Hi again,

So week 4 in London with Amanda Kelly, how time flies!

     This week a lot of boxes and suitcases of fabrics have arrived and we have had to go through the boxes and bags marking every pattern with a highlighter on the header and some with dots on the digital files. To begin with I was very confused at why one box we highlighted with a purple line, another case an orange one and then the red dots on some but not all digital files. Curious I asked the office manager what all these colours mean. I then began to understand how they keep track of where all the fabrics are mailed out to, where they’ve been sold and which patterns have been sold. Each highlighted colour means a different country, by marking them with the highlighter you can see every country that pattern has visited in the quest to be sold. The red dots next to the digital files however mean the file itself has been sold, the company keeps hold of original copies of all its sold files however I’m unsure of for how long.

   Generally that way if a client who has purchased a pattern say wants it put into repeat we then have the file ready to access and complete the request. Now although this all sounds rather dull and unimportant to many of you readers, I believe learning about how they organise their patterns in such a simple, but effective way has taught me a great organisation skill I can take back with me into my final year. Using colour to organise files makes it much faster to see which file is relevant to which topic. With the many different elements I shall encounter in my final year I believe this will be incredibly useful to stay on top of work and find files when I need them most.

We also do rather a lot of labeling of sample prints so they are ready to be shown to clients. However when a styling or fabric isn’t correctly headered then if it were to be sold we can’t send the client the digital file for them to print themselves. Fortunately this doesn’t happen often, however this week we were given a restyled dress front that was made up of 2-3 prints, 2 of the prints were very similar and I assumed they would be and A+B File. I had to ask the designers who’s work it was and luckily they all agreed it was one specific designer’s work but it they had no idea when it was drawn other than pre-2016. Over the course of 2 days I searched through every single design said designer created between 2011-2016, 10,800 designs and FINALLY found 2 of the 3 designs. I never realized quite how many prints a designer could produce in a month no matter about a year.

    This week in my spare time I had a movie night with my flatmate and 2 of her friends, the movie we chose – ”Miss Sloane”. It was a very interesting and political movie that I believe is a great watch for feminists and women who want to see a woman take the lead for once. The film stars Jessica Chastain who plays a powerful, cutthroat lobbyist who is using all of her skills to back the ”Heaton-Harris bill”. The ”Heaton-Harris bill” is for stronger regulations and background checks to be enforced when purchasing guns. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now this movie is set in the US. To fight for this bill Miss Sloane has moved to a much smaller lobbying firm and must now take on her old firm, a lobbying giant and a gun manufacturer. The film is about Miss Sloane and her fiendish tactics and incredible mind that have plummeted her at a congressional hearing in the opening scene, to answer questions about possible violations of Senate ethics rules whilst at her previous firm. I would definitely recommend this film to my passionately political and feminist friends, however don’t watch this film when you’re tired. This movie requires all of your attention to follow and understand what is going on in some scenes. Overall a very good film that I would recommend if you’re struggling to find something to watch.

I believe that is all for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading and I haven’t bored too many people until next week I think that is all.