A Reflective Summary: My Placement Year Experience

The path of my placement year wasn't straight. At times it was difficult to navigate, and without a 'one size fits all' set of directions to follow, it was down to me to make the experience a fulfilled and inspired one. My placement year has enriched my degree and my early professional life in more ways than I thought could ever be possible; I've gained a whole host of new skills in both a working and personal capacity and exceeded my own expectations. 

Due to the varied nature of my placement year, having spent time at a number of different companies in a whole host of various roles, my industry knowledge has expanded immeasurably. While learning in theory during my first two years at university established a strong foundation, my time spent learning practically about the ins and outs of the fashion industry has been invaluable. Owing to the varied levels of responsibility that I was granted at each placement, my consumption of knowledge did vary from place to place. 

At Forever Unique, I learnt a lot about the complex way that a brand must position itself within the market based on social, marketing and PR tactics. I learnt about the value of competitor knowledge and the usefulness of market comparison in order to advance and excel a brand. One of the unique selling points of the Forever Unique brand is its regular feature on the ITV reality show The Real Housewives of Cheshire. It was really insightful to see how television can play a pivotal part in PR, and the way that increased consumer engagement can translate to sales as long as the consumer journey is an appealing one. Behind-the-scenes at Coach, I gained extensive luxury industry knowledge about the importance of PR in the promotion of a brand. My knowledge of the fashion journalism industry developed as a result of handling so many magazines and distributing samples to them on a daily basis. I am extremely familiar with the names (and in some cases, the faces) of a multitude of fashion writers and stylists for a range of newspapers, supplements and weekly, monthly and quarterly magazines. This is important because the fashion industry as a whole relies so heavily on 'who you know' as opposed to 'what you know', so I feel confident that this knowledge will be important for my future career. Creatively speaking, my knowledge has been built upon by a range of experiences such as creating digital content for the Forever Unique social media channels and transactional website using Adobe Creative Suite, assisting on numerous photoshoots or developing my written style and flair.

My developed professionalism umbrellas a number of transferable skills which I have built on throughout the year. Working as a member of a number of teams within the industry was a good opportunity to experience the collaborative process of achieving an end goal, whether that be sending gifts to a number of celebrities, carrying out a cover shoot or preparing for a campaign launch. Throughout the year, I attended team meetings to brainstorm ideas and receive briefs, actively participating by suggesting my own ideas and offering support for others' ideas. I have welcomed responsibility during my placement year, and thrived on the pressure that is brought with being relied upon to achieve results within a team. My time management throughout the year has been excellent, as I have consciously made the effort to be reasonably early for work everyday - apart from in extenuating circumstances, which only ever involved severely delayed public transport thanks to winter weather! The professionalism that I displayed went a long way; my supervisors were often impressed by my level of capability my enthusiasm for the roles I undertook and my unshakable desire to learn.

It has been intriguing to learn more about myself and my approach to working away from an educational environment. I definitely benefit from the structure of a definitive task, as opposed to working without a clear goal. My desire to achieve and excel still hasn't faltered during the transition of education to the workplace, which is largely down to the fact that I am still being held accountable to gain praise during both instances. Working hard and sticking at something for my own benefit and the development of my own skills is still something that I need to develop, as I definitely have a natural inclination to procrastinate. Freelance work seems to be an increasing trend within the fashion industry right now, so I know I'll need to be a lot more proactive in order to keep up with this changing pace.


There were two significant periods during my placement year where I had to deal with and respond to a more challenging pressure. After five months in my demanding role at Forever Unique, I made the decision to withdraw from my position in the hopes of finding something more suited to my future ambitions. The entire process of leaving Forever Unique was a valuable learning curve; from the initial decision making process, to the daunting discussion with my managers, to the month waiting-period before my last day. The second pressurised period came just three days into a new placement at Dazed Magazine, where I was extremely unhappy. The process of leaving this placement was different; while I had built relationships and developed a new role within the team at Forever Unique, the culture at Dazed and the treatment of interns was so shocking that I didn't feel it was necessary to make my departure such a smooth transition. This period was valuable in teaching me the reality of workplace abuse and company cultures that thrive on fear. I don't regret my decision to take up my placement at Dazed, because if I had not, I almost certainly would have pursued a job at the company post-graduation. I dealt with these conflicts and difficult decisions with the utmost professionalism, staying calm and collected while maintaining my stance. 

Briefing was an important aspect of my role at Forever Unique, and my time at the company left a lasting impression on the briefing system carried out internally at the company. As my role developed, it highlighted a problem with the way that other departments briefed the creative team with upcoming projects. In short, the briefing system was non-existent beforehand which lead to problematic and underwhelming projects being produced. By working collaboratively to produce a new briefing system, I was able to produce work to a higher standard and within clearly set time constraints. I saw similar briefing methods in action at Coach, where my tasks were given by emails from my manager which could then be pinned while being carried out and moved to a folder marked 'Done' once completed. 

Communication really was key to my placement year, naturally so, as I work towards my degree in Fashion Communication. External communication was important during my first placement at Forever Unique, where my day-to-day tasks largely involved developing and producing creative social media content which would be viewed by the brand's 1m+ total social followers. I developed a creative eye for typography and graphics during this placement, and became extremely confident with my technique in commuting a particular message, as well as communicating the brand and its personality as a whole. Internal communication was most important at Coach, where I worked alongside another intern throughout my team to tag-team the role's responsibilities as well as working alongside the brand's small PR team of 4 staff members. Being accurate and efficient was key in this role due to the fast pace and strict time constraints. Completion of the tasks relied on good communication with the other intern, so that we could collaboratively achieve our goals. We shared the responsibility of a weekly coverage report presentation, which was intended to communicate the PR coverage that had been attained by each of the brand's international PR departments.

