Oscar of Sweden

Hi,

Oscar of Sweden is a company that creates shirts for the modern and fashion forwarded men. It is a firm that’s sole focus has been to create perfect shirts for almost 70 years. From the 1949, when everything in the company was operated by a family of a couple of people from a small basement here in Borås, it has grown into a multi-national brand. Although much has changed during that time, the traditions and roots seem to have not been forgotten and all the shirts are still designed in Borås. The small size of the company, it’s traditions and very long time employees has given me a rather unique opportunity to witness and participate in diverse functions within Oscar of Sweden while gaining valuable information about the industry. 

A messy table to create the next collection

Currently, the design department is working hard with the spring/summer 2019 collection. It has been amazing to see how much care, precision, detail and passion goes into making a shirt. It is interesting to see how most of the activities in various departments do not follow school textbooks but, human intuition and copious amounts of experience.

So far, the company has been mainly focused on B2B  but, they have started to focus on B2C and more actively develop their online capabilities; but, about that and other interesting stuff in my next posts...

Till next time...

Bubbleroom Clearance Sale

Hi everyone, hope you have had a lovely week!

So much has happened since last time we spoke. Last week I went along to a purchase meeting. It was a smaller purchase meeting this time but it was quite informative and exactly as I had imagined it to be. The meeting is where the seller comes and shows the buyer their assortment. It is an opportunity for the seller to show new products but they usually show some older styles that have been of interest as well. The buyer then chooses which styles to go with for the season. Products are almost always chosen one season ahead – so now is the time to choose the products for AW2018. What I especially loved with this purchase meeting was when the seller had in advance looked over some of their products and gave suggestions of how the products matched Bubbleroom’s target customer. For me that shows a great commitment and understanding of the company. 

Coming into week 5 – On Wednesday, I had an opportunity to join the marketing team and see how they work. I got the time to work with influencer marketing, as well as search for pictures to be used as inspiration for an upcoming event. It was so nice to experience the marketing field as well, especially since I have for a while now been between purchasing and marketing and I truly feel lucky to have the opportunity to see how both departments work. 

This week’s biggest event was, however, our huge clearance sale at Bubbleroom during Thursday afternoon. Quite some time has been spent organizing for this event and it was absolutely fantastic seeing the day finally come through. The assortment ranged from all things clothes to anything accessories. Jackets, dresses, pants, skirts, sweaters, tops, swimwear shoes, bags, you name it – everything could be found there. The clearance sale was only for family and friends now to begin with, and was a huge success and the biggest one yet for Bubbleroom. Very exciting to be part of such an event and seeing it all come to life.

Until next time,

/A

Reflecting on the first weeks at Bubbleroom

Hello all you bloggers! 

As I write this it is Tuesday and after a week-end in the sun, Borås is yet again a whirl of strong winds and cold rain, lovely ain’t it? To brighten my own mood a bit, I thought I would write down some uplifting memories from starting my internship at bubblerrom.se exactly four weeks ago.

Bubbleroom is a place much like it’s name; the people who walk the corridors and work the hours away are all passionate, inspiring people who prove to me everyday that I have made the right choice for the last step of my education. In the work so far I’ve been introduced to the every day procedures of working as a buyer/purchase assistant and I fell grateful for being allowed to do exactly what the team responsible for me is doing as well. I’ve listed the main tasks below to show you what a day may include work wise:

• Writing product specifications
• Creating new articles in the database for the products which are about to be ordered
• Producing order confirmations and e-mailing the external contacts about it
• Accompany the purchasers in the team to meetings with suppliers
• Helping with this and that in the photo-studio
• Preparing for a sample sale held for redistribution of left-over/returned products

So you see, so far I’ve really gotten a wonderful introduction into the full cycle of purchasing and distributing the styles of the seasons in an e-commerce company and I look forward to the other half of my internship at this amazing company!

Traceability in Textile Value Chains: The Conference

Hi there! I love reading about all the different experiences we are having. After an exhausting but quite amazing 9th week of the field study, I have the time to sit down and write a little bit about the Conference I told you I was helping organize in my first post.

