One Door Closes Another Door Opens

Friday was my last day at Marc Jacobs. The day snuck up on me very quickly, and I had mixed emotions about it all. Of course I am excited to start the next chapter of my life, but it was very upsetting leaving. Within these past five months I have learned so much about myself and about the industry as a whole. I know what the pace of a high fashion brand feels like, I know what to deliver, and best of all I realize what I want for my future career. Aside from these realizations, I also connected with my coworkers and supervisors. Everyone I met has truly impacted my life in so many positive ways. Going into this opportunity I was unsure of what to expect. I like to have realistic expectations, but going into this opportunity I wasn't sure how everything would pan out, or even what to expect. Would I like my job? Would I learn a lot and make connections? Thankfully, I can say yes to all of these initial questions. This experience exceeded far beyond my expectations. It would be a dream to go back to MJ in the future and to work there again some day. But for now, I am looking forward to trying out as many jobs as I can before I settle. 

It's true what they say, when one door closes another door opens. As sad as I was that my internship ended, I was happily accepted to study abroad at the London College of Fashion this summer! Studying at LCF has been a dream of mine since coming Drexel and I am so thankful study abroad made this program available to D&M students. I am especially thrilled for the styling class. After working for a stylist for quite some time, I have developed a passion for it. That being said, it's going to be a great experience! Living abroad is going to be a whole new experience for me.

After working like crazy, I am looking forward to enjoying my spring break this week in sunny Florida. I hope you all are enjoying your time off or your last couple days on COOP!

X

Catching Up

As the winter semester comes to a close this week, the opportunity for me to see my coworkers when I go home for spring break gets closer each day. I am very excited to see them and catch up on all of the details of their lives and our job that get pushed to the end of the list of necessary topics to cover when on the phone or in an email. I look forward to seeing them as soon as possible when I get home so that I can hear all about the recent Colour of London performances at SXSW and RedGorilla in Austin, TX. One of my coworkers and our Department head had the opportunity to attend these events and saw some amazing acts live while there, such as Aloe Blacc and Sam Smith. Seeing their pictures and videos on Instagram made me green with envy however I cannot wait to hear all about it in person. Who knows, maybe I'll be on the guest list for next year! 

It was great to hear about your co-op experiences, I hope you enjoy some time off before the semester begins, and I wish you the best of luck when the Spring semester starts!

The Real World

It still hasn’t really hit me that my co-op experience and my life in NYC are about to end in just one week. The past six months have been an exciting journey that has taught me so much about myself and what I want out of life. I have always been a motivated person who was always looking to keep busy and feel accomplished. With that being said I came to college wanting to graduate and live in the oh so glamorous “real world”. Before coming to New York I pictured a dream life that was a skewed version of the real world. In my “real” world I was a glamorous fashion intern living in a city full of trendy people and bright lights. I quickly learned that the 9-5 job isn’t actually 9-5 and it is not glamorous at all, in fact it is exhausting and going out night after night chasing all the lights isn’t as easy or intoxicating as I hoped. Being in New York has been an overwhelming, yet cool experience, which I am grateful I had before I graduated. My appreciation for this crazy little island has definitely changed and taught me not to be afraid to set out on my own and try new cities (I’m seeing LA in my future).  

I came to college wanting to work in fashion PR always telling myself I could never sit at a desk and have a “boring” job. Being on co-op has helped me learn that I do in fact want a more “boring” job and when I switched from PR to sales, I found myself feeling more accomplished and challenged. Throughout my internship with BCBGMAXAZRIA I have found that my favorite part about the industry is meeting new people and sharing my passion. There are parts in both PR and sales that I fell madly in love with, and now I know exactly what I want to do. I want to combine the schmoozing of PR with the “boring” deskwork of a sales assistant. I love planning and organizing, but I also love sitting in a meeting watching our discussions come to life. Without the co-op experience I would have graduated college searching for a job I would hate and an apartment in a city I don’t really love. Though I am sad to leave what feels like my new life, I cannot wait to get back to reality and back to class and enjoy my last year of college before setting foot into the real world.

