It has been too long since my last update. I have just been so busy living it up in New York City!

I have done so much I really don't know where to start...

I will just split the past two weeks into parts

Week 1/10-1/15

This week was just more checking in and returning clothes and accessories. It was very busy just because of the photo shoots that were going on...

Later during the week I was able to meet with a really nice PR girl that my professor back at school put me in touch with. We went to this awesome place called Morimoto located in the Chelsea/Meatpacking district. IT WAS THE NICEST PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN TO! They serve Japanese food and have all of these very interesting dishes. The girl was telling me that Leonardo Dicaprio, Michelle Obama, and Kelly Ripa have eaten there. I guess it is a place to go to see celebs. (unfortunately no one was there that night..)

We talked about the fashion industry and I asked her about advice and such. I had a really great time and I'm glad I was able to meet with her while I was in town.

The next day I was asked if I would like to come assist on a photo shoot. This was something I really wanted to do during my internship so I immediately said YES YES YES!

The photo shoot was a typical one the magazine does. They would be taking photos that correspond with the articles. For example like article about "the best date spots" would have a picture of a couple eating dinner together or laying on the beach.

The location of the shoot was in a hotel, the magazine had the penthouse suite. It was really nice!!

I had to get there at 7am in the morning. My job was to unpack in the morning and pack up after the shoot. During the day I basically steamed clothes that were used on the shoot. During a photo shoot it is a lot of stop and go. We rushed around the first hour but then we sat and waited for the following 3 while the models did their thing.

It was crazy how much detail goes into a shoot. One of the models had to take just some profile shots, the fashion editor had the shirt and pants picked out but even the SHOES had to be the right color and laced a certain way.... the picture was only from the chest up (I thought this was funny).

Another fun thing I did that I did that week was go to my first hot house yoga session.

It was a yoga class where the room is heated like a sauna while you do yoga. It was really hard and intense because you are dripping in sweat. But I felt really good after the class and much more relaxed. I would highly suggest trying it some time :)

Week 1/17-1/21

This week was pretty much the same...

I did a lot of the same things I had done the past weeks (minus the photo shoot)

It was pretty sad because it was my last week at my internship.

I am missing my first week of school back in the Midwest so I have a lot of catching up to do!

So I'm already a little stressed about that. One of my goals for my spring semester is to get better grades since my past semester was a bit of a challenge.

LAST DAY

I had the best last day anyone could ask for!

I stared my last day at my internship at 9 am as usual and started doing check ins and returns. My supervisor had told me the night before that I would tag along with her on a market appointment.

A market appointment is when an editor goes to a designer showroom and all of the new stuff for the season is laid out and a PR person will explain the collection while the editor picks things to be sent to the magazine for shoots. Its kind of like shopping but you aren't bringing the stuff home at the end of the day.

It was SO MUCH FUN. I liked seeing all the new stuff and what the trends will be for the spring a summer. Gorgeous stuff!!

When I got back from the market appointment I decided to get lunch at the cafeteria in our building and I saw Gayle King getting lunch too!! She works at one of the magazines that is published by our company.I'm obsessed with Oprah so I was FREAKING OUT!!

At the end of the day me and the other interns took some pictures and said our goodbyes be for leaving.

I was so sad about leaving my friends and coworkers, as well as NYC.

But I have faith that I will be back to New York very soon :)

*no pictures in this post. I plan on posting either tomorrow or the next day a bunch of pics. Promise.

Jamaica-me Crazy!

This week has been extremely busy and stressful for everyone at the office. The magazine is going to have a big international photo shoot for a summer feature so swim suits were constantly being shipped to the office and the other interns and I had to check in every single bikini....

All I can say after this week is I know EXACTLY what swimsuits I will be buying for this summer! :] The swim trends they have come out with this season I LOVE!!

The office was especially stressful because with only a week before the international shoot the fashion director needed to have a run through. A run through is when all of the clothes and accessories that have been ordered in are laid out in an organized way so that the fashion director can make choices on what to take for the shoot. Everything needs to be organized and hung a certain way and it needs to be ready by a certain time. All of the assistants were freaking out because they were not quite ready and on top of that we ran out of hangers and we still had hundreds of swimsuits that still needed to go on the racks.

