Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Doodles and Drawing...
Its such a complete shame that I don't have access to a scanner down here in London. All the drawings and sketches I've started to do down here could easily be used to create pattern and be enhanced on photoshop with the use of my graphics tablet! I feel like I'm missing out on a huge opportunity to do alot of coursework down here. Although I have had a really good chance to decide what I would like to do and have gained some textile designers names which I want to make my work look similar to. The names Collier and Campbell definitely struck a match in my creative mind. When I return home I will create some inspiration boards based on their work and will analyse what I like from their work and how I would see myself doing something similar. I will then do more drawings both traditionally and graphically, then design and create my samples and then my final piece. I have decided to create a garment front based on my chosen era, the 1990's, but instead of just copying the 1990's, I am going to take inspiration and transform it into present day fashion.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
M&M Heaven
To my delight and wonder I have discovered that London's very own M&M World is set to open on the 16th June 2011. One might consider their great luck when they had already set a date on the 16th to visit such shops around the Piccadilly circus. I do think I may come home with my own weight in M&M's. In utter excitement I decided to scout the website for products, and to my delight I discovered you can personalise your own M7M's by choosing colour, images and messages. Get in! To buy your own personalised M&M's I'd visit Their own website if I were you!
Monday, 13 June 2011
Oxford Street
Today I am giving into all temptation and going on a shopping trip to Oxford street, on the hunt for a new summer jacket. I have already discovered a shop called Pull & Bear which is rather similar to H&M in terms of product, price point and promotions. I found two really strong contenders for my new jacket, but since I'm in one of the fashion capitals, I have decided not to buy from the first shop I go in, and look everywhere I can. Shops I'm interested in going to, that aren't in Newcastle, include: GAP, Zara, United Colours of Benetton and Urban Outfitters. I can feel my bank balance screaming at me in uttermost fear as I prepare to hit these high street giants. I am excited!
End of the first week
At the end of the first week I have to say I am feeling absolutely pleased with how it has turned out. I think I impressed the people I am working with, since they were able to outline a task and I was able to get it done with very little supervision, which is always a skill in itself. I think I made myself vocalised, if I was unsure I always asked someone for help or tips. I've came out of the shy and timid barrier I'd wrapped myself in on the first day and have spoken to everyone in the office, and am known as "that sweet little northerner" by the production team. I do suppose its good to be known and recognised than to sit there unnoticed. I'm very eager for the next week, as there is promise of a busy photo shoot for the autumn promotions we are carrying out. Heading home for the weekend was definitely a good idea, except for the stress that was caused for getting on the actual train, which involved forgetting train tickets, a sprint with a suitcase, failure to decide what to eat, the train platform not being announced until 5 minutes before due arrival and trouble finding my seat on the train. Luckily the ride back to London was a lot smoother and has left me actually more excited than I was this time last week!
More London
On the Thursday I was fortunate enough to sit in on a whole floor staff meeting on marketing strategies for the next calender year. It was really interesting as I work in store so I was able to get an insight on what was happening behind the scenes and how they would get their points across on the sales floor. A lot of the points made were ones that I could understand and see how they would transform what the customers think and change their ways on shopping. The meeting got a lot of points raised and it was really detailed in the marketing strategies Debenhams would use. They explained a five point plan on the main marketing focuses and what the plans would be to execute these to ensure that the customers were getting the best deals in sight on promotion, what the Debenhams brand is and giving the customer what they want in terms of delivering the brand to them through adverts and promotions also. After the meeting I then continued my Brand profile spreadsheet until I had summarised all of the debenhams brands, this task did take the best part of two days, as there are a lot of brands in Debenhams and they each have a different voice, angle, targeted audience and customer profiles. Working through the profiles was actually quite rewarding as it gave myself a good chance to rekindle my knowledge of the brands we sell and acknowledge that there is something for everyone at Debenhams. In the afternoon I had a meeting with someone from the Marketing Research team who told me what the job entailed, what they did, and what they used the information for. She told me all about out recent "Feel Fabulous" Adverts with the song "The Sweetest Feeling". Apparently they tested the original slogan "Feel Famous" and the customer profile did not react positively to that, thinking it felt cheap and tacky and unobtainable, so using the research they changed it to what it is today. The also used focus groups with the advert to help chose the final cut, including music which changed from "Sweet Caroline" to "Sweetest Feeling". This really showed to me how powerful the Debenhams customers voice is to the company, as we carry out customer incentive surveys on store experiences, as well as carrying out focus groups, have online surveys and asking customers when they have finished shopping in store. It was at this meeting that I pitched the idea of having XS sized clothing in our menswear range, due to the high demand and loss of sales to other popular retailers. The research team promised to look into it, thinking that it was quite a good angle that they had previously carried out in women's wear, to the expansion of available sizes from size 16 to 22, and that they could possibly look into doing the same for menswear. At the end of the day I left the office feeling pretty good after an accomplished day.
