Almost Graduation Day

This semester has finally ended and students are taking exams this coming week.

May 16th is graduation day and we say goodbye to our seniors. Graduation is such an exciting time in a student's life and can be filled with mixed emotions.

As our seniors leave, I wish them Godspeed as they embark on their new adventures and careers. I know I will miss you all and wish I could have been at IU and worked with you all for more than one year.

Make sure you are linkedin so we can all keep in touch!

Hugs to you all!
Polly

mood boards part 2.

And here are the other two that I made. I never made any mood boards before these for Nookies, so I wasn't sure about what I was doing. But apparently I made them right...and they did come in handy for when I was designing the loungewear. :)

Confidently Suggestive is full of classic styles. Nothing too flashy or modern, so I went with navy and red...and classic cars and such.

Innocently Flirty is for women with an eclectic style that's cute and innocent but sexy at the same time. I chose pastel colors and fun items for this mood board. :]

mood boards part 1.

I honestly do not remember if I showed the mood boards that I created for the Nookies loungewear personalities! O: So I will do a couple at a time. Here are the first two. Basically I just googled certain key words and items that Chris was looking for for each of the personalities. Then I came up with a color scheme that I thought would fit also. Since Nookies is based off of old Hollywood starlets, I made sure to incorporate them in these!

Captivatingly Glamorous is black, red, silvers and golds. Elegant and sophisticated.

Playfully Seductive...pinks and reds and Marilyn Monroe. ;)

Graduation Shopping

There are times when I realizes as to why I don't like to shop and shopping for graduation was one of those times. Last weekend while home for Easter break I went out shopping for graduation and might I say that I was getting very tired and bothered. But finally after going to so many stores and trying on so many dresses I found the perfect dress. Now I just need to look for shoes which not be a probably from me!

Royal Wedding

Yes I must admit it I was caught up watching the royal wedding at 6am this morning. I woke up just to see the dress but next thing I find myself watching them saying there vows. Now let me talk about Kate's dress I thought it was nice but a bit plain but the one dress I did like was her sister for it was just gorgeous! I mean it is sad that I was focused more on her sister dress then her but hey what can I say. Overall the wedding from what I watched was nice and the princes looked very handsome.

Harvard Education Letter

Harvard Education Letter

Great advice for students-try out these sites!
PW

Brave New World: Freedom & Fashion

Today Jen & I took a day trip to a fashion exhibit at Drexel University. It was a VERY SMALL exhibit (basically in the entryway to the building) but it had some really unique articles of clothing & accessories (that brought us back to our days in historic costume class).

The exhibit, titled "Brave New World" is the Westphal College's contribution to the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (a citywide celebration of the arts). The exhibition focused on Parisian fashion from 1911 thru 1919 when, the interplay of the fine arts and fashion was particularly strong. It was a pivotal decade where fashion changed dramatically and adventurous style-leaders cut their hair, abandoned corsets, adopted shorter skirts and the subdued color palette of the Edwardian Period was replaced by bright colors and fashionable black.


Here are some of the items in the exhibit.

Finishing Up

SO everything is quickly coming to an end and it seems like there's a million things to do. Two of my classes aren't all seniors and of course the teachers just found out that senior grades are due on the 4th so they are pushing all this las minute work on us, but in about a week it will be over! I really can't believe it went by this fast. I am looking forward to the Fashion Farewell Dinner and I think it is really great that the department is doing this for us. I saw a huge change in the fashion program this year and I thought it was great. The upcoming students are really going to be at an advantage with all the new things you guys are offering. I am so happy to have been a part of this program and I am eager to keep in touch and help out as much as I can once I graduate!

