Greetings from China II

It is this very special time of the year where you come together with your family, meet old friends that you have not seen for a very long time, and play in the snow as if you were a child again…it is Christmas….and I am in China….not only am I in China I also have to work…this is what I was worried about the most the whole time I thought about these 3 months ahead of me and now it happened, my first Christmas away from home, and I don’t have to tell you how much I love Christmas.

My mom tried to prepare me as good as possible J We went to the very first Christmas market within 50 km on the first November weekend to get at least one cup of Glühwein and some Christmas jingles. We baked Christmas cookies 7 weeks before Christmas which had never happened before and my mum mastered her skill in packing the cookies in a way that they don’t get squashed but stay light for my luggage. I did not get only one advent calendar but three and next to my Christmas present was a smaller wrapped up box that said “vomNikolausfür Hannah” (on 6^th of December we celebrate the Saint Nikolaus, a german bishop who looks very much like the English Santa Clause). I was ready to go.

Well when me and with one day delay also my suitcase finally arrived in China I excitedly told my also German roommate about aaaaall the Christmassy things I brought for us while opening my suitcase. When I unzipped the zipper a little paper note slid out of the suitcase saying: “detection of a prohibited object: sparkles” and there it was, my nice present, which was beautifully wrapped in read wrapping paper with white snowflakes and reindeers and complemented with a big green ribbon ripped open and all the little presents inside just spread over my suitcase….if I get them those border control, customs , what every people who did this to my Christmas surprise!!!!!

But well…I landed on the 29^th of November so from the next day on my roommate and I would alternate in opening the Lindt chocolate advent calendar and the one with little pictures and I would bring the tea out of my tea advent calendar every day to work in my new early Christmas present bottle that I got in advance from my sister, who did not want to wait until I got back with the Christmas gift giving ;) My Christmas mood was on. As it should be during December the first week was also surprisingly cold, but unfortunately I did not bring my proper winter jacket since my dad convinced me that I am flying to a subtropical part of China, which can be freeeezing cold as everybody who ever went to Shanghai can prove me right I guess, but then the sun came.

And with every day of sun the hard built up Christmas mood melted away. Christmas in China is very commercial and there are trees and lights and glitter and more colorful blinking lights and more glitter everywhere!!! But that is just not how it is at home…. From day one on me and my roommate looked for a nice thing to do on Christmas Eve but with a salary of 2000 Yuan we just simply could not afford one of the fancy Christmas dinners for 700- 1500 yuan offered by the western 3-5 stars hotels and since our service apartment was only equipped with one knife, one pot, a plastic bowl and a porcelain plate and one hotplate and no oven a self-made Christmas dinner was also impossible.

My first weeks here at the office were quite tough and with a bad feeling every day after work and no motivation whatsoever to go to the office in the morning the first indications of homesickness and counting the days that I already had managed and that were still ahead of me did not really cheer me up and I promised myself never to be away from home over Christmas ever again.

Three days before Christmas we heard about this newly opened German restaurant that offered a fairly cheap Christmas dinner with self-brewed beer and I decided to get my shit together and make the best out of it and convince everybody in the office to join me. Sure we had no oven but my mum sent me plenty of Christmas pralines that you can make without one so I wrote a big shopping list, packed my big backpack and went full of motivation to spend the whole night in the kitchen making cookies for everybody to the next Carrefour that, as I heard, has a fairly big section of imported foods. The disappointment was big when I realized that the imported food section is still only a section of 4 shelves,which of course does not have such exotic things as nougat, marzipan or coconut flakes. But well let’s be creative. I ended up buying the ingredients for the most expensive chocolate crossies, that I always thought were so boring when I was little because they were so easily made (chocolate covered cornflake drops) , that you could dream of, as well as a package of pasta, pesto and a bottle of red wine for Christmas day, our special western Christmas dinner.

