NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If fashion is your passion, there is hardly a better way to earn a paycheck than to work for a major magazine, unless you're pretty enough to grace the cover.

"I wake up every day and am excited to go to work," says Marina Tatistcheff, fashion editor at BlackBook Magazine. "It is a combination of being creative and understanding that the magazine is a business and having to plug into that as well."

Fashion editors do exactly what their title suggests: they are responsible for a publication's fashion coverage including photo layouts, features, and styling the cover.

Variety is the spice of any given day. Marina's day Monday began with a meeting with the photo editor and art director to go through ideas for spring issue. She also met with Press Office to discuss some of the designers they represent before heading to the New York Public Library later in the evening for Banana Republic's spring preview show.

On Tuesday, she met with the rest of the staff and attended a preview of the latest Armani collection.

Those showroom trips aren't just about looking at pretty clothes or determining what color is the next black. The personalities behind those designs drive the market. And to stay on top of an ever-evolving industry, you need to know the up-and-coming talent along with the major players.

Professionalism counts, but you can't play the part without looking the part. At many publications fashion editors are expected to represent their target audience so your monthly budget should include a generous clothing allowance.

At least that allowance will go a long ways thanks to deeply discounted merchandise.

Aja Mangum, New York magazine's market editor, admits she's not that familiar with retail prices because most of her clothes come from sample sales. Among her savvier designer purchases: Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton shoes at $60 and $50 each, compared to $350 or more a pair.

Some designers also offer a 30 percent to 50 percent editor's discount at their stores. But none of that compares to the free booty.

Marina recently fell in love with a poncho she received from New Zealand designer Karen Walker. Aja is still brimming about a free night and spa treatment she received at the Chambers hotel.

Both editors says there are several ways to get your foot in the door. The most common is to prove your mettle as an intern.

Aja, for example, started out as an intern at New York and was asked to stay on as an assistant. She was anything but the stereotypical fashion maven when she started working for the publication right out of college four years ago.

"I was very anti-fashion in school," says Aja, who majored in sociology and minored in women's studies at Providence College in Rhode Island. "As I was in it, I just started to love it."

And Marina worked for Michele Filomeno -- an agency that represents stylists, photographers and makeup artists -- before she joined BlackBook as an editor.

Toughing it out in the trenches as an intern or fashion assistant can be a financial challenge. Internships are usually unpaid even though you may be required to put in a 40-hour work week. Starting pay for fashion assistants is usually in the low $20,000 range.

But if you love it what you are doing, pay may not be a deterrent.

"When you are starting out, you really need to be excited about what you are doing," says Marina. "If you like what you are doing, it is not about the money. It is more about what you are producing."