The Conference was held last Tuesday and it focused on a joint project initiative by the UNECE and the ITC (International Trade Centre) on Enhancing Transparency and Traceability in Textile and Leather Value Chains. We had almost 20 speakers involved in roundtable discussions around policy recommendations, standard development and regulations in the industry. The magical thing of the UN is really its convening power of bringing together all stakeholders to engage in the discussions. 

It went really well and the best part of this experience is I am getting to know people involved in all kind of organizations related to the sector, from private companies, to industry associations, NGOs, standard-setting and certification bodies, international organizations and governments. 

The following weeks I will be doing follow-up work on this conference, as well as focusing on the Copenhagen Youth Fashion Summit which I will be attending in mid May (see you soon Gizem, Victor and Jamilla =) . As my internship period is coming to an end by the 25th of May, I am happy that I have been offered the possibility to extend my work period here for 2 more months. 

I am leaving you here a collage with some of the Twitter repercussions after the Conference, as well as the webpage, where as from next week (not yet, have to rest a bit....), you will be able to find the ppts of the speakers.

Inventory for Cheap Monday

On Wednesday, Adrian took me to Korallen, a laundry and dyeing facility located in Kinnarumma with the further purpose of warehousing. It's a very traditional place with Nudie Jeans as one of the main cooperating partners. Next to transmitting inventory electronically, Korallen also offers a manual, analogous service which one could feel while being on site. I personally found it very sympathetic that while being a much asked for company, you still try to be close to the customer and his goods. Nevertheless, due to this demand and increasing popularity, Korallen in collaboration with Nudie Jeans decided to move to Borås to a larger facility with new and bigger opportunities, where also a sewing place will be installed. By this, they support young entrepreneurs in their work.

Visiting the place, however, was motivated by another cause: Adrian got a delivery of discarded working clothes he acquired for a project with Cheap Monday. They are currently testing old sweatshirts and T-Shirts for a redesigned collection and functional trousers are supposed to be turned into bags. Here, Korallen takes care of the washing and colouring of the garments and also serves as the storage place. In dialogue with the designers of Cheap Monday, we created an inventory of all available items, separated them in colour and size and had to sort out what was not in question. Afterward, we went back to Borås to the fashion gallery where some more inventory needed to be done. In general, doing inventory is a very labour intensive and longsome process but knowing the intention behind those garments added a great feeling to it. I really enjoyed the day and am already excited about the results.

I am really happy that next to my initial project, I also have the chance to sneak into other projects, even contributing to them. The status quo of the remanufactured bag by Reused Remade is in progress and next week I'm going to have a meeting with the woman that initialised the whole concept and can give me valuable connections to essential cooperating partners. Looking forward to next week! :-)

Acceleration program

Hi! My internship takes place at THINK Acceleration program for startups with DeDecco! It is a 12 week program where they provide us office places and everything from advisors to business developer free of charge. The program ends with a demoday where DeDecco and three other startups pitch our ideas infront of investors.

DeDecco offer affordable interior design services for more people. The whole interior process takes place online instead of having an interior designer to come home to the customer. As traditional ways of decorating our home normally takes a lot of time doing research and purchasing all products, is this a more convenient service that help people save time and also money, because they don't need to pay for the interior designer.

It has been a very interesting start at THINK with a lots of input and workshop about how to develop strategies to actually have a opportunity to grow as business. We have had negotiation workshops, personal development workshop and a lots of mentor workshops. Everyday is a new insight and its impressing how much help you can get as a startup. 

The latest week have I been in contact with different supplier for an cooperation. I have been pitching 90 sekunds in Businesspodden, where we became the Business of the week! Besides all this does DeDecco trying out different sales processes in the moment to find out which process that is the most successful. 
It is an interesting journey, so until later... take care!

/Emma Gunnebrink

First Photo Shooting

My colleague and I visited my friends' house to take photos of a newborn baby with our products this Monday. It was for EcoViking instagram, homepage and possibly for new catalogs. We prepared firstly to collect visual images to research colors, light effects, accessories, angles, dispositions etc. Secondly, I created the documents with selected images for the usages as bases for our photo shooting sessions. Then, I communicated with the mother about what to prepare and  how to take photos by hearing her wishes and exchanging our ideas. Lastly, I prepared and learned the functions and good effects on a new camera while testing with different objects.

