"She Designed a Life She Loved": Show Time

"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."