Sarah Lindop – Page 2 – Fashion Intern

Coventry – Week 4

On February 10, 2019

Hi Everyone,

End of week 4 with Bottle Blonde and only 1 week remaining how time files.

This past week has been incredibly busy and I’ve been doing a variety of things from gif’s to decorating in preparation for BB’s Blogger day. I began the week making a multi-functional gif for the BB Instagram of a Polaroid camera printing. In order to do this I had to learn how to make a gif, Rachel another intern at BB showed me how to do this. Over my time so far interning at BB and Amanda Kelly I’ve found that a lot of industry learning comes from speaking to other interns/people around you and learning from their experiences. With Rachel’s help I learned a very simple way to create a gif using Photoshop this probably won’t be useful in a direct application of how I learned the skill, however as all my work is digital it could be a unique stand out piece in my sketchbook or portfolio in my final year.

All Credits to Bottle Blonde Studio. Item was a one of piece and is no longer available.

Chloe asked me to design a very specific print this week, a BB styled edition of a print she used way back in the early days of BB. As you can see above the print is made of magazine covers however as we don’t want to get sued I made my own take on this by making magazine covers from BB images. In order to do this I took several magazines, Pinterest and my knowledge I have learnt from uni about PR to research how to design magazine covers that look professional, creating BB’s own magazine fabric. PR is something that although we have learnt about it at uni to present our photography project I haven’t ever been very good at so this was a challenge I was willing to take on in order to improve my skills. The main tips I learnt whilst researching for this design was the photographs are absolutely key to a good cover. For front covers you want more look book styled photos from a shoot, the photos don’t necessarily need to show a garment or a product, cover photos are more art in themselves. Although I’m still not amazing however I feel I have personally grown my skills in the field and they are now rather good, my additional Photoshop skills have certainly helped to create this print.

Photo credits to Bottle Blonde Studio
Photo credits to Bottle Blonde Studio

An exciting event that happened this week was the brand ambassador day, for this we had a tidy up and makeover of the entire studio. By the end of the day we had completely made over the studio into an unrecognizable space with tinsel hanging from the lights, new photo shoot space and freshly decorated tables. After tidying, me and 2 other interns decorated all the pattern cutting and general work space tables. To decorate them we ripped interesting pages from magazines, taped them to the tables then covered the tables in a sticky textured vinyl creating tables as bold as Bottle Blonde itself. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the ambassador day itself because of an accident at home however from Instagram it looked amazing and the whole tidy redecorating really became worth it.

New photo shoot space
New table

In my personal life this week it was 2 of my best friend’s 21st Birthdays, I’ve known these girls since I was 4 years old and we are still as good of friend’s as ever. Me and my boyfriend went home for the weekend to celebrate their birthdays and have a catch up with my family which was really lovely. I also got as cheeky load of laundry in as I love our tumble dryer at home so I took advantage of this opportunity.

Month 3

By Sarah

On February 3, 2019

In Internships, January - February, October - December

I’m now halfway through my placement year which is a total of 6 months long. I’ve moved from London back up to the Midlands then in the new year begun my second placement with Bottle Blonde in Coventry.

The change in environment was dramatic moving from Amanda Kelly to Bottle Blonde however is giving me a good understanding of different target markets, design styles and the industry as a whole. I’ve learnt a lot about myself in this past month (technically 2 months) about how I work best, what style I prefer to design to and presentation styles I prefer. In this months 5 things I’ve learnt and 5 things I’ve put into practice I’m also going to add a couple of points of how I have personally developed during my industry year so far.

Top 5 skills I have learnt and gotten to put into practice –

Abstract Illustration, in my first year at uni I learnt about how fashion illustration doesn’t always have to be pretty and life like, I developed my own unique illustration style which sometimes can be very abstract. I’ve then used this abstract illustration skill to design unique prints inspired by retro pieces.
Understanding a brand and its image, during uni we have been given projects in which we have to design a product for a specific brand. In order to do this you must understand the brand and it’s vibe, I learnt how to swiftly summarize a brand in 5 images which was incredibly helpful for me to then understand and design to fit the brands I am working for during my industry year.
Design development, constantly throughout my university experience I have needed to create, design and then develop the design to a final piece. This development skill has been very useful to produce the best prints possible from my ideas rather than sticking with the initial concept. From developing the prints have been enhanced and improved to pieces I am now proud to put in my portfolio of work.
Multimedia design, throughout my degree I have learnt about combining my skills to design. I have learnt about when designing you don’t necessarily have to only draw, you can use photos, collage, cut and outline silhouettes to create a final design. This skill is very useful when it comes to my print designs as it widens my perspective and skills again improving my print designs.
Time keeping, of course with uni comes deadlines, however working to these deadlines have helped me improve my time keeping skills and pace of work. Working to deadlines at uni has helped me work at a fast pace without losing quality of work as well as achieving lots within the working day.