On the photo shooting, I started casually by talking with a baby and testing different angles. Since this baby was just born one and half month ago, a pacifier was quite big for him so it took a little bit of time for him to get used to it. However, more time passed, he seemed liking it and started to even fall asleep during the session with the pacifiers in his mouth. We tried three different outfits, three different blankets and three different occasions (on the bed, in parents arms, inside the round chair, and outside of balcony). Since as a photographer concentration and communication with a baby were needed, it was very efficient to have my colleague to support me to check the composition, colors matches and good use of lights etc.

After the session, our mentors and we checked the photos together. They liked close-up photos of baby's face with pacifiers, photos with focus on our products while baby is in the back, color matches such as orange background with orange pacifiers with baby's blue eye color etc. However, we want more photos with the focus on the products, so, for the next session, we plan, in order for our products to stand out more, to prepare babies clothes to be more pale or white while keeping good compositions yet adding more varieties. The good parts of this photo shooting was that since I have known the baby's parents so well, the atmosphere was really nice and friendly thus easy to take photos. Also previous planning and communication gave us enough good accessories and made our session to go much smoother, so we will continue to make sure good planning ahead.

Our mentors told us we did great job and we will be sent to other photo shooting sessions this Thursday and Monday two weeks from now. Visual communication is important parts of marketing especially the needs of expanding online marketing have increased. Visual images communicate emotion, culture, lifestyle, and identity and it is really interesting to think what messages we want to communicate and have good photo shooting. I am looking forward to next photo shooting as well as editing.

New Monday, New week

Happy Monday all! It’s now week 4 for me at Dearborn Denim, and continues to be a fun and interesting learning experience. 

Last week a lot of changes took place. 

First and most exciting, the company is beginning to roll out their first 100% supima cotton shirts! I can’t wait to purchase one, the material literally feels like butter. This was an interesting change in the way the sewing floor works because it meant removing one of the best seamstresses from the denim process. The move slowed down production from about 200 pairs a day to 160 at the end of the day which is quite a substantial drop. 

The next change that was made however, will hopefully resolve this issue. On Friday we changed the sewing floor layout to cut out some excessive and unwanted bundle movement and introduced a trolly system to create a better overall flow. While the process seem to be moving faster, there is still a slight bit of resistance to change from the sewers. It will be fun to see in the upcoming weeks if it indeed does have a positive response! Hope you all have a great week!

Few Weeks Left to Copenhagen Fashion Summit

Dear All!

Only a few weeks are left until this year's Copenhagen Fashion Summit and the whole team is working and will work tirelessly the upcoming weeks - a mixture between excitement and fear is inhibiting our office. 

To calm the nerves from time to time, we got the snack box which extended to more a less a whole kitchen which got quite empty already in the last two weeks, but new deliveries to come :)






But no matter, how stressful it might get and how tight deadlines are by now for all teams from communication over production to content - the spirit is high which might also be caused by the great sunshine as we could work outside for the first time this year.








Have a lovely week!
Gizem

STUDIO HEIJNE PLANET S - a dialog between fashion and art

STUDIO HEIJNE launches the “Planet S” collection in a fashion show at Konstnärshuset 6pm May 15 as part of Stockholm Beauty Week.

Planet S, a capsule collection of brilliantly coloured and strongly patterned scarves, dresses, blouses and trousers, is an interdisciplinary collaboration between fashion designer Wendy Heijne and artist Madeleine Hatz. Heijne and Hatz met in 2016 as studio neighbours. “When Madeleine invited me into her studio and showed me some of her paintings,” Heijne says, “I felt inspired and uplifted. Vibrant colours and textures like these have often been a source of inspiration for my designs. We both talked about how marvellous her paintings, printed on silk, would look draped around a woman’s figure. We decided to collaborate on a project--to make a dialogue between fashion and art in the spirit of Sonia Delaunay, the modernist artist and fashion designer in Paris in the 1920’s.”