Building Relationships

As this term has been coming to an end, my Independent Study experience teaching Visual Arts to 6th and 7th grade students in West Philly seems so surreal, my co-ordinator exclaims that she feels like she has finally been able to communicate with the students better. I am not only delighted that my co-ordinator has found a way to grab the student’s attention but also upset that I’m going to leave all the students soon. During class, every student was told to complete at least three flowers made from tissue paper or three skyscraper/buildings made from colored construction paper as props for the billboard. I believed that the day went pretty successfully because once some of the students had finished they requested to work on more while only a few of the 7th grade students decided not to participate.

Towards the end of the day, I learned that students in this particularly middle school display their affection towards one another in a way I have never seen or experienced before in my life. If a guy likes a girl or has a crush on her in the same class he would find a physical way to grab the girl’s attention. For example, a very shy 6th grade boy threw a pencil at a girl’s head just to get her attention. Multiple fights between middle school guys and girls have occurred and everyone in the vicinity will just laugh like it was not a big deal at all. I really hope that someday in the future they understand that starting fights with people is not the best way to show affection.

Old Faces in New Places

Since moving to New York, I have not been able to reconnect with my fellow colleagues from Drexel. As my work hours start to mellow down I have been trying to see my old friends as much as possible before they all head back to Philadelphia. Prior to coming to New York, my friends and I would share our excitement about finally moving into the city of our dreams. We would discuss all of the things we would do together, restaurants we would try, bars we would frequent, the list goes on and on. However, it really surprised us all how little time we have had since starting a full time job. Each of our lives have become so busy that meeting up is nearly impossible. Thankfully, these past two weeks have been dedicated to my old friends. Seeing them again reminds me of their importance in my life. As cheesy as that sounds, you realize how much someone means to you when they are gone for a period of time. Reconnecting makes me even more excited to head back to school. Although I will still be living in New York and commuting three days a week, having classes with my best friends again is going to be amazing!

I spent this beautiful day walking around the Upper East and West side with Ana, another Design and Merchandising student. It is incredible how much happiness 60 degrees brings to your day! We took advantage of the sunshine and lounged around Central Park, enjoying the lovely scenery. You realize how much peace nature brings when you have been sucked into city life.  This was surprisingly my first time hanging out in Central Park. It truly feels like an island away from the city, the perfect getaway. I am looking forward to taking advantage of Central Park more this spring. It is going to be my go to spot to do homework and clear my head.

I hope everyone else enjoyed their weekends and took advantage of this gorgeous day!

xx

Spring 2015

The company I work for just recently moved office buildings before I started my coop here about six months ago.  The new office building features many new amenities that the old one did not; including an insights room.  This insights room is totally CSI style (minus it being creepy and in a police station) with a conference room and a one way mirror.  In the room behind the mirror there is a video camera that is used to record meeting and mostly focus groups.  We used focus groups in order to gain customer feedback and a better understanding of what our customer likes to wear, see, and try.  I was super excited when I was asked to have a part in planning our next focus group, for the collection of Spring 2015.

I never took Jan's trend forecasting class so the concept was completely new to me. We discussed going the route of a more trendy look and think that it would be an interesting concept to discuss with our customer considering our target market is a woman age 45+.  The women will be asked to talk about the garments shown, they will see a series of clothing items with embellishments, zippers, leather, ect.  Unfortunately, I will be ending my internship here before this focus group takes place and will not get to watch it from behind the one way mirror, but I am excited knowing that I have in a small way helped to come up with garments that will be featured in the Spring 2015 line.  

Live in Austin

SXSW promo

This week Colour of London is performing at RedGorilla Music Fest and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The weather is great as is the music. This is an amazing showcase for them, I am so excited to see the repercussions unfold from these performances. SXSW is one of the biggest music showcases of the year, infamous for amazing mainstream and indie talent. It's an explosive scene filled with live music and good times. This year RedGorilla and SXSW happen to overlap, an even bigger incentive for music lovers and industry professionals to get to Austin, stat.

