"No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty of sleep."
- Unknown
Week # __5___ Date
of report: ______9/7/14__________
Log work hours during past week of internship: 90 hours 20 minutes
Monday __9:00AM-11:59PM__
Tuesday _12:00AM-12:30PM__ Wednesday __9:00AM-7:15PM__ Thursday
__9:00AM-10:05PM__ Friday
__9:00AM-11:00PM__Saturday__9:30AM-11:00PM__Sunday__9:00AM-12:00PM
SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK’S ACTIVITIES – INCLUDE DUTIES,
TRAINING, AND EXPOSURE TO NEW AREAS OF INTERNSHIP ORGANIZATION:
·
Cleaning the Design Process room where Vera Wang
does all her decision making
o
Organize things pinned onto the 8 Boards
o
Organize the collection onto the racks by fabric
prints and type
·
Pattern copying
·
Hand sewing:
o
Sewing on hook and eyes
·
Machine sewing:
o
Shurring/Ruching down the center of pinked
strips of various fabrics.
·
Helping unwrap new pleated tulle from Vogue Too
and hanging up on hangers.
·
Errands:
o
going to companies in Midtown to collect buttons
and garments
o
picking up and dropping off at Vogue Too to get
fabrics pleated
SPECIFIC SKILLS/TASKS DEVELOPED OR INTRODUCED THIS WEEK:
·
Cutting strips of different sizes using a
pinking rotary cutter.
·
Making Scarves from tulle
·
Creating fabric samples:
·
Copying patterns and also marking the placement
of mink fur spaced 2.5” and strips on another pattern that were 2” apart. The placement on the patterns are a little
more tricky because the sewing is on a curve so I needed to make the first rows
1.25” from CB, which had a slight curve.
I also needed to make sure the front lines matched perfectly with the
back.
·
Hand sewing a harness made of bugle beads, ruffeled strips of gauze and a ribbed ribbon, I assembled (hand
stitched) the strips together to form a harness. I worked on these with Ginean. She is a pattern maker at Vera Wang and she
walked me through the process. She has
worked at Vera Wang for 2 years and before that she worked at Zac Posen for 6
years. She told me that in the beginning
of a season she has more creative freedom to drape and create different
patterns to show Vera and then towards the end she is more restricted to create
what the design team draws out for her.
·
Questions Answered by Design Team:
o
First they have the show, then they go through a
process called market where the collection is presented in our show rooms and
buyers from companies can come and order from the collection and the popular
buys are then sent to production to be redrafted from the original sample to be
taken and create spec sheets and then sent out to production facilities
abroad.
o
Most parts of the Vera Wang label are created
under a licensing agreement. All the
lines such as Simply Vera at Kohl’s, White at David’s Bridal and black at Men’s
Warehouse (just to name a few) are all licenses so Vera is not making many of
the design choices. They have a separate
design team and location and she still has a say and hand in the final say so
but she isn’t as heavily involved. There
are also store locations in London and Shanghai and these locations are also
separate from the NYC Vera Wang design team.
They are also licensing; however, Vera is still very involved in those
designs.
SELF-EVALUATION OF WEEK’S PERFORMANCE OF INTERNSHIP:
Even though this week I worked a crazy amount, I would not
have had it any other way. I was able to
help out so much and work on so many cool projects. I learned so much and was able to form closer
relationships with people on the design team and on the production team. We all became a team to put together a
collection and I felt so grateful to be a part of that team. The people at Vera Wang are so nice and
willing to help and teach me correct techniques and they are right there
struggling through the long hours with us interns.
They also showed us so much gratitude this
week.
Every night we stayed past 8:00PM,
they fed us dinner and on the weekends we also got free lunch. Some days I would have free lunch and dinner. They would also call a car service and we
would all get a car to take us home. The
design team also told us that we were the best interns they have had in the
past two years and that really where thankful to us for our hard work, which
makes me want to work even harder and help out even more!
