260. Career update

A critical change.

I haven't written about my time at house of Fraser in a while simply because not much had happened until recently.

So as you may know you have reviews known as cpd. Continuous personal development, and I had mine. It went well and I learnt that I had objectives to focus on to ensure I was getting the most out of my experience and also proving that I'm a good employee. I also set myself goals, I always hated these type of things because they were never followed through at school.

However since my last cpd I had completed my goals and it did prove helpful.

This time round it was obvious I was struggling working on three brands and keeping on top of 6 collections can be quite tricky if you only work 1 day a week on each brand.

So after further discussion I was told I would be leaving Untold and focusing on my two initial brands Pied a Terre and Mary Portas. This was absolute music to my ears and in all honestly I was thrilled, it meant that I could focus on the collections better and get a lot more involved. That was last week.

I returned today to more news after an intense week, part good part bad.

This was that I would be getting a more full on role as a buying assistant but I would be leaving my two teams behind and returning to Untold full time. Initially I was pretty upset as I had a pretty intense week and these two teams had initially introduced me to everything I know and they were also my good friends. Also the fact that I absolutely adored the brands that I worked on.

Bearing that in mind I tried to focus on the positives after being told lots of different things and actually I would gain so much more experience by working directly for a buyer and in a way taking on a full role of a ba would be beneficial yet daunting.

As today was my last day with the brand they completely spoilt me and bought a bunch of yummy goodies. Doritos and dip, they know me too well as crisp girl and plenty of chocolates treats too. They even gave me a mini send off with lots of gorgeous samples! It was as if I was leaving forever (I'm only moving a few desks away), it was so sweet and I'll truly miss working with them.

However onwards and upwards! As I say everything happens for a reason.

 Peace.

Sannita. X

Fashion Apprentice - I won an Oscar!

Recently it's been quite crazy, harrassing suppliers for samples, moving everything everywhere and keeping on track of everything. Every Monday at work we have a cascade where the whole floor comes together and the director reflects on our sales and we give feed back on any store visits we went to. As well as that there are two awards (fake oscar award look-a-like statues) to acknowledge the hard work that people have done. And this week one went to me for being the only one continously have 100% reviewd products for my brands! Pretty chuffed man! 

Intern for Ralph Pink

So since finishing at Browns I had a two week break after working over a month solidly. Killer but definitely worth it, I felt kind of bored after my 3rd day off so giving myself two weeks off was driving me a bit crazy. I'm back with Ralph which is so nice as I like to think of him as a good friend of mine so its pretty casual and a really nice environment to work in, plus he makes amazing food! I'm working on the same dress I was working on before which is a floor length dress made entirely out of buttons. However it's slightly more complicated than one would think as I have to evenly fade the button colours into one another. There shall be pictures once completed and when Ralph allows me to!

I also recently recieved an e-mail from Browns asking me when I was next available to do another internship with them! I was ridiculously happy and pretty pleased with myself. So i'm returning to work for them in February and this time I shall be working in the studio, I wonder what this will entail?

Check out Ralphs website and what he's being doing, its all very snazzy. He's also setting up his own website/business, with a potential job for me if all goes well. I'm sure i'll keep you updated, its all very exciting!

www.ralphpink.com/

WELCOME BACK & A FRESH NEW START from ralph pink on Vimeo.

Intern at Browns - The end of the beginning

So my duration at Browns came to an end on Friday. I have had such a good time working with them, the bridal team were so much fun and such down to earth people. It was quite the experience as I worked really closely with the owner of Browns, Caroline Burstein herself. You wouldn't expect the owner of such a prestigious fashion company to remember your name as an intern or even teach you the ways of the company, however she did and it was really nice.

Spending my days in the beautiful Browns Bride store I did things you'd expect an intern to do such as book appointments, take wedding dresses from one place to another, make dresses look presentable on the rails, serve drinks to customers and all sorts.

It was interesting to see how Browns had made such a name of themselves, as Caroline told me as I was making tea for some clients 'we want to show everyone we are the best' and that is what many of the brides to be agreed with. When I was booking appointments I'd get brides begging for appointments however due to popularity we were fully booked. Even when I said we were full we'd get them ringing out bell visiting the store to try their luck. When I left on Friday we were booked up on Saturdays until mid January which was pretty insane and most days during the week were fully booked which showed the extent of Browns Brides popularity.

However not everyday was the same, we had trunk shows on some of our days. This is where one of the designers we stock comes into our store and sets up their next collection exclusively for us. Meeting the designers was really interesting and understanding the concept and ideas of their dresses for someones big day. I got to meet Akira, a Japanese designer who focused on beautiful embellishment and detail, he was such a sweet modest man, a bit shy but so happy! Mira Zwillinger whos dresses were pheonomenal in the sense that the level of detail and hand work gone into each dress was insane yet beautifully light and etherial. Mira and her daughter were passionate people who played by their own rules, a bit wary at first they soon warmed and were really lovely people. I also met Peter Langner a german designer based in Milan who worked for Dior for many years. He was truely inspired by Dior using hidden boning in his dresses, the structured gowns held elegance that could be worn by Audrey Hepburn. He was a very focused lovely man who cared so much for his brides. Delphine Manivet was a true Parisian, so chic and utterly effortless just like the gowns she designs. She puts a blue button in the hem of each dress which has a carving of a pram in to bring the brides luck.

Akira

Mira Zwilinger

Peter Langner

Delphine Manivet

Browns is definitely a company I would like to work for in the future, they're a really close knit family company who really believe in the well being of their employees which is something I really respect. Although I didn't see all areas of the company I hope I will see more as future internships could arise.

Things I've learnt so far during my internship:

Try and always look presentable, fit in with your surroundings yet still be yourself.

Confidence is key, people will respect you so much more!

Don't complain, if there is a job you don't like, grow up and do it! Everyone's been there.

Stay focused, if you've asked to do more than one thing don't forget about the tasks you need to do.