Designer Connection

Hey guys! During my internship with Dorfman Pacific I get to work first hand with one of the designers. His name is John Callanan and he is asking for some followers on Facebook. If anyone is interested in design or working with the company or the accessories industry then friend him! He's extremely social and very personable so don't be afraid to ask him some questions!

Express Now Hiring!

Hey guys! SO if any of you are from around this area or plan on staying around this area, Express is set to open June 24th. They are hiring now for stock and sales associates as well as sales lead which are part of the management team. It's a great opportunity because you will get to be a part in opening the first Express store ever to look like this. No one knows what it's going to look like yet, but we do know it's costing them over $4 million so it's gonna be good! As you know I worked with Kate on visuals and I won't be returning to KOP when it opens so she is looking for new visual people. Most of you have her contact information, but if you need it just ask me for it! I also have all the managers contact information so if anyone is interested I can let them know!

Jewelbilee

Just last week, I got my first "big girl" job as a full time Assistant Manager at a brand new store in Plymouth Meeting called Jewelbilee. It is an all jewelry & accessory store located next to Ulta & Gap. The store concept was created by the owner of David's Bridal & brought to life just last year in Moorestown, NJ. The new Plymouth Meeting store is only the 2nd ever!! My first day at Jewelbilee was Monday where I met all the staff members & got to see the store- which has yet to be finished. The place is beautful & I am so0o anxious to see the jewelry & accessories Thursday when I begin merchandising the store! I would like to invite EVERYONE to the Friends & Family days April 12th & 13th. It will be a great event where you can do some shopping & have the Jewelbilee experience. I have e-mailed Mrs. Westbrook the invite for her to forward to the fashion students. If you do not receive the e-mai but would like to be forwarded the invite, please e-mail me at: mashley717@gmail.com. Also, if you would like to take a look at some of the merchandise & at the Moorestown store, the website is: http://www.jewelbilee.com/. I hope to see you all there!!

Getting ready for Spring at Hershey's Mill

Yesterday Jen & I returned to Hershey's Mill Pro Shop. When we got there we were asked to reorganized & straighten up the backroom. This was to make room for the new merchandise coming in & to also make sure similar items were together (men's, women's, staff, etc). After we were done, Ted asked us to receive more invoices into the computer. As Jen has said in past blog entries, it is a tedious process!! We have to not only account for discounts & shipping costs, but we also have to figure out the sku number of the items. We are getting better at the calculations but once or twice we have had to redo something! The last task we did yesterday we unpack the new merchandise & tag it. The shipments included clubs, irons, & men's clothing (from Cutter & Buck).

Picking Out Outfits

The other day was a fun part of being an image consultant intern! We went with Beth to a client's home and picked out outfits that she would wear that weekend that she was going away for. It was so fun to pick the clothing, shoes and jewlery that went with each one and I hope she enjoyed what we picked!

Sunday's Show

Sunday was the show at Collingswood Ballroom. I thought the ballroom would be really nice because the title sounded like it would be, however it was not like that at all! It was around Camden, New Jersey so the area was not that nice to say the least. Inside the ballroom was very nice though. At the show I worked a booth for Carol since the event planner who usually does the booth wasn't there. The booth had VIP magazines, a bunch of coupons to flower shops, photography places, philadelphia diamond, etc. It also had things and a donation box for wish upon a wedding, which is an organization recently launched to earn money to grant weddings for individuals with terminally ill diseases. So that is a very cute idea. The space was very spread out at the ballroom, so I didn't feel as many people were there.

Fun class of skits today

Today our seniors presented skits on what not to do in situations that involve interviewing and corporate settings. It was too much fun! One of the funniest things they did was during a mock interview-the candidate pulled her folded resume' out of her bra! Great way to make a point about bad behavior and being unprofessional! Great job to all of the students! I am so proud of you all! Thanks for inviting me. PW

Spring Shipments Are Here!