I spent the whole evening in the kitchen, making my cookies and listening, at least most of the time when the internet did not break down to Christmas music. Luckily China has not discovered and censured spotify yet ;). When I woke up the next day I was actually very excited, it was Christmas!!! We packed our cookies and went to the office with a big smile on our faces and you should have seen the smiles on the faces of our Chinese co-workers when we gave them our cookies!!! They loved them and everybody tried to find some small thing they could give us in reward!!! I have not yet figured out why but in China people give their beloved apples for Christmas so we ended up with at least 10 apples each, a nut, some soda, a small glass of honey, a sweater from the 2002 collection of a customer and even a big Christmas sock of the company, filled with sweets, nuts…well and Chinese meat things that I still have to dare to try. I was very satisfied and happy. We left work early, went home to change into our nice Christmas dresses and went to the Christmas dinner.

Well of course the reservation somehow got lost and our friends were 1 hour to late due to the ridiculous traffic but in the end we all made it and even got a table. Since we were all so excited to have a fancy Christmas dinner none of us had had lunch and we were starving to death. By the time the first beer was finished the first small plate of salad finally made it two our table. Well we knew that Chinese people are not very good in serving the food all at the same time but when the second course, one bowl of soup joined the one small plate of salad on the table we realized that this would not actually be a 9 course meal for everyone of us but a Chinese styled dinner  where everything just gets put on the table to share. The good thing about this “German” restaurant was the beer though and by the time the dessert came, before the steak and fries and 3 hours after we arrived our stomachs were filled with beer perfectly fitting to the German saying “seven beers are also a Schnitzel” and the English term ”eating is cheating”.  The 5 hours 9 courses meal for 7 people was accompanied by 27 small glasses of beer, three cold glasses of glögg, a Chinese wedding proposal, a life band and a belly dance show.  We were surprised, that besides us there were only  6 other western people in the restaurant, the Spanish manager of the restaurant, one German couple that left the restaurant after one our because the girlbroke out in tears and the band, which explains why the whole night was very Chinese with a lot of filming and posting and taking pictures and selfie sticks and being busy not talking to the people on your table…I really had to think of my mum when the wedding proposal presenter started talking and the volume was sooo high that I, a big fan of loud electronic music, for the first time stuffed tissue balls in my ears just like her when we were listening to a jazz concert. 

Since our little Christmas party crew did not know each other very well but it is still nice to unpack something on Christmas we decided to do trash gift giving. A game where everybody just gets some cheesy, cheap crap or wraps something they find under their bed in newspaper and bring it as a gift. To make it a bit more fun you don’t just give the present to anyone but make a little dice game out of it. Unfortunately our Chinese guests did not really get the whole trash thing too well and ended up buying nice Starbucks mugs (Starbucks is the shit here) and imported body lotions (they don’t trust the Chinese stuff) so we ended up randomly changing the rules to make sure they would not get one of your crappy things and prevent them from reminding Christmas gift giving as a horrible disaster.

After the dinner our Chinese friends left us and the German crew hit the clubs until 6 in the morning. It was a very different Christmas indeed and had nothing to do with Christmas at home but I would not have wished to imitated that since it would not have been the same anyways and with all the chaos and noise and tears and alcohol, it really was a very nice, very special evening. And as a good friend of mine said: Christmas is a feeling! And this feeling has never been as strong as this year:  to enjoy the small things in life: a phone call from my parents, a Christmas card form my grandparents and a big smile and an apple from my co-workers, to revive old traditions, an advent calendar, self-made Christmas cookies, and a nice pasta and pesto dinner on Christmas day and to be thankful for what you have: a great family and friends, at home and in China. 

Greetings from China I

OK, here I am....at the Beijing airport after 9 hours of flight.... I have only about 40 minutes to catch my next plane but this should be fine. When I booked my flight to Hangzhou I first got a connection to have my layover in Shanghai, but then I would have had to change airports! Not gates, airports!and since I have never been in China before I was happy to pay 50 € more to switch planes in Beijing, with arrival and departure at the same airport ;).

Besides booking my flight the only thing I had to do was applying for a Visa….no biggy, everything else is organized by the company. I get a service apartment provided, they send a driver to pick me up from the airport, easy J. You know I even get paid, which most of my fellow students who stay in Sweden can’t say about their internships so which one is the developing country? ;)

So far it looks just like Europe, well the airport looks like any other airport :p…I follow the signs that say “transits” and find myself in a massive queue. Not only that my watch says 20 minutes until boarding but also the fact that I am the only person without luggage starts to stress me out. Why the hell does everybody have their luggage with them? The Air China guy at the airport in Frankfurt did not say anything about that and even though I am flying quite frequently they always sent my suitcase to the final destination. Nevertheless I decide to check the belt and see if my suitcase has arrived…nothing….15 minutes left…I go up to a guy that looks like he is German and ask him if I need to wait for my luggage. The next 5 minutes I get 20 years of China traveling experience from three different guys with the same answer: They have no idea….you never know….

