Working Girl.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love this place. I love it. I’ll admit, I am disappointed that the internship is not directed at marketing like I thought it would be. It is definitely not what I plan on doing for a living. However, I have always maintained the idea that it is important for me to know and understand as many aspects of the industry as possible in order to do my job as a marketer more effectively. This is why I took a basic apparel design class to know construction techniques, and why I find writing for CollegeFashionista to be important for me, even though I have no intentions on doing journalism anymore.

My new best friend, Domenico Dolce

I started out doing a lot of busywork tasks for everyone there, which was okay with me. I spent many hours pricing clothes, taking cardboard collars out of shirts, turning hangers around, and ordering clothes on the racks. I really did not mind doing these tasks, because I knew that they were things that needed to be done, things that these people would have to do if I wasn’t there to do them and I’d rather them work on more important things that I can’t do, and let’s face it: I’m an intern. An intern. I am the lowest of the low. I am the scum on the bottom of the shoe of the fashion industry. I know this, and the sooner you accept this, the happier you’ll be with your assignments.

After being there for only a week and forming relationships with the employees, I was relinquished from a lot of my menial work duties. I have spent a lot of time sitting in with each one of them with their clients (they work as franchisers, and buyers come in to look at the collections and they help them select pieces within their budget for their stores). While it was very difficult for me to follow at first because of my limited knowledge of Italian and this area of the industry, I am amazed at how easy it is for me now. Maybe it’s because I have sat in with literally countless clients and know the routine like the back of my hand, but I’d also like to think it is because my Italian has improved so much.

The showroom is absolutely huge. Huge. There are probably over 15 different showrooms within the place, and there are three buildings. Majority of our collections are much sportier brands, like U.S. Polo, Harmont and Blaine, Jeckerson, and Timberland. I work with a woman named Dina often, for the Stefanel collection, which is one of the few women-specific brands we have and definitely one of the more upscale ones. With the main franchiser I work with, I started out just trying to listen to her with clients and really understanding very little of it. There was another intern there for my first few weeks and the franchiser told him to show me how to organize the collections for the buyers. It was very “you have to feel where the pieces should go,” which is not how I work at all. I’m very logical, I wanted reasonable explanations for why those pants should go there. Every time the intern tried to provide me with a logical reason, the next example would contradict it. It took me a long time to be able to grasp the concept. She told me I needed to know this because we would be getting a huge shipment in July with the new collections and I would be in charge of doing this… and she wasn’t kidding. This is what I spent my last week doing.

The franchiser was away Monday and Tuesday this past week, and I was in charge of organizing and ordering the 500+ pieces for about 5 collections. It may not sound like a big deal or anything important, but it really is. When a buyer comes in, they have no idea about what the collection is going to have to offer and what they are supposed to do with it. You have to know all of that. You have to organize the collection so they can see it in a logical order and be able to understand how it flows. You have to simultaneously set it up in order by equal fabrics, by colors, and by looks (putting a jacket, then a shirt, then bottoms so they can see how the pieces pair together). It’s incredibly difficult. She, of course, can go through a collection and have it set up in 3 minutes. I took two days. On Tuesday additionally, I went through and priced all of the pieces, but at the end of two days that was all I accomplished. I was terrified that when she came back on Wednesday, she would look at me and say, “Really? This is it? This is what you accomplished in two days?” and change everything I did (which she has in the past).

She came back, stopped short, looked at the collections and said, “This is perfect.” My jaw hit the floor. “This is perfect, I don’t have to change a thing. You really understood this… and believe me, I don’t compliment people.” Which is true, I imagine… working with her feels very The Devil Wears Prada sometimes to me. This is mainly just because she knows her job very well and has a specific way of doing things, and I want to impress her and be able to successfully do what she asks of me. I feel very much like a puppy sometimes, sitting there and praying that I will get a pat on the head rather than scolded (though, she has never once scolded me. She tells it like it is, but it has never been mean, only constructive).

On Friday, one of the biggest clients came in early for her appointment, equipped with her 100,000 euro budget, and she was not ready for her. She told the client, “This is Kate, she is an intern here for the summer. I need to finish something up on the computer here, but if you have any questions ask her, because she knows this collection.” Oh boy. Mind you, my Italian has improved tremendously, but I still have the vocabulary of a 6 year old. However, I was still able to answer her questions, and had to even model for her (as our normal model was not in yet).