Men's Sportwear

When it comes to menswear two thing usually come to mind. These are suits and sportswear. Sportswear is a huge part of the menswear industry and what many do not know is it can be divided into three categories. These categories include non-sport, sport specific, and technical sport. Many companies make sportswear that fit into all three categories. Non-sport is often thought to be the same as casual. However casual is more of the jeans and a shirt while non-sport is gym shorts and a T-shirt. Non-sport is more casual than casual wear itself. Men can wear casual wear out but would not want to wear non-sport out. Many different brands sell non-sport such as Nike and Puma. Sport specific is what you can wear to play sports. It is made for sports but is versatile and can be used for almost any sport. An example is Under Amour. Under Armour is made specifically for sports but can be worn for almost any sport. Sport technical is what is worn for a specific sport and would not be worn for anything else. An example of this is snowboarding pants. They are for snowboarding and would not be worn for any other sport. Burton is an example of a company that makes technical sports clothes. Shoes are often sport technical. Each sport has a certain shoe that is worn for a sport. For example soccer has cleats that are worn. Hopefully after reading this you will realize that there is more to sportwear than what meets the eye.

last loungewear collection.

Annnnd here is the final loungewear collection for Nookies that I finished today. It's for "Innocently Flirty." Hehe. I think it's adorable. I liked the mood board for that one the most. Fun and light and cutesy. So that's what the clothes are like, too...frilly and such. I just sent this off to Chris so I actually don't know if they are correct to what she wants or not. But here they are anyway!

more loungewear designs.

I finished up another loungewear collection for Nookies. :) This is for the "Confidently Suggestive" personality type. As with all of the things I do for my internship (at least the majority), it was done in Illustrator with my tablet. The color scheme and styles were laid out for me in the concept sheet that Chris sent me, and then I created a mood board for it before. And then I made these!

Short post! Oh noes! Lol. Well, I really don't have much to say about these. XD Uh, a ribbed tank top, plain straight leg lounge pants with a drawstring, a hooded robe, and plain nightgown.

Royal Weddings of the Past and Present

Hi everyone! I was thinking, with the quick approach of the royal wedding next Friday April 29th, to do a little fashion-y/historical background on past royal weddings! Hope you find this as interesting as I did!

In 1840, with the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert (her cousin-not too uncommon in this time period and within the small-world setting of the aristocracy) came a tradition that we are now very accustomed totoday--the white wedding dress. It was the first time a relatively simple white gown had ever been worn in a wedding let alone by someone of the British Monarchy. It was normal at this time for brides to wear dresses of several different colors and even of black. It was especially common at this time for brides of the Monarchy to wear lavish, opulent gowns adorned head to toe with gems and trimmed with gold. Once pictures of the happy couple circulated all over the world the trend of "white weddings" spread like wildfire. Since then the white wedding dress has evolved to hold other traditions and symbolic meaning.

The next blushing bride, Elizabeth was treated as even less of a royal since her wedding came just at the bitter end of the second World War. Princess Elizabeth (later to become Queen Elizabeth II) was to wed her longtime love Philip Duke of Edinburg--yet another distant cousin on November 20,1947. After a turbulent engagement with her mother disapproving of her choice of groom because he was known to have German relatives with Nazi ties. Also, since the wedding was so closely after the war Britain was still utilizing a ration policy, meaning that Elizabeth had to save up her ration coupons just as every other girl did to buy the fabric for her wedding gown! The dress was created by designer Normal Hartnell who began working on it only 3 months prior to the wedding. He ventured through several London Art Galleries looking for inspiration- finally finding another dress of clinging ivory silk covered in jasmine, smilax, syringa, and other rose-like flowers. His idea: to transform this dress from actual flowers to a reinterpretation of crystals and pearls arranged to look like different flowers. Materials were hard to obtain in t he post-war environment so the designer was forced to import or travel to find the items that he needed and to work with what he could get. The result: 20,000 pearls imported from the United States and hand placed, a stiff silk that was hard to work with but all that was available used for the train and finally he was able to get a more fluid silk for the body.