Ok what now, wait for the suitcase that might not even arrive or catch my flight? I go for the flight and hope that the suitcase will arrive eventually, hopefully ;)

On the plane to Hang Zhou I am the only person who is obviously not Asian. The staff seams nervous and exited to talk to me but when asked if I want Chinese or Western food I go for Chinese. I’m going to China and I want to experience the real deal so I better start now. In Sweden it is 00.00 o’clock, in China it is breakfast time. When I open the typical airplane food aluminium container I find a white jelly like something. Besides that there is some vacuum packed stripes that look like some sort of vegetable and a soft brown egg thingy with a comic chicken on the plastic package smiling at me.  I try the white jelly mouse but it tastes like nothing….maybe it has a slight flavour of paper. Irritated about how to eat this I try to observe the Chinese people around me and discover with surprise that they all enjoy a croissant with jam and orange juice….western food is obviously more in trend.

When I get to the airport in Hangzhou I did not even expect my suitcase to arrive anymore. However I go to the belt but nope, there are about 10 suitcases on the belt but not mine. 10 suitcases? Why is nobody traveling with luggage? The lost baggage guy copies my passport and I put down the address of the service apartment I got. He also wants to have my phone number but I only have my Swedish prepaid card in my phone….without any credit…. I heard that my office works every second Saturday as well so I just hope that this Saturday would be one of them and write down the number of the person (I have no idea if it is a man or a woman) I had email contact with. But when I get into the arrival hall there is a super nice girl waiting for me. We go pretty much straight into the city center, get incredibly good food and do a boat trip on the West lake with a beautiful view on the mountains on the other side of the lake. By the time I get home that day my suitcase is already waiting for me in our apartment. Now I am here for almost one week and nothing has changed. At the beginning you don’t really know what to expect and what will happen next. You are a bit insecure and some things get messed up, but in the end everything turns out fine J.

Magical moment

Hello everyone! In this blogpost I want to share my experience of helping out and observing when a fashion company have their collection presentations. These presentations are some of the most important presentations within a fashion company, this is the time when everyone in the company shuts down their calendar and needs to be present. The first presentation that I was observing was for the sport collection that will be out in the stores next year.  A huge room is ready for everyone to be seated, in the middle it is clear space so that the models can walk (cat-walk).  All of the designers behind the collection are standing in the front, where the head designer introduces and tells each of the designers that they have done a great job. It is normal to show a presentation about numbers and graphs, but also a video of the inspiration behind the newest collection.

When all the talking is done, each and every single garment from the new collection (the next year’s collection – always one year ahead) is presented on models, walking the cat-walk just for us within the company. Simultaneously the head designer talks about each product, giving us product specifications that we all need for different reasons in our work. For me it was very important, where I’m also helping out with the product description of each garment, for the company’s international web shop (next blogpost will be about this topic). And so the day goes, we get to know each garment – getting a thorough introduction in the latest collection. 

Another day the latest collection for menswear was going to be presented for the entire company. Here I was helping out the designers with all the work that is behind putting on a product presentation “show”. It was really exciting getting to know this part as well, dressing up and down models based on images with different looks from the collection. Everything was happening in a high speed and we needed to be quick with dressing the models, it had to be exactly the same as the images or else we could mess up the whole presentation.

For me this experience of watching and engaging in the company’s collection presentations was so much fun!  It was really intriguing being a part of the company, watching the latest fashion a year before they will even enter the store. Learning how a company gathers everyone to share the latest fashion that they all are working for - was really great to experience. I have to say that it was truly a magical moment when the lights shut down and the video of the inspiration behind the collection got played – something I never will forget.  *Goosebumps*

//Marthe 

Multisourcing

Hello again!