My placement year was an amazing experience, and not something I could ever forget. It has provided me with a strong foundation in which to build my final year of university and my career from there on in. Building connections with people in the industry has been the most valuable part of the entire experience, and I wouldn't have done it had I not taken the risks and maintained a strong work ethic. It was a real eye-opener to the working world, and ultimately has made me so much more certain that this is the path I want to follow post-graduation.

Fabulous Magazine: Professor Green for Men's Issue

Updated CV | May 2018

Fabulous Magazine: Week Six - Celebrity Cover Shoot with Professor Green

After having a fairly quiet first week back at Fabulous, I was really excited about the prospect of getting stuck into preparing for a much busier week of multiple large-scale photoshoots. Last year, I got to assist on a shoot with Nadia Begum, a contestant in a past series of The Great British Bake Off. The shoot was a great introduction into the somewhat daunting experience of celebrity photoshoots, but at the time I was secretly very hopeful that I would get the opportunity to meet some slightly more famous faces along the way in my placement year!

I was thrilled therefore, to find out that I'd be assisting on the upcoming cover photoshoot starring Professor Green as preparations got underway to call in an extensive amount of men's clothing for him. It pleased me even more so because during my time as PR Intern at Coach, I had already overseen the sample distribution for a number of magazine shoots starring Pro Green and I hoped that I would get chance to one-on-one tell him how much the Coach team love styling him. It's funny how much of a small world it is, and how often my path has crossed in different ways with all of the people I've made connections with this year.

I didn't know very much about the shoot before the day-of, which potentially was a good thing as I was blissfully ignorant about what we as a shoot team were letting ourselves in for. This was my first shoot on location (as opposed to in a studio) so I was a little bit unsure about what I could expect in terms of steaming and dressing. The location of the shoot, I soon discovered, was an abandoned warehouse tucked away in a nondescript street of East London, covered entirely in bird poo and dirt. Celebrity shooting isn't necessarily all about glamour and A-listers!

To get around the challenge of hanging and steaming clothing, arranging accessories and keeping everything clean and presentable - given the unhygienic setting - a minibus was hired specifically to house the clothes and given Stephen (Pro Green) somewhere to change. It wasn't easy to manoeuvre within such a confined space, especially when we brought 6 suitcases full of clothing with us onto the shoot, but it was completely manageable and realistically, our only alternative in that location. Myself and my group had to produce a similar plan of action for our second year marketing and branding project, where we carried out a photoshoot in the Yorkshire Moors. Rather than using a minibus to act as our base for the day, we had an actual Mini Cooper - which was inevitably a bit more of a struggle! 

The structure of the day was unlike any other shoot I have ever experienced before; while usually the pace of the day would be dictated by the stylist and photographer, today we worked by the celebrity's pace. This included his late arrival, the late arrival of his dogs - who were planned to be brought over by a friend towards the end of the day - and an unscheduled thirty minute break for him to take a phone call. The structure was also made hugely different by his refusal to wear any of the clothing from the 6 suitcases we had brought for him. I'm not sure whether this is a common thing for more high-profile celebrities to do when they undertake photoshoots and interviews for magazines, or whether it was simply a diva moment, but it was slightly odd and somewhat frustrating that out of the several rails of clothing that filled up the majority of the rented minibus, Stephen wouldn't wear any of it. Instead, he brought along a small selection of his own designer clothing. This meant that Nana, the celebrity stylist who I was assisting, had little say in what he was wearing and effectively couldn't fully do her job. As a result, neither could I! 

Despite the clear frustration from Nana and the rest of the Fabulous team, the day seemed to be a success overall. It's always a great experience to see creatives collaborating to produce such exciting content, especially when the shoot was in such a challenging location! It was also really insightful to see how celebrity shoots are managed; as well as the Fabulous team, comprised of a stylist, stylist's assistant, features editor and project manager - and the usual shoot additional cohort of grooming, make-up and photographer - Stephen also had assistants and friends on hand to manage his day.

Fabulous Magazine: Week Five - Back to the Beginning

I went back to Fabulous Magazine this week, where I'll be staying to complete my placement year! It's a positive step to return to the cupboard at Fabulous as a Fashion Desk Intern; this is where I began my placement year journey, and I feel really accomplished to have come around full circle now that I have such a range of experiences under my belt. 

The week's tasks were largely repetitive - owing to the nature of the role - but I always find that I have a natural ability to fit into repetitive tasks with a good level of concentration and efficiency! My tasks included managing the fashion cupboard by receiving and returning samples, following stylist's instructions, organising the stylist's areas, packing suitcases for shoots and liaising with PRs regarding their urgent sample callbacks. Nevertheless the days flew by this week, which is always a good sign that I have been enjoying myself!

It's been an interesting transition to see the way that the running of the fashion cupboard has changed in the last twelve months. Fabulous have hired a permanent Fashion Intern who works part-time for three days a week, and her role also involves tasks which borderline a fashion assistant role with more responsibility than a regular intern. I found this new change quite frustrating to adapt to because it meant that I lacked the same level of responsibility that I had been expecting to return to this time around, since my responsibility was now shared.

I am enjoying being part of a team in magazine production once again; it's really affirming to know that the work I do at the bottom of the chain ultimately makes big things happen at the top. The fact that I'm frustrated about losing responsibility tells me that I am SO ready for a full time role, and tired of completing more mundane tasks however satisfying they may be to complete in the short-term. I can't wait to start moving up the ladder in my career, learning new skills and experiencing more challenging tasks that I'm always very envious of seeing permanent members of staff carry out!

Press Association: Features Intern Work Experience

This week I spent time completing a placement with the Press Association. I was really excited to do this placement as I had been in contact with the Fashion & Beauty Editor for some time trying to fill a slot with little success because our availabilities never quite matched up! Thankfully persistence paid off and I landed myself a week interning with the company at a time when I really needed it most, in the wake of my hiccup at Dazed!