This was my first time experiencing something like this, someone in the office told me that the fashion director likes to work by herself and that when she is in the room there would be no talking and get out of the way. I was pretty nervous and stressed because of everything going on. I didn’t really know what to expect.

But before I knew it the director walks in and announces “Ok I’m ready to work.” And in that moment everyone scatters off out of sight and everything grew silent.

(Disclaimer: Just for the record, I have met the fashion director personally and she is actually a nice person. But when it comes to her job she is just very serious.)

After the run through early in the week things started to settle down. I have been doing a ton of errands lately where I have to pick up things from different designer houses. I have been to Donna Karen, Fendi, Escada, and places like that so it is really cool to see the different designer PR offices! Going on errands are actually pretty fun because I get to have a break from the office as well as see parts of the city. (I pretty much know Fashion Ave. like the back of my hand now).

I had to run errands the morning of another run through this week and I had to stop at 4 different PR firms in the city and get back to the office before 11 am. It was crunch time and was running around, I took a taxi back to the office instead of the subway and made it in the nick of time at 10:45.

The taxi had a tv in it which was pretty cool!

The Market director assigned me a project of finding a runway picture that goes with a certain theme for a fashion feature. I’m pretty excited and nervous at the same time. If I find a really good picture it will be published in the magazine. But I’m nervous because I’m scared she won’t like anything I present, she is a bit intimidating....

On a bright note....

I WILL BE GOING ON MY FIRST PHOTO SHOOT!!!! AHHH I’m so excited. I had mentioned to one of the fashion assistants that I was really interested in going to one and she put in a good word for me! So I will be helping on a photo shoot this coming Tuesday. I will let you know how that goes!!!!! J

Random Picture of my amazing lunch from the cafeteria!

Curry Turkey Wrap- Sooooo good!

I am already half way though my internship and time has been flying by. I have learned so much already and I can’t wait to see what else I will experience during the rest of my internship.

I still want to explore what New York has to offer. But because I work full time it is kind of hard to do stuff when I get out of work at 6:30 or 7 pm and I’m tired....

I just have to make myself do it, when will I ever get the chance again?

Second Week

This is my second week into the internship and it has only gotten busier.

For the past three days we have been doing check ins...

I have also been given the task of updating the market list. It is a contact list of every single PR person that we work with for each brand. its is an excel document that is 30 PAGES LONG!

I don't think I will be done with that until Friday. I have to call every single person and just verify each contact's info.

Lately I have also been running a lot of errands. the fashion assistants will need something hand delivered or picked up so I have to go to various showrooms around the city. I kind of like doing this because I get to get out of the office for a bit.

One thing that I sometimes get anxious about is that sometimes I feel that I'm a bit out of the loop on somethings. Because I'm running errands all over town or doing some other project I'm not really interacting or working with the supervisors as much as the other interns. I wish I can be given just a bit more responsibility. This is probably the case because the other 2 interns started 2 weeks before me so the editors just know them a little better. But I still wish I could some how prove myself more. I take every opportunity to ask if anyone needs help and to also get projects done on time so I think I'm doing pretty well. I might email my supervisor to see if there are anything I can improve on while I'm here because I'm half way done with my internship.

On another note, by chance I ran into the Fashion Director of my magazine and she was actually pretty nice. She introduced herself and asked me questions about where I was from and how I was liking New York. I was really intimidated because she is such an important person at the magazine but she was really really nice :) The encounter really made my day a bit brighter.

I have been having to stay late a lot this week so I have been really tired so that is why I haven't updated as much (sorry)

anyway....

Here are a few pics of the outfits I have been wearing and also a haul of the stuff I have bought recently.

OUTFITS:

1. Monday

2. Tuesday

3. Wednesday

Haul...

Detail Pics...

The Weekend.

What a fun and crazy weekend it has been!

Before I start I want to just say Happy New Years to everyone.

I hope that we all have enough motivation to keep our resolutions for 2011.