Hope you are doing great over there and enjoying Christmas holidays amongst your loved ones.


And down to business. The latest two weeks before Christmas holidays turned to be intense.
I was involved in the discussion of the draft of the contract with the potencial suppliers and the manual for the factories evaluation with consideration of CSR.
Along with that I have been busy with multisourcing of accessories, and the new Groups of Products which have been recently added to sourcing list: casual garments, tops and bottoms, and the boots. Thus, the number of e-mails is growing every day. At this stage, I got Another confirmation of the golden rules for sourcing: 1.Be sure that you have got a clear and full discription of the required Product and ideally fabric/material prototypes to make sourcing as efficient as possible. 2. Be sure you know what you are expecting from your future supplier in terms of Product and Service and you know how to investigate that before you signed the contract with each other.
The process goes well, though demands lots of focus and drive and it is a pleasure to see the new samples coming to the office.


I am going to stop here and let you go and enjoy the holidays.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!


Kind regards,
Victoria

SO MUCH FUN

In different weeks now I have been so lucky to participate in different photo-shoots. In these shoots we have been shooting for the AW15 collections for men, women and sports. These photo-shoots are mainly for shooting look books, but these images will also be used in campaigns and photos and films that will be featured in their social media channels.

I can’t say it enough, it has been so much fun! Learning everything from how to set the scene, how to find the different styles in the “apparel-library” based on the stylists images, how to make every garment ready (steaming, rolling of unwanted threads etc.), how to dress and undress the models properly, making sure that everything goes smoothly and on schedule. 

Besides from the learning experience I have been so lucky meeting many of different exciting people. From well-known Norwegian stylists, models from around the world, talented photographer, other interns and trainees with big dreams and of course the designers behind the collections and their assistants. One of the designers has actually worked for numerous of well-known designers and fashion houses. One of them is Karl Lagerfeld, he was the one that thought the designer how to tie a tie (Honestly I paid close attention when the designer tied the tie around the model’s neck, while telling the story).  

One of the greatest things I will take with me from this experience is the great people and all of the different tasks. That team work really is important and that everyone, even if you are the head designer or an intern it doesn’t matter –everyone is super nice to each other and communicates in a professional matter.  

But what about the clothes?  Well I was in heaven when I was working with the collections, so now I can’t wait to AW15!

//Marthe 

Information flow

One of my biggest learning so far has been the difficulty of information flow. Actually, it is a reminder to me since I remember really well how I have tackled with similar problems earlier in work life. Now it is even clearer to me - the ones mastering the art of information sharing actually possess a unique talent.

I have earlier worked in huge, even multinational companies and I have been frustrated with the internal information flow. However, it is not the information flow within the company that I am tackling with right now. The Rapid Design Module (that is a beta version at the moment) is a good tool and it has been designed to be quick and simple to use. However, there is still some necessary information that is out of reach of the company. In order to get to the information I need to contact manufacturers and even they don't always have the answers.

Calculating the Higg index would be quick if I would have all the data accessible here, e.g. in an excel sheet. Just a few minutes per product. This is obviously where it gets tricky - there is not a one single place where you find the information. One person knows one thing and another can answer two other questions. Everyone is of course busy with meetings and work trips and sometimes an answer to a simple question might take days to get to me.

So far I have been quite lucky though. In the company I am working for the people are quite well aware of the raw materials used in their products and the manufacturing conditions. They have visited the factories and their business partners. The company has good relationships with its suppliers. However, this is not common in other similar companies if I have understood correctly. I must say that even though the work is trickier than I first thought, it is easier than it would be in many other companies.

Have a relaxing weekend everyone and merry christmas!

Cheers,
Noora

In the photo studio

For two days I have been visiting my internships photo studio where we now are shooting our spring collection. This has been a new experience for me since I have never been on a photo shoot before. Our models are from all over the world and are here just for these days. The company has also hired a stylist and a hair and make up artist. The stylist is hired from a famous stylist company in Stockholm and the hair and make up artist is working with a lot of famous fashion brands. Since this is a new experience for me I feel really lucky that I had the opportunity to be a part of this photo shoot and see how it is done. It is also very fun to see all the clothes that you have been working with at the office in action. 

