[Day Six]
Back to London I go after a relaxed but productive weekend...can relaxed and productive be used together? It is a nice journey but dragging around a huge, heavy suitcase is rather irritating. So I am on the tube from Kings Cross to Oxford Circus and a guy gets off at Warren street and decides to full on punch me in the face! Totally embarrassing and everyone around me seemed a little shocked, I hope this isn't a bad omen to start off the week. So as soon as I get to the showroom, one of the first jobs we do is go through the weekend newspapers and supplements (magazines) to see if we are included. It is really interesting to see if we make it in them but also a really proud moment when we do. The biggest job I had today was to steam the showroom. It is such a beautiful space full of clothes and accessories, it only makes sense to make sure it is kept in a beautiful state and that would include steaming the clothes to display them at a high standard. Weirdly it is very therapeutic, other than the wrinkly fingers and the occasional burns it is quite a satisfying task!
[Day Seven]
Today I spent the whole day labelling up the Studio AW 2016 collection and it was a mighty task! It doesn't sound like it should be a very big task but it was. The collection is extremely beautiful, if you have seen the Paris catwalk show then you will understand where I am coming from. So first I had to see what was being pushed forward in the collection because it is crazy how much is actually cancelled and won't be in the stores. I then I had to input every product into the system and individually label them all, this includes clothing, shoes and accessories...in all ladies, mens and kids. I told you it was a whole day thing! Once I had inputted and labelled it, it then had to be ticked off a sheet to say I had done it. Finally it had to be organised and placed on a high rail so it would be easy and ready to put out. Even though it was majorly time consuming, it was really nice to get my head down and focus on such a huge thing.
[Day Eight]
I love it when I get to go on a store run, you get to meet the team in that store and they get to know who you are. This store run was a little bit challenging for me, mainly because it brought me back to thinking whether the things I were choosing were suitable and were the "right" things. (Quoting the word "right" because after this day I believe everyone's "right" is unique and different). In the showroom we have quite a lot of womenswear because that gets requested the most, so today it was time to go out and improve the menswear selection. Usually on store runs I get a picture of what has been requested or sometimes I get a detailed description, today I got told to go get some menswear that was "Strong". Strong...this could literally interpret into anything. Luckily I knew that strong menswear meant getting some products that would be popular and get a lot of requests, but the only thing that was running through my mind was "how do I know if I am choosing the right thing? Would it be strong enough? Is their strong different to my strong?". After arguing with myself about what to get, I finally got a grip and chose a variety of different things. I went back to the showroom and inputted them all into the system because we didn't have any of the items I chose already in the showroom which made me feel happy and slightly relieved. Today I learnt that I should stop doubting myself so often. Everyone has their own opinion on things, there is no such thing as a "right" strong, my mind was just trying to be awkward and get me into a nervous state. I love the products I chose and I know that magazines will love them too.
[Day Nine]
So I got shown something new today. Not only do we go through magazines and newspaper on Mondays to check coverage and mentions but we also get coverage sent through by email which we save to a folder on the system. My job was to input all this coverage into a programme we use. There was loads and it was so interesting! Every page in a magazine or every website we were featured on got saved into this folder. Massive proud moment seeing our amazing products in all this coverage. It was nice to be shown something new that broke up my routine a bit. I also went out for dinner today with Liz who works at the support office. She has been organising my whole New York trip and it was so nice to catch up with her. She gave me a little gift, The Little Black Book of New York. It is true that she smallest of things can put a smile on your face, Liz had previously brought this for her trips to New York and it was a lovely thing for her to pass it on to me. Now I feel even more prepared for New York.
[Day Ten]
So it is the end of week two which means only one more week left of my internship at the press office. It is true what they say, Time flies when you are having fun. I also get to spend this weekend in London and Phil will be arriving tonight! Friday is a pretty relaxed day. I sent out products to magazines, sorted out all the returns, finished off the coverage input, went on a couple of little store runs. It is weird because at the start of this I would complete a task and then ask what needed to be done next. Now I have become familiar with everything and find myself doing one task and then going onto another and another and another without having to ask what is next. There is always something to do! Constant improvement hey ;)
Until next week, Peace out!