The Press Association provides news outlets nationwide with multimedia content (such as images or features) for broadcasts and articles. When news breaks, the team cover the event immediately to stay ahead of the game, getting factually accurate information, first-hand accounts and professional images where possible. The first images released in the wake of a terrorist attack are often produced by the Press Association, because their photography team are always on-hand and on high-alert. This fast-paced and instantly gratifying approach to producing news really intrigues me, so it has definitely been valuable to experience just how fast the turnover is for all members of the PA team to complete their briefs!

On day one, I transcribed several interviews which one member of the features team conducted with the celebrity cast of an upcoming ITV drama. I had some previous experience of transcribing interviews at Fabulous Magazine, but in this role I was introduced to the website 'oTranscribe' which was a really useful tool to help carry out the task. The oTranscribe website is designed for transcribing interviews; it has keyboard functions to pause, play, fast forward and rewind so its users don't need to waste time using a mouse to select these options. I have referenced the website and its purpose here as something to consider using in final year when potentially gathering research!

The rest of my week comprised of writing feature articles, which is a responsibility that I have been longing and hoping for the duration of my placement year. It was interesting to see the way the features team's approach to the intern's role; I had a lot of flexibility to carryout the tasks, and while I did have deadlines to meet, the relaxed environment meant that I could carefully prioritise tasks alone without having anything spoon-fed to me - something that I expected would be the case in a one-week work experience position.

Because of my experience as a fashion student, I spent time being mentored by the Fashion & Beauty Editor in order to put together a main fashion piece which goes out every Monday. I liked the way that my work experience was tailored to get the most out of my time there and I was happy to get the chance to write about what I know best! I pitched a few ideas to Katie and she chose the one that she thought would be best for me to develop into an article. We went with the idea of a trend piece on natural and organic fabrics, something that I've seen a lot of on the high street and social media recently. 

My other feature topics, which were provided for me in commission briefs sent over via email from the features team. It has been a really cool feeling to see my writing pieces published in online print, although somewhat frustrating to have those pieces edited post-submission in parts by other members of staff - especially when they are edited with typos, which was the case with one feature! Over the course of the week I wrote the following articles:

• London's 7 most Instagrammed boroughs revealed

http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/travel/uk/capital-clicks-londons-7-most-instagrammable-boroughs-revealed-11364271602923

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/lifestyle/capital-clicks-londons-7-most-instagrammable-boroughs-revealed-842716.html

• 7 ways cheating can affect your mental health

http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/health/wellness/7-ways-cheating-can-affect-your-mental-health-11364269798299

• 8 top tips to tackle workplace stress all year round

http://www.tv3.ie/xpose/article/lifestyle/267609/8-ways-to-tackle-workplace-stress-all-year-round

• How to throw a Portuguese-themed Eurovision party

http://www.tv3.ie/xpose/article/lifestyle/267150/How-to-throw-a-Portuguesethemed-Eurovision-party-this-weekend

https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/living/2018/0510/962515-how-to-throw-a-portuguese-themed-eurovision-party-this-weekend/

• Here's everything you need to ace the 'au naturel' trend this summer

http://www.tv3.ie/xpose/article/beauty/267444/Heres-everything-you-need-to-ace-the-au-naturel-trend-this-summer

Putting together the articles was so much fun, which is a big indicator to me that my go-to role post-graduation will need to involve a level of writing. It was a valuable experience to manage the pressure of submitting my writing to members of the features team, because I'm aware that I possess a real lack of self-belief and confidence when it comes to my writing abilities - despite it having been an area that I've sought a career in since childhood. I experienced using WordPress to construct the articles for the first time, which I know from previously seeing job advertisements is a valuable skill to have. Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to try something new and a bit outside of my comfort zone, having spent the past three months in a fairly repetitive and comfortable role at Coach. 

Dazed Magazine: Two Days at my 'Dream Placement'

Recent Coach coverage secured in Dazed Magazine

I envisioned what my dream placement would look like before beginning my year in industry and it always involved the most elite, luxury and independent magazines such as Dazed, Wonderland, LOVE or Another. These were the magazines which I most enjoyed reading, and I considered my consumption of them to be a personal hobby as well as a career ambition. One part of my reasoning to pursue a role at Coach was the fact that getting experience in a luxury brand could get me one step closer to reaching a luxury magazine, and a huge reason for leaving my placement at Forever Unique was to potentially pursue working at any magazine at all. Ultimately, I considered getting a placement at Dazed or the like as a bit of an 'end goal' to strive towards. The idea of reaching this goal did initially feel somewhat unattainable, but nevertheless it always meant a lot to me so I pushed myself to work hard, make connections and leave long-lasting impressions. Eventually, just last month - although it feels like months ago already - my hard work did pay off when I was offered an internship position on the spot during an interview for the role of Fashion Intern at Dazed Magazine.

I was already quite intimidated by the elite reputation of Dazed and concerned about the working environment of the publication based on the negative stories and experiences from the industry about the way that interns and assistants are treated. Throughout my placement year I've been faced with a few uncomfortable situations and difficult decisions, so I gave myself plenty of credit and began my placement at Dazed with optimism and disbelief that I had actually secured an internship there. My optimism was short-lived however, as just five minutes after arriving for my first day (and with no introduction to any of the team members, tour of the building or health/safety to go through) I was sent out with a suitcase full to bursting with samples to be returned to designer brands and PR companies. Returning samples by hand wasn't something I had been asked to do before, and while I knew it would be physically demanding, I still wanted to experience the task as a sort of 'rite of passage'. I seriously underestimated how degrading and exhausting it would be to drag suitcase after suitcase across London for a full working day, and I felt uncomfortable knowing that the expenses I would receive for my month there actually wouldn't even cover the additional cost of travel for returning samples - despite this being an explicit part of my job description - let alone the cost of my commute to and from the city centre each day. My first day of placement left me battered, bruised, sore and in distress. 