My internship company is in a really busy period right now; all the orders need to be placed before Christmas. Hopefully after the Christmas holiday it will be a little bit less hectic. After the break I will also start to write on my report, since I am going to write about the different departments and how they are connected I wanted to have a lot of information about this before I started.

I am looking forward to the last two weeks of this internship!

The Future of Online Retailing?

Hello,

as promised in my last post, I will tell you a little bit more about the company I am interning with now. The concept is based around the idea that online shopping, though it has increased, cannot fulfil the consumers' needs of touching and trying on physical products before making a decision to buy. Therefore the founders developed a concept of setting up a showroom with sample pieces, that can be tried on and then ordered in the showroom directly or from home through an online shop. 

This means that the product goes directly from the brand's warehouse to the consumer and (hopefully) eliminates returns due to the possibility of testing the product in store. This concept is not only applicable to fashion but especially when it comes to clothing, trying on and feeling the fabric are very important factors that online shopping is lacking. 

To test this concept, a 4-week pop-up was set up and so far the customers reacted surprisingly relaxed when they were told, that the items are not to be taken home directly. The wait for a product was not a big issue for anyone and most customers ordered in the showroom directly, instead of doing so at home later on. It is very interesting to learn about all the different aspects that have to be considered when setting up a business like this, from formulating contracts with brands to managing orders to handling returns and complaints. There are so many little details that can cause big problems later on, so everything has to be done carefully and constant negotiation as well as throwbacks are on the daily order. 

As it is a start-up and we are only three people, I feel like I have quite a lot of responsibility as there is so much work that has to be done. To save money, of course the goal is to do as much as we can ourselves or make use of contacts in the industry/ with relevant skills. Therefore my advice to everyone is: network! We have heard it so many times, but it does really help if you have friends that can help you with starting a company/ project etc. This means, most importantly, people you can actually rely on lend you their skills for free. So far, I think this start-up has achieved a lot through its network but of course you will also be let down by some of your contacts or you have to be patient with getting what you want from them. It is important to stay positive though, believe in your idea and focus on what you have rather than what you don't! 

xoxo

Impressions within Fast Fashion III

Hallå!

  





2014 is closing in now and my colleagues are slowly getting into the Christmas mood. I spent the whole last week within the visual merchandising department und helped them setting up window displays and style examples in the store. Furthermore, I learned how to adjust the lighting so that the merchandise is being presented in an efficient way and how to place the garment racks to create a nice walking path for the customers.

 

In the beginning of this week I went on a business trip to Malmö in order to speak with the owners and planners of a shopping center about their upcoming strategies and challenges. The meetings were held in Swenglish which helped me to follow the conversation and also to better my Swedish. Through this meeting I further learned how the brands and their landlords keep close relationships in order to reduce the chance of miscommunication and surprises. Both parties are very open when it comes to strategies and threats that are expected.

 

For me personally, I get more and more comfortable to be in meetings and also to take initiatives such as asking questions in regard of the company that I am working for.

 

The plan for this week is more or less to do some administrative work concerning the stores in Germany and a meeting with the CSR-Manager is also booked which will give me some insights how the company is dealing with social responsibility issues.

 

So far so good.

 

I wish you all a very nice Christmas and a happy New Year.

 

Bäst regards,

 

Sven R.

 

 

 

 



It´s Christmas!

The Christmas music are playing, the consumers are flowing and the window decorations is changed to visualise the Christmas feeling. 

In one of our storefront there is now a long Christmas gift list that present all the companies that collaborates in the store, the list is beautiful with old-fashioned style with burnt edges. 

Some of the other advertisements are also developed to fit Christmastime, the pricing system is complete and I also got a hug from my supervisor yesterday. 

The time is running and I´m having fun!  This week I´ve got more responsibility over the store and have had my own key. The business are running and there are always new things to get the teeth into.

Working in this shop right now is like working in an elf workshop where everyone is working with their tasks and everything is rolling on.

There are still many curious people coming in here to talk to us, both consumers but also new entrepreneurs that thinks the concept of the store is very interesting. 

But I have also met some entrepreneurs that don´t believe that it is the right way to mix the sustainable part into the marketing. I think this is very interesting and something that I will think more about over time. Which concept is the best and for who?