“Planet S,” the collection’s title, is taken from a painting by Madeleine Hatz in her recent exhibition at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts. “At this point the ‘S’ could also refer to ‘Sonia’—who pioneered this kind of cross-disciplinary work,” Hatz says. A digital reproduction of “Planet S,” along with four other images of Hatz’ paintings, were printed on translucent silk in an artisanal shop in Italy. “Using highest-quality silks, we tailor the garments to our client’s measurements and preferences within the design scheme,” Heijne says. “This allows the client to participate in a design that is uniquely for her. That is the essence of Studio Heijne and our unique approach. We hope that the garments will be valued like fine jewellery—cherished for years, always worn again in new combinations and new styles.”

Studio Heijne is the brand where I am doing my internship. Below is a link where you can learn more about the collection and sign up to receive an invitation. 

http://studioheijne.com/planets

Greetings from Helsinki

Greetings from Helsinki!

I am doing my internship at LUMI accessories. They design leather accessorises and skincare and scents, but they are best known for their bags. They are based in Finland and it is their main audience, however they are a global brand and have a good market share in Asia for example. LUMI team is very small, and in their team in Finland they have only about 10 fulltime employees. LUMI aims to be sustainable and most of their products use vegetable tanned leather, and they design bags that last and are timeless, and also they wanr to be plastic free soon.

I have been at LUMI for four weeks now, and my position is marketing assistant. However, as I mentioned before LUMI is very small therefore I do a variety of tasks. It has been a very good way to learn different things and see how are daily tasks managed in such a small company. So far I have learned that you might have a plan what you need to do for that day but it might completely change if even a small thing doesn’t go as planned. Therefore, working in a small company you need to be flexible and have versatility. Sometimes this is very interesting and sometimes you also need to perform tasks you are not that happy to do, such as quality checks or running errands between the flagship store and the office.

So far my main tasks have included handling the online orders, and lately also taking and editing pictures for the online shops. I also get to participate in planning and executing smaller campaigns. This has also been very interesting and a good learning experience, because LUMI does not like to spend money on marketing, so we really have to be creative and find a way to execute nice visuals and campaigns with no budget.

My supervisor has also been very kind and taking me with her to meetings and events such as social media breakfast, where they had lawyers and influencers talking about doing commercial cooperation and sponsored posts in social media, and we got free breakfast which was of course nice too ;) Another very interesting meeting for me was with a guy who came to talk about SEO and how LUMI should use them in their strategy.

I have already learned a lot and there is now four weeks left and I’m sure there’s much more I will learn during this time and I’m very excited to see what will the last month bring, so until next time!

Sonja

Commercial with NA-KD

Hi there,

I’m at the end of my fourth week at NA-KD and the influencer marketing department. This department is managing all influencer marketing, and is one of the biggest departments within the organization. As Sara said yesterday, we are now working in teams, and she and I are focusing on Denmark. We’ve been contacting Danish influencers that can be good ambassadors for NA-KD. Since last week, when we started searching for girls and then contacting them, the mail box has been full of plenty of emails to answer and orders to make.

Yesterday, me, Sara and a couple of other interns from our department did something outside our regular tasks - we were a part of a tv commercial for NA-KD. The commercial will be shown in Germany, and it’s the first commercial of this type ever made for NA-KD. Most of the time we were dancing in the background, creating a party feeling and the camera focused on the German influencer wearing NA-KD. We met at the location, a club in Gothenburg, around eight in the morning. Kind of a strange feeling to walk into the club that time on a Wednesday morning. It was a great experience and really cool to be a part of this, and fun to see how things actually goes from idea to reality.

It feels good to do the internship at a company where everything happens fast and seems dynamic, as well as modern and creative. It’s a lot of own responsibilities and a great opportunity to learn. It’s also interesting to see how the influencer marketing works, what it generates and how the company can take advantage of this type of marketing. This is especially interesting since I’m studying how influencer marketing can benefit fashion companies.

Until next time!

Best, 

Agnes