Friday- 12/31

My friends and I had decided that we wanted to experience a true New Years Eve celebration this year. What better place to do this than the middle of Time Square! We arrived early at around 2 in the afternoon in hopes of getting a good spot for the ball drop. 42nd street was all a buzz with tourists all trying to do the same thing. We immediately try to find out what were we needed to go, but it was a zoo in time square. Police had no clue what was going on and could not tell us where to even go. we just decided to wait in one place for them to clear the streets but the crowd in Time Square got increasingly more chaotic...

The next thing we know we are all pinned to the side of TGIFridays being squished between thousands of people like sardines. People were screaming in panic and the people inside the restaurants were trapped inside and the door could not be opened. To tell you the truth I was a bit scared because of all the commotion.

We were finally able to get out of the mess and go to one of the designated entry ways, Once we got to this point we were finally able to go to our section for the ball drop. Now it was just a matter of waiting until 11:59...

During the long wait my friends and I ate the snacks we brought and talked most of the time. Surprisingly the hours seemed to go pretty quickly, and luckily the temperature that day was pretty mild.

We met a few people in the section we were in, many of them were tourists. Two guys came from France just for New Years. And two other girls from Japan were only here for three days just to see the ball drop in time square (Two of those days were just spent traveling to and from Japan!!) I thought that it was crazy that people would take such huge trip just for one day!

Here are some pictures of Time Square and friends!

(our new Japanese friends)

Over all I thought that going to Times Square for NYE was worth it. It was something I have always wanted to do and it was a once in the lifetime chance that I happened to be in New York during the new year.

Immediately after the ball drop we turned around and saw the amazing fire works from Central Park go off!

Surprisingly after being out all day my friends and I were just getting started with our night. We really wanted to ring in the New Years right so we trekked it back to our apartment building to get changed and head back out with everyone to a local bar. We happened upon a random Irish pub around the corner from our apartment. We all ordered and round of Bailey's and laughed and talked the night away...

Saturday - 1/1

The first day of the new year started off with a bang. I did what I did best and went shopping with some friends. We decided to go to this awesome outlet mall called Jersey Gardens. It is an outlet mall that has hundreds of stores all selling discounted items. I got a lot of awesome things and got some good deals! If you ever get the chance to go there DO IT. You won't regret it.

Here is a preview of what I got...

*I'm planning on doing a real haul in the next post

my motivation..

Sunday- 1/2

They say that Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, well I decided to see for myself.

A few friends and I took the L train straight into Bedford Avenue, which is the heart of Williamsburg. Williamsburg is a trendy part of Brooklyn filled with young hipster and the quirky bohemian crowd. We were constantly passing people who had such unique fashion!

We walked all along Bedford Ave. and stopped into the cute clothing boutiques and coffee shops.

We wanted to do a little vintage shopping while we were in town so we went to a place called Beacon's Closet. IT IS AMAZING!! don't walk-- run to this vintage store. The had amazing finds. I got 2 designer jeans and some leather boots that look really expensive.

My friend even scored a Marc Jacobs sweater for 25 dollars, usually those sweaters go for 200+ dollars in a regular department store.

*I will be doing a haul for those clothes tomorrow so stop by again tomorrow night to see what I got.

someone randomly knitted a cozy for their bike

Like I said it has been a very eventful weekend. Now it is back to the grind. :)

Until then,

Michelle

UPS.MODELS.AND SWAG!

SORRY SORRY SORRY. I skipped a post yesterday because I was so tired. I will try and do a double post to make up for it. :)

December 29th- Wednesday

Yesterday was a Extremely busy day!

A few days ago I had said that I was alphabetizing all of the clothes on the return racks in order for them to be shipped out later.

Well that day came... yesterday we did returns from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm

The job of returning clothes can be pretty repetitive. The process goes like so:

1. Go to the return rack and grab a piece of clothing.

2. look at the label and see who the designer is

3. Go to a website called thelookbook.com (a huge database that contains addresses to pr offices, fashion designers, stylist, etc. It is basically the yellow pages for the fashion industry).

On the website you type in the designer name and find out where the garment needs to be shipped to.