On Friday it was the sample sale which i had been preparing the garments for on the Monday. In the morning I was instructed to check over the garments and write down descriptions and prices onto a spreadsheet so that we could keep track on what we have sold and for what price, because it was a sample sale and for charity nothing was priced over £5, with the exception of two large vases for £7.50 each. This surprisingly took a while as there was a lot to be sold. I was then sent to collect some carrier bags for the sale from a rather massive loading bay and made friends with a Londoner. After this the conference room was free, the location for our sale, so myself and another girl in the office set about setting up our mini sample sale. I was told that this was a small collection for a sample sale and that they are usually fast paced and manic. I started to feel a little nervous considering I wasn't used to dealing with manic shoppers. After setting everything up, I was informed that there was more items available and went to the large loading bay (again) to collect them. This involved a trip down in a rather large and scary elevator, and then back up again. When I got back to the office I sorted out these items and found a bracelet and ring that I had my heart set on. After putting the new stock out it was now12:25, the sale didn't start until 12:30 but there was already a crowd of eager shoppers waiting. When it finally turned half past I let them in and a mad rush spread about the room. A lot of people tried to barter their price but the phrase "But its for charity" seemed to set them back in their place. by 12:50 the mad rush had ended and I was left in a room with still quite a lot of items left. It was then to be told that at 1:00 prices would be void and we would run a "fill a bag for a fiver" campaign as a final push to move the stock. This proved pretty successful, and by 1:30, when the sale closed we were left with a single rail and a few bags left of stock, not that bad if honest. All in all we raised over £80! For the rest of the day I was left to clear the sale and put the items into a large box that would be sent away to be dealt with. I then was set the task of packaging Marc Jacobs perfume for the winners of our Debenhams heritage competitions and composing a congratulations letter for them. After the 10 winners were all sorted, I thanked my lucky stars that I don't work in a gift wrapping chain, as I am absolutely awful! This lead to the end of the day, and the end of my first week in placement.
On Friday it was the sample sale which i had been preparing the garments for on the Monday. In the morning I was instructed to check over the garments and write down descriptions and prices onto a spreadsheet so that we could keep track on what we have sold and for what price, because it was a sample sale and for charity nothing was priced over £5, with the exception of two large vases for £7.50 each. This surprisingly took a while as there was a lot to be sold. I was then sent to collect some carrier bags for the sale from a rather massive loading bay and made friends with a Londoner. After this the conference room was free, the location for our sale, so myself and another girl in the office set about setting up our mini sample sale. I was told that this was a small collection for a sample sale and that they are usually fast paced and manic. I started to feel a little nervous considering I wasn't used to dealing with manic shoppers. After setting everything up, I was informed that there was more items available and went to the large loading bay (again) to collect them. This involved a trip down in a rather large and scary elevator, and then back up again. When I got back to the office I sorted out these items and found a bracelet and ring that I had my heart set on. After putting the new stock out it was now12:25, the sale didn't start until 12:30 but there was already a crowd of eager shoppers waiting. When it finally turned half past I let them in and a mad rush spread about the room. A lot of people tried to barter their price but the phrase "But its for charity" seemed to set them back in their place. by 12:50 the mad rush had ended and I was left in a room with still quite a lot of items left. It was then to be told that at 1:00 prices would be void and we would run a "fill a bag for a fiver" campaign as a final push to move the stock. This proved pretty successful, and by 1:30, when the sale closed we were left with a single rail and a few bags left of stock, not that bad if honest. All in all we raised over £80! For the rest of the day I was left to clear the sale and put the items into a large box that would be sent away to be dealt with. I then was set the task of packaging Marc Jacobs perfume for the winners of our Debenhams heritage competitions and composing a congratulations letter for them. After the 10 winners were all sorted, I thanked my lucky stars that I don't work in a gift wrapping chain, as I am absolutely awful! This lead to the end of the day, and the end of my first week in placement.
