Since working at House of Fraser I've moved round several departments and for my final three months I was due my unpredicted fourth move; this time moving over to the branded side. After enjoying my time on the product development side, I was truly sad to leave my team behind.
It's been a bit crazy really, lots of changes have been happening and I guess that's something you have to learn when working for a big old company. I've been learning a ridiculous amount and have grown more confident within the company, I've done everything from helping organise events at the company, speaking during trade meetings and asserting myself to suppliers. It was all very daunting but I just threw myself into it and I think that's the best way for me to learn, diving into the deep end.
But more onto the interesting stuff I had to help organise the Christmas party and man was it fun! The theme was "Great Gatsby" like every other work do. Located at an old speak easy club we had a Leonardo DiCaprio cardboard cut out which didn't totally make it til the end. It was quite a messy night and I'm pretty glad that I wasn't in work the next day.
That night my old buyer wangled a meeting with the Executive Director to showcase our SS14 collection and to try and give me some face time with the big man. Try and get myself noticed which is a pretty amazing thing as it's rare for big companies to get time with the director and all the managers. So this was my "time to shine", did I have a clue what I was doing? No. I was told to "just be yourself". A little scary to say the least as I wanted to make sure I made a good impression.
On the day I racked everything up, made the meeting room look beautiful and presentable with all the garments in order by drop and price. I also set up the mood boards and mannequins to emphasise and showcase the collection. As this was my first time presenting I only discussed one drop, pointing out the key selling points such as price points, margins, trend and style. I was focusing on not looking at my notebook and to speak naturally without speaking too fast or show that I was nervous, I think it went accordingly. My buyer proceeded to speak about the other drops and discussion would come up about any queries he had. Surprisingly he turned to me about trends, asking for my opinion to whether or not we should do a style in a certain colour. I obviously gave my honest opinion and disagreed with some of his suggestions and I hope he respected that. It was nice to know he wanted to know my opinion, coming away from the meeting I felt a little relieved but real happy to that I took the step and delved into my opportunity head strong.
Happy New Year folks.
Sannita. x
That night my old buyer wangled a meeting with the Executive Director to showcase our SS14 collection and to try and give me some face time with the big man. Try and get myself noticed which is a pretty amazing thing as it's rare for big companies to get time with the director and all the managers. So this was my "time to shine", did I have a clue what I was doing? No. I was told to "just be yourself". A little scary to say the least as I wanted to make sure I made a good impression.
On the day I racked everything up, made the meeting room look beautiful and presentable with all the garments in order by drop and price. I also set up the mood boards and mannequins to emphasise and showcase the collection. As this was my first time presenting I only discussed one drop, pointing out the key selling points such as price points, margins, trend and style. I was focusing on not looking at my notebook and to speak naturally without speaking too fast or show that I was nervous, I think it went accordingly. My buyer proceeded to speak about the other drops and discussion would come up about any queries he had. Surprisingly he turned to me about trends, asking for my opinion to whether or not we should do a style in a certain colour. I obviously gave my honest opinion and disagreed with some of his suggestions and I hope he respected that. It was nice to know he wanted to know my opinion, coming away from the meeting I felt a little relieved but real happy to that I took the step and delved into my opportunity head strong.
Happy New Year folks.
Sannita. x
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