The last notable wedding would be that of Princess Diana and Prince Charles..the most lavish of them all in many's opinion known as the "Fairy-tale Wedding of the Century" and much of this credit was given to Diana's ravishing gown of course! The couple to be married July 28, 1981 immediately began preparations following the announcement of their engagement earlier that year. The gown was created in total secrecy by British designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel. Made of ivory silk taffeta was best known for its enormous puffed sleeves and most-of-all the 25 foot long train that glided after her as she walked down the aisle on the arm of her father. In addition to the taffeta the gown was embellished with antique lace, hand-embroidery, and 10,000 pearls and sequins. The gown worth only $9,000 in 1981 set the stage for wedding trends over the next decade as Victoria had done in the past.

In many people's opinion it seems as if bride-to-be Kate Middleton is following closely in Diana's footsteps in everything from her everyday style, to her dress being an absolute story, to most importantly the blue-sapphire and diamond engagement ring that was in fact Princess Diana's very own. I am very excited to see the gown Kate choose's as well as what other fashionable guests wear to attend the royal spectacle. Stay tuned!

Internship Update

Things have been a little quiet around my internship. I have been doing a lot of merchandising which is fine with me because I like to do it. Everyone in the office has been in and out constantly because of various shows and business trips. Leslie travels so much I don't know how she ever gets a minute to herself. After being in Vegas for a week then going right to California for another week, she takes the red eye home and goes straight to the showroom for another long day of work! There is going to be a lot for her to get ready for in a few weeks because the first weekend of May is a big accessories show in New York. Right after the show of course she's on the move again and she is off to the Kentucky Derby to show off and sell her hats! I am very excited to be going to the show in New York on the 6th. Leslie asked if I would join them even though the semester will be over, she thinks it would be a good experience for me and I agree! I am very excited to go and see what really goes on at these things!

Final Show

So this past Sunday I had my final show with Bridal Production and was kind of sad but, at the same time happy. I can enjoy my Saturday nights now and I realized that I don't have to see or unpack another bridal magazine ever again! Beside that I had to say that I enjoyed the internship and will miss some of the people I have met.

Fashion Show

It is finally over! Had the fashion show last night and had a pretty good crowd. There was some technical difficulties but, we pulled through it...after all the show must go on! I am a bit tired but at the same time it is over...next on my list GRADUATION! :)

an early project's problems!

Well, since I need to fill out my blog posts more...I will go back to some of the older projects I've done for Chris at Nookies. The majority of them were text edits, so there wasn't a lot of creativity flowing there...but they were still necessary, and I actually didn't mind them so much. However, I DID mind when my program decided to give me trouble.

This one project...was one of the most frustrating I had to do. It was the product signage project. It was one of the first I worked on, and it started out going really well. There are 8 pages to it, and in Illustrator, you can only edit one page at a time. And there were A LOT of edits. So when I'd finish one page, I would save, and then reopen to the next page, and so on. Well, there was a point when Illustrator decided to mess up on me...I kept getting an error message when I tried to SAVE. SAAAAVE. The most important part after working for an hour on something! Lol.. I looked online on so many sites to try and find out what the problem was and if there was a solution. I couldn't find anything. I even tried reinstalling the program, which trust me, took a very long time on my old timer computer. That didn't work. So I was still getting the error message...

BUT THEN. SOME HOW. It worked. I resaved the project as a different name, and then it started to let me save again. :D Ah, how wonderful. But my goodness, it was so frustrating because the error message kept popping up for days. I was so happy when I finally finished the project~

Final Day at Hershey's Mill

This past Friday was Megan and I's last day at Hershey's Mill Golf Club. It was a bit sad since just as the golfing season is picking up we started to meet many of the residents and to their disappointment we were on our way out. Many of the residents we met however were very kind and very excited to hear that we were at the shop. On the other hand, we arrived at 10AM Friday and Ted had plenty of work for us on our last day. We immediately got to it but clearing off lots of hangers in the back room for *two* new shipments of men's and women's apparel. With these new shipments we had to clear out a lot of the other merchandise from the floor. We decided to take it all outside on such a beautiful day and make a sidewalk sale out of it! As soon as the racks went out people were already snatching things up! After the long process from start to finish of getting the merchandise into inventory, out onto the floor and displayed properly. We did a few more odd jobs for Ted and received in two more shipments of golf clubs (definitely not my favorite- since I'm no golf pro! :/) The shop got very busy with the nice weather later that afternoon which was a great change and a good ending to our time there since we were most familiar with cold rainy days! I would say I definitely learned a lot about being a buyer from this experience and also how to merchandise items in different situations-in this case a very small store. Although it wasn't the product category I every saw myself going into, there is definitely something to be learned from anyone who has been in the business as long as Ted.

