Wednesday:
NC Folders
Ran Errand: snaps from Sil for Heather
Compiled email list for the fall promotion e-mail
Unpacked Trunk Show Box and put dresses out on the floor
Streamed dresses
Tailor Cards
Cut Fabric for Kate and Heather (Pattern paper as well)

Thursday:
Last Day
Presentation for my mini collection of bridal and Bridesmaid designs.
Swatches
Filed folders
Chicago Dresses
Ran Errands for Heather: Staples and flowers
Flash Cards for Nicole
Confirmed appointments
Photo shoot meeting

Tuesday: NC Folders
Swatches
Post office twice
Food run
Filed Folders
Organized Swatch bins/refilled them
NY Pickups


Thursday: Returned items to stores
Swatches
Filed Folders
Finished refilling and organizing swatch bins
Called NY Pickups
Made appointments for Spy Shopping
Sat in on Photoshoot meeting
Sat in on Sample Color Meeting
Learned Fitting
Made more recommendation cards
Ran the post to the box and got starbucks
Pulled all past wedding folders.

Thursday:

Filed Folders
Swatch Requests
Unpacked trunk show and Sample Sale Dresses and put them out on the sales floor
Called Clients for NY Pickups
Created More New Client Folders
Created More Recommendation Cards
Gathered Materials to ship to our store in Hong Kong
Reorganized and started refilling the swatch bins.
Helped assist clients who were picking up dresses.
Ran Errands, mail to the post box, coffee etc...

Really Quick before I forget:

Tuesday:

Finished Tonal Card.
Finished making a list of all the samples that needed to be repaired.
Did swatching.
Filed Folders.
Put the Mail in the Post Box.
Re-did the Mannequins

Pictures of Displays.

Thursday. Recap.

I confirmed all appointments for Saturday.
Called all the NY Pickups.

Recut some of the swatches because some of the ones that I had cut last week were too small.

Filed Folders

Started making a list of all the styles of sample dresses that needed repairs in the showroom.

LB came to visit, took her on a tour and explained what I had been doing what else I had to look forward to.

Cut swatches for tonal cards to use in determining what colors the belts should be for the customizable gown.

Over the weekend I plan to make an excel file of the dresses that need repairs and finish the tonal card.

Also i am going to work on a mood board and illustrations for my Jenny Yoo Collection.

Tuesday was more or less a day of same old same old activities. I finished filling the swatch bins, I completed some client and whole sale swatch requests. I switched out hangers on dresses and prepared a dozen dresses for a trunk show. I also shredded papers, filed folders and processed orders charging accounts, calling clients to let them know that their dresses were able to be picked up. I got to be the receptionist once again since Nicole is still on vacation. So I got to greet the clients and process the pickups. That is when girls come in to pick up their dresses I got to take care of that. I also sat down with Kate, Alyssa and Kerry and came up with projects for Thursday. Took the mail to the post box (it was a gross disgusting day) Out side of that the day was pretty normal.

Potentially figured out a potential theme for my senior Collection: Carneval but with a modern take. So I got fabric swatches to try and narrow down a color scheme. Also need to work on JY Collection. This weekend I'm going to do my second reading, my draft of the 4-5 page paper, do drawings/color/scan and protentially start flats for the JY Collection and find images/pick colors for my collection. So busy busy, but I am enjoying it. :)

Today was the big luncheon for which I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for cellophane on Tuesday. It went well. I did a lot of odds and ends today. Filed folders for Chicago orders, continued filling in the attributes file, reformatted it and made it look cohesive. I got to be be the stand in Receptionist because Nicole is on vacation so I did the swatching and I refilled some of the swatches I put the coupons out in the show room, in the client folders and I got to greet the clients and introduce the appointments to the sales team which was nice (helps me work on my people skills) and I got to do my very first two dress pick ups by myself (which was a little nerve wracking and threw me kind of off guard but it shows that I am learning and it was a good refreshing.

Need to talk to Kate and Debra, Frenchy and Rita (kind of want to do some production, product development work) -more design related

-work on collection for JY and work on inspiration ideas and color schemes for my own collection.

Also Jenny said it was ok if I switched tuesday and wednesday in the last week of July.

Work is good. I like the office and it makes me think that if I do ever open my own business i want to be able to see my office as a sort of family the way Jenny treats everyone in her office.

Did a lot of running errands today.

Refilled the client folders, and did a lot of swatching.

The Jenny sent me on an errand to get Cellophane which is more time consuming than it sounds. Went to the first place (didn't have cellophane so i got tissue paper instead) Didn't work, she really wanted cellophane so I googled a few places went to about 10 more stores which none of them carried cellophane anything. Went back defeated, Jenny called around and finally found a paper place that carried it. Hopped on the Subway and headed to 18th street. Success! I found them, went back and took the mugs that Jenny had ordered and filled them with candy, wrapped them with cellophane and tied them with a ribbon. She liked them which is what matters and I'm glad that I made them appeal to her vision.

That was my day, a lot of running around. However I did learn that a substitute will not always work. If someone wants Cellophane try all the different ways to get them what they want before you try and convince them to use a substitute.

Thursday Marked the half way point (5 weeks, 8 hours that day and 75 hours total)

the day was more full of what I would call busy work than I would have liked but in a way someone has to do it in order for the company to run as smoothly and efficiently as it needs to.

I sat down with my supervisors Kate and Debra and filled out my Learning agreement. We bounced different ideas back and forth of how i could get the best and more varied experience possible. We ended up deciding to engage me in different activities having to do with Design, Business and Marketing or Promoting the Product.

Design: Sketches, and I am going to present to them and Jenny most likely a collection of Bridal and BMs designs at the end of the internship.

Business: Sales and Fittings and observing/ helping out with appointments.

Promotions/Marketing: Photoshoots and looking at magazines etc... that showcase JY designs.
(Also researching different methods of ad. and different venues for photoshoots.)

I entered data into an excel file on the computer, I completed or almost completed several swatch orders including a huge order to our Showroom in Chicago. I also reorganized the showroom, straightened up the dresses, placed them in their proper places by fabric and then arranged them by color. Restocked the bags for NY pickups and created new Tailor Cards which we give to our clients when they pick up their dresses in case they need to have their dress tailored.

That is about the extent of my Thursday. Not as exciting as I would have liked but all good things to do to preserve order in a company.

Today was a great day.

I arrived around my usual early time and was put to work right away typing up the company's attributes and the values of those attributes on an excel file format. This will help the sales associates not only in New York but also in Chicago and most likely eventually LA better express the good qualities about every dress they have in their showrooms. this in turn should help sell the dresses and that in turn makes a better profit.

After I finished that task, I helped Jenny begin to clean out her office and on Thursday I will continue to help her organize, I shredded old folders of resumes and papers and paper work that she hadn't looked at in 2 or more years. Reorganizing as she put it will help her to be more efficient and she'll know where everything is once we get rid of all the things that don't need to be in there, we can make room for everything that does need to be within arms reach and that way she will stay better organized, which in turn will make her work more organized and she won't expend energy on looking for things.

I did some typical swatching and filing of papers, as well as creating some new client folders.

Today I did learn something new. I got to charge credit cards for purchases. How one goes about doing that... Is you pull up the bride's account on the computer and depending on if it is a bride or bride's maid that you are charging you view the billing info for the appropriate transaction. Enter the Credit Card number into the machine and the Expiration Date. Then you enter the amount and then it prints, attach it to the sales receipt and if all the clients within the folder have been charged and all cards have gone through the machine fine you place it in the accountants box to be invoiced. However if you are still missing payment from any of the members of the party or someone's card was declined you have to contact them to clear up the issue.

I'm learning a lot and I really like that I'm getting a lot of different sides of the business, from production, to sales, to accounting/billing, to almost secretarial duties and some design aspects as well.

I did show Jenny my designs that I accomplished over the weekend, maybe on Thursday I can ask her what she thought. Also need to ask her about the last week of July and need to sit down with her, Kate and Debra in order to fill out the paperwork for Caz.

Thursday (this marks the 4th week at Jenny Yoo)

I started out the morning putting dresses out on the floor. These dresses had come from other stores or clients. After that I refilled the swatches in the center console which go to clients. This is important because it gives the clients a reference not only of the different colors that they liked but also the different materials that the dresses come in. Therefore it is important to refill the stock because it saves time and energy and presents the company as organized, efficient and thoughtful. After that I sat down with Jenny because she had a special project for me. On Tuesday during the meeting about the photo shoots she had mentioned that she was designing a new wedding gown that clients can customize, she explained it as a plain white strapless with pleats in the bodice, and she wants to create a series of belts that clients can attach to the dress to make it their own but at the same time be more or less unique. So my task was to go out to other stores and look at jewelry, belts, details on clothing for inspiration to create these belts and then over the weekend I am going to sketch out some ideas as well.

After gathering ideas and uploading pictures I listened to messages and took notes. Nicole who is the Receptionist taught me how to listen to the messages on her phone and also we reviewed how to retrieve and package a dress when a client comes to pick it up. She had shown me once before but this time I got to learn how to enter that specific event into the Jenny Yoo computer system which is important because it records the time, date and who picked up the dress in order to prevent confusion or the loss of a dress.

By the end of Thursday I was pretty much just doing normal office activities, filiing invoice folders, post wedding date folders and doing some swatching.

Tuesday: Quick Recap.

Sat in on the meeting for the photoshoot prep, basically they do a shoot for the internet, they do a shoot for the national ad campaign and they do their annual shoot for the Program. Jenny showed us all the different style and color options and then our mission is to come up with ideas for outdoor shooting, concepts for sets and stories to tell with the photo shoots. (Especially for the bridesmaid)

After that I organized the swatching and displayed some of the broaches that were collecting dust.

I then was given the task of going through the sample sale dresses and marking off the styles and colors that no longer exist within the showroom. (Found at least 2 dresses that i like)

Also listed out my internship duties and did some swatching.

I listened to the messages from the wholesale stores and wrote down the information.

Thursday was a very busy day, I started the day by creating an Order Reports Expediting binder which has all the open orders, packing lists, WIP reports and instructions in it. I created one for our showroom as well as chicago's showroom. Afterwards I continued to pull past wedding folders, do some standard everyday filing. I created a file in excel that listed all the attributes of the Jenny Yoo collections, for example whether the dresses are A-Line, Empire Waist etc..., this is to help the sales associates when they are trying to sell a product this familarizes them with the benefits to each style so that they can then communicate to the client all of the special features and why certain attributes are beneficial to the look and even why the client should invest in pieces with certain attributes, ultimately with the goal of making sales. I did some swatching and put together some new client folders. I took the folders that I had pulled of the past weddings and began to e-mail the brides to congradulate them and ask them if they could send some photos of the bridal party, to use as promotional material on the website and facebook page. My last job of the day was to redress all the manaquins. (probably my favorite part of the day since I was given no direction and got to choose my own color scheme). I feel that I am learning a lot and thoroughly enjoy my internship. :)

Today I arrived 20 minutes early, and got right to work filing packing slips and pick slips for whole sale companies and clients. I filed them by the name of the company if it was whole sale and by the brides name if it was a client. After I completed that task I commenced on my mission of returning dresses, in the fashion industry it has been understanding that companies will buy products from well known companies in order to use an idea they like or an idea that is working better than one they currently have. It is a tool of inspiration in a lot of ways but on the other hand this is also how one creates knock0ffs. So I spent over an hour returning dresses. the first store was Macy's in Herald Square (which I already dislike that particular macy's) it did not help that 4 different departments told me 5 different areas in which to return said garments. I rode as you might imagine the escalator quite a bit. But finally when I found the correct department I had to wait in line for half an hour. My biggest dislikes of that particular store are that they categorize it by designer, you can't return garments just anywhere (which is what I found out today) it has to be in the department in which they were bought and they need to work on their customer service. But that is why I avoid shopping there if at all possible. Flagship store hah! It's the biggest headache I ever got from a retail store.

