296. Fashion apprentice

Now a fully fledged buying assistant I'm now also part of the social committee. This means I help plan any parties that may occur in the social calender. When it's Christmas, we need to party, when it's summer, we need to party, whenever there is an occasion we need to party. One of the many motto's as House of Fraser is "own the extra mile" and I'll tell ya now the team of seven that make up the social committee team have done exactly that.

The social committee team!

So myself and six others for the last month have been planning the long awaited staff party for womens wear and beauty. Located at 1 Leicester Square in the penthouse, we decorated the spacious white venue with bunting, glasses of sweets and disposable cameras. I got my friends band to play for the evening, ridiculously talented they strummed an array of jazz, soul and funk. We also organised food, which we previously did food tasting for and it was amazing!

 Oh yes, we had photography in the form of disposable cameras. And sweets for table treats.

All a bit nervous, bloggers love had an event down stairs and kindly did our hair for us before our colleagues started arriving. They spruced up the volume of our hair with their So...? fragrance's new range of dry shampoo which smells pretty great. All ready and raring to go. Our visitors trickled in with a glass of bubbly in hand.

Black is a dominant colour amongst buyers apparently.

A great photo of the jazz band.

Venue decorated with bunting!

The band were playing hit the road jack in the back ground whilst people were on the balcony with an astounding view of London. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, we even did a complimentary raffle which was pretty fun and got everyone buzzing. Delicious bangers and mash started to make an appearance, along with the other dishes we picked out such as pizza, asparagus risotto and chicken pasta. It went down pretty bloody well. After the band played their sets, the lights were dimmed and the DJ came on. Cheesy classics obviously blasted from the speakers such as Lady Marmalade and Shakira. With a female dominated party the odd man felt a bit out of place but it was quite funny. There was some serious booty shaking dance offs happening and I'm pretty sure everyone had a bit of sweat on their brow. There were a good few sore heads the next following day that's for sure.

Fashion Apprentice - The stress of it.

I've been at Hof for a while now, coming up 5 months ish. Since I've started I've learnt an incredible amount not only about buying but merchandising too as these two go hand in hand. Over Christmas I was left to half run Pied a Terre by myself, this alone was a challenge, slightly daunting but exciting at the same time. As much of a responsibility this was I was going to learn a lot in a short amount of time, I'm a relatively chilled person and never let things get on top of me and this is what I had to maintain over the course of the time. 

For two weeks, I had to speak to suppliers, chase cut dates, sample dates, discuss fabrics and lab dips with the designer and get things approved by other buyers and executives etc. A little intimidating at first but once in the swing of things I felt comfortable, it helps that everyone is really helpful and friendly in the work place. So my two weeks were up, running the brand I managed to complete everything that needed to be done and kept things organised, I proved to myself that I have potential and that I could actually do it.

Since then I've still been working on three brands, which is a lot to juggle, admittedly this is a great test for myself which I hope I can stay on top of. It's difficult, only because I have to know all the collections and keep up to date of each stage and changes the garments go through. It's a good insight learning about three brands which are all so different. 

Lastly i've been given the task of producing a 3 minute presentation to the executives ( I think) in the buyers meeting to explain the two main competitors to my brand (Pied a Terre). The BA is leaving on Pied a Terre so I've been thrown into the deep end and have to do it. I'll let you know how things go...

Aurevoir.

Sannita. x