Visiting the company

A few days ago I had the great fortune to visit the company I have chosen to work with, Industri-Textil Job AB, and chat with the Group Director Rutger Bornefalk.

Industri-Textil Job AB has a broad spectrum of products ranging from filters for industrial manufacturing to bulletproof vests with factories in several countries. Despite being categorised as a SME (small and medium-sized enterprise), the company shows a variety of products and product categories that in my opinion is remarkable.

Rutger and I had a lovely conversation for over three hours, with a pause for fika, about the company and gave me products worth (I think) 600 005 SEK (close to 65000 euro)! He was very determined that I should mention this since he wished to mess with the other students heads (“-Look what that girl got, she got products worth 65000 euro!”). Well, it is two really cool products but they might not look that interesting since it is two pieces of non-woven textiles used in the industry. As the designs of the products are a secret I now have one cheap product (5SEK/ 50 cent in Euro) and one really expensive one (600 000 SEK/ a bit less than 65 000 euro) that I have absolutely no idea what they are used for… 

Sara Jonsson, TASTE13 (Master programme in textile management with specialisation textile value chain management)

The survey

My fifth week at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, and half of the field study time, has passed. This has been a slow but exciting week as I have just sent out the surveys for the study. I have contacted CR managers at 9 very interesting, Swedish fashion companies and asked them questions about how their organisations prioritize and communicate sustainability, and what drives their work in the sustainability field. After just a few hours I had already received two answers. One in the survey form, and one through a telephone interview. And actually a third one as well, who asked for the deadline, as she really wanted to participate. It is unnecessary to say, that I feel quite positive about this study.

Interestingly, the three people who gave me immediate response all work for companies in the outdoor sector. My personal belief, going in to this study, was that this category of companies are especially driven towards sustainability as their entire business model builds on a passion towards nature. They design and produce garments to better be prepared to enjoy nature, so they simply can’t do anything to harm it. If so, they would harm their own business and passion. I believe that this is so rooted in their brands, that they cant really choose not to participate in this kind of survey. These companies are rather small brands as well, which gives another reason for them to take part - it is a great channel to build brand awareness and credibility without spending anything at all but time. Especially as the study is conducted and published via a major stakeholder organisation for textile companies in Sweden. I hope that the third brand will send in their answer soon as well, to be able to analyse similarities and differences even within this category of companies. After just two days, I have also received answers from a very sustainability driven denim brand.

Besides the outdoor category, I am awaiting answers from some of our major fast fashion companies as well as two more renowned high fashion brands with a more “slow” character. I am very excited to see who is willing to take the time for this, and to understand the perspectives and drivers of these seemingly different companies. The one thing that is common to most of the respondents, in all categories, is that they are all known for their engagement in sustainability.  They are all motivated to work towards a more sustainable fashion business, but there might be big differences in the way they perceive sustainability and the reasons and tools to get there. In this study I am not interested in judging what companies do or don’t do, but rather understand why and how they want to be sustainable.

Im surprised by the ease of receiving answers for this study, and I think that it is due to two things - first of all it is due to the respect that these companies hold for the SSNC organisation as an important stakeholder, source of knowledge and as a critical reviewer of the fashion industry. But most importantly, it shows that the study is right in time. Sustainability is finally at the top level of priority among some of our most beloved brands, and they understand the importance of turning the industry around. They know that it is vital for their survival, even though mainstream consumer segments are still not purposely asking for it. They can see that something is happening and they are willing to take part and to drive the change, to educate consumers and to prepare themselves for the business environment of the future. This is independent of what motivates them, be it financial prospects or a true value based engagement, but sustainability is definitely on the agenda.

This is also stated in a recent article in the industry paper Habit, according Svensk Handel 42% of the member companies put more resources into sustainability and CSR than the year before. The amount of companies working with these issues have increased from 7 out of 10, to 8 out of 10 companies since 2013. Among the larger companies, almost everyone is working towards environmental and social improvements in their supply chains.

Even though we still have a looong way to go (and no kind of production or consumption can be truly sustainable as it always contains use of resources) this is definitely uplifting news. The process has just begun, but it speaks of great changes in the coming years. We are on our way!

Emelie