the internship, pt.II

Ok, so last week I finished my internship; there were some ups and some downs, but all in all I had an amazing time, met some amazing people, and got to experience first-hand New York Fashion Week.

The following is what I wrote after one of the ‘downs’ of the week on the 12th February…

This past 24 hours have been some of the most stressful I’ve experienced. Yesterday was spent running from store to store picking up items for the show, – socks, leather shows that had to be dyed, picking up tights that had been left at the dyers. I was out doing these errands from 10am until 6:30pm.

Upon my return the designer freaked out because the tights they’d sent as a sample colour didn’t match the colour the dyers had used. Unfortunately for me, I was the one she decided had to take the brunt of her anger, even though I was only the one who had been sent to pick them up. I got sent back to the dyeing studio 40-something blocks uptown in the garment district and waited out the next hour or so there and at Starbucks crying intermittingly under the stress while the dyer did his best to match the colours. The whole problem was that under the professional lights in the dyeing studio the tights matched perfectly, under the normal lights in the loft the colours didn’t match.

When it happened I literally felt my stomach drop out of my body. It’s the weirdest, freakiest, scariest feeling I’ve experienced. It’s funny that this all happened because of some tights and now, because they didn’t drop-off the correct number of tights the first time around I’m back at the dyers agains waiting for one last pair to be done. I’m dreading going back with them to the loft in case they don’t match again.

Lucky for me, the tights I had to take to the dyers on Friday before the show matched when I got back to the loft. The rest of the day went really smoothly, I was sent on a last minute mission to find shoe horns just before the show started but no shoe stores or pharmacies within a 6 block radius of the show sold any. When did people stop needing shoe horns? In the end we didn’t need them so it wasn’t a huge stress-out.

The show was amazing, its crazy how so much hard work goes into the clothing and the logistics of it all and then it’s over within 3 minutes. I saw Mila Kunis in the front row of the show (think That 70’s Show & Family Guy) and afterwards backstage I think I saw Peaches Geldoff but I’m not sure. Because of the lighting most of my photos didn’t turn out but what looked good is below.

this was one of my favourite pieces of the collection

the finale

more finale

the end of the finale

After this experience I feel like I can handle anything. Running around the city in a blizzard, keeping my head under pressure and making sure I didn’t cry until I was outside and in a cab/Starbucks – whatever happens I can do it!

If you want to see proper photographs and a review of the fashion show click here.

SNOW (BLIZZARD) DAY!!

NYC Blizzard February 10th 2010

Last weekend everyone was talking about how we were going to get a HUGE snowstorm on Friday/Saturday, everyone got freaked out and then it never arrived.

Until this morning.

Five days late and it finally showed up and hit the city with a vengence. I woke up this morning at 7:45am and the snow was already falling outside my window. Walking to my internship in Soho was slow-going because I was trying to avoid slipping over in the snow while also trying to avoid becoming a walking snowman.

After I arrived at the loft I had my ‘Devil Wears Prada’ moment of the week I think, – I was sent to run errands in the developing blizzard. Off to Kmart to get hangers and then on to Duane Read to get the photos of the models in the different looks developed. Let’s just say I discovered that snow is actually painful when it hits you straight in the eyes!

While I was running errands I called work a few times to see if they were still open and planning on staying open for at least some time in the afternoon so that it would be worth my while heading uptown for my shift. On the phone it sounded like we’d be open for a few hours longer and then shut so that everyone could get home in time before subway services were disrupted. Businesses were being advised to send their workers home and close for the day, on top of schools, libraries, the Central Park Zoo and courthouses all closed for the snow day.

When I got to work though I found out we were going to stay open for the entire day and shut at our normal time of 9:00pm. It seemed like half the staff had called out, and I wished that I had as well since all my friends had the day off. There were hardly any customers and between working I’d check the MTA site for updates, go upstairs to see the snow and try to navigate the street outside to get food.

Luckily for me my trains tonight were really that disrupted when I went home. It would have been nice to get home earlier, but at least it made me get to experience being outside for some of the day, – otherwise I may have chosen to stay in bed all day and watch the snow fall outside my window.

heading to work 😦

the tree archway during the daytime

one of the libraries

people getting excited about the snow

the snow was already accumulating at 2pm!

frosty the snowman!

the view from across the street

the falling flakes

i hope they didn’t want to ride this bicycle!

trees and snow

i love tree branches with snow

the field between the two libraries at columbia

the tree archway at columbia

the tree archway is soooooo pretty

some snow flakes falling in front of my camera kinda ruined this photo

it all piles up

the internship begins…

So today I started my internship for New York Fashion Week at Willow. I headed on down to Soho for the early morning start and ended up in a bright and sunny loft on Broadway. There were two other girls there as interns, a girl from Melbourne here on the same programme as me and a girl who’d just recently moved to New York from Indianna.

As the designer and the stylist met the models and started dressing them, our task was to steam the clothes and make sure there was no trace of the wrinkles and creases gained as a result of the 18+ hour flight over from Australia. The models towered over us as they came in and out of the room in the different looks for the show, and my fellow interns and I commented on how we were all guaranteed to have complexes by the time the week was over. I’m definitely not a short person, but I felt like a five-foot midget after the first few hours!

By the time I had to leave to go to my regular job it was nice to go out in the real world and feel like I was on the tall and slim side again. My hands have a rash/burn from the steamer but a regular application of cocobutter does the trick perfectly and I guess the ‘no pain, no gain’ saying is true in this case.

I should be at the Take Action Tour afterparty at Angels & Kings right now, but instead I’m exhausted and lying in bed about to try and catch up on some much-needed sleep. I heard 7 hours sleep is totally the new 12 hours sleep; I wish! You know I’m tired when I turn down an invite to go out!!

I’m sure the rest of the week will be even more interesting than today so I’ll be sure to keep this updated. Also, my music blogs from the past week will be up soon as well.