Primary research 1
Primary research 2

Top 5 skills I have learnt on the job that will be useful in final year –

How to remove noise from a photo/illustration, when editing prints at clients request at Amanda Kelly if the print was originally done by hand in water colour on a special paper they wanted the paper texture removing from the pattern presumably because they intend to screen print the pattern. I learnt how to remove said ‘’noise’’ from the image making it smooth and digital. This will be a useful skill for any hand drawing I do then scan it to make a more seamless page whether that be for my sketchbook or portfolio.
Alternative Primary Research, whilst working at Bottle Blonde I have have to learn and understand a whole new way to research to create primary images that I can manipulate and or draw from for my prints. As I’m designing retro styled prints I have learnt about how to create your own primary retro research by visiting vintage fares, looking through old family photos and aging newer products. This has given me a new perspective on primary image photos and also allows me to widen my inspiration options when designing for my final major project.
Importance of Image sizing for digital use, I assisted on resizing images for Bottle Blonde’s new website which launched in January. Although it was a pain resizing all the images I learnt and understood image sizing digitally for websites looks visually more appealing when all the same size. This isn’t necessarily something that is useful for my final year itself however it is useful to remember when photographing my FMP and presenting it digitally.
Colour codes, although it’s a very small thing I have learnt when it comes to consistency this will help me no end. I learnt that to colour match you can type in the # code at the bottom of the colour picker, you can type this is on most digital services when choosing colours and it will select the exact same colour every time. As I personally like to colour coordinate everything I can into the same 2 shades of purple this is a much speedier and more accurate way to ensure it’s the exact same shade of purple across all platforms from digital portfolios to sketchbooks.
Pattern sizing, when I worked in London at Amanda Kelly we only drew pattern squares not knowing what the prints would then be used for when sold. Then when moving onto my second placement at BB I have been designing more prints however with a specific purpose so I needed to understand and learn how to make sure when printed how big one square should be. Chloe decided the best route would be to scale it accurately onto an A4 piece of paper then that’ll tell you without printing on any computer how large or small a print is. Doing this has helped me to design to the best scale that it won’t look out of proportion on a person and understand the sizing.

Overall so far I feel have developed significantly as a person and designer. From working in the industry I’m learning what I do and don’t like working with in terms of materials, my strongest skills and what I need to improve on as well as what I want to do for my FMP then career. I’m still unsure what I want to do for my final major project however prior to starting my intern year I thought I didn’t ever want to run my own business even as a side project. However from working at BB Chloe has inspired me that if I come up with an idea for my final major that I love with a passion I could potentially pursue creating my own business. At the moment I feel I’m leaning towards designing womenswear with my own prints or accessories however this is just theories for now.

Coventry – Week 3

By Sarah

On February 2, 2019

In Internships, January - February

Hi all,

This week I have been doing general research for design ideas and print ideas for the brand for SS19. In my past 2 years at university we have researched trends then chosen a trend to base a piece/module off of, however in this case I am researching for a brand to see what coming trends best fit the style of the brand and its vibe. It’s interesting now understanding the difference and how the industry works to design their collections for each season. When I conducted my research there wasn’t one outstanding trend that perfectly fitted with BB’s image so I expanded on shapes and inspirational ideas from several of the trends for the season which best fit the brand. This skill for combining trends correctly to fit a brand’s vision will be very useful for creating my own collection in my final year, as it allows me to understand how to combine silhouettes to create my own style whilst staying on trend with the colours and such of the chosen season.