RedGorilla is a music fest purely based off showcasing upcoming and independent talent. They are looking for the next best thing to come along, they are looking for undiscovered artists. This event is perfect for Colour of London to play at not only for the exposure but to build connections with other up and coming bands and musical acts and also people who work for RedGorilla. Any leg up from someone who has their foot in the door could prove to be a great thing. The past couple months Colour of London have had great opportunities performing throughout the country at various venues and festivals and have been working hard to show off what they got. And Alex and Ani Entertainment has been working hard behind the scenes to ensure that everything runs smoothly in planning, preparations, PR, and promotion plans. 2014 has proven to be a great year for us, I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year will bring. In the words of Colour of London, "there's something about the thrill that makes me wanna take a ride."

RedGorilla schedule for 3/15

Worth it

An unintentional shrine to Miuccia; tying up some pretty packages

Sometimes, mostly on exceptionally trying days like the ones I had last week, I find myself wondering if this is all worth it. "This," of course, being the following: waking up at 5:15 in the morning and not being able to go to sleep any earlier than midnight; spending 12 hours a week on a bus; working in a clothing store all weekend instead of relaxing so that I can afford to commute three days week; staring at InDesign until 11 at night so that the Style section of the newspaper layout is done in time for our printer's deadline; fielding emails from writers for the magazine and trying to explain nicely how the editors have the final say in their captions or their titles; not hearing from my Hong Kong group members until the night before our assignment is due; realizing only 10 minutes before Multimedia: Space class that I don't have half of the materials I needed for this week's installation because I didn't have time to go to CVS; eating another giant bowl of quinoa or rolled oats and an apple for dinner because I didn't have time to go to the grocery store; declining another Friday night outing with friends because my bus doesn't get in until 8:30 at night. 

Then, some really spectacular moments occur, like one did on Tuesday. Last week marked the Fall/Winter 2014 Miu Miu show in Paris, and only days later we received some preliminary lookbooks in our office. These smaller, spiral books were bound in a soft pink textured cover, and while each look was numbered, there were no items names, product numbers or color codes. I was instructed by the press assistant to package a number of lookbooks in a very specific manner: first, I wrapped them in soft grey tissue paper. Then, I placed them in a tiny Miu Miu bag, and I tied the handles with two bows of custom Miu Miu ribbon. That's when I noticed the handwritten notes attached to each book. "Dear Anna...", "Dear Grace...", "Dear Virginia...". The press assistant passed me a larger bag and said to put three of the books in it, for the Vogue girls. I'm sure my eyes popped out of my head because he chuckled a little and told me to personally address three labels to three very important women in the Conde Nast building. I was tempted to slip in a fan-girl love note to Grace, confessing my adoration for her visionary talents as well as her British sass, but I managed to restrain myself. I knew that this was grunt work, but I still find myself getting starstruck by all of the influential people I'm surrounded by who before only existed in an unattainable, far away place called "the fashion industry."

Some days, I feel like PR really isn't for me, and it weighs on my conscience. I'm interested in more than just a name on my resume, I want a fulfilling experience. I realized last week, exhausted and on the verge of a minor meltdown, that I have too much on my plate. One person should know better than to do everything that I'm doing and expect to stay sane, or even expect to get a full night's sleep. But deep down inside, I know I would regret not working on all of the projects I'm involved in. If I don't make some sacrifices and give it my all, I'll never get where I want to be. Then, when I get to touch the same lookbook Grace Coddington may or may not also touch, it makes me realize I'm one step closer than I was yesterday to working in the offices at Vogue.

P.S. One of the other interns didn't even know who Anna Wintour was. Who is she and WHY is she here???

