On holiday...

The Perpetual Intern is taking a holiday right now, but will be back at the end of July! x

The Visual Team at French Connection HQ

Situated alongside the Marketing team at French Connection, the Graphics and Visual teams work their magic. It is thanks to them that sitting at my desk feels as though I have been plonked in the middle of an art studio, which I love!

At the moment, the team are putting together all of the graphics for AW10, which is exciting - but also a glum reminder that the longest day has been and gone and that summer will be over in no time! With this in mind, French Connection is taking inspiration from the typical windy days of British autumn in the plans for the AW10 window displays. Here is the mock-up that has just been erected behind my desk:

Pretty cool, huh?

Marie Claire - Inspire and Mentor Event

HOW TO GET IN TO FASHION

Today I attended the Marie Claire 'how to get in to fashion' event - a networking opportunity for aspiring fashionista's, graduates, school leavers, and basically anyone with the shared goal of making a career for themselves in the world of fashion. It was a fantastic opportunity to get some real insight from real professionals, and I though it would be nice for me to pop along so I could tell you a bit about it.

The panel included;

Boutique Buyer for Matches - Georgina Gaiza

Up and coming Fashion Designer - William Tempest

Head of Communications at River Island - Sarah Walter

It was Sarah in particular, who really inspired me. Her CV is very impressive - she has worked at Harpers, at New Look (responsible for their brilliant collaborations with Lily Allen, Kelly Brook etc), and now River Island to name but a few, and yet, at the start of Sarah's career, she took 4 years out of Fashion to run Safaris in Africa! How brilliant is that! It just made me realise that there is no cardboard cut-out model for success, and that in this industry, it really does take all-sorts.

In case you missed this event, here are the panel's top tips:

1. Internships, internships, internships - they could not stress how beneficial these are. William Tempest did his internship with Giles Deacon, and the others all mentioned that a really great intern will always leave an impression, and that can lead to so much more.

2. Nothing is beneath you when you start at the bottom, and in Fashion, everybody does. A positive attitude goes a long way.

3. Fashion should be intuitive and personal, be confident in who you are.

4. Don't be afraid to take risks and chances - almost all of the people on the panel got where they were partly by being open-minded opportunists.

Hope this helps!

Bargain Hunt: The joy of the Sample Sale

As a lowly intern, there are a few things that you know you're going to have to do. One of those things, is contributing your blood, sweat and tears to putting together the Sample Sale. I can honestly say that I didn't think all of the rails of clothes would even fit in the showroom at Centro One, but they did. And thanks to all of my hard work, I knew exactly where to look for the really great bargains, because I put them there!

Here are my top Sample Sale steals...

Dress RRP £55

Sample Sale steal £10

Dress RRP £135

Sample Sale steal £15

I am planning on wearing this to a summer BBQ this weekend with a pair of nude gladiator flats - perfect!

Bag RRP £60

Sample Sale steal £10

The Great Plains Spa Day at French Connection HQ

It was another eventful day at French Connection, and this time the press office was turned into a Day Spa for the staff - all in the name of charity, of course...!

Great Plains, who are part of the same company as French Connection, have announced a collaboration with Plan, one of the largest child-centered community development organisations in the world. You can find out more about what they do here.

In order to raise staff awareness, Plan sent a representative in to talk to everyone about the great work that they do - whilst Benefit, Dermologica and HOB helped to raise some more money by offering facials, hair styling and makeovers. It was such a great way to get all of the staff to interact with the charity and find out more about why Great Plains were working with them, and really helped the staff feel involved in making a difference. It was also amazing to spend your coffee break enjoying a relaxing facial!

French Connection's Secret Garden Shopper Events

For the past two weeks, French Connection has been holding nine exclusive shopping events, including three in London, as publicised in Grazia magazine. Lucky Grazia readers could apply for an e-ticket and enjoy an evening of drinks, nibbles and discounts - and for a spend over £75, a goody bag packed to the brim with summer essentials.

I have been working on the logistics for these events since I started my internship, and what makes them extra special for me, is that I had the opportunity to come up with the name 'French Connection's Secret Garden'. Picked from a handful of ideas, I thought that it encapsulated the feel of French Connection's summer collections perfectly, and tied in with the exclusivity of the event. It was amazing seeing something from my own imagination come to fruition, and then splashed across the pages of Grazia magazine!