This past Friday at Hershey's Mill we got our first official shipment of new Spring apparel. It was a shipment of 39 pieces of ladies-wear from vendor East Pacific Professionals (EP Pro). It was quite a process from beginning to end here is what we did:

• Unpacked every piece that was individually wrapped in plastic from the box and hung them
• Check the invoice against the open order to make sure we got everything we paid for!
• Assign a sku to each piece (necessary to ring up at the register)
• Calculate the unit price of each item (factoring in shipment costs, a 2/10 credit terms discount, and the cost of the item itself)
• Input the skus into the inventory (putting in the item description, the cost, how many we received, the selling price, and merchandise category)
• Print price labels and put them on the tags
• Put the apparel out on a floor rack and also hang pieces creatively on a wall to showcase the new spring line

I never realized how long a process it was when getting a shipment of apparel into a store and found it interesting that large retailers and department stores have to do this on a daily basis, but I did not mind it at all and I look forward to seeing the rest of the spring orders coming in over the next couple of weeks!

LA Market Week!

Hey Guys!

So this summer I interned at Jackie B. Showroom in Los Angeles and I had the time of my life! During my third week there LA market week occurred (June 13-16, 2010). During this week buyers from all over the U.S. come to showrooms all over the city and find new merchandise for their stores.

I have to say this was the most hectic week I was there! There were so many different types of personalities to deal with, some great and some were straight up rude but hey it all comes with the territory of this industry. I got to take the buyers through the showroom and show them the multiple lines we sold and made some sales for the company!

This was an exciting and exhausting week!

the blog's banner!

Hey guys! :) So you probably noticed the new banner for the MacStyle blog! Yes, it's finally up. That is another thing I worked on for my internship. I hope you all like it!

I made it in Illustrator. I used an image of IU and vectored it (used the pen tool and basically traced over it). And I also drew the girl with the pen tool as well. This was the final of many different versions! I'm glad that we settled on one. I think it looks good. At first I hated it, but now I don't. Ahah. So yeah.

As for Nookies, I've been doing other things. Postcards and researching places to buy customized tote bags with the Nookies logo on them. I had to wait a while for Chris to send me some new projects, but now I have them, so I am working on them now! Fun, fun.

Line and Composition

In class we also learned about the importance of line and composition when it comes to visual display.

There are four different types of lines and they all affect displays differently.

• Vertical- Represent strength and stability.
• Horizontal- Long, wide spreading lines. makes objects like wider and shorter. Restful quality.
• Diagonal- Forceful, dynamic.
• Curved- Personifies grace and charm. Eases tension of too many vertical lines.

A very important form of composition is Balance. A display can either be formally/symmetrically balanced, or informally/asymmetrically balanced.

A symmetrical balance creates a mirror image of one side to the other. The weight is even on both sides. It gives the display a clean, formal look. Both sides of this photo are exactly the same. All of the items are displayed evenly on each side of the image.

When a display or an item has asymmetrical balance, both sides are not a mirror image but they appear to be equal in weight. In the picture above, all of the items have an asymmetrical balance. In the dress, the black is on the left side in both he top of the bottom of the dress but the amount of black and white is uneven on both ends.

Dominance is another important composition of display.

• Draws attention to the display by using an object and it's color, size and position throughout the entire composition.
• Merchandise are usually the most dominant in displays.
• Objects are dominant when using a contrasting background

Contrast shows a sharp difference in color, lines, forms, and texture in the display to make the objects stand out.

Proportion represents the relationship between scale or weight of certain elements.

Rhythm is a self-contained movement of a display.

• Leads the viewers eyes from one place to another, gently.
• May be smooth and gentle or jumpy depending on the display

Repetition is the repeating of a certain element in the display. It could be a piece of merchandise, a color, a line, a shape, or many other things.

Color and Texture

In Visual Merchandising class, we learned the importance of using color and texture in display. How it affects the consumer and how it represents the store's overall image. Color influences your emotions when you don't even realize it.

The color wheel shows the relationship between primary colors, secondary colors, complimentary colors, etc.

