A chaotic company powered by free labor - Fashion Design Assistant DAMUR Employee Review

They did stick to the promise of free snacks, a coffee machine, and paid lunch — though you’ll have to cook it yourself. At least the ingredients are covered.

Toxic work environment, driven by the founder’s emotional instability and complete lack of boundaries (physically too). No hired staff, it's just a constant rotating pool of interns, so there’s no fixed figure to learn from since the “creative director” always seems occupied with other stuff. His personal issues constantly spilled into the workplace, with mood swings and emotional outbursts creating an unpredictable, high-stress atmosphere. Communication regularly extended far beyond working hours — late-night messages and calls were the norm, often not even work-related, but emotional venting from the founder who tried to rely on interns for emotional support, aww :) The founder struggles to maintain composure under pressure. Right before important brand moments, tension rises and emotional outbursts become frequent. Ironically, when he finds something going well, he mood swings to the opposite extreme, celebrating like a child who just found free candy, acting as if nothing bad had ever happened. He is just making you work on projects, asking clients for project money while faking actual project costs, making you do the whole project, and of course, pocketing all the money. He wrote a written promise to give a bonus upon reaching specific sales targets—but once those goals were met, he refused to pay it and retroactively changed the rules to avoid following through. Despite his self-given title of “creative director", there was no coherent workflow, just disorganised delegation and shifting expectations. This wasn’t just my experience — several others went through the same. In fact, every major fashion university in Germany has now banned this company from offering internships to their students, which should speak volumes.

The other interns were truly the only positive part of this experience. They were incredibly creative, hardworking, supportive, and kind. Despite the toxic environment, the teamwork among us made the situation more bearable.

This was the most exploitative, toxic, and emotionally draining workplace I’ve ever experienced.
I strongly discourage students or early-career professionals from applying. – The Internship was completely unpaid, despite full-time hours (Mon–Fri, 10:00–18:00) and additional unpaid Sunday work near fashion weeks.
 – Only one day off per month was allowed, which is violates German labor law.
 – The entire team was made up of unpaid interns. • The founder regularly sent abusive, threatening, and erratic messages—including outside work hours .• Frequently hurled personal insults, often late at night. 
• Communication was chaotic at best: no structure, no leadership, no support. 
• As Interns were told to “figure it out” whenever we asked for direction. – The founder constantly shifted blame to interns instead of owning his mistakes. 
– Most interactions were hostile, dismissive, or off-topic.
 – Misogynistic and racist remarks were common. No HR, no accountability. • Interns ran nearly every part of the business: 
– No training or onboarding provided.
  – Interns expected to train new interns.
  – No credit or compensation for our work. – The founder has no understanding of PR, marketing, or e-commerce, yet left this to unpaid interns to manage it all. • Even success was met with abuse:
  – During Berlin Fashion Week, we achieved major improvements in press and social engagement.
  – Despite that, we were still called “useless” and “stupid.”
  – No recognition, only insults. –The biggest irony of this is the brand promotes itself as inclusive and community driven —but in reality, the founder is discriminatory, bigoted, and driven solely by image and ego. The so-called values are nothing more than a marketing gimmick. There is no integrity, no leadership, and no care for people. •Calling this an “internship” is misleading. It was unpaid labor in an abusive environment, run by someone who should not be in a leadership position of any kind. 
• If you are hoping to learn, grow, or be treated with respect, do not apply. • I worked tirelessly and delivered results. In return, I received nothing but verbal abuse. It was infuriating and disheartening.