(Lorraine wears jacket by Paul smith, shirt by TM Lewin. Alexandra wears top by Reiss and skirt by H&M, photo by David Bebber/The Times Newspaper)

(Dress by Jigsaw, shoes by New Look, bag by Zara, jacket by Topshop, all photos by Stephanie Sian Smith)

(Zara bag)

(New Look shoes)

Meet 22-year-old Alexandra Murphy. She won ELLE’s Edited by the Interns competition and was one of 10 winning interns who helped edit the October issue. Now she’s blogging for the editor, too…

I couldn’t believe it when, two months ago, I found out that I had been selected from hundreds of hopefuls to take over ELLE’s October issue as the editor intern. Since the announcement, I’ve been asked lots of questions, so here are the answers to the five I’ve been asked most:

1. What’s it like to intern at ELLE?

It isn’t what I expected. Walking into the ELLE office for the first time, what struck me most was the style (of course, it was the style), but above that, it was the differences in style. The variations are endless – and amazing.

2. What’s the fashion cupboard really like?

It’s a bit untidy. A kind of organised, happy chaos. A chaos full of stylish and fashionable treasure.

3. Are the ELLE team terrifying?

Another surprise about the office is how calm it is. The odd frantic moment aside, the ELLE team are calm, totally cool and completely collected; everybody is lovely, with a shared passion for beautiful fashion.

I shouldn’t have been so shocked by this – after all, one of the first things Lorraine told me when I interviewed her was that ‘ELLE is about fashion. And if you love fashion, then there is a place here for you.’ Looking back on my time at ELLE, that is the most important thing I’ve learned – there’s more than one way to love fashion, more than one way to wear it and more than one way to work with it.

4. What’s been your favourite moment at ELLE?

That’s hard to choose. Maybe it was when Lorraine greeted me for the very first time with a big reassuring smile and said, ‘You’re me!’ or when I appeared in The Times in a feature about the Edited by the Interns initiative.

5. How do I get your intern position?

ELLE’s Edited by the Interns competition will be back for 2013 and my advice for next year’s hopefuls would be:

  • Don’t worry about staying cool. Everybody else is as excited as you!

  • Wear comfortable shoes (but don’t sacrifice beauty for practicality)

  • And, more seriously, don’t hold back. My entry was silly, surreal and off-the-cuff, but it was genuine. After I’d got the position, got nervous and started conforming, a draft of my editor’s letter was scrapped – and quite rightly so. I rewrote it, in my own voice, and you can find it in the October Issue – a dream come true for me. So don’t be afraid to be yourself. After all, if you love fashion, there’s a place here for you.

Alexandra’s CV

Originally from Cambridge, Alexandra graduated from Royal Holloway University this year with a BA in English. Her most recent work involves interning for various travel magazines at a company called Ink Global and, of course, writing for the October issue of ELLE. To find out more, visit her blog here.

Miniature bag, maximum glamour. The perfect companion to the LBD

These Smythson diaries are a gorgeous way to keep track of new designers at LFW

Tartan, buckles and toecaps. Should be a no, but something about these Louboutins make them a huge yes

Beauty hand-in-hand with utility. Well done Phillip Lim

This week the editor’s intern is:

Listening to Before the Dive by St Lucia on repeat. It’s the track used on our Edited by the Interns video on ELLEtv. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to listen to it without getting butterflies of excitement

Yearning after the leopard-print shirt from the Somerset by Alice Temperley collection for John Lewis

Reading The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown