After a month off where I enjoyed Christmas festivities, applied to new placements and attended a couple of interviews since leaving Forever Unique, I've found myself starting a new one-month long placement with LOOK Magazine. After reflecting a lot throughout December about the kind of placement I want to do next and thinking about reasons why Forever Unique ultimately wasn't fulfilling enough for me, I've realised that I'm actually really drawn to roles involving direct contact with the media and I'm pretty sure this is the path that I'd like my career to take.
On Monday I began to get to grips with the returns system at LOOK and was surprised to see how much it differed compared with Fabulous. At Fabulous the samples in the fashion cupboard were piled high on the floor, in boxes, on shelves and lined up along the corridor. I didn't see the floor for the majority of the time there and everyday was quite a challenge trying to find samples which urgently needed to be returned to their PRs. Here at Look, it's a lot different; as soon as samples have been featured on a shoot they are returned, meaning that they don't get lost in the mess of other samples over time. The samples are also recorded when being received and sent out by Look which is really helpful as it provides us with a full record of the samples' journeys and gives us proof of postage when things inevitably do go missing every now and then! I was thrilled to find out that I was going along to a shoot with Lucie Clifford the next day so it was my responsibility to ensure that samples were packed up into the suitcases, that a courier had been arranged to collect and deliver the suitcases for a return journey and that I had a good idea of the complete outfits that Lucie wanted to style up so that I could lay them out in the correct order on the morning of the shoot.
The shoot was located in Street Studios, Shoreditch which is an area I love for its youth and creativity. Throughout the day I was on hand to assist Lucie and the rest of the shoot team with absolutely anything they needed - such as shining an LED light on the models legs while the make-up artist, Aimee, brushed them with foundation or doing a bit of dog-sitting for Lucie's gorgeous sausage dog who also spent the day at the shoot! I was happy to work with Aimee again, having worked with her on a shoot at Fabulous with Tracey Lea Sayer just last year! She didn't remember me but it was satisfying to establish another good connection! I also made copious amounts of tea and coffee - and got lots of compliments on my tea-making abilities! I was chuffed with this since I don't drink tea and always worry that I'm actually not very good at it. My main priority during the shoot was to record the brands of the samples used in each look in order to write up the credits the next day. The most important element of this task was staying alert at all times - which is easier said than done when there's a million things going on at once - so that I was always aware of any last minute changes made to the looks in order to record them in my notes.
On Wednesday I tackled the credits by referring to my notes in order to get in touch with PRs (using Fashion Monitor for their contact details) to enquire about the prices of the various samples. This was a lengthy process which was drawn out over the entire day as a lot of the PRs asked to see images of the specific samples in order to provide me with the correct prices. The prices also included the stylist's full name, plus the photographer, hair and make-up artists and model's names. It was also my responsibility at the end of the shoot to confirm with the rest of the shoot team whether they would like to be credited under a pseudonym name or with a particular brand. For example, the photographer - named Shukeel - had been instructed by his agency to be credited under the name Gary Wright using Fudge Professional haircare. Writing up credits isn't a new task to me as I had a bit of experience with it at Fabulous, which I was quite thankful for!
The next day was a day of mostly mundane tasks, made challenging in some ways and advantageous in others by the fact that I was working alongside another intern with about the same level of experience as me. It was difficult at times to figure out the best way to work alongside each other while having to share one computer and one set of emails but it was great, however, to have an extra pair of hands to halve all of the tasks and someone to talk with through some of the less exciting jobs! I was also instructed by another of the stylists, Sarah Barlow, to book her a few days of showroom appointments ahead of her upcoming main fashion shoot. I'd never carried out a task like this before so was a bit unsure about the wording of my emails to the various PRs but I managed to successfully book each appointment and rearrange those that didn't fit with her schedule and availability. Liaising with PRs is such an interesting process because names start to become so much more familiar and connections start to be made that could definitely come in handy in the future.
On Friday I spent the day on my own without the company of any other interns, but I enjoyed being able to get on with all of the tasks and having personal use of the computer and access to emails. I aced the returns process by fully getting to grips with the LOOK mag process of ticking off samples on their particular docket and marking them with the day's date so that there was a clear journey of their delivery to LOOK to their departure. I was also asked by another stylist, Lydia, to bare in mind that she had an upcoming Valentine's Day shoot and to keep to one side any samples coming through the Fashion Cupboard that fit her brief for pale/pink/white/pastel items. At 4:30pm I was told that I could go home early, which was a welcome treat at the end of the working week! The company culture at LOOK mag is so refreshing having just come from a company with such a low staff morale. I can't wait to get back next week to tackle another 5 days of life in the Fashion Cupboard.
Post a Comment