Interning in New York

Interning in New York Blog

Day One

Coming out of the subway, I walked the wrong way which was about right for me. Great start to the day. I found 24th Street which was between 9th and 10th Avenue and I walked down the road so slowly that I was being taken over by some old women. I was so nervous that I just didn’t want number 451 to come. I knocked on the door and Chelsea(Tia’s assistant) invited me in. I couldn’t believe my eyes walking into this incredible 5 story apartment; mannequins, fabric boards and clothing rails EVERYWHERE – perfect apartment for a fashion designer. I had a tour around the place and I then met Tia, Olivia and Kim who were all lovely and very welcoming.

I got given my desk and then Chelsea gave me my first task of the day – a stock take of the Kids S/S collection. I went down to the basement with Kim and we went through all of the different garments from skirts to jackets to dresses and tallied down how many were left of each size. The clothes were beautiful – it made me want to be size 3/4 again! This took us until 11am. Our next task was care labelling – a long draining task for sure. We had to make and print 987 care labels for the Kids Fall 16 Collection with a half broken printer, as you can imagine this took a lot of patience!! After a long 7 hours of labelling, we finished at exactly 6 on the dot.

I really enjoyed my first day at work and being able to work with lovely people. I’m excited for what’s to come tomorrow.

Day Two

The heat today was unbearable. From waking up to arriving at work I must have shed 10 pounds.

I spent the morning working with Kim and Rendy. Our first project was bringing all of the Pre Fall and Fall Winter 15 Collections upstairs and organising them onto the rails. I really enjoyed this because I fell in love with these collections and the colour schemes that had been used, maybe this will be my inspiration for my Uni Projects next year! We then had to organise the Resort and Spring/Summer 15 Collections onto the rails in code order.

After an interesting lunch with the girls talking about all sorts of weird things, my next task was fiddling around with different pieces of rope, cotton and beads to try and make accessories such as jewellery and head pieces. Finally I had to finish some of the accessories labelling from yesterday. Me and Olivia were getting more and more stressed with the printer still broke so Tia made us Margaritas!!!! Perfect finish to a stressful day.

After work had finished, I strutted down the road to the subway feeling like a proper New Yorker thinking – this is the life.

Day Three

I arrived at work a lot earlier than expected so I decided to take a stroll around the streets of Chelsea. I wanted to find a nice cafe to get a cup of tea, but somehow I ended up in a shabby, old cafeteria type place with the most miserable American staff ever - cheer up its Friday!!

First task of the day was labelling and packaging up some Kids S/S 16 samples along with the care labels we’d printed. Olivia then gave me the task of delivering 2 cheques to 2 different offices in the garment district. This sounds a lot easier than it actually was! I decided that I’d walk rather than take the subway because it was a nice, hot day but little did I know that each block I walked felt as if I was jogging a mile in the Sahara Desert. I arrived at the first office, took the elevator to floor 15 to find that the office had been moved to another address and after walking a good half an hour to get there you can only imagine how I felt. I walked 15 minutes to the new office and found that nobody was in!!! I got back to the office with Olivia and Chelsea very apologetic of my stressful drop off so they let me take an hour to cool down from the 30 degree heat and relax. My final task was starting some new description labels of the Kids collections and then I could go home.

Great first week but so ready for the weekend with my sister who’s coming to New York for 5 nights!

Day Three

Great first week but so ready for the weekend with my sister who’s coming to New York for 5 nights!

Day Four

Being woken up by a loud, overexcited mum on FaceTime at 7am was way too much to handle for a Tuesday morning. I arrived at work and Olivia asked me to run to the garment district to buy some fabric. When I got back to work I was on the labels again.

It all got better though when Olivia called a bit of a team meeting with me Tia and Kim. We spoke about the S/S 16 ideas for accessories and then me and Kim had a good go at making what we could. It was a fun afternoon! My final task – Chelsea asked me to run to a little boutique store in the meat packing district to pick up a cheque. Of course it decided to absolutely pee it down whilst I was walking there and back. Chelsea opened the door to me and fell to the floor laughing at my ‘drowned rat’ look!

I met Courtney for dinner in Chinatown and oh my – most incredible Chinese we’ve ever eaten! We got back to my apartment block and decided to explore the rooftop. Great views and a perfect night.