The other store I went to was Anthropologie in Rockafeller Center, which was not a headache and very pleasant. After I finally got back to JY, I ate lunch and relaxed for a bit. All the running around made me kind of tired and hot. While on my lunch break I did begin looking up things to do around town. I then filed cut slips and swatched (which I am improving on) I also filed Pick ups for dresses and when there was nothing really left for me to do at 5:30 I stacked toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins in the employee bathroom. The last thing I did today was begin to pull the past date folders which are the folders of orders that have already happened, meaning that the wedding day has passed. I got through A-H but i still have to finish them on thursday. Debra is also giving me a project on thursday (which i can't quite remember what it is at the moment, mayb it will come to me again later) Rita also wanted to start me on a project but couldn't quite get it organized today.

It was a busy tuesday but a good tuesday. :) I like being busy.

Thursday I finished up my label assignment, finished creating the labels, then I cut them into strips and placed them in their respective swatch envelopes. I ate lunch. After lunch Ashley (the other intern) and I went through the racks of extra dresses and highlighted their style numbers and codes in order to better organize the company and show which styles and dresses in those styles they had extra for. After that I organized binders and pulled pick slips which are like a receipt for each order that needs to be signed when the dresses are picked up. However I was only pulling certain orders, the ones that needed to be Rush, which refers to orders that need to be priority in production because the event is coming up sooner than others. After that I was trained for picking up garments. It seems pretty simple, look up the brides name (even if it is a brides maid) and then everyone will be listed under that person, and you pull the dress out and place it in a bag unless it is a wedding dress and then you place those in garment bags , you give them a list of tailors if they want it and always give great customer service. I ended Thursday by doing some cleaning, dusting, reorganizing etc.... This week they are going to have me and Ashley reconsolidate and reorganize the closets.

Tuesday was tiring to say the least. I started off the day by making a list of the color labels that were missing from the swatches. Then seeing as I could not get on a computer until about 4 hours before my shift ended I created more new client folders which basically you take a blank folder, put the Jenny Yoo sticker on the front, place a catalog a swatch sheet and a sheet describing the order process. I did 50 of those then I completed some swatches (about 7 , 3 whole salers and 4 clients). I ate lunch, then filed folders and computed the color labels I did the Shantungs, the Eastern Shantungs, the Bobbinnets and the Charmeuses. This was my tuesday in readers digest versionish. Sorry for the short and the sweet but it is thursday and I am leaving for work in about 15 minutes.

The second day went almost better than the first. (which is a really good thing)

Activities:
Meeting
Streaming
Fitting
Labeling
More Steaming

I arrived 10 minutes early today, and got to observe a morning improvement meeting. The topic of the meeting was "making sure the client feels comfortable and understands the process of the appointment" in other words better customer service.

The main point of discussion was walking the client step by step through the appointment before the appointment begins and explaining why the associates are doing certain steps to neutralize any fears the client might have. Some of the steps included, setting up a profile on the computer database, asking probing questions about styles, colors, fit, season, length, event etc... taking measurements which can be convenient because then the bride or bridal party does not have to come back for a second appointment, providing color swatches and putting all the information gathered in the appointment into a folder for the bride to take with her when she leaves to use as a resource.