Grand Opening!

Tomorrow is Jewelbilee's Grand Opening!

It will be a really exciting but hectic day!


We are located in the Metroplex of Plymouth Meeting & are open from 10-8. The Countess Luanne from the Real Housewives of NYC will be there from 1-3.... There will also be some great giveaways & promotions!
I hope you can stop in!

Cake Tasting

So this past Monday I had helped set up for a cake tasting event for brides to be at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia. I had discovered something while helping with the set up that I really don't like putting together grab bags! I don't mind taking one but, putting together the bags together was just blah! Beside that the cakes that I had saw where very pretty...just wish I could have tried some. :(

Update

African American Cultural Society fashion was a success and we had gotten a lot of rave reviews from those that attend. The sad thing is though, no one took any pictures except for one audience memeber who has yet to load the pictures. Also I have my last bridal show this coming Sunday very sad but at the same time excited.

"Famous" Hats

One of things I didn't know when I started interning for Dorfman is how famous their hats really are. I have never seem Indiana Jones, but I knew that there were a lot of western hats involved. When you're watching a movie you never really think about where all these things come from. Well, all the hats that you will see while watching Indiana Jones come from Dorfman Pacific! When you go into their showroom they have some Indiana Jones merchandise, and after seeing in some of their catalogs and pictures I finally asked and was told that the hats came from them! One of the other big things that Dorfman is involved in is the Kentucky Derby. Months ago these hats were made especially for them and the account was satisfied. Leslie gets to fly down in a few weeks and actually attend some parts of the Derby and sell her hats. This is one of the biggest accounts Dorfman holds and it is an annual account for them. I have some pictures of the hats and they are beautiful, but i am not on my own computer so i will post them tonight!

All coming together...

I have recieved a package everyday for the fashion show. Colorful lanterns, batteries, lights, and by this weekend, we will have the makings of a beautiful show! Just watched Glee and saw the mash-up we are using for one of our segments! Tuesday will be here before we know it. PW

Let them Eat Cake

Yesterday I helped out at the Let Them Eat Cake event, which was held at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia. I helped all the cake professionals as well as students load their cakes in and show them to the correct room, which was like a maze to get to. So it was a lot of walking back and fourth! Let them Eat Cake is a Philadelphia wedding cake competition for professionals and students. The competition is judged by an array of judges as well as open to the public at 6:00 for brides-to-be and whoever else wants to join in. There were 700 tickets presold for the event, so it was extremely crowded but it was held in a huge room to fit everyone. There were a ton of cake vendors and I saw some really cool and interesting cakes! I also had the chance to work with the event planner who put the whole thing together so that was cool as well.

Jewelbilee- open for business!

Hi Everyone! Jewelbilee just officially opened last Thursday & we have been busy ever since!! I am sooo excited to share with you all some pictures of the finished store! Our Grand Opening is coming up- this Saturday (4-16) & we are going to have some great prizes, promotions & giveaways BUT the most exciting news is that the Countess Luanne from the Real Housewives of NYC will be our guest!
I hope you come & see everything Jewelbilee has to offer!!

Nookies Lounge wear Concepts.

I haven't yet posted about anything I've done for Nookies! I think I've only talked about the logos and banner for the site, as well as the fashion show stuff. So here are the most recent projects I've worked on for Chris. She's enlisted my help in creating lounge wear lines. Nookies has four distinct personality types for the customers, and so each will have different styles of apparel for the lounge wear collections. Here are the two I've done so far. :) I drew them in Illustrator with my tablet. These were also based off of the mood boards I created before...which maybe I'll share some time here as well.

