Internship...Days 15 & 16!

Hi All!

So, I'm FINALLY home sweet home!! So great to be back in the USA! Just wanted to catch up on my last few days at my internship.

On Tuesday, it was mainly just Amanda and I working on the projects. We met at the office and then Rachael sent us to get more crepe paer for the roses. We got the supplies from Soho and headed to the Marylebone High Street store. We went to the dungeon and started making roses. We figured out the day before that the roses weren't turning out because we had cut the petal pieces against the grain of the crepe paper instead of with the grain. So this time, we cut them the right way and they were a lot easier to work with. We were then able to stretch each petal to make them look more realistic. It's a very tideous process. First, we took three wire pieces, taped them together, and then wrapped the "stem" in bright green crepe paper. Then we had to cut out 5 skinny petal pieces and 15 heart shaped pieces for each rose. We first started by taping on the "bud" of the flower. Next, we layered in 15 heart shaped pieces and curled the edges. Each rose took about 30-40 minutes to make. We finally came up with an assembly line and finished about 12 by the end of the day.

The next day, Wednesday, our job was to create even more roses. Rachael liked them so much that she wanted to display them in the Marylebone window. The Marylebone store is their flagship store, so any new window display idea is tried there first to see if it receives positive customer feedback. Rachael joined us at the store that day, as well as Lyndsey. Amanda, Lyndsey, and I all worked on making roses while Rachael put them in vases and fluffed and trimmed them up to make them look perfect for the window. We made roses for a good 6 hours and ended up with 13 more, so a total of 25 all together. They looked so great! They are in the window now, so I am having Lyndsey send me a picture of the window since I left before it was installed. Can't wait to see all of our hard work in an actual display! Halfway through making roses, we had a nice sit-down lunch outside to celebrate our last day at an Italian restaurant. After lunch, Rachael surprised Amanda and I with a bag of English candy to take home. It was so cute and the candy was really interesting! What a nice thought. :) Here are a few photos of the roses:

I had such a great time with this internship and my study abroad experience as a whole. I learned so much and it was great to be able to work in head office and see how the company works behind the scenes. It gave me insight into the differences between how business is conducted in the UK and the states. I know it sounds a bit cliche, but it really was a life-changing experience. I have gained so much more confidence in myself, especially knowing that if I can make it in London, I know I can make it in my home country! I've done a lot of things I thought I would have never had the chance to do before and I'm so thankful for each opportunity. Also, it was so nice to work with an English intern. It was a lot of fun to work with each other each day and talk about all of the differences from our cultures. It was also amazing to be able to travel to different parts of England for work and seeing a culture outside of London. I was so sad to leave because it was my life for 10 weeks, but I have to say, I'm so glad to be home! Now it's off to conquer New York City next summer!!!

Internship...Days 12, 13, & 14!

Hi Everyone!

A little bit of catching up to do since I was in Ireland this past weekend! It was SO beautiful...especially the first day! We went to a town called Howth which is about 30 minutes out of Dublin by train. We arrived there and immediately saw the sea as our train pulled up. It was really beautiful and then we walked up the street to the harbour and pier. The view was amazing with the green rolling hills in the background. We got lots of great pictures. Next, we made a 2 hour hike up the "mountain" to a cliff side where the views were even more breathtaking. I literally could have stayed up there the whole trip. The cliffs looked out onto a peninsula with a lighthouse and endless views of the sea. It was gorgeous. The next day, Saturday, we spent the day sightseeing in Dublin. Dublin isn't a huge city, so there wasn't much to do, but we found a lot of fun places to go. We purchased a Dublin Sightseeing ticket for the bus, so it took us to all of the main tourist stops. We saw the Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and made a stop at the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. We had a lot of fun, but then it started pouring and we were all exhausted, so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the airport. It still amazes me that the three of us were able to plan a whole trip and navigate around a foreign country, completely by ourselves! I feel so grown up. :)

Anyway, on Wednesday, for my internship, it was just Lyndsey and I in the office because Amanda had gone to Bath with Sandra to install a window display. There wasn't much for us to do. We worked on organizing our office, which was definitely needed and put each window concept into a separate folder with photos, fabric swatches, etc. Next, Rachael wanted us to go grab some supplies to work on the ballons once again. I asked if she wanted us to try anything different since they hadn't turned out last time, but she said to just make a couple more anyway. We then made our way to the Marylebone High Street store to get to work. I had to leave early that day to give a 10 minute presentation for my internship class, so I only finished one balloon before I had to leave. I felt a little bad that I had to leave Lyndsey there to finish the balloons, but she didn't seem to mind.