Patience is Key

Working with students for my Independent Study has been an eye-opening experience for me. I cannot express the gratitude and thanks for the patience and understanding of all of my teachers that have taught me. On Tuesday, I conveniently bumped into my coordinator on the bus. I gathered the materials from the art room and the supply closet once I arrived as usual. I asked one of the students to lay and glue the sneakers onto the yellow backdrop. I was amazed by how quickly he finished the task because he has always seemed very uninterested in art. He always appeared to be an introvert in class but he is unlike most other students his age because he was able to visually capture a mental image of the design in his head with simple instructions. A new 7th grade student came to class and he was assigned to work on the bicycle project where he drew incredible skylines for the backdrop. As we were working in the hallway for a change, two 6th grade students (a girl and a boy) got into a fight in the hallway which slightly terrified me.

I was asked to begin and the lead the class by myself on Thursday. I tried my best to split the 6th and 7th grade students to work on the projects. Unfortunately, most of the 7th graders were more interested in talking with one another than working on the project. The 6th graders felt like the project was incomplete because they wanted to add flowers for decoration. The term is coming to an end so I had to remind them that next week was our last week to finish the class. I assigned them each a task to complete next week so hopefully we will be more on track with the class.

Working with these students taught me how to work in a group setting. Sometimes unexpected things may pop up and hinder the process or sometimes there may be internal arguments within the group members but I learned that at the end of the day I just have to be patience and try my best to complete the task.

Moving

Moving has to be one of the most stressful, aggravating, but exciting things ever.  As many people do not know, I had been living in the Sheraton on 36th and Chestnut Street for the past six months in the anticipation of my new apartment being completed.  My apartment is a new construction that was promised to be completed by September 1, 2013; instead it was not done until March 1, 2014.  As annoyed as my roommate and I were about this situation, we still had a pretty awesome suite in the Sheraton, with free parking, conveniently located next to literally everything.  Although we had some pretty awesome things living there, like maid service, room service, and free utilities, we also discovered the hardships of living without a kitchen and our own spaces for six months.  One can only imagine how excited we were to move into our brand new two bedroom, two bathroom apartment last Saturday.

I absolutely adore my new apartment.  Although it is small, it is big enough for two people to live comfortably.  I have dedicated almost all of my free time to shopping for furniture and decorations ( thank goodness I have a paid coop).  Although, it has been really difficult for me to be on coop and move at the same time.  I had to move all of my things from the hotel to 31st and Hamilton Street after I get home around 6 pm.  After work I am so exhausted that the last thing I want to do is carry heavy things back and fourth, up and down stairs, to and from my car.  Now that my moving process is almost fully complete, I have been fully enjoying the amenities of my apartment, like the kitchen!  Homemade food has literally never tasted so good.  Words of advice to everyone, don't sign a lease for an apartment that hasn't been built yet! 

Take a Bite Out of The Big Apple

As my time in New York City is slowly dwindling down, I couldn’t wait to take advantage of my weekend off. I decided to look back at my bucket list of all the things I wanted to do before co-op was over. The one place I still never made it to was the MoMa, so this weekend I set my sights on going to 11 West 53^rd Street. I dragged my roommate out of bed and to the MoMa we went! There wasn’t one thing about the MoMa I didn’t love, everything from the views to the art to the building décor, I was in awe, and decided this is by far my favorite place to visit in the city. After spending so much time in the city I have come up with a list of my favorite places to go and things to do for future co-opies coming to the Big Apple.

Jacob's Pickels 

Best place to brunch: If you’re looking for a laid back and delicious brunch, Jacob’s Pickels is one of my favorite places. If you’re looking for a boozy brunch I would suggest Bagatelle or Beau, both super posh and delicious!

Best place for a romantic dinner: Revel is full of mouth watering food and a romantic atmosphere in the heart of trendy meatpacking. If you’re looking for a cozier and more low key spot, I would suggest Olio’s in the West Village, what could be more romantic than homemade Italian food and wine?!

Starry Night by Van Gogh on display at the MoMa

Best shopping: Soho, you can find everything from mainstream stores such as Zara and H&M to high-end boutiques such as Chanel and Balenciaga. Plus there are trendy and fabulous places to stop for lunch! And of course there are fabulous thrift shops in the East Village by St. Marks.