4. create a shipping label using the contact info through ups or the messenger service.

5. Take pictures of each garment

6. pack up garment in box or envelope

As you can see it is a long process! Between the interns and the fashion assistants we must have done this at least 150 times! I wish I could have taken a picture of all the UPS envelops and boxes waiting in the hallway to be picked up it was INSANE!

At the end of the day I was really tired and was ready to pretty much pass out for the night.

Here is the outfit I wore that day....

After doing returns I have to say that I have definitely learned a lot about the industry. I have learned about different PR companies and different brands that are out there.

I was even able to call the famous PR office -- Peoples Revolution (the PR company that is featured on "The City" with Whitney Port).

:)

BTW:

I got my first free swag item. It is only a Forever21 skirt but hey at least it is something. When I got it I found out that it was not a small but an extra small. It is a little tight so maybe I might give it away or something.

December 30th- Thursday

Today was a less stressful day...

We had finished up most of the returns and the closet was starting to look in better shape.

This morning I had to organize the collection of tights by knits, prints, etc. The task seemed pretty easy. I was able to get it done in a timely manner and was able to put them away. But when my supervisor came to check my work she said that some things were not correct and that it needed to be fixed. I felt a little bad because I thought I had done a good job. I was worried that maybe my boss was annoyed at the fact that she had to pick up after me.

I really just want to make the best impression and do a good job in the short time that I'm here. But I shouldn't worry too much, we all make mistakes and we just have to learn from them!

I got to talk to one of my other supervisors, a fashion assistant and she was telling me and another intern about how she got to where she was.

She majored in Graphic Design and found her way to magazines. She interned a various large magazines and was lucky enough to find a job right out of college in her current position!

Her story has reinforced my knowledge of the power of connections in the fashion/publishing industry. This particular fashion assistant found her job through a mentor who worked at one of the publications she used to intern for. Her mentor heard about an opening and passed along her information.

Every person who I have talked to seems to always get their positions in this manner. It is all in the power of NETWORKING!

The other half of the day was spent helping out one of the fashion assistants with the models and pictures....

The magazine often has open model castings where people come in and auditon to be in the magazine, or the modeling agency sends a few model pictures to the magazine.

All of these pictures get filed away in large closets.

Since we were kind of doing some spring cleaning me and a fellow intern had to go through all of these pictures and decide which to keep and which to throw out!

This was a very eye opening assignment because we had to just use our best judgement to decide which models would make the cut.

whether they were too fat or too skinny

Not pretty enough

Not the right look for the mag.

at first it was a bit hard to have someone's fate in your hands so to speak. but after about an hour honestly every model starts to look the same. I don't think I could ever be a model, that industry is WAY to critical.

Some of the pictures even had notes on them from editors that would say "nose too big" "bad teeth" "Not pretty"

But it was nice to know that the magazine also takes into account weight. We didn't keep models who were too skinny!

Today was a short day because it was the day before NYE so we got out around 2:30ish :)

Ill end with some pics...

(No outfit post today. I got lazy, and I wasn't really wearing anything special anyway)

These are pictures of the amazing view from the office. The entire office has glass windows as walls so they offer spectacular views of NYC

*These are just pictures from the morning time but you should see it at night when everything is lit up, you would just DIE

Sexy or Messy?

*this is the amazing view from the roof of my apartment building!

(in the picture on the left, the green and red lit building is the empire state building)

Today was the second day as a fashion intern. It was extremely busy in the closet and I am really exhausted but I really wanted to update the blog before the end of the day.

I started my day in the closet the way I had left, I had to finish reorganizing the return racks. I had to put the rest of the clothes in alphabetical order. Luckily the other two interns were able to make it to the office today so the job went a bit faster.

The other two interns are really nice. They are both from New Jersey! They are so lucky that they live so close to Manhattan, they could intern anytime during the year.

This internship is the first big internship for all three of us so I think it will be a great learning experience for everyone and we will become good friends. :)

After slaving away with the return racks we were able to finish by mid-day. The next task that I was assigned was to organize the sunglasses and jewelry in the accessories drawers. That was a pretty easy job compared to the last one and it was cool to look at all of the different brands.