On Thursday, it was the three of us in the office. Rachael put us right to work on more mood boards. We had 4 concepts: lace balloons, brightly colored spools of cotton, fringe, and birds. We did some research and printed out images for each board. It always takes a while to find the right images, print them, and cut them out. We finally finished all of the boards and then Rachael critiqued them. She removed a couple of images, but it was a lot less than last time, so we were all happy about that. Next, we had to run to Soho to grab some spray paint for another project. From a previous window, Rachael had some leftover cut-out birds that were plain white. They were really cute and there were a ton of them left, so we decided to reuse them, but spray paint them in teal, fuschia, red, yellow, and deep purple. We picked up all the spray paint and then went out to the balcony at the office to begin spray painting. The wind was blowing really hard, so spray painting was interesting. We ended up losing a couple of birds by the wind and got the spray paint all over us. They turned out pretty cute once we hung them all up together. We eliminated the yellow and red because the teal, fuschia, and deep purple looked best together.

Today, it was the three of us once again. We got there at 9:30 and I printed off my evaluation from Missouri State for Rachael to fill out. I was a little nervous because she can be a little harsh, but she gave me an A-, which I was happy about. She said I needed to have more confidence in my abilities, which I agree with, so I was pretty content with her comments and marks. Next, she went with us to get crepe paper and florist wire for our next project. She had seen the "craft of the day" from Martha Stewart that were crepe paper roses that looked adorable in a recent Mulberry window display. We went to several different stores, gathering different colors. We stopped by Liberty, a famous department store in London by the florist shop. After we got the wire, Rachael wanted us to explore the department store just for fun, so Amanda and I got to wander around Liberty for about 45 minutes. After, we were starving, we decided to get sushi at a cheap sushi place on Marylebone High Street. I had heard a lot of good things about it, so I was really excited, but it really wasn't that amazing. I'm glad we tried it though. After lunch, we went back to the store to the basement(which we nicknamed "the dungeon" because there are now windows) to work on the roses and butterflies. We started with painting butterflies for an upcoming window. Then we attempted the roses...Martha made them look so easy, but of course, they weren't. The crepe paper was so floppy, that the roses looked terrible. We didn't know how to fix them, so we kept trying to make more, trying different techniques. Then I took a break and started taping butterflies on our gold mirror panels. Those actually turned out really cute! Rachael then came to the store to check on us. She loved the mirror panels, but we had to stay an extra half hour to work on the roses. She finally decided that it was the way we cut the crepe paper and that we needed to cut it against the grain instead of on it. Here are some photos from today's work!

The lace when the balloons were popped.

The finished mirror panels that will be installed in a window display on Wednesday.

Well, that's all for now...until next time!

Internship...Day 11.

Hi all!

Today was exhausting. We had to be at the showroom at 8 am and worked until 4:45. This morning, we had to clear all of the rubbish (British word for trash) out of the corridor (British word for hallway). We had to break down all of the cardboard boxes that our torsos came in. Not the most glamorous job, but we finished it pretty quickly. Next, we had to prep the showroom because buyers were coming in an hour after we arrived. We had to put up a decal on the wall that read "FennWrightManson." The thing was, it was in 3 pieces, so it made it that more difficult. First, we had to measure the wall and find the middle and then piece together the decal, measure it, find the middle, and match the two up. We started measuring from the top to make sure we were keeping it straight. All the measurements worked out, but when we finished and stepped back, the decal was totally crooked. The problem was, the ceiling that we measured from was slanted, so it set our whole decal off. So frustrating!! It had taken a really long time and I don't think Rachael wasn't too happy that she had to order a new one.

After, we went back to our office. We re-did our mood board. Yesterday, Amanda was at the office, so she researched and found new images. I guess they were better than last time because Rachael only threw a few out. We tacked them on and pinned the fabric swatches on the board. Then, it was onto our next project. Rachael and Sandra had ordered Petite clothing signage, but it was the wrong size for the frames they were going in, so we had to cut a couple of centimeters off each side. There were a TON of them, so it took me forever! After about 2 hours of projects, we took a lunch break. We walked down the street to a Pret a Manger (pretty much my favorite restaurant in London because its fast, easy, and delicious) and went to the park right next to it to sit and enjoy our lunch. It was nice to have a break and enjoy the rare sunshine! And, in the office today, I wore a dress for the first time, a 12 pound dress from Primark that I bought when I first got here, and a got a million compliments on it. A lady that worked there even took a picture of it on her phone and made her husband go buy it for her! Pretty funny. :)