My second day at this placement caused me even more cause for concern. There seemed to be a serious lack of direction from the several Fashion Assistants who oversee the interns at Dazed, paired with a serious lack of respect. Myself and the other 3 work placements who made up the intern team at the magazine were set with the task of researching unfamiliar and unheard of brands whose clothing designs met the criteria and 'look' for an upcoming shoot. The brief was set via email, so without opportunity to ask specific questions about the task or simply chat and get to know the assistant who set the task, we began to endlessly Google-search for unknown brands. My key issue with this task was the fact that I had been expected to bring in my own laptop, as equipment was not provided. I felt really uncomfortable about carrying my laptop to and from the Dazed offices, especially since I had been sent all around London just the day before. Had there even been a 'placement supervisor' present at all during my internship there, I'm sure that the intense and intimidating attitude towards the interns would have made me too fearful to voice my concerns anyway. 

The 'straw that broke the camel's back' came when I witnessed another intern receive seriously shocking workplace abuse in the shape of aggressive screaming and shouting for a simple mistake which could be easily corrected and did no damage to the completion of her task or the running of the day. I was growing increasingly anxious about being there, and felt tearful throughout the day. The other interns there told me how the week before (which was their first week) had been especially stressful, and they had cried every night when they returned home. 

I thought that I could handle just about anything that placement year could throw at me, but this was one challenge I just wasn't willing to undertake. My placement year has been motivating, encouraging and overall, a really happy experience. I knew that I simply couldn't continue my placement at Dazed any longer, despite having no back-up plan and having only complete 2 full working days there. It would have been a serious discredit to the brilliant year that I've had to have spent my final month of placement year unhappy and fearful of humiliation by more senior members of the team. While I wish that I could have had a different experience at Dazed, I'm glad that I got the see the reality of working at the publication. Had I not achieved the opportunity to intern with the magazine during this year, I would have certainly pursued a job at Dazed post-graduation. This could have caused me even more upset in the long-run, as I would have been terribly upset to find out that my dream job wasn't really all it was cracked up to be. 

A Retrospective Summary: PR Intern at Coach

In a way, I felt like I was cheating myself by accepting a position as PR Intern when what I had always really wanted was to experience an editorial role at a magazine I love. I was nervous about whether I'd enjoy PR or whether I'd be any good at it. I was sceptical about whether I'd be 'sociable' enough to excel in it, since my preconceptions of this side of the industry had led me to believe that I would need to be the epitome of a social butterfly to have any chance of success! I was also worried about committing three full months to the role, since I knew all too well how much time could drag in a placement I wasn't enjoying like it eventually began to during my six months at Forever Unique. 

Initially, I was becoming more and more convinced that I had made the wrong choice. The amount of new tasks that I had to learn at the beginning of this placement was absolutely terrifying and I felt extremely daunted by every single process which made up my responsibilities, each feeling unnecessarily complicated and lengthy. For example, when carrying out a small task of returning samples from photoshoots, it wasn't as easy as simply writing a docket with a brief description of the samples which had been returned that day; instead, returning samples required a series of back-and-forth emails, detailed images, the use of GPS systems, scanning, hanging, steaming, ticking boxes, checking lists and cross-referencing. The scale of my responsibilities seemed immense and even though my role at Forever Unique had also held a lot of responsibility, I still felt overwhelmed. The fashion cupboards which I had experienced at Fabulous and Look magazines had a very fast and fuss-free approach to returning samples, so it was a huge adjustment to get used to the way things are done at Coach.

I was glad that I had the support of another intern, who had been there one month longer than I had. The attitude of the PR team and the rest of the office staff (made up of marketing, wholesale and customer service staff members) gave me a lot of cause for concern in the early weeks. I felt like I was being judged for making small and honest errors which an intern should typically be expected to make while they learn a new routine. It was almost as if I had been brushed off as useless straight away without being given a fair chance; out of the team of four on the PR team, the two more senior members wouldn't look me in the eye or approach me, let alone even know my name. There was a turning point where I started to feel a lot more comfortable around the team, after the other intern ended her placement suddenly due to personal reasons and I was left alone to carry out the tasks that we had shared. Once I had proven my capabilities and my worth, I think I gained the team's respect and they started to treat me better as a result. I only wish that I had been treated better from the beginning so that my overall experience at Coach could have been a much more positive one right from the offset. This isn't to say that my experience at Coach was a negative one overall, but I do feel that it is such a shame to know that in order to gain the team's respect, I had to forgo the one hour lunch breaks that I was entitled to, start early and leave late to complete tasks, and speak to no one all day everyday (other than to be briefed with work-related tasks) for quite a long period of time despite being sat in an office full of people. This is my only criticism of the placement. Having more than just a superficial, thirty second chat about what I did at the weekend or being called over to share in someone's birthday celebrations rather than being overlooked would have made all the difference to my morale.

Two highlights of my placement at Coach were the opportunities to experience luxury in-house PR during fashion week - where we had to record an immense amount of coverage and produce a number of reports throughout New York Fashion Week - and press day, where I got involved with the preparation process and engaged with a number of high-profile journalists, stylists and editors on the day. It was extremely helpful to be able to put faces to the names of the people who I had already been liaising with and distributing samples to for the past couple of months. Something I have noticed and loved during my time at Coach has been the realisation that everybody knows each other in this industry - or at least, within the luxury industry between PRs, journalists and stylists. I never realised how great breakfast is an an opportunity to meet and discuss upcoming business opportunities and collaborations, but the ladies on the PR team seemed to start the day at least a couple of times a week with a "breakfast", where they met stylists, seemingly to schmooze and flatter their way into being featured in upcoming shoots! This was a real eye-opener into the way that PRs form relationships and stay in touch with stylists and journalists, and a true indication of how the cogs of PR turn into coverage and then awareness and exposure for the brand.