Day Five

This mornings first task was redoing the Kids S/S 15 stock take because there was a mistake in the last stock take. A huge package then arrived from China of the Pre Fall 15 Collection and the Muslins. This was very exciting, the first view on Tia’s next collection. I hung everything up and briefly steamed the garments. We then did a quick fitting using Chelsea. The collection was absolutely beautiful, all the fabrics were black and gold but Tia wasn’t so impressed with it.

Tia made us lunch which was AMAZING – pirate chicken and rice. We all sat around the kitchen table and laughed about how things are said in America compared to England.

Finally – accessories again. I made a headband which took me 4 hours and unfortunately, Tia told me it was ‘too conventional’. I took this on board and altered it and Tia was finally impressed! Phew.

I walked down McKibbin Street back to my apartment – absolute bangers blasting out from the rooftops. I love

Brooklyn.

Day Six/Seven/Eight

I have spent the past few days at work finalising the headband that Tia had told me IS GOING TO BE IN HER COLLECTION!!!! MY HEADBAND! I cannot wait to see these on her website next year (Spring/Summer 16). The accessories colour theme for SS16 is Red, Yellow and Blue so I made 3 of the headbands all using these colours. Having such a nice time at work with the girls.

I got home from work tonight with the most gorgeous sunset I have ever seen, with dad describing it as ‘Manhattan on fire’. So I went up to the rooftop to pretend I was a photographer and just relax.

Day Nine

I got to work and was straight on accessories again. I finished my 3 headbands so now Tia wanted me to do the same style from the headband but instead in a hair clip in the 3 different colours. It was incredibly fiddly and time consuming being so tiny and delicate which made my eyes hurt so I was over the moon when Olivia sent me to pick up some pleated fabric from the garment district.

‘Take an IKEA bag to throw in all the fabric’ she said, expecting there to be a few meters. I walked there because I fancied some fresh air and some warmth because the AC is SO COLD in Tia’s house!! I arrived at the building and took the elevator to the 4th floor. I walked in and George said there’s no way I could carry all the fabric back. He brought it all out and there were 7 Rolls, I repeat 7 Rolls of 2meter wide fabric. I do love a good challenge so I decided it would be fun. Off I went with the rolls of fabric twice the size of me thrown over my shoulder. I got to 34th street asking myself, am I there yet. No Molly, another 10 blocks. I made it back to Tia’s and the first words that came out of Olivias mouth were ‘Oh. My. God’ in her hilarious American accent. We all had a laugh about it and I carried on with the hair clips.

I’d like to make an apology to all the New Yorkers on 9th Ave today who I knocked out with my rolls of fabric!!!!

Day Ten/Eleven

Thursday and Friday were just the usual days, not loads to tell!

Thursday – started up on accessories, again. We had a lot to get through because all of the accessories were being taken to Paris with Tia and Chelsea next week for the show. I started on some other styles of accessories and altogether, they were looking amazing. Me and Olivia went out to grab some lunch so Olivia decided to take me to a proper American Diner which had a gazillion types of sauces you could choose to have with your meal. Amazing. We both got a crispy chicken sandwich but by all means this was not a sandwich. More like a whopping chicken burger that could fill 2 males. I don’t think we even managed half of it so we decided that next time we’d get one to share. Again, I carried on with accessories for the rest of the day.

Friday – accessories again!!!! Fortunately everyone was in a good mood because it was Friday so we all had a funny day and enjoyed ourselves. We got the majority of the accessories done and ready for Paris. I also got to see the rest of Tia’s house in the afternoon and oh my god I’ve never seen anything like it. The whole 1st floor is Tia’s bedroom/ensuite/walk in wardrobe. The things I’d do to live here!

Nipped to SoHo after work, I absolutely loved it. It was so nice because it wasn’t jam packed full of sweaty people like 5th Avenue and the majority of New York. It was very trendy and relaxed and I can’t wait to go back.

Day Twelve

Accessories!