I have also gotten back into designing BB’s summer swimwear prints and have really been on a roll designing prints that fit with the vibe and the CEO loves. As I’m designing period inspired prints I must be careful to not infringe any copyright laws or produce any prints that look too similar to prints of the time. For this type of design and my graphic postcards its critically important to insure nothing I produce has any form of copyright protection on it as of course we don’t want to be sued/fined. The skills I have learnt for searching for whether something already exists in terms of silhouettes and phrase copyright will be very useful in my final year to ensure I create my own unique work and have all licences to show my work and present it as fully mine. I was surprised whilst doing my research of phrases what phrases I needed were and weren’t copyrighted.

Whilst designing some stunning swimwear prints I found it rather difficult to visualise how big a print would be and therefore see it on a person. To understand in terms of sizing how large it would print we decided to scale the prints in the size they were drawn onto an A4 piece of paper to see how large or small the design appeared. This technique although simple I have found really useful to help me make sure everything is in the proportions I designed. This will be useful for if I want to design my own prints in my final year as well as any future prints I design. I learnt from my first year to always check the proportions and positioning of a print/etch before printing otherwise you’ll waste materials and time therefore this time I remembered to measure my proportions and understand how large I have sized something prior to printing.

Finally I drew some mandala’s to be vinyl applied to tye dye tops. I’m personally not great at drawing mandala’s on a computer however I found there any many free online sites which help you draw them. I learnt if a resource exists and will not cause you to infringe copyright or anything then it’s best to take the help. With my hand condition I do usually forget that it’s okay to ask people for help or say I can’t do something and that is definitely something I should remember when I go into my final year that it’s okay to ask for help. I drew many many mandala designs all unique and then the CEO/Company owner chose her favourite which will be printed onto BB tye dye t-shirts. I can’t show you the final design as they aren’t available as of yet however here are some of the other designs I created for the tops.

Mandala 1
Mandala 2
Mandala 3
Mandala 4

Coventry – Week 2

By Sarah

On January 27, 2019

In Internships, January - February

Hi everyone,

Week 2 at Bottle Blonde Studio and I’m absolutely loving it.

This week now the website has been launched it was back to print designs and so I began drawing very graphic icons of various pieces of technology from the 70s/80s/90s. In my second year we were challenged to represent a brand without stating the name with 5 photos, here I learnt how a brand’s image is very important and can allow you to identify how well different silhouettes, colours and items would fit in with a brand. I used this skill this week by doing more research and looking round the studio to understand the vibe of the brand better, I concluded that retro tech prints and postcards would fit in well with the brand’s vision. Everyone has their own drawing style, mine tends to be very detailed whether it’s sketchy or precise which as I’m doing drawings of vintage products helps me to style the pieces of tech to fit the brand more. Developing my own illustration style will be very useful for my final year as it helps clearly define my work from everyone else’s, as I’m now onto my second print design placement my personal style is ever developing. My first and second years have helped me to understand how to develop an idea to its full potential rather than leaving it at its initial starting point and I use this with each pattern as well as my drawing style.

Record Graphic

I’ve decided the best way for me to go about developing prints is by drawing segments/icons which can then be layered, repeated and positioned in prints. As Bottle Blonde has a very bold neon colour scheme I needed to make sure the colours I used where bright too and when necessary match the Bottle Blonde pink. I learnt that to perfectly match a colour when you go on the colour picker if you type in the # code at the bottom then it matches the colour. This is incredibly useful to me for my final year as I have 2 shades of purple I personally use in everything I can as my own identifiers, knowing this fact saves so much time making sure I have the exact same purple for whatever purposes I need.

Colour Number

As apart of my jobs I’ve been asked to design some postcards that can be sold on the BB website along with prints. This week I have been researching styles of postcards and potential quotes I could put on a BB postcard, as my personal style is very graphic I have been doing graphic drawn cards that can be given as gifts or kept and pinned up for yourself. As BB loves bright colors attempting to put quotes over a vibrant background can be difficult, but outlining a white font can solve this issue and make it much clearer to read. So I learnt how to outline a text in photoshop and this enhanced and completed the design. This is generally helpful for when text is needed over several colours as it can be very difficult to read, outlining in another colour defines the texts and allows the reader to read much clearer. So far over my industry year I’ve learnt a lot of Photoshop skills for which each new one I make a tutorial for my own personal use as the human mind can only hold so much. These files as well as the skills they hold will be useful in my final year to make sure all of the work I produce is at the highest quality for my abilities.