The three Primary Colors are:

• Red
• Blue
• Yellow

Secondary colors are created by mixing primary colors together:

• Red + Blue= Purple
• Red + Yellow= Orange
• Blue + Yellow= Green

Complementary Colors are colors that are opposite of each other, for example:

Red and Green

Yellow and Purple

Blue and Orange

Analogous Colors are colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. Analogous colors are great to put next to each other. Since they are so closely related, they often look pleasant next to each other. The warm analogous colors displayed above remind me of springtime and they look nice displayed from left to right.

Tint refers to when you take a hue and add white to it. The picture displayed above shows when navy has white added to it, it soon becomes a baby blue.

Shade is when you add black to a hue. The light pink becomes a fuchsia like color after adding black to it.

Not only does color affect the way we display, texture plays an extremely important role as well. Texture can also affect the color of a piece of merchandise.

If a piece of merchandise is smooth or shiny, it will reflect light making the color appear lighter.

A rough texture can make the product absorb light which will make the color appear darker.

Texture can be seen or touched, it helps enhance the features of merchandise to make them either more appealing or unappealing. Even if a texture unpleasant, it still stands out to the consumer which is a positive thing for a store.

All of these factors, plus many more affect the way a consumer shops.

Valerie Martin attended the Philly Flower Show and took these photos for fashion students! Pretty cool use of flowers as wearable art.

Mens Shoes

In class, we were assigned to take a specific group of Menswear out of the 7 I explained in my last post, and I chose mens shoes. We had to explain each category and compare them to see the differences. Below is a link to another video to help you have a better idea on how mens shoes are categorized as well as what they look like. Enjoy!

 

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d6a4d324e6a63794e7a6b3d0d0a&blogview=true

 

Have you ever wondered how shoes even came about? Spanish cave drawings from more than 15,000 years ago show humans with animal skins or furs wrapped around their feet. Those animal skins and furs evolved to what we know and wear everyday which is our shoes. Those furs eventually evolved to sandals, which are still very popular in the summer time. Sandals are the oldest crafted foot covering known to us. The shoemakers of the past never would have thought to pair a sandals with a platform would ever come about. Our shoe fashions of today are basically modernized adaptations of past styles. We should all appreciate the cavemen for starting such a wonderful thing!

^ This is a picture of what the first leather shoe looked like, definitely not a fashion statement in this era!



Interesting Facts About Shoes:

• Before a shoe can be made, as many as thirty-five measurements are taken from a footprint to show the distribution of the body weight.
• Over one hundred operations go into the construction of a shoe.
• In the Middle East, parts of Africa, Korea and Thailand, it is considered rude to show the soles of the feet to others (even accidentally, such as by crossing the legs).
• Shoe throwing is a great insult in some areas in the Middle East and in India.
• In Thailand, it is an extreme insult for the foot, sock, or shoes to touch someone's head or be placed over it.
•  Mass-produced shoes generally require 1000 years to degrade, depending on what they are made of.
• Until more recent years, shoes were not worn by most of the world's population mostly because they could not afford them.
• It wasn’t until the 18th century that women’s shoes were different from men’s.
• The word "stiletto" originally meant "little dagger."

Below is a picture of the anatomy of a shoe:

Now, to help you get a better idea of details in each of the 3 groups of mens shoes:

 

Business Shoes:

• worn by business men
• worn generally with a suit or other formal attire
• mostly made of only leather
• sometimes have a design on them
• dress shoes are characterized by smooth leather, leather soles, and narrow sleek figure

Casual Shoes:

• more dressy than sneakers
• can be worn with jeans
• worn for mostly everything except during sports and work
• good for casual Friday's at the work place
• casual shoes are characterized by sturdy leather, non-leather outsoles, and wide profile

Sports Shoes:

• worn with shorts and a t-shirt or jeans
• used during exercise
• NEVER FOR WORK!
• for a more "laid back" look
• teens like to match their color of their shoes with their hat or shirt

 

Comparing the 3 Categories of Mens Shoes:

• same basic structure and shape
• much more different than womens shoes
• no large variety, all the styles are generally the same
• there is also no wide selection compared to women, no heels, flats etc. (same basic shape)

7 Menswear Categories

In class, we discussed the 7 different Menswear categories. Menswear categories are the different types of things a male can wear.The assignment was to create a collage of a Menswear category. Being that each category can be explained more in depth, we only had to have a picture for each category. Below is a video that has pictures that go with each category so that you have a better idea of what each category looks like, enjoy!