Day Thirteen

I arrived at work and got straight on with accessories. Everything’s starting to come together and look amazing! So proud of what we’ve all got done! Chelsea asked me to nip out to pick up something for their trip to Paris tomorrow. I took the tube down to Fulton Street which you could tell was in the financial district because everyone looked rich and all suited and booted. I headed down Wall Street to find the building but it was taking me ages and I was lost so I called dad to look at the map and tell me where to go!!! I found it in the end but I thoroughly enjoyed my walk because it’s right by the river and the atmosphere is great. I went into the ginormous building and I got asked for my ID, they gave me a sticker and sent me up to the 27th floor. I went to suite 2700 and sorted everything out in the office that I had to sort.

When I got back to work I was doing the spreadsheets for the accessories. For this I had to fill in the materials used, how much had been used, the cost, a picture of the accessory and how to make each one. I finished work and 5 minutes later recieved an email telling me that I had 1 ticket to New York Mens Fashion Week!!!!! I was absolutely over the moon.

Day Fourteen

WHAT a day, some would say. So with it being the day that Tia and Chelsea took off to Paris, you can only imagine the stress levels that were reached in 451 24th Street. First up was a Photoshoot for the Kids SS16 collection that was needed for the lookbooks for Paris. Our model was Castine, Tias 3 year old daughter who may I say is absolutely adorable but very bossy!!! This made it difficult to get the shoot done, however Castine looked so cute in all of Tia’s outfits. For the shoot I had to steam every single piece which took a long time and burnt off pretty much all of my skin, can’t wait to be one big fat blister tomorrow. Next, Tia gave me a few unfinished outfits that China messed up and she wanted me to hand sew the hems etc. This had to be done perfectly, no pressure. Me, Olivia and Kim were all sat round the table working our butts off sewing, feeling like we were in a sweatshop in India whilst 7 month pregnant Tia was lying on her suitcases trying to get them shut. This was just mayhem. The car arrived to pick Tia and Chelsea up at 5pm but with none of us finished, they didn’t end up leaving for another 30-45 minutes. Me, Olivia and Kim cleared up and left work. On the way to the subway we nipped into 16 handles, a frozen yoghurt shop, where Olivia treated me and Kim after a hard days work. Lovely!!!

Day Fifteen

Today was fun and knowing that I had Friday off for 4th of July (thank you America) made it even better! It was just me, Olivia and Kim so quite a chilled day was on the cards.

The first task was clearing everything away from the massive stress of the past few weeks and getting the place organised again. This took a while but by the time we finished, everything was looking great. Next, we had a fitting. A fitting is where you look at sample garments to see what needs changing. I dressed the model in the outfits and measured certain parts as Olivia called out what the measurements should have been. I found this really interesting and great to see an insight into the SS16 collection.

Me and Kim went and picked up lunch for the 3 of us. Olivia and Kim fancied a ‘Boston Market’ so I just went with that. I got there and Kim started ordering the weirdest things for her and Olivia – mashed cinnamon sweet potato with melted marshmallow on top, what on earth. This place was just super weird, so I just ordered some chicken. We got back and Kim and Olivia were trying to force feed me this cinnamon sweet potato. Just to shut them up I tried it and I can honestly say even now, I still feel sick from it! Gross but hilarious, Americans are so funny.

After lunch, Olivia asked me to go to Elle Magazine to drop off an outfit. OMG, I was SO excited! I got the subway to 59th street and found the building. Wow, it was gorgeous! I went inside to reception and they said I had to go to the parcel drop off so unfortunately I couldn’t go up but it was still so exciting and the building was amazing! I got back to the office and Kim had left to go home so it was just me and Olivia. We had both been talking about and craving Cupcakes for the past week so Olivia sent me to get some. We both had cookies and cream - perfect. We had a quick Skype meeting with Tia about the fittings and changes we had made and off we went home for a long weekend!(which I have lots planned and I am very excited about!)

Day Sixteen

Today was chilled, ish. As soon as I arrived at work, Olivia had a problem. She had moved into a brand new apartment and therefore had no hot water and the plumber was coming to her house but she didn’t have a basement key for him. Therefore task 1 of the day was to go to her landlords to pick up the basement key. The landlords was as far away as possible, deep in Brooklyn in an Orthodox Jewish town. I got the train and got off at the wrong stop – 23 blocks away from where I was meant to be. So there I was trekking uphill in 31 degree heat miles and miles just to get a key, wearing stupid shoes and getting blisters. Great. Kippahs and huge long cloaks everywhere, I gathered I was in the town. Just looking at everyone was making me hot, how they cope in this heat with about 20 layers on I do not know. I went and got the key and back to work 4 hours after I left.