Before
After

Finally in my personal life this week I have been doing some other designing, a very long time ago a stranger contacted me on Facebook and asked if I would be interested in doing some TV inspired graphic t-shirts. After way too long because of personal issues I finally got round to doing some designing, I haven’t done much because of other priorities such as uni and my internships however it’s just a nice little pocket money earner whilst I do my placement year. Personally I have designed ‘’Peaky Blinders’’, ‘’How I met your mother’’, ‘’Friends’’ and ‘’Stranger things’’ inspired tops. Designing for graphic tops is very different to the prints and postcards I am designing at BB however furthers my design skills and knowledge.

Coventry – Week 1

By Sarah

On January 19, 2019

In Internships, January - February

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hi all,

So it’s now 2019 and with the new year I have begun a new internship in a whole different environment, new vibe, new job and new people. 14th of January I started my second placement of my industry year with Bottle Blonde Studio in Coventry, who make festival wear and generally have a 70s/80s/90s bright and vibrant vibe going on. Bottle Blonde is incredibly different from my previous placement with Amanda Kelly who were designing prints aimed at high street stores and mass market.

For a first week at a job it was rather hectic and fast pace, however this is because we were aiming and successfully launching the new website for the Friday of my first week working here. On my first day I was given my official job title/duties for whilst I’m working at Bottle Blonde, my job is designing prints and little graphics such as postcards, fonts if needed and patterns for other items. I was expecting to be sewing some of the iconic tinsel cascade jackets when starting this job however I’m excited I get to design some more bold prints and just do general graphics for the company as it’s something I’m passionate about. The first job I was given was just researching the vibes of the brand so I could understand and be inspired to create my own prints in an 70s/80s/90s. In comparison to how I researched for prints in London it’s rather difficult to create your own images to draw from when it’s for a fashion period rather than nature/ more doodle styled prints. Fortunately my mother and boyfriend’s mother have tons of photos of them wearing 80s fashion which helped give me inspiration for colours, shapes and rough layouts without copying the exact patterns. I’ve used but also expanded my research skills I’ve learnt at university which will be useful for my final year understanding alternative research methods and how to create your own primary images when working with themes that aren’t easily available for primary research i.e. 80s fashion rather than flowers.

As we were preparing for the website launch this week I assisted Rachel who was mainly in charge of setting up the new site. For the new site Rachel wanted all the product images on the shop page to be the same standard size which involved resizing all the photos from the old website in terms of pixels to the same size. Resizing takes a very long time as we had to copy and paste every photo from the website into a correct size Photoshop document, in order to make sure they were all the exact dimensions that we required. Although it took days to resize and upload to the new site it was definitely worth it, I learnt that digitally having all images on a page the same size gives a more professional and put together visual look. This will be useful when creating portfolio pages as well as organising my own blog and such in my final year as well as my general future.

And finally in my personal life I went out to research more 70s/80s/90s inspiration ready for more pattern designs and play with my new camera I was given for Christmas. I know at some point in the coming weeks Chloe (the CEO/owner) wants me to design some graphic gift cards and postcards for the brand and so I also went and gathered some inspiration for this some pieces just for the layout, others ideas of little card packs so hopefully they’ll be available soon. Also as I’m working in Coventry now I had to find another place to live since I no longer have student accommodation and unfortunately commuting from Leicester is just takes a bit too long to be worth it, but luckily for me my boyfriend lives just outside of Coventry. Each day I commute from his village to Coventry via bus which is a big change from my 45 minute 2 tubes to Amanda Kelly in London, I also appreciate that living with him I no longer feel lonely and when I have issues I now have someone to talk to and help sort through them which wasn’t so easy to do in London.

London – Week 11

By Sarah

On December 16, 2018

In Internships, October - December

Hi everyone,

Week 11, my final week in London at Amanda Kelly how time has flown by. Despite being the final week for interns before Christmas we were still reasonably busy. The designers decided to try a new ”shape” this week and made a jumpsuit, they were unsure about how to go about making trousers with all but one never having made any before. However in my first year I learnt how to make jean at university and as these are trousers that aren’t going to be worn they are much simpler to make. My sewing skills were very useful to the designers and reassured me that after so many weeks of not sewing I haven’t lost my skills.

