Hi everyone,

Last week was my final week at Bottle Blonde and this week I moved onto a very different internship. For this internship I actually get to work from home, or wherever I choose as it’s all done remotely. I’m working for a new brand named Boodica who are a women’s wear clothing brand. I was and still am a bit nervous about this internship most of all because of the element that drew me towards it in the first place – working from home so below you can see my new work space. I know I have the skills and software and such required to do this job however the sense of freedom and choice in design without a continuous eye looking over my shoulder or someone I can run to and get an approval from in 30 seconds scares me as it’s not my decisions that are the final ones. Of course I do have communication with the company however it’s all via email, phone and skype, on occasion if I need something teaching to me for example spec pack writing I can meet up with a person however this won’t be on a regular basis. 

Laptop

My previous internships I have worked full time everyday however for this one as I am working from home I am only working 3 full days with the remainder of the week to myself  however it is only a short internship so we shall see how I get along it could be extended. This reduce in my amount of work allows me to have time to think and organise research trips and disability meeting in preparation for my final year which is a refreshing change in comparison to working full time. One of the key skills I am learning on this internship is self motivation and self confidence. I am making most of the decisions in my designs unlike my previous placements I have more freedom of choice which means I need to be more decisive when researching and designing. Personally I have lacked self confidence in the past especially when designing however after several months and internships I feel a lot more confident in this role than if I had began with this placement. However because I am working remotely it is important that I have good personal timekeeping otherwise I could end up overworking myself or not completing my hours of work. From researching and designing then developing to the final garments design at university I understand how much time is required to create good designs and therefore how many I can produce in the amount of time I have whilst working for Boodica.

Hoodie Trend Board

Going back to my actual placement at Boodica my job role is designing Gym wear, this role was unexpected but I am working my hardest with all my skills I have learnt from previous internships to create good designs that are functional and innovative. Personally I don’t go to the gym, I don’t workout ever, running for the bus is about as much exercise as I ever do but I am up for the challenge being a woman who loves to wear leggings but also finds them inconvenient or a pain to wear generally. I began my week doing my trend research which will continue to expand and increase as I design more and more. I used well known gym brands such as GymShark, Nike and Adidas as well as general fashion brands such as ASOS, H&M and Primark to research gym wear and the types of garments people choose to wear for workouts or throw on after which I compiled into trend boards to reference when designing an example of a trend board is above. From there as with university projects I began designing, however I don’t want to just mass produce designs with the majority being virtually copies or rubbish. I focused on designing a 3 outfits across my 3 days of work to allow myself more time working on each garment and not cause myself stress. At the end of the week with my completed designs I emailed them onto my overhead at Boodica and happily relaxed for the weekend as I have decided to make sure to request no responses to my work until Monday otherwise I will overwork, over stress and generally destroy my mental health.

In my personal life this week I have had rather a busy week. Mid week I was fortunate to be awarded with a certificate and little gift by the coventry.domains faculty of the university for my hard work, use and content of my blog! I attended a presentation at which staff members of different faculty explained how the integrated using coventry.domains into their courses and how it expanded their students CV’s, however I was there because I took an experimental advantage course on how to set up your own domain in my second year which I then have made over several times for different reasons and now use as my placement year blog. I felt very honored to be given the award and the general use of it has helped me grow as a person and inspired me to do other projects involving blogging and learning html coding. I also had a very busy weekend with a planning meeting for a Girl Guides trip I have planned for this summer which is in its final stages and I am excited to go on. We are traveling across several countries in Europe and writing a story as we go, hopefully this trip will also be an excellent opportunity to get some primary research for my final year collection.

Coventry.domains award