Ending the internship & the Youth Fashion Summit

It was a busy last week in Copenhagen, as I finished my internship and participated of the Youth Fashion Summit. For the next two months I will be back at the office working as a consultant to further research existing industry-wide standards and their possibilities of harmonization. 

As Victor already told you, it was an amazing experience, meeting students from 36 different countries and having passionate and intense workshops and debates around SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) 3 and 5. 

We were divided into teams of 14 students approximately working on one specific SDG and topic. What I loved most about my team was that we first came up with a new concept called "Truthenticity" as a framework for all actions we were demanding on relevant stakeholders in the industry. We are now working on continuing the development of this concept as a movement that aims to establish authentic communication for actions within the fashion industry having a positive impact on society and environment. You can all follow us at @truthenticity_movement =) 

On Wednesday we had the opportunity of attending the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. I am leaving you the link to the panel discussion that I most enjoyed. From minute 18 onwards, you can listen to Paul Dillinger (Levi's) speaking about circular economy stating that: 

"Circularity is going to be the mechanism by which we constrain our industrial activity to an appropriate scale. If 6 out of 10 garments end up in landfill or incinerated within a year of production, should we have made those 6? And how much better could the 4 have been if those 6 were never made?" 

Burberry Group plc, Gap Inc., H&M, HSBC, NIKE, Inc., and Stella McCartney and 16 other participants have joined the "Make Fashion Circular" Initiative of the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation. 

Are they all willing to live up to the constraints?

Finally, I share with you some pictures from the last few days!

Final Thoughts

Another Monday has come around, but today I haven’t walked the 15 minutes out of town to be at the office at 8 AM. I’m not sitting at my desk anymore. I’m back in school and I’m well ito writing the introduction chapter of the report. This will be my last blog post and it will revisit the last days I spent at the internship.

The last week really flew by! The first three days we got to work a little bit with the girl who will have taken over our internship spots, Tina. Meeting her was a great reminder of how much I’ve learned on the way, as you recognise your 8-weeks-ago-self in her uncertainty about things and her willingness to learn as quickly as possible. Just like us, she will learn super quickly and soon enough she'll feel secure and confident in her role, I'm sure of it! I spent all Wednesday at the marketing department to see what their days are like. I got to help finding information for the Youtube strategy they are working on, which is an optimal job for me since I usually let youtube eat many hours of my life, haha. The day was really nice and even though it’s difficult (read impossible) to learn everything about a department in a day, I still feel like I got a good glimpse into the marketing world of an e-commerce firm. Great!

On thursday I spent the morning with the girls in the internal team and I asked and asked and asked about their roles as designers, buyers and buying assistants for one of Bubbleroom’s in-house brands. This information is important for my report as well so the time I spent there had a great impact in my learning about the purchasing process as well as about what questions I should ask in my research. After the last day, me and Avesta helped out at Bubbleroom's spring staff party, and it was the perfect ending to a great internship. I'll end the blog post here by saying I feel endlessly lucky to have been able to spend my internship atBubbleroom, a company so inviting and so prosperous (no really though, they are growing at insane rates, you should check out their stuff!) that has given me a good introduction into the industry. This time will have been crucial for preparing me for my future career.

I’ll leave you with some pictures!

XO - Anna

YOUTH FASHION SUMMIT & Copenhagen Fashion Summit

Eva Kruse, the president and CEO of Global Fashion Agenda and Copenhagen Fashion Summit summarised that collaboration is the key for driving sustainability in the fashion industry forward in her closing speech at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. 

Last week I participated in The Youth Fashion Summit. During the organised workshops we prepared the demands for the fashion industry. Our focus was United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: 

No.3 Health and Well-being and

No.5 Gender Equality and Empowerment of Girls and Women.  

Before we presented the demands on the main stage we had negotiation sessions with representatives from the different bodies from the industry (high street, luxury and manufacturers), the government, civil society. The negotiations took place during our visit of the headquarters of Pandora. After we refined the demands, I participated in the team responsible for their visual interpretation via posters.