Afterward, the franchiser handed me the presentation on all of the collections which includes the color palette, inspiration, looks, etc. and said, “I’m going to get a coffee and be back in a few minutes. Present this to the client,” and walked away. I feel like my jaw hits the floor a lot here. Again, I was successfully able to present the collections, and when she buyer was not confident about the huge theme of color-blocking, I was able to explain the importance to her and how to properly color-block all in Italian. I believe I deserve some bragging points on this one. Kudos to me.

During the time of going through the pieces, I was able to follow their conversation perfectly. I anticipated what she wanted, knowing when she was talking about the jacket that she would want to see it with the shorts, and she even complimented me on how impressed she was with how I was following. For a woman who gives probably three compliments a year, I was thrilled that I was receiving all of them.

Of course, being very much like The Devil Wears Prada, she has definitely not only complimented me. She told me I need to seriously work on my knowledge of fabrics, which is absolutely true. I can tell cheap fabrics from expensive ones, but in a collection like this where all the fabrics are expensive, I have a hard time telling the silks from the silk blends. So, she is justified in that. She also made sure to tell me during lunch that I could still get another plate of pasta if I was still hungry, but I was going to get fat if I kept eating so much pasta. Well, I guess this is the fashion industry. Though, to give her the benefit of the doubt, I think she just meant it as informing me that pasta can make a person fat, not telling me I should invest in a gym membership. I definitely love working with her, because she actually challenges me and I feel like I walk home at the end of the day saying I learned something.

So that is some catch-up on the kind of work I have had to do. Additionally, I have also had to translate for English speaking clients a couple times, and on a rare occasion had to be a bathing suit model (but that was entirely just because it was Sunday and our model doesn’t work on Sundays). I had to talk to my boss once because I was not learning anything. While I can put my tail between my legs and accept that I am an intern and they will not give me my own collection and clients to work with after a month, the fact of the matter is that I did a lot to be here. When there is nothing to do, I prefer to sit and talk to somebody in Italian, because then I am practicing the language (which, by the way, I have been able to have full two hour conversations in Italian!).

I want to talk about the people at work. This is the main reason why I love this place so much: the people are fantastic. There are over 40 people who work there, and there are probably only 2 or 3 that I don’t care for. Everyday I come into work, smile on my face, and give each of them an enthusiastic, “Ciao! Come stai?!” And they return the bright smile and ask me how I am doing also. There is one lady, an American from Massachusetts, there and she is one of my only sources of reverting back to my mother-tongue. She has lived here for 12 years and of course is completely fluent now, but it’s nice to be able to actually get closer to somebody there. I never really thought about how difficult it would be to make strong connections with people, because once you get passed the initial, “I’m studying fashion marketing,” “I live in New Jersey, but I’ve lived in London for five months also,” and “Yes, I do like pizza, but I prefer gelato” conversations, I don’t have the vocabulary to get to know somebody beyond that.

I have formed a really close, personal relationship with almost everyone there even without the language skills. I’ve baked them all cookies before, always offer to help them, and they just absolutely love me (I’ve been told, at least).

I mean, they absolutely love me. Apparently, they have all gone to my bosses and told them individually how much they love me, and how they want me to get a job there. A bunch of us went out after work last week, and when I mentioned that I want to come back to Italy after I finish school in December, they all turned to the one man (who is a partner with my boss) and said GET HER A JOB. Well, my one boss told me on Friday that if I want to come back in January, she would have a job for me. Oh. My. Goodness. Now, this isn’t exactly what I want to be doing, the pay is not very good, and I can’t imagine I’d have incredible tasks because I don’t speak much Italian. However, it’s a starter job, it’s guaranteed, and my landlady has already informed me that I can come back whenever I want and live with her. So, it’s nice to know that in such a terrible job market I was offered a solid job with absolutely no effort. It’s an option at least, right? And I just love these people so much that I may be willing to give up working directly in marketing so I could be with them for a bit longer.

Because, really, they could not be a sweeter group. On my last day of work on Friday, they all threw a surprise party for me! They had appetizers, I got to pop some bottles of champagne, and they gave me a Swarovski crystal necklace. Um, yes.  This is my life. My boss also told me I could go downstairs and pick out whatever I want (which are my three favorite words) from the Stefanel collection. I picked out a beautiful 100% Italian cashmere sweater that retails for far more than I currently have in my bank account. I cried. Now, I know that seems like a normal reaction, but there’s something you should know… I don’t cry. It doesn’t happen. Why? Probably because I cried nonstop when I was a little girl and I used up all of my tears, but more likely because I’m much too logical of a person and crying just isn’t productive. Whatever the reason, it rarely happens, but it happened on Friday. THAT’S how much these people mean to me.