Who doesn’t love a story about a young girl from the suburbs heading off to the big city, landing her dream internship and spending an amazing summer roaming the streets of New York? Well, for our Chic Collegiate Markie Mullins, that dream was a reality.

Markie is a typical ASU student, spending her days dreaming of working in the fashion industry after graduation. She got a taste of what her ideal career would be like when she interned this summer at Donna Karan New York.

Markie’s story made us curious about what it was like for an Arizona girl to travel to the big city and work in the office of one of the greatest fashion labels! We figured our readers would be interested as well, so we sat down and asked her some questions.

What made you decide to go to New York City for an internship?

“I’ve always wanted to work in the fashion industry.” Markie had heard Whitney Port speak at ASU back in November and was super inspired by her story. “She got an internship for Kelly Cutrone, and I thought ‘I could do that.’ Two days later I booked a ticket to go to NY. I had printed up a bunch of my resumes; I looked up a bunch of places and mapped it all out.  I kind of just went on a whim. I didn’t really let any companies know or anything. I basically just walked in.”

Markie landed an intern position in the global licensing department for Dana Karan Japan where she was able to learn the business and legalities that come along with fashion.

When you found out you got the internship, what was your reaction?

“I was estatic, I called everyone in my phone book and left hysterical voice mails for all my family and friends.”

Did you have any concerns about going to New York for the summer?

“I like the thrill of not knowing, so I wasn’t really worried about anything. I just wanted to get the most out of it I could.  I wanted to explore everything there.” (Brave girl, don’t you think?)

What previous experience did you have to prepare you for this internship and set you apart from other candidates?

“As for the fashion industry, I didn’t have a lot of experience. The skills that actually helped me get the internship and that I used was stuff from the business school and business clubs that I’m in.”

As a peer programmer for the W.P. Carey business community, Markie is used to stepping up to take initiative and act as a leader. She told us her work ethic is what she believes helped her be most successful at DKNY, as well as differentiating her from the other interns. (We think her awesome personality definitely played a part as well!)

What were the best and worst parts of your internship?

“There were Devil Wear’s Prada moments for sure…This one time specifically, my supervisor had a meeting with the president of global licensing, the big lady on the floor. He gave me this stack of papers to take and get hole punched and put in a folder… A simple task.

But, my work was about 2 blocks away from Bryant Park, and there’s a FedEx right there. It was like 12:10 and he said “I need this by 12:30…You need to run.” So I ran, guarding these papers with my life, huffing and puffing. I got there and the guys like “It’s going to take an hour and a half.”  It was a mess of a thing, but it all worked out. I wouldn’t say it was bad… it was stressful.”

(Don’t worry, there were many more good times than bad!)

“The meetings we got to go into were awesome. We got to go into a few meetings where they were doing product approvals and proposing new ideas and reproductions for the Japanese line.”

“We also got to go into the show room. There were models in there modeling clothes, taking pictures. It was like a movie. They had the entire line hanging on the wall, everything color coordinating… it was amazing.”

What was your biggest takeaway from the whole experience?

“I learned a lot about myself. Being in NYC is really different vibe. The people are different. I learned a lot about being confident, not that I wasn’t confident before; just that being yourself is so okay. You have to be assertive there. Being creative is okay, being funky is okay.”

What is the biggest difference between Arizona and NYC?

“The biggest difference is the pace of lifestyle I think. For example, in NYC nobody waits for stop lights; something as simple as that.”

“New York City is a place where it’s constantly go, go, go. They’re constantly getting their work done, but at the same time they’re having fun in the workplace. It’s a really good balance of socializing, but being really business-y and being efficient with your time.”

What was your favorite part of New York?

“My favorite part was the diversity there. You go ten blocks and you’re in a different world. You never know what’s going to happen. You can never have a boring day there. There’s always something going on.”

Thanks for sharing your story with Couture in the Suburbs Markie! It sounds like you had an AMAZING time in New York City. We can’t wait to see how you apply the knowledge from your internship to the fashion scene here in Arizona. This is just the beginning.
XoXo Couture in the Suburbs

P.S. Do YOU know an awesome college student in Arizona pursuing their dreams in fashion? Send us an e-mail at lindsay@coutureinthesuburbs.com / natalie@coutureinthesuburbs.com with more information!