Personalize your own digital slideshow

Exploring Menswear Categories by: Laura Mahachek
- Men remain slower and less willing than women to accept radical fashion changes
- Men tend to not take risks or go out of their comfort zone


-There are 7 different categories:

• Tailored clothing
• usually business attire, very dressy and classy
• Casual office wear "Friday wear"
• casual Friday is:
• NO JEANS!
• NO SNEAKERS! (save them for the weekend)
• khakis and a sweater is most appropriate
• Sportwear
• popular brands: Nike, Adidas, Underarmour, etc.
• Cotton t-shirts are very popular in this category
• loose fitting clothing
• Casual Non-athletic
• everyday casual yet classy attire
• no too dress but not too sloppy
• Outdoor Sport
• popular brands: Northface, Columbia
• sometimes for cold weather
• skiing and snowboarding
• Outdoor Non-sport
• jackets such as peacoats
• Furnishings
• accessories
• watches, bags, sunglasses, cuff links, jewelry

-What I found very interesting was that I never really realized that men actually have "accessories." I thought it was sort of funny, and I never thought about how they actually do have accessories. I think that accessories are important and that they definitely tie an outfit together.
- In the picture below the man has accessories: glasses, hat, suspenders, and a tie. Other things that could add to his accessories would be a watch or bag.

-Men have trends in their clothing just like women do. Maybe it might not be a drastic change, but there are changes that occur within the different categories of Menswear. For example, the notch on the lapel in a suit jacket is starting to move higher towards the upper part of the body, because thats what the style is changing into.
- As you can see with the picture below, its an example of what a higher notch looks like.

Comparing it to women, I feel like women have more of a selection and variety. I think that is a good thing because it seems that men usually stick to the same basic style and are not likely to change it like a woman would. A woman has more options with an outfit such as extra jewelry and accessories. It seems that men are only able to do that on certain occasions or in certain circumstances otherwise it might look silly. Whereas, women can do more with their style, but it does not look funny.

Talamore Show

Today was the bridal show at Talamore Country Club, which is in Ambler, PA. It is a really nice country club. This show was dedicated more towards grooms than usual, having poker and march madness on the TV screens. There was also a bar set up nearby, as well as some guy food like wings, burgers, and nachos. The guys could play the casino type games and win some great prizes if their tickets were called, so that was a different and exciting element to add to the show. There was also a huge fashion show which is always fun to watch. There were about 300 people who attended the show so overall it was a good day!

Talbots Models New Store Concept on "Woman's Dream Closet" | News | Apparel Magazine(AM)

Talbots Models New Store Concept on "Woman's Dream Closet" News Apparel Magazine(AM)

Today at Hershey's Mill I definitely got a feel for the more mathematic side of being a buyer. Ted showed us briefly how to add sku's into the computer system and then how to input the inventory received from all of the new Spring merchandise we have been receiving. We had to find out the individual item cost of everything coming in in order to accurately price it for retail...this consisted of taking the item totals, dividing it by the number of units, deducting the 2% discount that they receive for payment within 15 days (their terms with most vendors are 2/15, n/60), and then divide the shipping costs among all of the items which gave us the cost for one single item with only a simply calculator, pencil & paper...it was tedious and our heads were spinning by the end but I think it was fantastic to actually be able to apply what we had learned in past fashion classes to real-work-world experience!

Fashion Show Date is set...

The fashion show production class will have their fashion show in the Great Hall on Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30.

Also at Hershey's Mill...