During this two years program we will have the opportunity to strengthen the relationships amongst the youth participants, the organisers, Pandora and most importantly to broaden our presence and impact at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. 

Here you can watch the presentation of the demands at the opening of the second day of the COPENHAGEN FASHION SUMMIT... https://vimeo.com/270358328.

My favourite discussion was moderated by casting director Jamie Scully an it was with model Edie Campbell, Sara Ziff (Founding director, Model Alliance) and Marie-Claire Daveu (CSO and head of international institutional affairs, Kering). The topic was THE WELL-BEING OF MODELS IN A #METOO ECONOMY. Check it out here: https://vimeo.com/270417413

Follow #pandoraxyfs, #youthfashionsummit & #copenhagenfashionsummit to see more on Instagram. 

End of the internship

The internship has come to its end and its time to summarize the two months I’ve spent being part of the LUMI team. All in all it was very educational and fun experience and I think I made a good choice, choosing LUMI for my internship.

There were many good things I enjoyed doing and seeing. I’ve learned useful skills for the future, such as taking product photos and editing them, so for sure I can say that I know Photoshop better now and can work independently with it. Also I learned other practical tools for E-commerce that I will most likely need if I’m going to work within marketing in the future as well (Mailchimp, Wordpress. Etc.). Working in a small company also made it possible for me to participate all the meetings and have my saying for example about their brand refresh, sustainability and how to better reach the millennials and bring new market segments for them. I got to participate other interesting events as well, that you can read more from my previous posts.

I also got to see the not so glamorous side of things, which is the reality of working in an SME and in fashion. I learned a lot about SME owner/manager way of handling things, and how it limits the employee’s creativeness and affects the whole atmosphere in the team. For me this was very interesting actually, as it did not create stress over me since I was just an intern there, but it made me interested also about HR and management, and made me think about different career paths for my future.

Two months went by so fast, and I could’ve stayed even longer at LUMI, and the LUMI team was happy with my work participation as well! Now its time to finish this semester and write the research and start the summer.

I hope all of you had an eventful and good field study and enjoy your summer J

Sonja

All good things must come to an end

Hi all! Hope everyone has been doing well. While many have already completed their internships this is my second to last week. It’s been a really great experience to be in the factory. It’s definitely been supplemental to piggy back on what we’ve learned in our courses and see everything in a more practical way. 

Through the internship I’ve learned and help integrate a better flow of the sewing floor. Helped manage orders as well as recalls. I’ve also had fun taking over the companies Instagram to provide customers a look into the factory and hopefully create a deeper relationship with them where they can see their pants being made.

A great benefit has been that the founder is always near and has given fantastic insight when it comes to understanding what it means to open a start up manufacturing company. This entails finding the right people, location, and price point. 

Though it will be hard to leave I’m looking forward to heading back to Sweden to continue the program. Hope you all have enjoyed your internships and have a lovely summer! 

Hello again

The past few weeks have been rather interesting for me. First of all, I’ve had the chance to work with Oscar’s marketing team and take part in the photoshoot for new products for the webshop. What initially surprised me a little, was the fact, how big of a role direct e-mails play in today’s social media immersed world in terms of conversion rates and customer interactiveness. Now it makes perfect sense :D

Here you can see work in progress and the final photo that is in Oscar’s webshop:

I have also been investing quite a bit in my own brand in Estonia that I have been working with since mid 2016 with a few people. Over the past few months, we have released new products and successfully started working with a couple of Estonian bloggers and design shops. Go check us on Instagram @marateesti https://www.instagram.com/marateesti/ and also at https://marat.ee/

Unfortunately, all the information is in Estonian or Russian but, you'll get a good glimpse of what we are doing from the pictures.

Till next time...

Empowerment - Designing with people, not for people !

Hello everyone!

It’s been a long time again, and over the period it’s been interesting to reflect upon literature. I am also being guided by David Goldsmith, PhD scholar at the Swedish school of textiles. It was on the 3rd of May, 18, on David’s recommendation, I attended the Seminar by Mugendi K. M’Rithaa (industrial designer, educator and researcher at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa), on ‘An African Perspective on Socially Conscious Design’, at the University of Gothenburg.