We also got some more time to draw this week however not until close to he end which was not enough time for me to design anymore patterns so instead I decided to get in the festive mood by drawing some Christmas cards for my friends and family. Over the past 11 weeks my digital drawing skills have visibly improved and my ease of using a graphic’s tablet has increased. My time in London has been great and I’ve learnt so much that I know will be useful not only in my final year but other internships during the year and later my career. Below is a picture I drew for my godmother for Christmas using all the photoshop and drawing skills I have learnt over this internship and personally I believe it shows my skill increase already. I have also gotten to put my skills into practice creating my own repeat pattern for a gift for my godmother for Christmas.

As it was my final week I also moved back home again ready for Christmas, fortunately my lovely boyfriend came and picked me up and drove me home otherwise it would’ve been a struggle. For this year this is my final post, in the new year I start my next internship with a festival wear company and I’m excited to see what new skills I can learn there but for now, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

London – Week 10

By Sarah

On December 9, 2018

In Internships, October - December

Hi again,

This week was rather a slow one as Amanda Kelly herself flew off to New York for our final 2 weeks before Christmas not as much work came in as it was already too late for it to go on any big trips. Instead this week we got to learn more about the techniques the designers use, styles of patterns and the organisation of the office.

As my hands don’t function particularly well when it comes to the idea of drawing small pictures on paper and scanning them in for patterns my mood drops, as I know I can’t do this on paper losing some of the beauty in the design. However the designers showed us how they also do some more abstract textures and such on paper to scan which I am able to do. Using my illustration skills I learnt in my first year I was able to create some interesting brush marks and textures that could be turned into skins and other patterns digitally. Despite the fact most of the designers purely work digitally, when they do use physical design methods and combine the techniques I have learnt it can enhance certain designs depending on what you are drawing of course.

As the tye dyes were so popular we got to make some more, using random knots and tying weird things into them to see how they would turn out. I have mentioned before one of the other interns has a masters and knows a lot about dying, so because we had more time we decided to try and get some items to rust into the fabrics leaving interesting colours and patterns and it worked! The metal objects left behind orange and brown marks into the fabrics which made beautiful patterns when further dyed. I have learnt that not all fabric patterning techniques are necessarily expensive, rusting random household objects into fabric can also produce unique patterns.

We also had an unusual request this week of a client wanting the texture removing from a pattern. As the print was originally done by hand in watercolour on a special paper they wanted the paper texture removing from the pattern presumably because they intend to screen print the pattern. As both the other interns were busy this task was left to me. I tried several techniques and photoshop features to attempt to remove it however most made the pattern either look childish or too blurry. Then one of the designers showed me how she used to remove similar things at her previous job and it did amazing work removing the texture without destroying the pattern. She showed me how on photoshop the element I’m attempting to remove is called ”Noise” and there is a feature where you can increase the amount of noise you’d like to remove, this feature did 95% of my job and still kept the pattern looking great. Then to further this you can add a median which overall smooths it further evenly. This technique I’m sure will be helpful in my final year if not for designing but giving a more professional look to my sketchbook, portfolio and final photoshoot images.

Finally in my personal life as it’s coming up to Christmas I am preparing presents and adding final touches. For the first time in a long time I have been glass painting for a couple people’s gifts. It has taken a couple of tries however I’m rather proud of the results, although it’s very much a Pinterest nailed it failure when in comparison to the professional. I love to add little elements of personal thought to gifts like this and I hope the receivers will be happy with their gifts.

Month 2

By Sarah

On December 2, 2018

In Internships, October - December

2 Months gone already, soon it shall be Christmas.

Somehow 2 months in I haven’t stopped learning or putting my skills into practice. I’ve also gotten to use other skills I never thought I’d use generally in my life however this internship has made me realize how they could be useful to me again beyond my degree in my future career. Here are my top 5 skills I’ve learnt from uni I’ve been able to put into practice and my top 5 I’ve learnt on the job that will be useful in my final year from the past month.

