Week 3: Valentine's Day Preview

This week was a very busy one because it was the Valentine's Day Preview event at Bollare. Editors came to the office to look at samples of the new Valentine's Day collections. The Valentine's Day collection included lingerie from different brands and silk pajamas. There was coffee and pastries for everyone to enjoy. It was an amazing experience because I was able to meet all of editors and learn about what they do and where they work. I helped decorate for the event and made small bouquets of roses to give to the editors on their way out. I really enjoyed the event and definitely learned a lot about event planning. This was only a small event, but I was told that there will be a bigger and longer event for the Spring collection, which I am very excited about!

Week 3 @ Freedom Rains

This week I was greeted to the ever delightful question "Have you ever had Chick-Fil-A? It's amazing."And, to answer that question, I have had the unfortunate pleasure of eating at Chick-Fil-A. For my coworkers who have never had it though, they just opened up New York's first ever Chick-Fil-A in Herald Square, luckily for them. While the raving of the fast food chain continued, the design team had work to do - or at least what was left of our already small team. This week, two of our designers and a few members from sales took a trip around Europe to curate inspiration pieces for the upcoming Fall line. This left our office feeling very quiet, but the break in the action gave myself and our technical designer a lot of time to get work done. We started the week off with a fitting, which I was very grateful to be included in. A fit model came in to try on samples of leather jackets we are working on for a private label project. I've never worked with a fit model before, so it was interesting to hear the amount of feed back she gave us throughout the fitting. She definitely gave us the view point of the real woman who would be wearing the jackets, which is important for a designer to not lose sight of when working with ready-to-wear pieces.

This week I got to go out to some leather wholesalers to source a mint green leather for another private label project. This one place that I went to, Global Leathers, was completely closed off from the public, which made me feel a little special walking in. While they had almost every kind of leather imaginable, even crazy things like exotic amazon fish leathers, they didn't have many options in the mint green family. I basically had to take swatches of what I could find, but it was still a really cool to walk around their store and see everything. Back at the office, I have also been working on different variations of floral prints via Adobe Illustrator that will be stitched into a wool fabric. I was honored that the designers delegated this me as this was the first time I really got to use my creative skills since starting co-op. Although I'm still tweaking the print, I really hope that the fabric gets put into production!

week 3

Week 3 has been a lot of hands on work. This week has definitely been the most running back and forth from the UPS store. Since I do not have a car, it was a lot more difficult to carry packages that were received and sent out. I was practically in and out of the UPS store that I already made new friends. Other than that it was a fun type of challenge to be in charge of all the inventory. I was responsible for taking in repairs and sending them off to get repaired. Then once the repairs were repaired, I had to take in the repairs and send them back to the customer. My boss often relied on me to make sure all the jewelry was kept in inventory or sent back to the customer. This was a lot of pressure but I successfully did all the tasks she asked me to do. I definitely had a lot more tasks to do but I'm glad it kept me busy. This makes me  even more excited about the next challenges I might meet next week.

Week 3 @ Nicole Miller

My third week on co-op has been another busy one. On Monday October 6th, my boss didn't make me come into work because of the social media threats and told me to just stay safe. Those threats really freaked me, and several of my friends out, especially because the threat said it would be on a Philly campus but didn't specify where. Tuesday I had to catch up on my work and of course the computer wasn't working for half of the day. Luckily, my boss is really understanding and because she wasn't in on Tuesday she told me that I don't have to worry and it's not the end of the world if I don't finish my work until the next time I'm in. Thursday the old wholesale intern will be helping me out and she is going to come in once a week, since I barely got trained in the beginning. Everyone is really helpful where I work and I'm so appreciative that people are so understanding.
So far, I've learned how to fill out RA's, which are forms that you get approved if a client wants to return or swap an item that is damaged or not selling well. I've also learned how to use this system called AS400, which is used for almost everything (orders, open orders, RA forms, etc.) and I'm finally getting the hang of it!
There are a lot of Nicole Miller events coming up in the next few months and hopefully I will have the time to help volunteer and possibly see some of you there!

#ABPRHOLIDAY

My second week at ABPR was amazing. I spent the first couple of days doing mailings to editors like I typically do, but I also helped other interns with photoshop advice for press releases and for our annual ABPR Holiday event where we showcase everything for the holiday seasons that our clients have to offer. Although I am typically on the beauty team, the great thing about this job is I can still help out with any other team, as well. So for the event I helped the lifestyle team. The products I was showing to our guests were Illy coffee and coffee makers, Avion Tequila Espresso flavor, and Yoko Ono’s designs for Illy tea cups. It was a room filled with so many people I got to make connections with. I even got to get my hair braided in the salon thanks to Kerastase, something I never imagined would be happening when I walked into work that morning. There was also puppies up for adoption which of course was extremely hard to resist…

So far my time here has been incredible, and while it was busy for the event and a lot of hard work, I enjoyed myself. Next week I’m doing even more with photoshop which I’m really looking forward to. Can’t wait.

Week 2 @ Freedom Rains

This past week was definitely a busy one! The design team is getting ready to start planning the Fall '16 for the ZAC Zac Posen outerwear line. I actually got to attend to the creative meeting with the Zac Posen design team where we discussed our vision for the upcoming Fall line. Last week, we sent out fabric choices to be approved by the Ready to Wear design team and now that we have received their comments we can proceed to put together a color palette. I worked with the lead designer to pick out Pantone swatches and find swatches of other fabrics in colors we like. Then, we send out our color and fabric choices to our manufactures for lab dips, which will show us what our fabrics will look like in our new color palette - this way we can make adjustments as needed. Simultaneously, we've also been preparing our Spring '16 coats for production. I had to make up and send out quality cards to all of our factories. These cards include swatches and samples of all the fabrics, colors, trim details, zippers, etc and act sort of like an insurance policy in case any of the orders get messed up. This week, I also got to accompany the lead designer in meetings with our tanneries and leather retailers. They basically come into our showroom with all of these giant suitcases that are filled with leather skins in almost any color and texture you can imagine. Of course, we then take swatches of qualities we think we can use for either the ZAC label or any of our private label projects, but it's still fun to look at all of the different leathers.

Outside of work, I also ventured up to Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History, which is the museum the movie Night At the Museum is based off of. I had a lot of fun and definitely recommend checking it out! It's fairly easy to get to from Manhattan, via the metro, and you only have to give a small donation for general admission.

Co op Week Two!

It is my second week of co op and I am starting to get a lot closer to the girls at Bollare. This week, we all worked together to organize the showroom and switch out the clothes and accessories for the new season. The events team is currently planning a big event for Valentines Day. We will be picking out refreshments and desserts. I was also able to help the events team look for decorations for the event. We will be ordering new samples with pink and red color schemes for Valentine's Day. Editors will be coming to Bollare for the event, which will definitely allow me to learn a lot. I am really looking forward to helping set up for the event and also attending it this February. One of my favorite things about working at Bollare is the atmosphere. There is never a dull moment because there is music and everyone is always busy working and moving around the office. The other interns and I are able to learn a lot about what each team does, which is really important to me.

I am really enjoying working on Fifth Ave near the Flatiron building. It is really cool because I am able to meet up wtih friends after work for dinner. I am also able to go shopping and exploring new places in the Flatiron District. Working in New York is an amazing experience and I am excited to find new places and try new things!