It was a sunny day, where I was looking forward for the seminar as a guiding tool towards driven efforts by IKEA as well, to collaborate with designers from Africa to create a collection portraying its cultural elements, which will come about with their collection in 2019.  The seminar was a careful focus, on narrative that is co-created within different areas of the continent, which weighs rich symbolism.

African circular patterns, as seen in the seminar

The proverb as seen in the seminar

Another interesting aspect was noticed, that after a certain number of presentation slides, it had proverbs from the African culture, which improved the dimensions of thinking. For example, as conveyed through the Zimbabwean proverb, ‘If you can talk you can sing, if you can walk you can dance’, it can be understood that the proverb enhances the ability, where the organization can keep the capabilities in extending its impact in the society on a social and cultural scale. Also, in the marketing context, the richness of proverbs, gives an effective platform for the upscale of skills through expressions. The realization of societal issues is realized through the crafted product, where crafted products bring the ability to narrate stories.

In the seminar, it was thus emphasized on immersive, speculative, discursive experiences in cross cultural contents. Designers sensibilities around change, based on the understanding of what they need, from the craft, to keep forward from the brand, is where the interesting part in collaboration lies, where designers play a vital role. Thus, the experience which retains expressions leads to a certain belief and trust towards the organization. 

Empowerment in general plays a role in the entire value chain, from artisans to designers. In the end, the crafted product should not only fulfil to the extent that its articulated cultural element and co creation can be shown to impact favorably the successful collaboration, but also through possible profitable outcomes, which facilitates future collaborations.

The challenging part is to now relate the knowledge, from the seminars and interviews to the literature review!

The Campaign: Light, Camera & Crew Drama

Fashion brands do a few things for successful campaigns. Obviously, they showcase the apparel. If the customer can’t see the clothing, they’ll not buy. So, brands do still and video commercial for showcasing products. In fashion photography, clothing is king. It comes before all else.

During the fashion photography, I’m lured by the prospect of working with the hottest and trendiest people out there at MovingMoose. What started as a commercial need of brands to show their collections like the new sun, season’s trendiness, and full of stars; stylists, hair stylist, make-up artists and obviously models. 

It is collaborative work where concept and connections are way more important. A concept is what will bind the story together and the way in which a brand handles it shows a bit of their voice.

The summer has arrived to Gothenburg and Monki HQ's roof terrace

Time flies when you’re having fun…!

Hey all,

And hey you lovely summer weather! Right now I am sitting at the roof terrace at Monki HQ during my lunch break,  and actually hiding in the shadow to not make my computer melt in the heat.

It has now been a couple of weeks since I wrote my last blog post about my internship at Monki HQ, Gothenburg and so much has happened since then!

In the beginning of my internship one of my biggest focus was to understand and start using the various IT-program that Monki uses for planning and purchasing, as well as communicating with the global purchasing office. Today, a couple of weeks later, I know the various programs very well and can daily assist the buying assistant in placing orders, making sure every order includes the right articles, in the right quantity, for the right in price, for the right market, with the right “in shop week” and with the right “time of delivery”.  As you can tell is not just about push a button to place an order, there is a lot of work and many preparations in order to do so. Beside helping planning, preparing and placing orders I have also got the responsibility to update the wholesale team new styles in order for them to communicate these ones to Monki’s wholesale partners.  This responsibility further includes preparing samples; lab dips and strikes offs for meetings when the wholesale people come visiting Monki HQ to plan upcoming purchase.

Due to the many diverse work tasks none of my days look the same, which I really appreciate. That means I never get bored and continuously learn new things. Further, my mentors are very encouraging and give me a lot of responsibility to deal with several more difficult tasks my own. For instance, last week one of my two mentors were on vacation and instead of putting her work on someone of the buyer assistants she gave me the responsibility to do her job when she was away. I have never before absorbed that much knowledge during one week, and the expression “learning by doing” suddenly got a new meaning for me. And I got my mentors to thank for that.

Until next time… <3