Meet An Intern: Charles Ellis

Don’t You Look Nice We spend so much time here at W interviewing the latest ingénue, we decided to turn the spotlight on our own up-and-comers for a change. First up: Charles Ellis, a 22-year-old journalism major at Wayne State University, intern to Stefano Tonchi, Editor in Chief.

Intern chic My motto is “stand out, but blend in.” I think if you want to be an editor one day, you have to dress the part! Today, I’m wearing a Top Man blazer, Ralph Lauren shirt, Levi’s jeans and vintage brown lace-ups.

From there to here I’m from Detroit, Michigan and have always wanted to influence how the world approaches fashion, ever since I was 16 and attended a panel featuring Detroit natives Anna Sui and Tracy Reese. My first big internship was with Glamour in the fashion closet; now I’m working my dream internship at W.

Power play About six months ago, I landed an interview with Ikram Goldman for a class research project. I just went to Chicago, walked into the store, and there she was. Her advice to an aspiring writer like myself, was to always “be interested and be interesting.”

In a day’s work A normal day could be anything from helping coordinate calendars, transcribing interviews, and of course, running around the city doing errands. One thing I noticed early on, about Stefano, is that he makes me want to dress up everyday. I need a suit for every day of the week – including weekends!

Current inspirations Kanye West, Isabel Marant, anything that would be considered youth-obsessed, Beyoncé, Monet, Jean-Michel Basquiat, books on Kabbalah, Nigella Lawson cookbooks.

All that drive and somewhere to go I’d love to be able to travel and work in Europe, either on a fashion shoot or fashion week. My dream job is to be a features or fashion news director.

Photo: Jeanine Celeste Pang