Next, we went to House of Fraser, a huge department store in London. We have a concession there, which means we have a section of our store in the department store. We had to redo the entire floor and the walls, so it was a long process. We changed all of the metalwork on the walls, so we kept having to run back and forth between the stock room and the floor. The walls were built totally wrong, so it was almost impossible to make the metalwork fit in. We also had to build a lot of shelving units. We spruced up the up-tops by rolling scarves, using graphics, or showcasing accessories. We finally finished the store and headed out around 4:45 and it looked great! So much better than when we got there. That's what I love about visual merchandising; you're able to see your results right after all of your hard work. It makes for a long day, though! I'm gonna have to get used to this grown-up 8 hour day thing!! Now its back to working on my presentation for tomorrow and completing my journal and self-evaulation for my internship class...

Have a great night!

Internship...Day 10!

Hi there!

Today was a very rewarding day. I had to take a train to St. Albans, which is around 40 minutes outside of London. Yesterday, when I went to pick up my ticket, the guy told me the wrong platform. So, this morning when I got to "the right platform," I didn't see my train on the board. So I asked and the sent me to the very bottom floor. But, when I got down there, I saw my train time, but it said it was headed to Luton. I started to freak out, but as the time got closer, below Luton is said "Calling to" with a bunch of towns, so I assumed that meant "stopping at" since St. Albans was one of them. I waited for a while and finally boarded my train, still hoping it was the right one. About 15 minutes through my ride, a worker came through to check tickets. All he said was "thank you very much" so I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew he would have said something if I were on the wrong train. It was another 20-25 minutes and I reached St. Albans. On the train ride there, I had received a text from Sandra with directions to the store. Since I'm TERRIBLE at directions, I was freaking out a bit. I tried to find my way out of the station (which took a while) and then I went up to the bridge she told me to walk over. Apparently, it was the complete wrong way because there was nothing down the way I went. I turned around and spotted a police officer. I knabbed the chance and he told me that main high street was about a 15 minute walk up the hill. So, I started walking until I got to what looked like a small square with lots of shops. However, I was looking for the actual street name "Main High Street" because I assumed that was a real street. I guess that's what the British call just a regular street with lots of shops and things, so I was totally confused for a while. I went down the wrong way once again and finally decided to turn around. And, after a couple minutes, there it was!! I don't think I've been that excited and relieved for a while. I was so proud of myself though for getting the right train and finding my way to the store, completely on my own!

When I got there, they told me to put my stuff up in the break room. You could tell the building used to be something different than just a store. There was the store floor, and then the stairs to the break room was a winding staircase and the break room was more like a little home. There was a kitchen, bathrooms and a bunch of other rooms. The actual stock room was a long hallway, all tutor style with creepy old windows and then a large room with a big fireplace with a bunch of stuff stacked against it. As soon as I got down to the floor, they were like "You know this place is haunted right?" I was totally freaked out! Supposedly, the building used to be a pub and a little boy had fallen off the balcony and died. He now haunts the top floor of the store and they even bought him toys; how creeeppyy! I guess the whole town of St. Albans is supposed to be known for hauntings. Anyway, I then had to reset a whole wall, which meant I had to go upstairs by myself and gather all of the metalwork that I needed. I was SO freaked out because it took me a while to sort through everything and make sure I had enough of the pieces. I swore if I saw a little boy standing in the corner watching me, I was outta there! Haha, I'm such a dork, but it really was freaky.

Anyway, the rest of the day, Sandra, one of my bosses, and I moved the entire floor around to make the store more impactful. We moved certain colors to different walls and reworked the store fixtures to create a better layout. We also categorized the sale to make it easier to shop: tops, casual dresses, skirts, knitwear, and "smart" dresses, which is the British way of saying more "dressy" dresses. Kind of funny to hear and I had to ask what smart dresses meant. It sounds like a smart phone, like the dress has internet or GPS capabilities or something. ;) Then we broke for lunch. I explored the town a bit and then chose a street vendor to grab lunch and take it back to the store. I decided on a ham and cheese toastie (a grilled ham and cheese),chips (fries), and a fizzy drink (soda, because they didn't have water). It was really good, but I was so full I couldn't finish it. After the break, we worked on the store aesthetics. We made the "up-tops" or glass shelves above the hangbars look presentable with scarves, necklaces on jewelry stands, or images in picture frames. We also have a skirt featured in Vogue, so I dressed a torso in the skirt and the table in front displayed the magazine page along with a color story to make it more impactful. We then straightened up the store and put everything in color order. Here's how it turned out!

The vogue table :)

Our navy and fuschia color story.