Steaming: both in the morning and afternoon went really well, I steamed about 40 dresses approx. (I like it, though it is hot, painful and does not agree with my skin)


The Fitting: I think went really well, the new collection looks really nice and I'm excited to work with it. I'm glad that I got to observe the fitting because I think it is one of those things that we always plan to learn at Caz but just as easily it is something that we put off when we run out of time.

The dresses being fitted were 1st samples so they will go back to production with corrections and then the second samples will come and have to be fitted as well, in order to make sure that the corrections fixed the problems present in the 1st samples.

Labeling: was easy, all I had to do was label each dress with the date and 1st sample.


I thought today went really well, I need to ask Jenny about travel/food compensation and also I need to show her my portfolio and see what she thinks.

This weekend I'm going to update the website, do some fabric research and think up ideas for my collection.

(week 1 done, 9 left to go)

Summer Internship.

Hi,

It's been a while, I'm in the city once again interning at Jenny Yoo Collections, which is located near Hearld Square at 139 35th st. on the 9th floor.

I had my first day yesterday, Tuesday May 25th 2010 and it was a little nerve wracking at first and a little intimidating but by the end of the day it was quite pleasant. I met a lot of people yesterday, Nicole who was basically the secertary for the front door and who would bring clients into to wait for the show room associates. Kate and Debra were the two show room associates and whom I will be most often helping out. Kerry whom is the person who communicated between the different stores and show rooms, Sandra who is as Jenny said a multitasking super hero and then last but certainly not least is Jenny Yoo herself, she was really nice and i'm glad I have the opportunity to work with a group of girls that all seem to want to be very helpful and also the other good thing about a smaller company is that they do a lot of things inhouse so it is a great opportunity for me to see a lot of different aspects of the production process.

Before I continue with my tasks for the first day I just want to mention that Liz and Adi's wedding planner works in the same office, so I got to meet James as well, and he was thrilled to finally meet me. :)

First day....,

Tasks:
Swatches
Call Backs
Dusting
Hangers
Steaming
Organization of showroom
Filing

Swatching is when you take a whole sale or a client request for a specific fabric and you mail it to them.
Whole Sale - you find or cut a big square (2) roll them, place them in plastic bags and then into a manila envelope.
Client- go to the center console in the show room get the specific paper, the swatch and label tape, fold and place in white letter envelope.

Call backs was when we would call the brides or bridal party to tell them that their dresses or sashes or ties were ready to be picked up in the show room. (personally I don't like talking on the phone but i'll get over it)

Wedding Wizard.

Dusting was one of those tasks that one gets when there is nothing else for them to do... well, at least their shelves looked a lot better afterwards.

Hangers- Jenny Collections got a shippment of 150 bridal hangers, so I switched out all non bridal hangers that were still on the showroom floor and then separated the hangers into LA, Chicago and NYC because at least 65 had to go to LA, at least 50 had to go to Chicago and we had to hang onto a couple.

Steaming- The new 2011 sample 1 dresses came in so I was asked to steam them because if they are correct then they will be used for the photo shoots for next season. I got to use an industrial iron and it does a really good job getting wrinkles out but then that is what it is supposed to do.

Oranization of showroom and filing- the showroom has a lot of cabinets and as Kate told me that on saturdays when the showroom is really busy they tend to just throw everything in willy nilly, so I reorganized all the cabinets and filed the folders of brides that had been charged but their weddings had not come up yet.

And that.... was my first day. I arrived at 11 and left at 6, in my meeting with Jenny we decided that my hours, in order to make the goal of 150 hours required, is that on Tuesday I work 7 hours from 11-6 and on Thursdays I work 8 hours from 11-7. She also seemed interested in seeing my portfolio and letting me do some sketching etc..


Expectations:
I want to have a well rounded experience and I want to learn a lot about industrial production and how all the different aspects add up to create a company.

Jenny's Expectations:
She wants me to become instinctive and in a way self motivating and self sufficient.


Tomorrow is another day, hopefully it is as good as the first.