I got back and Olivia asked if I fancied an ‘IndiKitch’ for lunch. (Local Indian) this was weird for me because it was a takeaway and there’s never a takeaway in England that delivers at lunch. It was probably too hot to be having spicy curry but it was incredible.

After lunch I had to go to the basement and rearrange all of the bins of different collections, fabrics, patterns, lookbooks etc. By this time it was 5pm, Olivia asked me to do one more thing before leaving which was to go to DHL to take a package. This involved walking another 14 blocks with huge blisters. My feet are completely dead.

Day Seventeen

After a sleepless night being ill from sunstroke, I got up feeling pretty awful. I probably should have called in sick but I battled through anyway. I got to work and the first task was shifting a load of heavy boxes down to the basement (2 floors down), which wasn’t a great start with how I was feeling. When I got all of the boxes down the stairs, I then had to rearrange the whole basement again baring in mind the basement is about 3ft tall. I finished feeling just as ill but also with a very bad back, super. Tia and Chelsea then arrived back from Paris so we all sat and chilled whilst they both told us all about their trip. They got a lot of buyers for the accessories that we had made! Proud.

The next task was unpacking all of their cases full of the kids collection and accessories. Me, Olivia and Kim then had to go through every single garment to check that it wasn’t broken etc and that it was perfect before the orders were made. There were about 100+ garments and I’d say 90% of them had something wrong. Mainly that they didn’t have labels in, so the rest of our day was spent sewing labels into every single piece of clothing. The day felt quite long so I was very ready to go home and get some decent sleep.

Day Eighteen

I don’t have a lot to say about today! I felt much better in myself which was good. I got to work and I first had to finish all of the labels that had to be sewn onto the kids SS16 collection. Olivia then showed me how to do PO’s and Invoices which I then spent a while doing. After this I had to create a spreadsheet that had all of the information of the Kids SS16 collection on such as style number, colour, description, wholesale and retail price. I spent most of the day doing this because there was a lot to fill in. Before I left Tia asked me to go and construct one of the Boy Mannequins that was still in the box. I am certainly not the DIY kind of girl, I usually leave all that stuff up to dad. But I gave it a good go and … Still didn’t manage it. Guess I’ll leave that for tomorrow!!!

Day Nineteen

Thursday – I arrived at work and my first task was finishing the mannequin making that I failed the day before. I got the toolbox from the basement and messed around with everything for a while and sussed it FINALLY

after this, Olivia asked me to go and get one of the kids skirt patterns which she needed to make up to see if it was the correct pattern. I pinned the pattern pieces to the muslin fabric and cut them out. Olivia then made the skirt from these pieces. After lunch, we found out the worst news ever. All the accessories that we had made over the past 3 weeks and finally finished the week before – Tia wanted us to make another of every single accessory in every single colour way just in case they were to get lost. The look on our faces was a picture. Due to this, I had to head out to buy a load of materials that we use to make these such as wax rope, headbands, beads, fastenings etc.

Friday – I got to work and got straight onto accessories. I was getting a lot done quickly because I could copy the originals. By half 1 I decided to take lunch which Olivia said I could have a bit longer because I was meeting my oldest friend Clo who had come to New York for the day from Boston. I got the tube to 5th avenue and after calling her a million times to ask where she was I finally found her! I only had just over an hour but I took her down fifth avenue so she could go in all the shops she wanted like Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. I then walked her to Central Park to meet her friends and I went back to work! Back at work I just carried on with accessories. Overall a good day!

Day off - NYFWM

We headed to Greenwich village because I had the Duckie Brown NY Men’s Fashion Week show at 2pm. Wearing 5 inch stilettos and a rain mac, I limped from the subway sweating and wishing I had dressed more appropriately. The show was amazing, the collection was amazing and the experience was amazing. His collection consisted of sheer, organza shirts with different styles of trousers tied with large bows. It all worked perfectly together.