(Personally, my fave is the off the shoulder top with pink boy shorts! I think those turned out totes adorbs.)

More Interviews

So on Friday I had my second interview with Torrid. I went to the store and met the store manager as well as the other employees on staff. The store is kind of doing a revamp so they are hiring all new employees. What caused me to blog about this is my resume. The store manager didn't have any of my stuff because she hasn't gotten a chance to meet with the district manager after my first interview. I didn't have my portfolio because it was turned in to be graded but I took everyone's advice of having a "mini portfolio" with me. The store manager was extremely pleased and commented on my ability to be prepared even when I didn't have my actual portfolio. She was very pleased with my resume and commented on the fact that I had worked so many different types of retail. I have had a lot of people tell me that the number of jobs i've had made me look like I couldn't stay in one place for a long time, but I never took it that way. The manager was extremely pleased at the amount of selling experience I had in different areas as well as the fact that I had to do an internship! This interview made me realize just how important every little aspect of your resume is as well as how you word it. The interview went GREAT! She spoke to me as if I already had the job and at the end of the interview said very excitedly that she would be in touch with me soon!

Philadelphia Trip Part II: Roberto Capucci - Art to Fashion

The next part of our trip, after grabbing lunch at the Reading Terminal Market-and sharing a delicious strawberry/banana and chocolate crepe from an amazing French Creperie, we trudged through the April showers to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Roberto Capucci: Art to Fashion special exhibit-- the best part of the trip in my opinion because it was all about fashion!! Capucci is an Italian couturier born in 1930. He is known for abandoning the traditional human form and making beautiful yet outlandish sculptural garments with a fantastic use of color and technique. Although in the 50's Capucci's design style was for the most part conventional. His first well known gown was the "Nove Gonne" or Nine Skirts dress of 1956 in which he would reinterpret in a few different ways in later collections. Capucci began to experiment with unusual materials to make garments such as pebbles, straw, and wire, perhaps the first indication of his blossoming creative talent. He finally made his full transition to sculpture dresses with his production of the 'Colonna Dorica" or Doric Column dress of 1978 where his artistic imagination was truly unleashed and represented in fabric. All of his garments were made of silk and many of them the detailing was personally hand sewn and/or including, hundreds of pleats--a time consuming task indeed. Based on his sketches and every single one of the dresses on display, you can see a true passion and commitment to his life of work which is still continuing to this day. I find Roberto Capucci to be one of the most interesting and inspirational fashion designers that I have seen yet. His work is truly phenomenal-Unfortunately, photography of any kind was prohibited in this exhibit so you must go see! However, I have included a few examples of his work here for you to get an idea of what your in store for

Philadelphia Trip Part I: Macy's Flower Show

Today Sister Denise, Mrs. Westbrook, Megan Ashley, Kathy Ruffini, and myself-Jen Wilkins took a day trip down to Philadelphia. Although the weather was less than desirable, it was a great day! We first met at the Macy's on Market Street where we all congregated by the iconic Brass Eagle to begin our tour of the 2011 Flower Show: Towers of Flowers with our fantastic tour guide, Owen. He showed us around the main area describing the ideas and work behind the displays and also a little background on the flowers that are included in the displays. Some interesting facts he shared with us were:the flowers are all changed in and out every couple of days during the show to keep them looking their best, there are many types used in each segment of the show including a Japanese garden scene, a Lancaster county inspired theme and then the Okami Cherry trees which were the main focal point of the show. He also shared with us some interesting properties of the flowers (did you know hydrangeas [the blue flowers surrounding the eagle] get their different colors based on the pH level of the soil?!). Lastly, Owen explained why it was a bit chilly in the store, this is because the flowers prefer the temperature to be around 62 degrees inside..brrr! He then took us upstairs to show us yet another iconic piece: the Wanamaker Organ. Both the organ and the eagle were purchased at the 1904 World's Fair as items to fill a new store that Wanamaker opened in Philadelphia many years ago, which I thought was so interesting!! The eagle itself weighs 2,500 pounds and is reinforced with iron underground just to keep this massive bird from falling through the floor! See pictures of the creative flower displays and amazing architecture of Macy's along with the eagle and organ below

Walking on Sunshine Items

Hey guys! Though this didn't count towards my internship hours, I was able to find the time to work on the charity fashion show's marketing items (poster, invitations, tickets). I hope those of you in the fashion show production class like them! :) If you are interested in seeing them again, I just put them on a little layout here...