Our newly organized sale section.

It was around 5 when we left the store, and then it was another ride back to London. It was a lot faster on the way back though, because I rode with Sandra. It was nice to have someone to talk to. After I got home, I made dinner and now I'm starting on homework once again. Can't wait until this internship class is over!! Going to bed early tonight since we have to be at the showroom at 8 am in the morning, which means leaving our flat at 7:15!

Well, that's all for today. Bye! :)

Internship...Day 9.

Well, its now Sunday and I finally have time to catch up! On Saturday, Nicolette and I went to Buckingham Palace to see Kate's wedding dress, along with a guided tour of the state rooms. It was amazing! We were so bummed though because they didn't allow us to take ANY pictures. It was beautiful and I wish I had pictures for everyone to see! Then we went to Marylebone to get a quick bite. We chose an italian restaurant where we could sit outside and I had the BEST margherita pizza of my life. So delicious! Today has been a catching up day, doing laundry and starting on my last few homework assignments.

On Friday, my internship didn't go as well as usual. The day before, Lyndsey had been on the phone with Rachael and Rachael told us to be at the office at 9:30 the next morning. Lyndsey then passed that onto us. I thought she said 9:30, but Amanda thought she said 9 and I really couldn't remember, so we showed up 9 the next morning just in case. Turns out, we weren't supposed to there until 9:30, which I think made Rachael a little ancy because the office is so small. She put us right to work though, first by filling out a small questionnaire about how we liked the internship so far, etc. Then we changed a couple of graphics that are hung around the office. We put these huge images in their frames and then folded up the old ones. After, she sent us to get a ton of boxes that came in shipment with all new torso forms. We had to unpack all of the boxes and assemble the mannequins. Not my favorite job in the world, but it had to be done.

Then, Rachael gave us a little project. She wanted the three of us to create a mood board for a window concept that she had come up with. Her concept was bare, modern trees in neon colors for a background of a window display. She said there was no right or wrong, so we just started googling pictures, cutting them out and pasting them on a foam core board along with the fabric swatches. I thought it looked pretty good when we finished and at first, she said she loved it. Next thing we knew, she starting ripping off almost all of the images. She might have left 5 out of at least 20. Every time she tore one of she said "I'm being ruthless, but this doesn't need to be on here." It was really hard to watch her tear apart about an hour's worth of work, but I guess that's the creative process. Trying, trying, and trying again.

After that, she said that she couldn't make any sense of the spreadsheet we had put together on Wednesday of all the stores and their stock of the jewelry stands. We really had no idea what we were talking about when we called the stores; we were just doing what we were told. And all of the stores were really confused because everyone calls jewelry stands by different names. This time, Rachael had us send out an email to all of the stores with pictures of each stand and what it was called. We waited about 20 minutes and then started calling all of the stores. We should have sent out the email the first time because it was a million times easier!! It still took us about 4 hours to get a hold of the stores, which was a bit tiring, but our spreadsheet made much more sense and was a lot better organized.

It was kind of a frustrating day, but I guess not everyday can be perfect! I learned some valuable lessons and learned to deal with a little constructive criticism. Anyway, tomorrow I'm really nervous about because I have to catch a train to St. Albans by myself! Only one of us could go with Sandra to St. Albans, which is about 40 minutes outside of London. Kind of nervous because the train I catch is out of St. Pancras International, so it's huge! Just another reason this experience is helping me...definitely getting out of my comfort zone!

Well, that's all for today. Cheers!

Internship...Days 7 & 8!

Hi Everyone!

Enjoying my first day off in a while! Jess, Nicolette and I slept in and then went to a 5 pound store where literally everything was 5 pounds. I got a cute dress and shirt. We ate outside at a really cute Italian restaurant because it was a beautiful day! Now I'm back at the flat, trying to be productive.

On Tuesday, we had a really fun creative day! Our mission was to get supplies for two different projects. Our first project was creating lace paper mache balloons from a picture that our boss had found as inspiration. We took the tube about 40 minutes away to a street with a ton of cheap fabric stores. We had certain colors of cheap lace to look for, so we grabbed one of two colors from each store. It took us about an hour to get all of the lace we needed. Next, we went to Oxford street to search for paint, glue, and all of the craft supplies that we needed. It was a huge run-around because we couldn't find the right glue and spraypaint that we needed for the next project. The second project was taking a plastic mirror panel and splitting it into four sections, using different techniques on each section. The first section, we used paper mache as a glue and put wrinkled gold tissue paper on it, with the mirror still showing through. Then we tried spray paint and stratched it after it was dry. In another section, we fixed the gold acrylic paint with crackle paste, so I'm excited to see how it turns out. We just did mock-ups of each idea to see which concepts Sandra and Rachael might like best to see if they want to put it in an actual window.

