| Meagan takes Manhattan |
Our newest intern, Meagan Smith, was recently chosen to be one of two students from UT to intern for a week with Catherine Malandrino during market / fashion week in New York this February! She handled samples and assisted in meetings with buyers and of course helped with the runway show. Here is her report back to us!
I reached my final destination in New York around 12:30 pm on Wednesday. I was fairly apprehensive about arriving as a guest at such a late hour, but I quickly learned that most New Yorkers are in no rush to go to bed before any time before 1am.
I began my internship early the next morning (I took the subway the wrong way ONLY once!) Catherine Malandrino's headquarters are located in the garment district just off the beaten path from Times Square. It's funny I have been there so many times and never knew there was a hoard of fabric stores, production factories, and showrooms right around the corner. With the exception of a very select few, everyone at Catherine's was unbelievably nice and despite one scary "The Devil Wears Prada"-esque phone answering faux pas I felt like one of the team. I was interning with the sales team, so my duties includes receiving, inventorying, and tagging samples, merchandising the showroom, and assisting in meetings with buyers such as Neiman Marcus. What was great about interning with Catherine was the fact that it is such small, close knit company. So it was less about what I was actually doing, and more about what I was observing and overhearing. The CEO, Catherine, and the sales team would have meetings while I was literally in the same room. Just from that, I learned a lot about overall financial strategy as well as pricing and mark downs. Though I was interning with sales, I found myself wandering down to the design floor whenever I got a chance. The pace on this floor was fast and frantic (and so much French!) as everyone was getting ready for the Malandrino show. There, I was able to work almost side by side with Catherine as the design team fit models and made alterations. One of the most interesting things I saw were original inspiration collages for the prints in her fall collection.
Monday was the show which was absolutely fabulous, especially when afterwards I got to share a word with Project Runway's Tim Gunn (check out the video) who was sitting front row! Overall I feel like I have gained a real understanding for how the whole process of how clothes make their journey from ideas and sketches to our closets. It is definitely hard work. I made some time to see a good friend in the area and experience a little night life, but besides that I worked almost 12 hours a day every day I was there including weekends. But despite the grueling labor, now when I read my text book or an article about the industry, I feel like I can really place the action and people in rich context that I simply did not have before.
A big thanks to all of you who helped Meagan get to Manhattan! A special big thanks to Shawn Lonsfjord for letting her crash at your place and taking good care of her.
Fundraiser
- The costs are:
- the plane ticket: $360
- lodging: $700
- food: $250
- transportation: $100
- total: $1410
Meagan has promised to keep a daily journal and report on this experience. If you would like to ask Meagan questions or send comments, her email address is meagan@firstsamples.com.
We have set up a special PayPal account called Meagan takes Manhattan which will be a donation account for her trip. We will close the account once the target has been reached.