts. They have shown their level of commitment and readiness to grind it out and prove that they want it just as bad as the next intern. But, when the time comes, will these stars actually get the same treatment as their fellow student interns? Or will the internship just eventually fizzle out once the celebrities stop turning up for work regularly once their first career demands more time from them? Or will such an “internship” stint simply become a guise for yet another “celebrity-designer label” collaboration?

In Kanye West’s defense though, US Weekly reported in July 09 that “He (West) works all the time, and one Friday night recently, he stayed until 12 am. He’s learning the fashion business from the inside and trying to do it quietly.” That seems to make a case for West being truly serious about having a career in fashion, and Lady Gaga doesn’t seem to be a slouch in the effort department either.

But with Lady Gaga, it remains to be seen if her job scope includes the usual intern tasks like sorting through mails, photocopying documents or getting coffee. One thing is for sure though, if you thought competing with other students for intern positions was tough, the competition from wannabe celebrity interns won’t make things easier. Work on your dance moves and performance skills – there’s a new definition to well rounded.