After getting all of the supplies which took from 10-1, we got to work on the actual projects. We spread out on the concrete floor, laid down bubble wrap, and mixed up our paper mache. Cutting out all of the semi-circles took a while and then painting them onto the ballons with paint brushes took a while as well. Although, it was very therapeutic and relaxing. Halfway through our arts and crafts session, Lyndsey, the British intern that is working with us decided we needed a tea and biscuit break (biscuits are british cookies). She made us each a cup of AMAZING tea and bought us cookies to munch on while we worked. It was actually pretty perfect. Here are the finished concepts:

love it!

mirror techniques.

On Wednesday, it was so nice to have a half day! Lyndsey, Amanda, and I met at the office. We had to call all of the stand-alone Fenn Wright Manson stores and get a count of how many jewelry stands they each had in their store. We shipped a lot of jewelry stands out as well. For a couple of hours, we just did research and compiled all of our ideas into a powerpoint and saved it to Rachael's desktop. We actually got out of there at 12!

Now for British-isms!

I had my roommates and I brainstorm and come up with just a few of the differences between London and America, either terminology or other details. :) Here they are:

1. Light switches are all backwards...press down to turn it on and vice versa.
2. There is a button to push before you are able to open the door to exit and a button to flush the toilet.
3. Exit=way out
4. Bathroom=toilet
5. Salad dressing=salad cream..and no ranch dressing! :(
6. Stop lights change yellow between red and between green..I think we should adopt this one so people are ready to go when the light turns green!
7. Pants=Trousers
8. Underwear=Pants
9. Queue=line..."queue up, please=move up in line"
10. Of course, they drive on the wrong side of the road ;)
11. Bangs=Fringe
12. Tanktop=Vest
13. British credit cards have a chip in them where they are simply inserted into the machine instead of swiped.
14. Free ATMS!
15. No frozen foods because there are no preservatives in british food.
16. No air conditioning!
17. Sidewalk=Pavement
18. Vacation=Holiday

Those are just a few, I'm sure we'll think of more! :)
Thanks for reading!

Internship...Day 6!

Hi Everyone!

Today was an interesting day. We were working with Sandra today, Rachael's Visual Merchandising colleague. She told us to meet her at Clapham Junction at 8:40, which is about 45 minutes to an hour to get to from where we live. We decided to leave at 7:50, thinking that would be plenty of time. Except, when we were boarding our first line, we decided to go a different way than last time. We ended being stuck being on a train that terminated, so we had to get off and were stranded at that station for a good 20 minutes. We kept calling Sandra and texting to tell her that we would be a little late. Finally the next train came, we rode it to our stop, and then we had to get on the overground to get to Clapham Junction. That train was delayed, so it was another 7 minutes before it got there. We finally got to Clapham...40 minutes late. We felt SO bad and apologized for being late, especially on our first day working with Sandra. Luckily, she was totally understanding and super nice. We then took another train about 20 minutes away to a town called Kingston, where there was a shopping mall.

Fenn Wright Manson had a section in the department store, with a window that we had to install. The window was decently big, so it took a while to hang our 6 orchid panels. We made them all different heights to add depth to the window. We kept it pretty simple, with only two mannequins, mainly because stock was so low we didn't have much to choose from. Sandra loved it and we even got out around 12:30, which was SO nice.

Here it is!

After work, I went to school to replace my student ID. I had to do a little bit of run around to get it, but I finally have one! My first new form of ID other than my passport. It definitely makes me feel better. When I got back to the flat, I started researching flights to Dublin; I'm dying to go! I've heard its really beautiful and everyone that goes has loved it. I searched for a while and all of the flights were around 140 pounds. I finally got on edreams and found a flight, there and back, for 45 euros, which is about $90! So cheap!! However, they added on another 20 euros for taxes, and then when I put in my card info, they charged 20 euro to use a Visa! So ridiculous. But, one of my flatmates said it is cheaper to book early in the morning, so we are going to try to book it in the morning before we all go to work. Hopefully it is a little cheaper. Still though, pretty good deal!

Tomorrow, Amanda and I are going to be in the office for the first time to do another mock-up of the Christmas window. I think it should be fun! Hopefully we'll have another short day because we are planning to try to go to Wicked again tomorrow night. Crossing my fingers that there will be student stand by tickets available because they are a million times cheaper! Anyway, that's all for tonight.

Cheers!