Day 9 NYC: Moving Part 2

Today we had to go back to their old apartment and clean

Day 8 NYC: Moving Part 1

Their new place

The mountain of a hill
me and Stephanie have
to walk up

the view from their back yard

My room

The living room

Today we started to move Stephanie and Joe into their new apartment. It was kind of interesting because we had to drive directly through Manhattan. It was also tiring.

Day 7 NYC: Not as Hectic

Today was not as hectic as yesterday, the day started of slow with me organizing hangers for the design room which actually has a purpose. The three types of hangers in the design room are for three types of sizes the smallest hanger is the junior hanger which actually has a number on it is 484. Then there is the Missy hanger that is of course one step up that number is 485. Finally there are the Plus size hangers. After I organized 3 boxes of hangers they did not really have much in the design room for me to do so I went to corporate and helped the technical designers. I went over there and helped to spec garments. Which for those of you who do not know is when you take the measurement’s that a garment is supposed to be which are in detail on a Specification sheet in a teck pack and cross reference it to a garment that is sent to you from the manufacture to make sure that the measurements are close usually they have to be with in a fourth of an inch to a half inch. Now did you know that there are three kinds of samples? There are the samples I talked about from yesterday the ones they show from other companies to give the buyers an idea of where they are headed, there are prototype samples which are the samples you cross reference to the technical pack, and there are ad samples that go and hanging the showroom so that buyers can see what they are buying and usually what it will look like when it gets to the store. I mostly did the AD samples today which consist of measuring 4 things and then sending them off to the show room. These measurement’s consist of: the bottom width measurement, the length of the garment which is measured from HPS or high point shoulder (where the neck seam and the shoulder seam connect), the sleeve length and the chest width which is found by measuring down 1 inch from the arm hole and then across. After you are done measuring these you place a pin tag in the center back and fold them then you place a copy of the original Specification sheet in with it and send it to the showroom. I pretty much did that until the end of the day and then went back to Stephanie and Joes house where we celebrated the fact that it was Friday.

Day 6 NYC: Work and having people learn what I know

Today was interesting day at work. First I got to arrange the samples that the Creative Director and the President of Merchandising brought back from Europe. These samples got arranged by sleeve length dresses verses summer sweaters and heaver sweaters. They are also from a lot of the stores I just recently visited like: Zara’s a company in London that has its garments produced in Spain, New look, and H & M to name a few. When the buyers from companies such as Dillard’s, Wal-Mart, J C Penny’s, Kohl’s, and Macey's come to Fashion Avenue Knits show room they are shown these samples to give the buyers an idea of the designs that this company is going with for the season, but they sit down with the buyers and get a better price for that garment by changing little things for instance they might not put as much detail in the garment or they might use a different material. After that they had me work with an Assistant Designer in Color Matters to make a technical flat for a design they are working on. I had quite a bit of assistance with that since it was my second day with Color Matters. I then had the most stressful part of the day when I had to go run an errand to a trimmings store they said was in between 38th and 39th street on 6th Avenue, so I walked out of the building that the company is located on and I was kind of lost I knew I was on 39th and Broadway but other than that I was so lost! So I guessed. I walked down and saw that the next street was 5th Avenue so then I walked up to 7th Avenue and then had to guess which way from there, so I had to just guess and I ended up guessing. I ended up being right that brought me to the second part of the stressful situation getting what I had gone to go get. They did not have one type of ribbon that they had wanted so I did not know what to do about that and then there was the fact that there was so much to choose from in the store that I was overcome with amazement. When I got back with the ribbon that could get they told me to go back out to the same place and get a different ribbon in a color that would replace the one I did not find. They did not have enough of that ribbon, so I got samples of the ribbon in the color that they wanted that the store had enough of and took it back and let them pick which one and then finally went and got it. After that little fiasco I got to sew the ribbon on samples that the company had made and then I also had to quickly hand sew a cuff on a shirt and buttons to match it so that they could get it approved by the Creative Director and the buyers. That was my day! When I got home I watched some T.V and then went to bed.

Day 5 NYC: Learning new skills

Today I went to my internship and got a little overwhelmed I had to learn a new computer program called Color Matters it seemed like it would be fairly simple since I know Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, but quite on the contrary. It took some getting used to. I also today made a board with all the sample belts for the company for when they put them on sweaters. I also reorganized the color samples which are sample garments in the correct colors for the company so that they know which color the manufactures want. The hardest thing I did today was the Color Matters because I had to make a color board using an integration of real swatches that you can touch and feel, and having the text and boxes done in Color Matters so it took me a few times to get it done. I got really frustrated with my self for not getting it done correctly the first time. Lastly today I got to sew some things up and organize a few things for the bosses to come in tomorrow. I am sorry but I did not get pictures again to day, but I promise I will get them tomorrow, oh and I got 6 new pieces of clothing for free!!! They were samples that the company had done and did not need any more! yea!!

Day 4 NYC: First day of work

Today was our first day of work. We took the number 7 train into the city, and got off at Times Square and then walked to work from that the design studio is on the 12th floor and then we went into the design room and there were cloths every where. It was amazing and the colors that were all around was also amazing. For my first task I did color cards which is when you take actual samples of the colored fabric and put them on print outs of the fabric. Then they needed me to help them clean out winter samples. when a company does a sample they usually do one in each color to make sure that the design will and the yarns they use will take the dye correctly, so when the season is over with you need to clean out all the multiples of that style. After a wonderful lunch of a salad that they take everything you wan in it is chopped together. I went to the cooperate building where I met my supervisor for this internship and then started to work with the technical designers. Where I needed to measure samples to make sure that the manufactures did the sample to the specifications that they sent them. AD samples are to go to the show room which is where I was in the morning to be sold. The other samples that I did were to be looked at to make sure that they were right and then if they are not or if they are they then put them on a fit model to see if they are wrong that maybe they work anyway on the form. At 6:00 P.M.we headed back to the apartment and that night had conversation and played pool. That was my day! I did not really take pictures today because I was just taking it in. I will try to take some tomorrow.

NYC 3: Memorial Day/ Packing

Happy Memorial Day! Well I think we are going to pack up some of my friends house to day.