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.
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