Friday, 10 June 2011
Collier Campbell
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Collier Campbell exhibit at the National Theatre. I have to say I am in love. I love the organic of their drawings, how imperfections are shown, such as pencil lines and writing. I also love how neatly and crop it looks when it is printed onto fabric. I would like to do something like this in my timeline project.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
This weeks outfit
This weeks dream outfit from Dorothy Perkins
Denim Dress £32
Floral Wedges £35
Belt £10
Leggings £10
Ring £7.50
Necklace £12.50
Fiorelli Satchel £59
Total: £166
College work floundering?
Whilst having so much fun working 9-5 in London, I do worry that my college work isn't getting as much attention as it should be, what with the deadline being a little over a week. I do have a special situation, what with being down in the Capital while all of the supplies and equipment are back in jolly Newcastle. I have came armed with a laptop, photoshop and my graphics tablet so I reckon I might do more work based on my CAD work and do garment flats for my design developments, well, that's if I get the time to separate from my bustling lifestyle of eyeing up clothes and Mulberry bags on Oxford Street ;D
London Calling!
After what has been one of the best weeks of my life, I have to say London has grown on me! Arriving on Sunday with what seemed like enough clothes and bags to last me a month, let alone a week I braved the tube. Luckily I didn't get lost and managed to get to where I was staying with very little bother, but an aching arm and a dislike for my dated wobbly suitcase. I spent the rest of the day resting and preparing for an early night ready for my first day at my two week work placement in the Debenhams Head Office Marketing Department.
This was were I came across the London transport system in rush hour. It took 5 full tubes for me to be able to get onto one. I managed to find the place alright and got there on time, which is always a bonus. I met the team and after some introductions, tours and inductions I was ready to start work. I was given some research tasks to do on the computer, which gave me a chance to rekindle my Microsoft office skills, which is always a good thing when being based in an office. I then was taken to a room with all of the old advert outfits in and had to organise each section into each division such as: menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, accessories and home. I then had to price the items so that they could be sold in a charity shop which supported Breast cancer. Sadly this task took a lot longer than anticipated as I forgot to take off all of the original price tags and had to go through them a total of three times. After this I met more of the team and was sent on a mission to go up and down Oxford Street and write down what stood out in the shop windows, such as trends, promotions, advertisements, colours and discounts. I honestly did not know how large Oxford Street was! And after going down one side and up the other I think I became acquainted with every shop there. And also had racked up a dream spend of well over £5000!!!! (Don't worry, I was professional and only bought a £1.15 bottle of Coke!) Upon my return I started on a power point on all of the trends I saw, I decided to focus upon the most popular and gave examples of stores which were using these tactics, trends and such. I must have done something right as my new boss was impressed and even showed her own boss who was also impressed! All in all, a successful first day!
The second day was a little different to the first, in the sense that the Marketing team was in a whole floor meeting all day and unable to give me any jobs to do. So I began my day in the other head office team, inside their Oxford Street Store. I had a two hour long induction, including all of the dull and cheesy health and safety videos, which I must have seen about a million times seeing as I work for the company already! I was then sent to the Business and Selling Support department and got to assist their manager by looking at details for her, and also ordering new staff uniforms, which was an easy enough task, but made all the more difficult by an unhappy computer who decided to run about 1mph! I then spent some time talking to various department managers, one of which thought I was actually a manager myself! I wish! After that I went onto the sales floor and learned about how their own menswear department was ran, what standards they carried out, what brands they carried, and how they handled their own staff members. I have to say it was completely different to how my own menswear department is run, in the matter of standards, policies, recovery and even sales preparation. Because I am bias, I do think I prefer how my own department does it! Again, my second day wasn't too bad, but I'd basically just done my own job without getting paid for it.
On the third day I was back in head office, where I was supposed to be. I was impressed as I'd managed to catch a train AND get a seat. But then swiftly realised it was heading in the opposite direction I was supposed to be traveling. I swiftly left the train at the next station and headed in the correct way. Unfortunately the whole seat thing was a fluke, but I did manage to squash myself onto the next train. Today at work I met the man who voices the Debenhams CD! I have to say I was a little star struck! For my main task I learned about the database that the marketing team uses to place job requests for advertisement that they then send to the production team. After a few tutorials I managed to get my head around it and began to take details from clients and other stores and put them onto the database, filled out the correct forms and emailed them to the production team to create them. I had to make my instructions as clear as possible in order for the brief to be correctly achieved. Once the production team had completed the task they then sent a digital and hard copy over for my to proof read and check over. If I didn't like something I would write on the changed and send it back, but if it was all okay I would sign it off and return it for the production team to send to the printers. I only had to send one thing back, but the rest was alright. In total I think I sorted out about 5 advertisements and a computer desktop background. I don't think I did too badly. I then had to proof read magazine and newspaper advertisements for our upcoming sale and ensure all of the prices and details were correct and spelt correctly, and sign them off so they could be sent to the relevant papers to be printed. (So if you see a Debenhams advertisement in the Sun on Thursday 9th June, I proofed that!) After that I then began to create a spreadsheet on given information about brand identity's, target audience profiles, ages, and what the brand is about. I didn't manage to finish all of it so I'd be picking up this task tomorrow. All in all, a very good day!