Ultimately, my time at Coach as PR intern has been a defining moment in figuring out what kind of role I want to pursue post-graduation. I definitely have the work ethic to succeed in the PR industry; PR, I've found, does not have an 'off switch'. Moreover, it can be unpredictable and things can go wrong. In-house PR is definitely a very stressful environment, but stress and pressure are two things that I have found to be motivators for me. I also have the attention-to-detail that is required when scanning for coverage and the organisation to efficiently run the fashion cupboard. My memory skills are great, so my knowledge of the names of stylists at particular magazines comes in very handy. I also love being able to interact with the independent and cultural magazines that I have adored for years, such as Dazed, Wonderland and LOVE, who are a great fit for the Coach brand and feature regularly on its online and print platforms. I do have one fundamental concern about my suitability for a role in PR however, which involves my ever-increasing need for a creative outlet in my work. I've found that the balance of creativity  has been a difficult thing to find this year; my role as Marketing Intern at Forever Unique was far too creative as my responsibilities had evolved primarily into creating graphic content, whereas the most creative thing that I have achieved at Coach has been gift-wrapping. The fashion cupboard is where I feel most at balance, because this offers me the ability to put my organisational and communicative skills into action, but I also have opportunities to see how stylists concoct brilliant ideas on set first-hand. 

Because of this, I am almost certain at this point that I would like to pursue a career as a contributor towards a magazine on a styling and editorial basis. I never would have believed during my first and second years at university that I would want to become a stylist - this wasn't a task that I had especially enjoyed previously. Freelancing could be an option for me, because I'm intrigued by the flexibility and increased opportunities that this could provide. A number of stylists at Look magazine worked full-time but on a freelance basis, and their roles seemed to be filled with a really rewarding mix of editorial and styling opportunities. It certainly feels very affirming, at this late stage in my placement year, to feel one step closer to knowing what I want to do with my life after university! I could never have reached this conclusion without doing a placement year. 

Coach: Week Ten - Press Day

This week my tasks largely involved preparing for our Fall 2018 Press day at the London showroom, so the week was a bit different to the rest and another great opportunity to see what goes on at luxury in-house PR. 

We took on another intern for the week, which meant that I was now training two interns on the ins and outs of my role and teaching them everything that I’ve learned over the course of the past two and a half months. At times this could be a little bit frustrating, since I had been on my own for the previous three weeks with only myself to rely on to get the job done. I’ve had to reconfigure myself to be able to delegate tasks and share responsibility again, which has definitely alleviated the pressure from my shoulders. I’ve felt a bit more under pressure in a different way this week; I really wanted to make sure that I gave clear instructions and explained things concisely to the new girls so that they would get the most out of the opportunity, as I have done. Whether or not I achieved that is debatable! It wasn’t an easy task to remain patient and go through instructions slowly when I was fully aware of just how much we’d have to get through each day.

This week has meant a lot of early starts and late finishes, but I haven’t really minded that because it has been fun overall to see our hard work come together into a really successful press day. PR is certainly not for the feint-hearted; I’ve learnt that by comparing the hours and the commitment that the PR team at Coach dedicate to their role with previous roles I’ve seen during placement year, such as fashion assistants at publications or creative teams at luxury e-commerce retailers. 

On Monday and Tuesday, the three of us had a huge task to complete in the form of gift-wrapping 200 Coach belts which would be given to guests as they left the event. We did this efficiently by setting up a ‘conveyor belt’ so that we each completed an aspect of the gift-wrapping in a cycle, from tying the Coach belts up with ribbon, to assembling the small branded gift boxes, to sealing the boxes shut. We were careful to label the boxes once they were sealed so that we would know which colour and size of Coach belt was inside.

On Tuesday evening, we eagerly awaited the delivery of the Fall samples which had been dispatched from the New York press event that same day. As a result of the close proximity in time between New York and London’s press days, deadlines were tight. It was all hands on deck to ensure that everything was unpacked efficiently, recording what had been delivered to avoid losing any of the samples, and hung in the showroom for the Visual Merchandising team to present in a more visually appealing way! The job involved a lot of heavy lifting which I am extremely under-qualified for, but I felt satisfied that it had been a job well done as I left for the day at 8pm.

Wednesday was intense, as last minute prep for the press day on Thursday was well under way. Again, there was a lot of heavy lifting as we ensured the VIP dressing room was clear of boxes and moved tables and chairs out of the showroom to make space for the VM team to set up. We processed a lot of sendouts ahead of our busy day on Thursday, in which we would be away from our desks for the entire day, and I made sure that as a team we stayed on top of everything else like returns and coverage tracking to keep things running smoothly. Technology let us down this week as the office printer broke, so it was down to me as the more experienced intern to make several trips to and from the nearby alternative Coach offices to print the team’s files for them. I’ve always been quick to jump up at extra tasks like this to prove my flexibility, dedication and sheer willingness to do my job well - this is something that I know has made a real impression. 

Thursday was the long-awaited press day. We started the day by rushing through coverage first thing - a task which would usually take a few hours but today could only take one. The event was scheduled to begin at 10am and end at 5pm. Again, the three of us rotated our tasks to share the responsibility of the day. One of us would be positioned at the front door to the building to greet guests and have them sign in, another by the door to the second floor to direct them to the showroom and the last would be posted at the goodie bag table to gift guests as they left with the Coach belts that we had lovingly wrapped earlier in the week! The day itself was exhausting; there wasn’t opportunity to sit down for the whole day which I’m definitely not used to these days since I’ve swapped part-time retail work for full-time office work this year. I adored the fact that I was meeting writers and editors of the UK’s biggest magazines, and while the conversation I made with them was only superficial, I’d like to think that just maybe my face will stick in their mind for future opportunities.

A Retrospective Summary: Fashion Intern at Look Magazine

Coach: Week Six and Seven - The Halfway Mark

The past two weeks have been challenging but rewarding. At the five week mark, I had been sitting quite comfortably in the role while getting to grips with a very full-on workload involving tasks I'd never done before. Unfortunately at the beginning of week six, the other PR intern who had been a month ahead of me in the ongoing cycle of interns had to end her placement early from further notice which left me on my own. This was not good news; Zoe had been a bit of a crutch for me to lean on and rely on, and when it came down to it, she had been largely responsible for teaching me the daily tasks of the role. It had also been a big reassurance to have another person to experience the unfriendliness/cool attitude towards the interns in the office. Nevertheless, I persisted! 

