Purchasing intern Gina Tricot 3/3

 A few months ago I started my internship at Gina Tricot as a purchasing intern. Now that I’ve been there for 10 weeks, I’ve been trying to put into words what this experience has actually meant to me, which is actually harder than I expected.

I worked across the jersey, knitting, and heavy woven departments, which meant I got a pretty broad look at how a fast fashion company sources and buys its products. Before this, purchasing was something I understood on paper, a subjecte I learned during my bachelor. I now understand it in practice, which makes what i learned in school more clear. 

One of the highlights during my intership was sitting in on supplier meetings. Getting to be in the room when the buyer and suppliers negotiate prices, discuss fabrics and talk about samples made it feel real in a way that no lecture could. I got to follow sourcing conversations around everything from linen blends to wool and faux fur, which sounds random but taught me so much about how varied the decision-making is depending on the category.

Sustainability was something I kept coming back to throughout the internship, since it’s central to my studies and because you can’t work in fashion right now without constantly being reminded of its importance. What struck me the most was how complex it gets in practice with certifications, supplier relationships, the tension between growth and impact. It’s not a clean story and I think sitting inside a company made me appreciate that more than I did before. I hope I can contribute with my knowledge to make a real difference!

I’m leaving Gina Tricot with a deepet understanding of what a buying team actually does, and a lot of questions I want to keep exploring in the future, maybe in my final thesis or in my future job. 

Thank you for reading!

Happy summer :p