This was were I came across the London transport system in rush hour. It took 5 full tubes for me to be able to get onto one. I managed to find the place alright and got there on time, which is always a bonus. I met the team and after some introductions, tours and inductions I was ready to start work. I was given some research tasks to do on the computer, which gave me a chance to rekindle my Microsoft office skills, which is always a good thing when being based in an office. I then was taken to a room with all of the old advert outfits in and had to organise each section into each division such as: menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, accessories and home. I then had to price the items so that they could be sold in a charity shop which supported Breast cancer. Sadly this task took a lot longer than anticipated as I forgot to take off all of the original price tags and had to go through them a total of three times. After this I met more of the team and was sent on a mission to go up and down Oxford Street and write down what stood out in the shop windows, such as trends, promotions, advertisements, colours and discounts. I honestly did not know how large Oxford Street was! And after going down one side and up the other I think I became acquainted with every shop there. And also had racked up a dream spend of well over £5000!!!! (Don't worry, I was professional and only bought a £1.15 bottle of Coke!) Upon my return I started on a power point on all of the trends I saw, I decided to focus upon the most popular and gave examples of stores which were using these tactics, trends and such. I must have done something right as my new boss was impressed and even showed her own boss who was also impressed! All in all, a successful first day!
The second day was a little different to the first, in the sense that the Marketing team was in a whole floor meeting all day and unable to give me any jobs to do. So I began my day in the other head office team, inside their Oxford Street Store. I had a two hour long induction, including all of the dull and cheesy health and safety videos, which I must have seen about a million times seeing as I work for the company already! I was then sent to the Business and Selling Support department and got to assist their manager by looking at details for her, and also ordering new staff uniforms, which was an easy enough task, but made all the more difficult by an unhappy computer who decided to run about 1mph! I then spent some time talking to various department managers, one of which thought I was actually a manager myself! I wish! After that I went onto the sales floor and learned about how their own menswear department was ran, what standards they carried out, what brands they carried, and how they handled their own staff members. I have to say it was completely different to how my own menswear department is run, in the matter of standards, policies, recovery and even sales preparation. Because I am bias, I do think I prefer how my own department does it! Again, my second day wasn't too bad, but I'd basically just done my own job without getting paid for it.
On the third day I was back in head office, where I was supposed to be. I was impressed as I'd managed to catch a train AND get a seat. But then swiftly realised it was heading in the opposite direction I was supposed to be traveling. I swiftly left the train at the next station and headed in the correct way. Unfortunately the whole seat thing was a fluke, but I did manage to squash myself onto the next train. Today at work I met the man who voices the Debenhams CD! I have to say I was a little star struck! For my main task I learned about the database that the marketing team uses to place job requests for advertisement that they then send to the production team. After a few tutorials I managed to get my head around it and began to take details from clients and other stores and put them onto the database, filled out the correct forms and emailed them to the production team to create them. I had to make my instructions as clear as possible in order for the brief to be correctly achieved. Once the production team had completed the task they then sent a digital and hard copy over for my to proof read and check over. If I didn't like something I would write on the changed and send it back, but if it was all okay I would sign it off and return it for the production team to send to the printers. I only had to send one thing back, but the rest was alright. In total I think I sorted out about 5 advertisements and a computer desktop background. I don't think I did too badly. I then had to proof read magazine and newspaper advertisements for our upcoming sale and ensure all of the prices and details were correct and spelt correctly, and sign them off so they could be sent to the relevant papers to be printed. (So if you see a Debenhams advertisement in the Sun on Thursday 9th June, I proofed that!) After that I then began to create a spreadsheet on given information about brand identity's, target audience profiles, ages, and what the brand is about. I didn't manage to finish all of it so I'd be picking up this task tomorrow. All in all, a very good day!
Fashion show
These are my images which were taken at the final show. All of our garments fitted together really well and I am really pleased with how they went down the runway. All of our garments have a certain similar element which bonded them together in our collection. I think that our collection collaborated very well and had a cohesive element, which was shown in our accessories and constant use of pattern and colour. The models hair was all styled similarly and overall our collection looked really effective.
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