As Jen said above, we got a great opportunity on Friday when we met the FootJoy rep, John. Since Jen spoke about that experience, I wanted to talk about some of the other things we had accomplished that day.
We were put to work cleaning & dusting the shop & we also rearranged some of the displays. We also learned how to read invoices (sheets that are filled out when orders are taken) & we recorded the information (type of merchandise, quantity, company, prices, & dates of arrival) on spreadsheets. I think the hardest part was trying to figure out the type of club to record-- there are sooo many!!!!

A Day in the Life of A Buyer

After a long break off from my internship at Hershey's Mill Golf Club Pro Shop, we seem to be getting back into the swing of things with the golfing season kick-off just right around the corner. I can tell that the shop pros as well as the club members are very eager for beautiful weather to get out on the course and strut their stuff!

This past Friday at Hershey's Mill, Meg and I spent quite a bit of time at the shop doing numerous things to prepare the store for the upcoming spring season. One very exciting thing was our opportunity to meet with John, the sales representative of one of HMGC's biggest vendors, FootJoy. He was very nice and very enthusiastic about the new summer/fall apparel line that FootJoy is currently promoting. He brought in an entire rolling rack of about 48 pieces of clothing and went over just about each of them with Ted, Meg and I. He told us the features of each piece and what set them apart from the rest (since there are abundant amounts of apparel companies as we all know--even in the realm of golf and sporting goods). I believe he presented everything nicely and did a good job of engaging us and answering all of our questions. My only concern was for a few of the items he seemed to have slightly exaggerated their features a bit. A few pieces he claimed to have special properties that we knew from having our textiles class was simply impossible. Otherwise, it was a great learning experience and cannot wait to meet with more reps in the future. All of the work we did for Ted Friday really gave us a chance to see what a career in buying is really like.

Hotel du Pont Show

Today was the show at Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, DE. It is an absolutely gorgeous hotel!! It would be a gorgeous place to have a wedding, but very expensive! The reception room is beautiful. There was about 350 guests who attended the show and it went very well. There was a huge fashion show where the models show bridal gowns, bridesmaids dresses, tuxedos, etc. It was a good day!

the process of making an IU fashion logo!

Oh hey guys! :) I love blogging~ Anyhoo...

As Polly posted, the new logo is up! Isn't it lovely? Haha. Creating such graphics has been a part of my internship, aside from the things I have been doing for Chris (Nookies). I'm not really sure what I should be posting about here, but I figured I would go through the process for the logo. By the way, I am also working on a new banner to go up at top! It's going well. Still editing though.

So yes, the logo. I was asked to create a new one for this blog--one that would relate to fashion in some way and also keep the IU logo. The old one was tiny and pixelated! Certainly NOT fashionable at all. Am I right? I started working on many, many different variations about a month ago? Probably less, but I don't remember. The idea was to have IU and have some sort of fashion accessory along with it. Shoes? Necklaces? Purses? Yes. My first versions, trust me...they were messes. They had ALL of those things. Way too busy!! But many critiques (MANY) and edits later, I was able to narrow down my versions to 9 somewhat quality ones.

You can see the lineup of 9 here (click). Then more comments from my lovely Chris and Polly...and we were able to narrow it down to 4. Here are those four (click). The decision was finally made between us to go with...*drum roll* #2! Number 2 was the winner. :) And that is the one you see now! I have also made one for the fashion club/group in the same style.

By the way, if you are interested, I used two programs to create the logo(s): Photoshop and Illustrator CS4. They are my trusty friends!!

Next up for me: the banner for this blog and a look-book for Nookies.

Thanks Kelsey for our new logo!

Senior Kelsey Lee who is a graphics design minor created our new logo for our department.

Hope you like it!

Thanks,
Mrs. Westbrook

Back to Hershey Mill!

Today we went back to Hershey's Mill & got the shop ready for reopening. The golf season will be starting soon (once the weather warms up) & new spring merchandise is arriving shortly. We moved around the merchandise on the floor to give the space a new look & created new displays in the windows & on the walls. We also learned how Ted, the Golf Pro (our boss) calculates & tracks his new spring merchandise through spreadsheets.