The biggest change has inevitably been the increased workload. I can't believe that I've actually survived the past two weeks completing enough tasks to ordinarily be shared between two interns. I've effectively been working two jobs for free, which I can't help but feel bitter about! Each morning, the papers and magazines need to be collected from a nearby newsagents. Usually this is split so that we can alternate days, meaning I can get slightly longer in bed two or three times a week. This responsibility has fallen solely on my shoulders for the past couple of weeks, so I've been up and out of the house early to collect and carry them over to the Coach HQ everyday. The hardest thing about being on my own has been the challenge of completing larger tasks that aren't necessarily essential or urgent. There's an ever-growing list of things to do which don't have a strict deadline, that usually myself and Zoe had been able to ebb away at in our free time. I literally haven't had any free time for the past two weeks so this list has been neglected! The list includes creating lookbooks for upcoming collections, updating the press contact database and inputting new press requests into Fashion GPS ahead of their send-out. It's been frustrating not to be able to get started on these tasks, so I'm very much looking forward to having a second pair of hands around to share out the workload.

I feel that despite my struggles, I've accomplished a lot. I've still managed to produce to very large weekly reports of coverage and two 'weekly buzz' documents which are distributed at the end of each week comprised of recent news and events in the luxury fashion industry. Completing these alone with no assistance has been a challenge, as it has meant finding the right balance between making progress with them while still fulfilling all of my other crucial tasks such as returning samples that have come back from shoots and sending out other samples to make it to shoots on time. Failing to send samples out on time could result in the Coach brand missing out on a key piece of coverage - such as a cover shoot for a magazine with a readership of millions - so I have been mindful to put this task first above all others if the turnover time has been quite short and urgent. LOVE Magazine requested two very large and very last minute send-outs this week which really ate away at my time, but I hope that the pay-off will be great in the coming weeks should the samples be featured in coverage from the publication. The aspect of sending out samples that takes up the most time is having to carefully and presentably wrap them in the Coach branded packaging. I often feel like a little Christmas workshop elf when I'm inundated with wrapping paper and ribbon! Sharing this task with another person for particularly large send-outs halves the time that it takes, so this is another aspect that I'm very much looking forward to having another person to help with. We also had some huge pieces of coverage in the sixth week, which was quite annoying as it had been quite quiet the week before when there were still two of us! The coverage consisted of four covers, and a handful of eight to ten page dedicated reviews which all gained a momentous amount of brand awareness and exposure for the Coach 1941 Ready to Wear and Signature collections.

It will be interesting to adjust to a new dynamic with another intern, as I will most likely be comparing this second half of my placement with Coach to the first half that I spent with Zoe. I'm already finding that the more I intern, the smaller the fashion world gets, as in actual fact I have already worked before with the new PR Intern at LOOK Magazine - albeit quite briefly - who is due to start tomorrow on Monday 26th March! It will be nice to settle into a new routine with someone who I am already familiar with, although the thought of teaching her everything I know in this role is quite daunting. It was my responsibility to carry out a handover to her during my last week at LOOK as she began her internship there, although my role at Coach is much more complicated. 

The best thing to come out of spending two weeks alone as PR Intern at Coach has been having the opportunity to impress the PR team by successfully carrying out my tasks without complaints or excuses. They've definitely been impressed by my ability to perform under pressure despite the mounting tasks, which actually resulted in Grace proposing the idea of me extending my placement with them. I've decided not to accept this offer, as I would really like to pursue one or two final positions with fashion publications. Since money is running out now that I'm so close to reaching the minimum quantity of forty-eight weeks of placement year, each week has actually become very valuable to building on experience and making new connections. I think refusing the offer of extending the placement with Coach will ultimately be positive, because I'd like to think that I have already proven my abilities enough here to leave a lasting impression and there are plenty more influential people in the industry that I need to meet! 

It's definitely a relief - I'm not going to lie - to have crossed the halfway mark during my placement at Coach. At this point, while I have enjoyed many aspects of the role and feel that it is extremely rewarding to be able to see the team's collaborative efforts amount to something as impressive as dedicated features and cover stories in huge and far-reaching publications, I am still intrigued by the idea of a role as a fashion assistant at a magazine. This kind of role is highly sought after and usually only available to those with years of experience for a permanent contract, but I hope that by gaining more experience with magazines, this could be a role that I ultimately achieve after graduation.

Look Magazine: Beauty Advisor Pages

Fashion's Problem with Plastic

Coach: Week Four - The Beast from the East

The 'Beast from the East' struck this week, which gave me my first taste of the way that transport in London - despite usually running with the utmost efficiency - comes to a total standstill at the first sight of abnormal weather. The snow and sub-freezing temperatures made my usual 11.5 hour days span out to 13 hours including commute, so I found the week pretty difficult to bear overall. The weather had knock-on effects to my responsibilities as PR Intern, since the couriers struggled to collect and deliver samples to publications for their shoots. 

I felt quite bitter at times - not just because I was literally freezing - towards the rest of the PR team for their lack of compassion this week. Since so many publications are within walking distance to the Coach head offices, it's no trouble at all to nip across with bags of samples. And although the company obviously can't grind to a halt because of the snow, it did seriously irk me that I was still being asked to walk 15 minutes out of my way in the icy conditions when the offices were empty all week, since paid members of staff have had the privilege of not turning up for work or working from home. 

My annoyance was coupled with the fact that the PR team themselves often left the office early, since the train companies had been issuing warnings about travelling beyond 6pm while myself and the other intern were left to stay until the end of the working day. I'm beginning to get the impression that the rest of the team lack empathy when it comes to the interns; I'm often very fearful of getting things wrong, and I'm beginning to lose touch with the truth that I'm here to learn and with that naturally comes mistakes - I shouldn't be scared to make them for fear of rude remarks from senior team members.