Top 5 skills I have learnt and now gotten to put into practice –

Trend research; Throughout my degree so far we have been introduced to trend research and from now having experience in designing my own patterns I understand quite how important this is as it can give a print a longer lifespan than designing for the right here and now. I have also been able to use the skills I have learnt of trend research to adapt my own interests and skills into sellable products for my internship.
Importance of knowing an understanding your target market; On many occasions during my first and second year we have needed to design to a specific clientele, this has been useful for picking out prints for sales meetings and print requests by clients. At university I have been taught how to swiftly pick out key parts of a brand that make up their identity which is very useful in trying to sell them prints and embroideries, as if you don’t understand the company you are less likely to pick out pieces that work with their company style and who those brands sell to meaning loss of sales.
Most sewing mistakes are fixable; On a couple of incidents me and the other interns have have mishaps when sewing or overlocking the styling designs. However a skill I have learnt from my degree is that although these incidents are frustrating and time consuming you shouldn’t stress or panic as in most cases it is fixable. I have used this mindset that the lecturers have given me to help other interns and even designers amend many mistakes in a way that no one would guess that anything went wrong in the first place. This skill even though it is not physical is very useful in the workplace especially when you can end up doing the same task for hours on end which is when mistakes happen.
Digital Illustration; When designing because of my hand condition I have to keep any detailed work to my computer. When we have been drawing small sections for the designers I have drawn on my laptop or their computers and this skill has been very useful. As all the prints are digital when completed, my digital illustration skills have been very useful as it allows the designers to edit the drawings more easily as well as layer them into patterns without them looking out of place.
Microsoft excel mathematical functions; Now this skill isn’t one I have learnt at university however one I did learn many years ago that for the first time in my life I have managed to put into practice.

Top 5 skills I have learnt on the job that will be useful in final year –

Colour separation; On the job I have learnt how to colour separate, this tends to be used for when a design needs to be screen printed. In my final year this will be useful for if I decide to screen print any of my own prints, whether that be on paper for promotional material or fabric for garments.
Colour reducing; Sometimes when colour separating you need to reduce the number of colours in the print as it would cost a significant amount to produce a print with 100 different colours. So with the help of the designers for print just like this that needed reducing from 64 to 9, I learnt how to use the colour table and several other features to reduce the colours of the pattern down without changing the design so dramatically that it would look awful and unprintable.
Commercial pattern design; When designing patterns I have learnt there is 3 main styles, commercial fashion print design, bespoke fashion print design and interior print design. As the company I am working for does commercial prints designed to sell to high street retailers I’ve learnt how to design patterns that can be used in mass market garments, this sounds as though it should be simple. However many of the prints the designers produce are quite complex and it is really a skill understanding how to layout the patterns to appear beautiful as they are encouraging clients to purchase them. Learning this skill will be useful in my final year for advertising my skills in my collections to help me get a great job after I graduate.
Multi-directional patterns; Until a client requested we edited a print to make it multi-directional it never occurred to me how important this was as a fashion student. With so any companies working with fast fashion as the next generation we are taught more and encouraged more to be eco fashion designers. By using multi-directional patterns you can use the fabric more economically reducing wastage as well as reducing cost of how much fabric needed. This will be a useful skill in my final year when it comes to choosing prints if I do not design any myself, as it could potentially save a significant amount of money when making my final collection.
Avoid Chiffon at all costs; A very very key thing I have learnt so far during my internship is that I hate working with chiffon. I do not have the hand functionality in order to work with such a delicate material. Although this is not a skill I can definitely take forward to my final year the top tip of if I wish to personally sew my entire collection I physically will struggle more than it is worth with chiffon.

London – Week 9

By Sarah

On December 2, 2018

In Internships, October - December

Hi everyone,

This week has been rather busy with lots of work needing sewing up however despite that we have managed to get time to draw some of our own patterns this week. The designers at Amanda Kelly looked at some of our drawings and talked through with us how to arrange them into professional patterns which was very interesting and has helped me understand how to create a professional commercial pattern for future reference. Unfortunately I am unable to show you any of these patterns as otherwise the company will be unable to sell them, however here is an extra pattern I drew purely for my blog as I have been doing lots of animal prints this week I decided to draw some flamingos. I also practiced some of the skills I have learnt using this document however that is rather difficult to show you via my blog.

