Last Day at Camilla :(

Today was my last day of internship at Camilla:( Just like any other day it was busy in the Camilla office. We had a morning appearance on the morning show. You can check it out at: after you get to the site go to video archive and then to sexy summer fashion video. On the show you can see Camilla the head designer and all the models on the morning show are the girls that I work with. After getting all the garments together and having them steamed for the show this morning, I continued working on getting the new babylon collection on the floor. Once the collection was priced and displayed on the store floor, I helped Hannah put together the order of the models for Sydney Fashion Festival. We organized what model would walk when, what story of the collection she would be in, and what garment she would be wearing. The garments were already chosen by Camilla for each model, but we had to make sure that each garment that will be in the show had the models head shot attached to the garment. This is so when it comes time for the actual show we know what each model will be wearing. The garments with the head shots attached where then put in place by orders of the show. We also typed out an excel sheet of the run order for the show. We put the models that had stronger walks in the opening of each story of the collection. The rest of my last day we spent organizing for Sydney Fashion Festival. Even though it was my last day I worked till the very end. After the busy work day, Camilla and the entire team took me out to a very nice dinner, and also gave me a gift voucher to the store to thank me for all the time that I spent helping them this Winter in Sydney.

I had an amazing time at Camilla and I am truly going to miss it:(

Monday

Today I worked on visual merchandising for the Bondi Store with Isobel. She is the retail manager for all the Sydney Camilla stores. We had to tear down the old display, clean the area, and then put up the new display. The display resembles a fairy tale garden. Since the new babylon collection goes in store this week Camilla wanted everything in the store to be new to her customers. The fairy tale garden goes well with the new collection, since the idea of the collection came from Camilla's childhood. Camilla says that the entire theme, colors, and prints comes from her childhood as inspiration. One of the stories in the collection is even called lost gardens. After all morning and afternoon working on the display, we started sorting and pricing the new babylon collection that arrived for the Bondi store. The collection features about 300 garments, so it has been very time consuming to get it ready for the store floor and to have the back stock organized in the stockroom.

Friday

Friday started out with receiving a box of samples from one of our manufacturers. I opened the box and took production notes with Britt on the sample garments with Camilla's input. After going over the samples with Camilla, I started working on putting a compare and contrast image file of the things that we liked and didn't like with the samples. i put together the comparing image file for the samples and then sent the image to the manufacturer for changes to be made. I also sent the sample pieces back to the original manufacturer through harrison logistics. Once the sample project was taken care of I worked with Bec (national sales). Bec and I put together invoices for all the national orders through our POS system Retail Express. We had over 100 orders to enter into the system. Entering the orders to up the rest of my day.

Thursday

This week is flying by its been so busy in the office. Today I entered about 10 more garments into the POS system retail express. Then I did research on customized teepees that are design by Alice Temperley. Camilla is thinking about showcasing her new winter collection that we are currently working on in teepees at Centennial Park. So I put together some images and all the contact details along with quotes on the teepees for Camilla. During the morning and all afternoon until 5:30 we constantly had models come in for fittings for our parade at Sydney fashion festival. Camilla already chose what garment each model would wear based on headshots. Today the models came in, did their walk with the garment that they will be wearing while I took pictures of each model. The pictures will be references for the actual day of the parade to help with the behind the scenes. In between taking photos I worked on putting together an inspirations folder for the next collection, and updated the excel sheet of samples that have been sent to our international agents and what they still need from our manufacturers. Constant revisions need to be done to the excel sheet, because every couple days we get updates from our manufacturer as to what they have made and shipped to our agents. By updating our excel sheet we can then send our agents an e-mail letting them know what they will be receiving in the next couple days.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Sorry for late the late post for Tuesday..............Tuesday I worked on sorting out line sheets that consisted of sample garments codes and descriptions for our 2 U.S. agents. What I was doing was seeing what samples each agent had and what samples they needed. The line sheets that they sent us didn't have all the information on them, so I had to correct them so it was easier to decipher what they need or what they have. An example would be: Navi-short hooded kaftan. When the line sheet should have the code, type of embellishment, fabric type, and the discount price. Once I added all the details I then decided what samples needed to be shipped to each agent. What the agents do is take our look books, press kits, press banners, and samples and display the collection at show rooms to potential boutiques or stores that would like to sell the Camilla label. After sorting it all out I sent the samples that were needed to each agent. Once, I did that for international sales I helped national sales by entering more details of the babylon collection into the POS system retail express.

Wednesday was a very stressful busy morning. As soon as I got in I was asked to put together a projection report with Bec (national sales) that would be presented to Camilla at 11am. In 2 hours we were to have all the orders from every national stockists in Australia broken down by state, boutique, and the number of garments that each store ordered by style code. Very time consuming, and it had to be very accurate. The report also included the Camilla stores that we own in Australia. From there Camilla decided what styles of what garment she would need more of. From there she would work with Britt and the manufacturers in producing more of those garments. She also used the report to decide what styles where going to be sent to each Camilla store and the amount of each style that should be stocked at those stores. After finishing the report I did research on vintage pieces from another designer that Camilla looks to for inspiration. I saved several images of the designers vintages pieces to the S drive in the inspirations folder for manufacturing and design. After researching I figure out what garments we have at the warehouse and what garments we need from out manufacturers for an upcoming photo shoot for a new look book/style guide.

Monday

The start of another week at Camilla. This morning it started out with no internet:( So the wonderful task was given to me to get it back and running. We do have an IT person, however that person never seems to answer their phone. i think I called about five different time before I got ahold of John our IT guy. Once, I got ahold of him he said that he was working on a different project about 15 minutes away and couldn't give me an approximate time on when he could get to Camilla's. NOT GOOD:( A high-end international fashion label can not function or get much done without internet. John said he would come to Camilla's right after his other project. While we all were waiting on John I worked on updating the press folders with the latest press that we have received. Our PR agency keeps track of every Camilla piece or story that is in the press, and they send it to us to update our files and folders. We keep a digital and hard copy of all the press. John finally showed up at 2pm:( and would get the internet working on one computer and then it would go down on another computer. John ended up working in our office until the end of our work day. Today was pretty unproductive for everyone without internet. Besides working on the press I helped the retail girls at the Bondi beach house with the organizing the stockroom and getting it ready for the babylon collection to come into stores.

The only good news of the day is that I will be attending Sydney Fashion Festival!!!!!!!:)

Friday

TGIF!!!!! Another week done!!! Today was pretty uneventful. I spent the majority of the day entering wholesale prices into the retail express POS system. Now that I have all the wholesale prices entered in retail express it will allow us to do invoicing through the system. After working on the POS system I helped Britt (manufacturing and production) by taking digital images of samples for the new winter collection and sent the images to our manufacturers. I also received a fax from UPS today stating that a return shipment from one of our international agents was stuck in customs. So I had to call UPS and give them all the company details in order to move the shipment through customs. Sorting that problem out was a nightmare....lol The task wasn't hard, it was just time consuming.