Nevertheless, the show went on. Carried over from last week, we continued to make progress on the tidiness of the cupboard and showroom post-NYFW. I started to get to grips with the showroom and the way that things need to be laid out and arranged, although there isn't much of an emphasis on the importance of this as the Visual Merchandising team are often rearranging things.

Look Magazine: Look Fashion Pages

Coach: Week Three - Back on Track

This week has been all about recovering from the blur of New York Fashion Week. The cupboard looked atrocious, if only I'd had a 'before' photo to compare it to its current state as pictured above! This has been a lot to do with the fact that the Coach UK Showroom, which is housed just next door to the head offices, is currently out of bounds while another department make use of it. Since the showroom is usually home to half of the inventory of clothing samples, we've had to make room to keep them in the cupboard instead. 

In terms of coverage, there's still a lot to be had as weekly magazines are keeping up the momentum of articles and show reviews by playing catch-up on the week's events. This means that mine and the other PR intern's workloads are still huge and we still have an awful lot of newspapers and magazines to scan through each day, but even more in online articles to keep a record of. A daily coverage report has still needed to be completed everyday this week which is a huge time drainer, as it basically means repeated one task that's usually completed progressively over the course of the week every. single. day. It will be a huge relief when we (hopefully) get some respite from the frenzy of fashion week.

I undertook a huge task this week in the form of the weekly report, which actually consisted of two weeks worth of non-NYFW related content as we fell behind and simply couldn't make time to complete a single week's report last week. In total, the report consisted of 220 slides of Coach coverage from all international platforms. It was my responsibility to arrange the UK & Ireland coverage and then liaise with interns from the international teams to consolidate their reports into one large report, ultimately for submission to high management. I was so proud of myself for completing this under such an immense amount of pressure and feel that it has definitely been my biggest achievement in the first three weeks here. FINALLY, I'm starting to feel like things are getting back on track.

Look Magazine: #NiveaOneToWatch Internship Competition

While interning at Look last month I found out about a competition that the magazine had been running since the beginning of the year in conjunction with Nivea and The Voice, which involved a prize consisting of a two month paid internship as a Beauty Writer Intern, a £1000 shopping spree, £2500 in prize money and paid accommodation for the duration of the placement. Obviously I applied - not just because of the impressive and seriously life-changing amount of prize money to be had - but because I loved my time at Look Magazine so much and have really cemented my decision to pursue a career in fashion journalism, starting (hopefully) with my next internship after Coach. 

I was initially invited for a face-to-face interview one day last week but was unable to make it due to the demands of New York Fashion Week, since I have barely had time to eat my lunch this week - let alone take 2 hours out of the working day to commute 45 minutes across London to Canary Wharf, complete a lengthy interview and commute 45 minutes back to the Coach office at Oxford Circus. So frustratingly, I had to reschedule. This involved a lot of waiting on 'tenterhooks' as the Look/Nivea teams had initially only scheduled to carry out the interviews face-to-face on that one specific day. Therefore, it meant a lot to me that they were able to accommodate a phone interview the next day and it kept me feeling positive that my difficulty in meeting at their initially proposed time hadn't completely diminished my chances of being considered for the placement. I left for lunch early on the hunt of a quiet location to take my phone interview, selecting The Royal Institution of Great Britain Museum as the best possible choice since I assumed it would be very empty on a Thursday lunchtime! Thankfully I was right, so I rather awkwardly carried out the half-hour interview in an empty stairwell under the watchful eye of the museum staff before awkwardly making a swift exit! The interview, carried out by a member of the Beauty team at Look - as well as the Project Manager of the competition and an independent adjudicator in the form of a beauty blogger - definitely went well. I made some really confident and well thought out answers which definitely is no easy task during a phone interview and the interviewers kept letting me know that they agreed with my points which was reassuring! 

I was nervously awaiting my fate when I found out on that same afternoon that I had been invited to the next stage of the interview! I actually wasn't aware that there would be another interview stage (definitely my fault for not asking) so this was a bit of a shock. I had been feeling scared about having to confess to Grace at Coach that I was being considered for another internship, despite having only been at Coach for a week and a half. The next stage of the interview would unavoidably have to be done face-to-face so I bit the bullet and explained to Grace that one day next week I would be going for another interview for a placement 'after this one' but that of course, I would make the time up that I missed. The interview involved bringing some pre-prepared tasks with me in the form of Instagram stories featuring Nivea beauty products and a feature of approximately 300 words to write about any products I liked. I decided that since I had found out during my phone interview that the internship role would actually overlap with beauty and fashion writing, I would write a fashion feature for my submission to show my strengths in both sectors. I also wanted to demonstrate my graphic design skills as I think that this is something that could set me apart from the rest, as well as my knowledge and interest of bloggers as this is something I was asked during my phone interview. I'll be printing out several copies of my feature for each of the interviewers to keep, hopefully leaving a positive impression!


Edit: I left the interview beaming from ear-to-ear about how well it had all gone! It was an extremely daunting interview process which consisted of me sat at a table surrounded by 5 interviewers. Conversation flowed well and was extremely engaging; I had plenty to say with each question asked and gave honest and passionate answers in response. They were all very impressed with the extra effort that I had taken to arrange my writing piece into a LOOK feature article layout and I was secretly very happy that I had printed off extra copies - there were a lot more people conducting the interview than I had expected! Sadly, I didn't get the internship. The whole application process was the best I have experienced so far; I felt like I had been genuinely considered with care and time invested into my candidacy. I received helpful feedback and plenty of words of encouragement and praise, plus a hamper of beauty goodies which is always a bonus! After enquiring, I found out that the competition had received over 600 entrants. Despite not being successful at the final hurdle, the whole experience has definitely increased my confidence to continue pursuing big career-related challenges even if the odds are stacked against me.

