BLOG 2/3 INTERNSHIP - TOTEME

Welcome to the second blogpost of my internship at Toteme!

About six weeks have passed since I started my internship as a Raw Material Developer Intern. I’m getting more and more comfortable in my role at the company and learning something new every day. At times, it can definitely be a bit stressful working with fabrics for different collections simultaneously, and it can get confusing trying to keep track of everything. But after six weeks, I’m starting to get more used to the pace and the working environment. A part of my role is assisting in keeping daily contact with suppliers and asking for updates regarding stock, pricing, MOQ, lead times, sustainability certificates, and so on. I also spend quite a lot of time working in Excel, filling in files with all the relevant information connected to each fabric.

One thing I’ve also been doing lately is archiving. This means cutting fabric tirellas and bulk fabrics into smaller cuttings (like A4 size) that have been used in previous collections and organising them into archive boxes. It’s been really cool to see and feel all the fabrics used in earlier collections. It has helped me better understand fabrics in general, but also suppliers and which suppliers are typically used depending on the fabric composition and material. One thing that I’ve realised is that it can be quite challenging to find the right fabrics when balancing quality, cost, time, and sustainability all at once. Finding the right balance between these factors is definitely not always easy.

I’ve also been writing daily diary notes both during work and on the bus ride home. I feel like this has given me time to reflect on the tasks I’ve been doing each day, and I think it will be really useful later when writing my final report.

Overall, it’s been a fun and very rewarding experience to see how the fashion industry and raw material sourcing work from the inside.

That’s it for my second blog post. Thanks for reading! 🙂

Peace out,
Noah