Tom Ford. Prada. DVF.

While I was organizing the accessories the other two interns were assigned a task. They had to go outside and ask 100 men a question for a survey. They had a picture of a celebrity and they would show the pic and ask the guy if her hair style was sexy or messy.

Back at the office I was able to talk and learn more about my supervisor who is one of the fashion assistants. She shared tips about the fashion industry and also about how she got to where she is today. It was really interesting! I'm glad that I was able to talk to her personally and form a connection. She is super nice and is someone I would like to learn more from.

The two other girls finally came back from surveying random guys but they still didn't have 100 people yet. So the fashion assistiant suggested that I give it a try. I was excited to be given a new task and to also have a chance to get out of the office.

But I quickly found out that this job is much harder than it seems. Since my office is pretty close to central park I trekked out there because I thought it would be a lot of people. But a lot of people would avoid the girl with the clipboard. (go figure...)

So It took me about an hour and a half to find 70 men to answer a simple question. But I felt really accomplished after I got the job done!

After returning to the office I was given another organizational job where I had to clean out one of the storage closets that holds all of the plastic bags, shoe boxes, etc. THAT TOOK FOREVER.

But I was able to finish and my supervisor was impressed. :)

It was a looong day. but I enjoyed my time there and I learned a lot.

Tomorrow we will be doing even more with the returns because we want to clear everything out by the end of the day. I think the fashion assistants are trying to organize the closet as much as possible before the beginning of the new year where everyone is returning from vacay.

Here is the outfit I wore today....

Things I learned today..

- start looking into maybe interning for PR

- explore Brooklyn before I leave

- I learned more about a fashion assistant's job

- I learned that Duane Reade is crazy EXPENSIVE (NOTE TO SELF:MICHELLE PLEASE STOP SHOPPING THERE!!)

And to end on a good note..

*I needed to by a shower cap and the only one they had at the drugstore was this lovely pink number. (and the thing cost me 10 stupid dollars, it needed its own photo shoot)

First Day

Today was the first day of my internship!

I started my day by making my way to the office via the subway. Unfortunately because of the bad weather many trains were delayed and I was left waiting for about 20 minutes. Luckily My train came just in time for me to get to my office at exactly 10 am.

The office was virtually empty because a lot of the staff were still on vacation. Two of the other fashion interns were not able to make it today because of the bad roads.

One of the fashion assistants introduced herself and showed me what I would be doing for the day..

Most fashion magazines have hundreds and hundreds of clothing samples in their closet. Designers and PR firms lend out samples to different magazines so they can use them in their publication.

A fashion editor will request many different items and only a select few get featured in the magazine. The rest of the clothing samples are organized and sent back to the designers.

So today I had to go through all the "Return" racks and organize each clothing sample in alphabetical order based on the brand name.

I have to admit I was pretty overwhelmed when I was first given this task because there seemed to be a never ending pile of clothes and I was the only intern who showed up today.

But after about an hour things started to get better. I created a system that worked and I was able to get a lot accomplished!

The job I had for the day was pretty tedious but it was still really cool to be handling the clothes. Many of the samples were things that will be in store in spring and summer of next year so I am one of the first few people to see what will be selling in a few months :)

I am excited to see what they will have me do tomorrow. I hope that the other two interns come in tomorrow. I am excited to meet them and become friends!

Here are two pics I took of the fashion closet....

After work I was pretty tired. I had been putting things in alphabetical order from 10:30 am to about 4ish.

I went to a TJMAXX to check things out and look what I found...

Valentino?!?! Chloe?!?!

@ TJMAXX?!?

I thought this was crazy, and pretty cool at the same time. ONLY IN NEW YORK.

After that I went to an H & M to just look around.

I found the famous Lanvin for H&M fur coat. I thought that was weird that they had one in stock seeing as how fashionistas waited in line at 6am when the clothing line came in stores a month ago.

And it was my size too so I HAD to try it out.

>>>>>>

I ended up just buying two things.

- A beautiful beetle ring that could go with pretty much anything

-and a fur scarf

Pics below...