Week # __6___ Date
of report: ______9/14/1`4__________
Log work hours during past week of internship: 53.5 hours
Monday __9:00AM-11:59:00PM__ Tuesday
_12:00AM-12:30PM__ Wednesday __9:00AM-5:30PM__
Thursday __9:00AM-5:30PM__ Friday
__9:00AM-6:00PM
SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK’S ACTIVITIES:
·
GOT TO GO TO THE SHOW!!! IS THIS FOR REAL!!!!! AHHH!!!
o The RTW team leader was so
impressed by the amount of work Sarah and I did while keeping a good attitude
that she put us both on the backstage list.
o
For the show we took the shoes and cut leather
loops off of the back of the heels and colored the tops using black paint pens
and then we used dull pinking rotary blades to score the bottom of the
shoes.
o
At the show we scored more of the shoes, checked
garments for imperfections (colored basting stitches left in), and we brought
the black fabric paint pens to color in spots that we saw in the embroidery on
the back of jackets. We originally tried
to dye the white embroidery black; however, it would not take and kept turning
purple or blue. We decided to paint the
embroidery using acrylic black fabric paint.
Hilary and Sarah painted the fabrics.
·
Hand sewing:
o I hemmed a dress
using a blind hem stitch and hand sewed in a trim that I had machine sewn. The trim consisted of a layer of mink, a
layer of gathered organza ripped on the cross grain and two layers of gathered
tulle all very closely sewn together.
o
had tacked the tags into the garments and sewed
in hang-loops into bottom pieces
·
Cut strips of organza and wool on bias as well
as malfroy tulle all in various widths.
·
Errands:
o
going to Johnathan Embroideries in Midtown to get
garments buttonholed
·
I was able to overhear the sales meeting about
costing the new collection and their process of choosing which pieces to move
into production and which pieces were canceled out. Some pieces were too expensive to make for
production or they were not sellable.
Some pieces needed to have specific changes made before moving into
production.
SPECIFIC SKILLS/TASKS DEVELOPED OR INTRODUCED THIS WEEK:
·
Re-organizing the Design Process room where Vera
Wang does all her decision making
o
changing from RTW to Bridal
o
Packing into bins all of the fabric technique
samples into bags and then into bins and then into the closet. Bins where labeled.
·
Creating Bridal Flowers
·
Machine sewing
SELF-EVALUATION OF WEEK’S PERFORMANCE OF INTERNSHIP:
This was one of my favorite weeks.
I pulled an all-nighter at work on Monday
night with the design team, seamstresses, patternmakers, and fabric
cutter. We all made it through together
and we were shown so much appreciation for our hard work. Getting to go to the show was amazing. I was able to see all of that hard work be
presented to the world and come together.
It was crazy how last minute it all came together. It was literally like a more intense version
of capstone and the fashion show class mixed together. I felt very prepared due to my all-nighters I
have experienced in college and
knowing that fighting through the night results
in such a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment
that next morning…and then
the wave of being tired hits and sleep and rest is definitely a must. After the show I went home and did just
that. The rest of the week I got to go
home around 5:30PM and I never felt so grateful! The rest of the week the design team
continuously showed us their gratitude and told us how talented and great we
were. It felt amazing to feel so
appreciated. To view the collection click here.
After the show, the RTW
design team leader, Margo, hugged Sarah and I and told us that we were the best
and that they would not have been able to do it without us! I was given so much responsibility in the
midst of chaos and I didn’t hesitate or doubt my abilities. I just did…and I proved to myself that I can
do more than I ever thought was possible.
I am so excited for bridal
and to learn more about bridal fabrics,
techniques, patterns/draping and where they pull their inspiration.
WEEKEND:
Friday after work my rommates and I got mani/pedis. It was a perfect way to end the work week. This weekend my dad and sister and her boyfriend all drove to Ney York City to visit and bring me my car. We went to the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial, the top of the Empire State building and Rockefeller Center. We also went to a broadway show called "The Book of Mormon."
New World Trade Center
9/11 Memorial
Empire State Building
Rockefeller Center
City Hall Park
It was amazing to have the full weekend off and spend time with my family. I feel rejuvinated and ready for bridal!
Love Always,
Sydni