Organising all of the logistics for the events was challenging at times, but I loved seeing everything come together. The Benefit girls provided an in-store brow bar, and along with Tony & Guy and Gu, provided us with treats for the goody bags. We also had some lovely event staff handing out desserts and drinks to our happy shoppers.

Being so heavily involved in these events has been the most rewarding part of my internship so far, because I got to see every part of the process, from conception to execution. On the night of the Regent Street event I was on a permanent high! If you look carefully at the photo below you can just see me operating the guest list...and modelling a lovely dress that I was allowed to borrow from the Press Office for the occasion, which you can see in it's full glory here.

FCUK: PUBLIC SAMPLE SALE!

I am so excited about this, I had to share it. Preparations have started at head office for the 3 day public Sample Sale - if you live in London I can guarantee, it's one not to miss! I will let you know what gems I find for you to look out for...

French Connection Marketing Internship

Back at the beginning of April, it really did feel like that special time of year. We all had high hopes that the summer was just around the corner and we'd soon be rocking our gladiators every day. Sadly, that was not the case, and I for one am still firmly attached to my boots and scarves. Got to love the British weather, right? Having said that, I must admit that for me it hasn't been all doom and gloom, as April was also the month when I started at French Connection.

I was invited to interview for a Marketing internship at Head Office, based in Camden. The offices themselves weren't much to look at from the outside, but once inside I really got the sense of being at the beating heart of an international fashion brand. I was greeted by a huge poster from French Connection's current 'This is The Man/This is The Woman' campaign. (If you haven't seen the movie clips from this campaign you can check them out here. I recommend giving them a look, I think I am in love with The Man).

The interview itself took place with the Brand Marketing Manager in a glass meeting room situated just off the Graphics floor. The office is flooded with natural light and is almost entirely open plan which gives it such a modern feel. Littered around the office there are various images and show cards from French Connection's promotions and campaigns, but it still doesn't feel cluttered. As you can tell, I was smitten, and after an informal and relatively short interview, I left feeling pretty positive.

Later that week I received the phone call I had been waiting for and was asked to start a week later. That was 6 weeks ago now, and since then I have learned so much, most importantly, to write everything down! I had to catch on to that one pretty fast as it can get hectic, and I was starting to go mad trying to remember a to-do list as long as my arm!

For the remaining 6 weeks I will try to give you a bit of an insight in to what I have been doing, what I have learned, what it's really like to intern at French Connection, and everything in between. Especially the part about the Sample Sales!

ASOS: A sneak peak at life as a Fashion Buyer

It all started in back in November 2009, with a 4-week stint at ASOS Head Office in Mornington Crescent. So here's a recap:

Using ASOSlife (the online ASOS community) I asked the staff at ASOS towers if anyone could give me some tips on how to start a career in Fashion. I have been a fan of ASOS for a number of years and the prospect of getting some experience with them was too good to miss - I couldn't wait to hear from them. Amazingly, despite her busy schedule, the Head Buyer for Branded Women's Wear replied almost straight away with some great advice, and especially told me to get some Head Office industry experience. Luckily for me, some short weeks later there was a vacancy on the site for immediate work experience, and I jumped at the chance.

On my first day, I felt a lot like a wide-eyed little girl in a very stylish toy shop. I got to have a good look around the maze of ASOS towers, and as an added bonus I got a sneaky peak of the male models doing a shoot! The office is a hive of activity, there is always something to do, and when I got to see my desk for the first time, I was chuffed to find it surrounded by rails and boxes of new season goodies for me to work with. It wasn't long before I had settled in to my role helping the girls on the Branded Womenswear Buying department, which I really enjoyed. Everyone at ASOS was very friendly and dressed beautifully, although interestingly, everyone seemed to have their own individual style. It definitely had a knock on effect and made me think more about what I was wearing myself, and I vowed to try to be more individual with my style from then on.

I was working at ASOS for a total of 4 weeks. There were always new samples coming in to swoon over, and it was great to be a part of the whole process; waiting for the new items to come in, shooting them on the models, and then seeing them go up onsite. But, as a surprise to me, the part that I loved the most was helping the Marketing team, dealing with Brand Communications and writing a few blog entries as an 'ASOS Intern' for the site.

With my experience at ASOS in mind, I decided to start a blog of my own. Hopefully it will provide an interesting account of my experience of trying to establish my goals, and it will also be somewhere that I can share my experiences of trying to get that 'dream job'.

If anyone would like to ask any questions about my experiences, or has any feedback at all, feel free to post a comment and I will try to include anything you want in my next post!

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