Coach: Week Two - New York Fashion Week

I've seriously been thrown straight into the deep end during my second week at Coach, which has coincided with New York Fashion Week where the brand has showcased their Coach 1941 Fall/Winter 2018 collection.

On Tuesday, while still feeling pretty lost about the new tasks I was still adjusting to, myself and the other intern were briefed on our New York Fashion Week tasks for completion on Wednesday and the next four working days thereafter. The main difference in our tasks for this particular week in comparison to the rest of our time at Coach is the responsibility of collecting a much more significant amount of coverage. Each day for the next week, we will be collating a report of the brand's print, online and social media coverage while will be double-checked for any amendments by Grace, the PR Officer, before being shared with the brand's international teams in New York and Europe.

Each day we will alternate the collection of newspapers and magazines to scan for coverage, however we will be collecting every single daily issue of each publication rather than spreading them out over the course of the week which will drastically increase our workload. In addition to print press, it will be our shared responsibility amongst the rest of the PR team to search routinely for coverage online and on social media. We've been given a list of journalists, photographers, bloggers and VIPs to monitor their social media posts at regular intervals. Coverage is to be labelled accurately in order to make the process run as smoothly as possible, so each piece of publicity will be categorised as Dedicated Show Review, Show Coverage with Runway Image, Show Mention, and so on. 

Wednesday was a very busy day and I was exhausted by the end of it. We were asked to arrive at the office for 7.30am and were warned that we most likely wouldn't get time to have lunch. This is something that I felt quite bitter about to be honest, since I'm not getting paid to intern here so I don't necessarily owe the company additional hours of work. Nevertheless, I need to show how dedicated I am to the role so I powered through despite feeling like a walking zombie by the end of the day! Because Coach show their collection at New York Fashion Week, we had to essentially work to the New York time zone in order to meet deadlines for the day. By 12pm GMT, we needed to have searched for, saved, recorded and arranged all of the coverage received to be sent off the the New York team and then the process was repeated in time for the next deadline at 4pm GMT. It was quite stressful and time just seemed to fly by which was very worrying but Grace praised me and the other intern for our hard work, saying that this was possibly the smoothest that this day has ever gone! 

On Thursday, our day was taken up largely by preparing and packing up samples to send to Coach's VIP press list, made up of journalists and celebs like Nick Grimshaw, Harry Styles and Dua Lipa. Don't get me wrong, the act of wrapping gifts is very therapeutic and quite relaxing compared to the pressures of the rest of my role - but it is somewhat degrading to know that the limits of my responsibility here at Coach involve wrapping presents and sealing envelopes. Frustratingly, because of the sheer scale of this task, we fell behind with our preparations for Thursday's daily NYFW coverage report. This meant that I had to stay late to complete the task in order to meet the deadline and yet another late night getting home. One day Fashion Month might be a bit more glamorous for me, but currently it's just exhausting! 

Friday was a catch-up day where, in addition to the day's NYFW coverage report (which by this point was much smaller and more manageable) we focussed on getting back on track with returns and send outs, something which had to be neglected due to our demanding workload this week. The fashion cupboard is A MESS but the chaos doesn't really affect me, having already experienced the seriously dysfunctional carnage in the Fabulous magazine fashion cupboard last year! I hope that next week we'll be able to properly organise the cupboard by matching the shoes that are currently strewn all over the floor into their allocated shoe box and arrange the clothing samples into their categorised runway looks.

Look Magazine: Look Fashion Pages

Coach: Week One - A Lot to Learn

Halfway through completing an assignment last year about the use of PR by a brand of my choice, I literally said the words "I hate PR" and meant them. Admittedly, my understanding of PR at the time was a lot more vague than it is now as I struggled to come to terms with the concept of it. Since then, my exposure to PR has been much more positive as I have interned at Fabulous and Look magazines and truthfully really enjoyed working in both positions. While these roles were basic with often mundane and administrative tasks, emailing PRs back and forth all day became a familiar task that I took a lot of pleasure in doing. I think my work ethic and organised nature compliment a role in PR quite well, so I was curious to see what interning in an actual PR role for an in-house company would be like as at this stage in my placement year, I would really like to narrow down my career ambitions to find the perfect path for me and by doing that, I feel that I need to get exposure in plenty of different areas.

My first week at Coach was extremely overwhelming. Although I've had plenty of experience with checking samples in and out as well as using couriers to arrange for collections and deliveries, I've never used Fashion GPS before. Knowledge of Fashion GPS seems to be a very desirable trait so I've been looking forward to getting to grips with it, but it certainly seems like I have a lot to learn in a very short time. At Fabulous and Look, the process of checking samples in and out was very relaxed and didn't take very much time at all - whereas, at Coach, the process is much more laborious and requires a much closer attention to detail which will take some adjusting to.

Collecting coverage is also a new task which I have never completed before. It requires myself and the other intern alternating the task of collecting magazines and newspapers each morning before sharing the role of scanning for any coverage of the Coach brand within them. I'm quite a perfectionist and have a good level of attention to detail so I think that the task of scanning for coverage will begin to come naturally to me. I really enjoy getting to read magazines and newspapers everyday as I feel that they will make up a component of my future career path; it's definitely become clear to me in the past week that my career will need to be media-facing with a lot of interaction between myself and journalists, stylists and PRs - in what capacity though, I am still unsure! 

While I'm so excited about representing a designer brand that I love, and getting an impressive name on my CV, I do have some concerns about the level of variety and responsibility that I'll be getting during this placement. I had so much responsibility at Forever Unique but didn't enjoy the largely graphic design based role - while this placement as PR Intern certainly seems like it's going to be a busy one, I'm worried that I'll start to feel despondent about being treated 'just like an intern' in a room which offers little room for creativity or independent thinking. Nevertheless, I'm interested to see how my feelings change and develop and I'm looking forward to building on the skills I've already started to gain this week. PR seems to be a very rewarding role, and since I work well under pressure, I hope I'll find that its a great match for me!