Best Nightlife: Meatpacking district, specifically any club or restaurant where Artichoke Pizza can be your final destination of the night!

Best museums: The MoMa, obviously!

Scrubbin' It

As a college student with a measly paycheck, I am always looking at how and where I can save a dollar or two. I am highly enthusiastic when I can get something for free and oftentimes my friends make fun of me for how excited or determined I can be to do so. My roommate's sister was recently over and was telling me how she makes her own body scrubs, washes, and lotions from all-natural ingredients and I immediately became interested. As a vegetarian who is eco-conscious I consistently try to buy organic when I can afford to do so as I know the future of my health depends on my diet which ultimately is my own choice. It is important for me to buy products with the least and most natural ingredients as possible. I love watching documentaries to learn more about how I can live better by what I choose to put in and outside of my body. It inspires and motivates me in particularly to stay vegetarian and be conscious of not only what I am eating but how it is packaged, how that affects the product inside it, and how that ultimately can affect my own body and the environment. 

One of our assignments for Visual Merchandising was to create product for the D&M Valentine's Day shop. Inspired by my roommate's sister's scrubs and short on cash, I decided to make my own scrubs for the shop. Combining recipes online and tips from my friends, I gathered ingredients from my own kitchen and got crafty. I only had to buy a couple ingredients which totaled around $10. I made a couple different scrubs from varying recipes and they were a hit. I tried them out for myself and instantly fell in love. The smell is all-natural because the ingredients are authentic and pure. No chemicals, no dyes, no problems. Included is a recipe for my favorite scrub that I came up with. The scrubs are great because the oils moisturize and the sugar exfoliates, it is a 2 in 1 delicacy. I highly recommend to take some time out of your day and ingredients out of your cabinet and try these all-natural scrubs for yourself! I store mine in small mason jars and use them about twice a week and my skin feels great.

Try a small batch with the recipe below, and feel free to swap a different oil or use sea salt instead of sugar. I usually triple the recipe for a regular amount (8 oz. mason jar).

2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon tea tree oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Never Stop Learning

It is starting to really sink in that I only have two weeks left at Marc Jacobs. I have learned more than I could ever imagine and gained useful skills that I will carry over into my future jobs. Although I have just a few weeks left, I am still given new tasks and responsibilities. This has made work a continuous challenge and joy. There is always something new to learn and a new task to accomplish.

Specifically, I am now responsible for airbrushing all of the fabrics per style/look. This is a huge responsibility, so I am honored that I was trusted to take on this project. At first I was very uneasy about it, but in time I have learned to really love it. When it comes to this job, I have to be EXTREMELY precise and careful. When fabric needs to be airbrushed, my boss will hand me all of the patterns with appropriate fabric, and of course the cutters must. From here I am able to look through the patterns, and find the fabric pieces I need to airbrush. Certain spots on the fabric need to be airbrushed, and each fabric color has a different airbrush color. In order to find what color I need to airbrush, I refer to the combo book. A combo book is filled with every possible color combinations for a style. Once I am certain what the combo color is, I mix the paint to match it. It has to be a perfect match; otherwise the completed garment will be different than the others.

As you can see from the pictures above, I have to use the airbrush gun to create an ombre on the garment. For the organza fabric, it is much easier to create an ombre effect. However with the wool fabric, every little mistake shows up. Thankfully with some scraps of fabric I was able to practice and build up my confidence. However, no matter how often I airbrush a garment it is still a nail-biting experience. Regardless, I love a challenge and new project. I am happy that I was able to take on this new project even though I will be leaving in a few weeks. My boss gave me a valuable piece of advice last night, and I could not agree more with her. She told me to always challenge myself, and to never stop learning. I have learned from this experience and my mentors to never doubt my abilities and myself. Even though something seems intimidating, stepping outside of my comfort zone has taught me so much about myself. Overall, I am eager to explore the future ahead and to continue challenging myself.