They were fun, a bit frustrating at times, but still fun. Polly and I worked through the ideas well, like the main one about making a sun out of the cute kids' handprints! A great theme indeed. I made all of these in Illustrator. I chose a cute, fun font that would go with the theme of children since the proceeds are going towards St. Jude Children's Research Hospital! The colors are warm tones of yellow and orange (though the tickets are printed in b/w).

The biggest disappointment for me were the invitations. I hadn't realized that when I saved them as .jpg that the size decreased...and when they were printed out, everything was really tiny, poor-quality, and hard to read! I'm so sorry about that! I wish I realized it sooner, but hopefully the people getting them will still be able to read the information lol. The 9 in "April 19th" looks a bit like an 8 at times...

Uh, so yeah! Enjoy! :D Glad they're going towards a wonderful production! Good luck to those participating in it!

From Paris to New York

A few weeks ago when I was at my internship I was talking with John about his recent trip to Paris. He started bringing out all these hats that he bought over there that inspired him for his new line. It was crazy to see how different the styles were from over there. They had this cotton skull cap for men that looked like something a new born would wear or something, and it was covered in flowers. They weren't big, but just these really tiny tiny flowers all over the hat. It's funny cause a man here would never wear that. So John sat down and started creating some of his own looks from his inspirations from his purchases. I think it will be interesting to see what he came up with when I go back and to see how those hats would sell over here in the states!

Shopping Trip Success!

Last Friday Emily and I met Beth at the mall to go shopping with a client and we ended up getting a lot of great stuff! Before the client arrived Emily, Beth, and I pre-shopped at Bloomingdales and pulled a lot of great peices for the client to try on. Next, we went to DSW and pulled 18 pairs of shoes for the client to try. She ended up buying about 5 pairs of shoes and a couple of pieces we pulled from Bloomingdales. Overall the trip was a success and a lot of fun!

My First Week at Jackie B. Showroom

Hey Guys!

As I said before I completed my internship back in June 2010. Recalling my first week was pretty amazing! It was before the other interns showed up so I had plenty to do. I was reorganizing line sheets and the lines of clothes that we represented and showed to the buyers. I was getting boxes and other merchandise from the basement of our building to bring up to the showroom. I even got to take merchandise to other showrooms in other buildings that we did business with! I also got to steam the clothes that came back from one of our road reps...tons of fun!

Job Interview

So tomorrow I have a big interview. It's for the Assistant Manager position for the Torrid store in the Neshaminy mall. I'm spending my night preparing by doing some research on the company. I like the fact that it's part of a big corporation, but this particular brand hasn't been around for that long. I'm putting all the final touches on my portfolio and I took some of the tips from the skit we did and i've been writing down interview questions and answers to them. I do think it will absolutely help since my interview is with the stores District Manager since it's a management position. If anyone has any tips I would love them! Wish me luck!!

Shows

Today was another show at Villanova Conference Center. The show was the least crowded I have ever seen a show which is ashame because there was a ton of great vendors! The horse and carriage and rolls royce and a bunch of limos were outside. Inside was AAA, Ann's Cake Pam, Buca di Peppo, the Knot, Philadelphia Wedding, Williams Sonoma, just to name a few. So there was a TON of vendors inside, but it unfortunately wasn't that busy!

Accepted Students days at IU

This weekend we have had the priviledge of meeting future students who have been accepted to IU for the fall of 2011. I hope we get to see them again in class this fall! Our family of students is growing! PW

Shopping Trip!

Tonight I am meeting Beth at the King of Prussia Mall to go shopping for one of her clients. I'm excited to spend someone else's money!