For the first time this week I got to experience a sales meeting however there was a catch, I had to go by myself. My sales meeting was with Hobbs at their head office, they were looking for a couple final patterns to add to a collection they already had. Although there were plenty of stunning prints to show them in the case I had been given to take with non suited the collection they wanted to add to. Once I returned back to the office I discussed with the designers what has been said in my meeting and they explained to me at the majority of sales meetings little to non tend to be sold. For example the previous week they had a meeting with ASOS where another intern accompanied as there were 2 cases of prints and embroideries to show them which is rather difficult to shift alone since they are large 4 wheel cases. In the ASOS meeting they sold 6 embroideries which according to the designers was a very good sale. It was interesting getting this experience as I gained an understanding of how working with the catwalk rather than the direct trends themselves impacted a business and their sales, although this is my personal opinion coming from a fashion degree and I cannot confirm they would make more sales if the designed to a different reference.

As I’m starting to near to the end of my time in London my spending on such as food is decreasing as I have a good amount of food remaining that I would prefer to have gone before I leave. This week I also discovered that when one tube line crashes so does 1/3 of London, with the Victoria line suffering several malfunctions several other lines and one whole station proceeded to crash also and I don’t believe I will ever see such chaos with a public transport malfunction outside of London.

Finally this week in my personal life I was very lucky to have another visit from my boyfriend and we went to Winter wonderland in Hyde park. There are several attractions you can pre-book to see as well as lots of small rides, prize games, Christmas market stalls and of course food stalls. We chose to book to go into ”The Magical Ice Kingdom, The secret forest” which was simply amazing, the creatures and sculptures they made from ice and snow were beautiful and I would highly recommend going and seeing them if they get the opportunity. As well as this there is attractions such as ”The Ice Bar”, Ice skating, Peter Pan theater show, Circus and more. Winter wonderland goes on until the 6th of January so if you get the opportunity I would recommend going.

London – Week 8

By Sarah

On November 25, 2018

In Internships, October - December

Hi,

This week’s post will be short as although we had an incredibly busy week I haven’t learnt any new skills. As there was a deadline for our freelancers there was work that needed styling coming in everyday. Seeing as we are now edging towards Christmas we are also seeing a few Christmasy prints coming in as well as requests for prints for their Christmas range. The few print searches I have assisted with I have noticed for their Christmas range they wanted more subtle not obviously Christmas, this seems to be a reoccurring trend according to the sales executives. As their general clients aim to sell to mass market and at different price ranges by designing subtly winter prints then it allows their clients to carry their garments through from Autumn or Winter into spring rather than being exclusively designed for the Christmas period.

One of the few things I have learnt and understood this week is how multi-directional patterns can confuse textiles designers however become useful to fashion designers. Multi-directional patterns are patterns where if it is say a conversational the small parts will be facing in several different directions. By using a multi-directional a fashion designer can use the fabric a lot more economically as it allows them to place their pattern pieces in a lot closer proximity. However when it comes to the textile world designing multi-directional patterns without a determined product it is for is rather confusing and complicated and can sometimes hinder sales. When looking at fabrics for my final year if purchasing or creating my own patterns this is definitely something I will have to keep in mind to reduce cost and waste. Below is an example of a multi directional pattern.

A skill I never thought I would use in my life is not one I have learnt at university or even during my GCSE’s but the basic Microsoft Excel mathematics functions when I was 13. I was asked to created a simple spreadsheet for the admin manager that simply totaled at the bottom, however from the age of 13 til now I have never had to use any of these skills in the slightest although I do fortunately remember how to do such functions. This made me consider the other general skills not specifically fashion based ones I have learnt throughout university so far and schooling that could be useful if I were ever to want to start my own business as well as keep a personal record if I were to do any freelancing work. Until you have to use them you don’t really know how many skills you have and I think this will become of use to be in my final year, although I haven’t learnt anything specific it is reminding me of the amount of skills I have and how they could be used to create something that really represents me in my final year.

Finally this weekend my mother came to visit as we decided to visit the meridian line at the Royal Greenwich observatory, Greenwich market, Brixton market, Brick lane market and Old Spitalfields market. Personally we weren’t fan’s of Greenwich market or Brixton market as Greenwich was a bit too upmarket arty for us and Brixton a standard market. However Brick lane market was quirky and had an incredibly wide variety of items on sale of which both me and mum found things we liked so a very good weekend to end a busy week.