Summer in the City: June 2006

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

It's Official

I'm now done with training and I'm officially a server at ESPN Zone. My first shift is Thursday and I cannot wait!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Training's a bitch

So the past few days I've been too busy/exhausted to update. I've been training since Friday at ESPN Zone and it sucks. Not in a bad way, but just because you're working and making money for someone else. The hours are long and all you get out of it is a free meal. But, tomorrow's my last day of training and the Thursday I will FINALLY be on my own. The place is crazy though! The menu is the same for lunch and dinner so the money is just as good at lunch as it is at dinner which is awesome.

And, being New York, there are celebrities galore. Today I saw Geoff Ogilvy, the guy who won the US Open yesterday. And, tomorrow they are closing early for a private party. Someone rented out the whole restaurant, and I've heard it's a bunch of hip hop starts, like P Diddy and Jay Z. We'll see. But apparently guys from the Yankees, Mets, Jets, and Giants come in all the time. But we aren't allowed to ask for autographs or pictures.......which sucks.

But the people there are uber cool. I love them all, and they seem to like me a lot. I've been told several times that I am "the shit" and got invited to hang out with them before the TOM PETTY concert they are going to tomorrow. Just the fact that they are going to see Tom Petty makes them cool in my book.

Well tomorrow is my last day so I need to go study!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Yesterday was really boring and slow. Kristen was out sick again so there wasn’t much for me to do, since all the projects I had been working on had been through her. I got to finish up the inputting the cost and markup into the buy plan first thing, then I ran some errands around the building for a bit.

The best part of the day was definitely lunch. I got invited out to lunch (on the company card) with Gail, the VP of Merchandising, Aubrey, the director of merchandising, and Kelly, who is one of the merchandising assistants. I got to listen to Gail talk about her upcoming trip to Italy, and I got to talk to Kelly about places to go in the city. Kelly and I really got along well, as she grew up in Virginia and graduated a few years ago from UVA. It also turned out that Kelly interned for Aubrey at Tommy Hilfiger. Learning this bit of information was extremely reassuring.

After lunch it was more sitting around. I got to work on the propositioning reports—typing in numbers of units we plan on buying and reformatting the whole thing so that it was uniform. After that there wasn’t much else for me to do so I went home early—about three o’clock.

Today I had training at ESPN Zone and it was boooooor-innnng. A lot of training videos. The boring kind. And what was reaaaaly annoying was the people from 2 different banks came to try to sell us checking accounts. So what now? I can't go to training without commercials?

Monday, June 12, 2006

Today was pretty slow at the office. I came in at 9:30 and sat around for about an hour before they passed me off to Denise Jones in production. There I helped her pull Men's Holiday 2006 Pre-Classifaction samples to send downstairs to get classified. I felt like I was on a scavenger hunt because the samples were in 5 different places on our floor. After that Aubrey gave me a copy of the men's fall 2007 merchandise plan to make copies of and staple together for a meeting. After I finished that it was time for lunch.

After lunch I got to sit in on a couple of meetings which was really cool. First was the men's fall 2007 merchandise plan meeting with the design team. Aubrey explained to me later that the plan provides an outline for the designers of the types of pieces we need. For example, for the first delivery of merchandise we need four new long sleeve woven shirts, two priced retail at $59.50 and two priced retail at $69.50. The designers take this plan and in about a month they will present to us a line for the season. This is cool because I am witnessing the season from the very beginning.

The next meeting was for the "clubs" line. CK Jeans develops a special line for the discount clubs such as Costco and Sams Club. These designs are usually simplified versions of the main line. We met with the girl in charge of it and discussed how we were going to simplify a cargo short and pant to get a lower base cost. Basically we are taking off the little details such as extra stitching and little extra pockets. We will have the samples by July 1st.

Next we met with Chris and looked over "bulk wash submits" from the factories. These are samples of the final dye/wash of the jeans before they get done to the entire batch or order. We compare these submits with the original sample to approve or reject it. Some of the submits were way off in color compared to the sample we had sent the factory, to the point that you were suprised that the factory even bothered to send it to us. That meeting was short, only about 15 minutes.

Next I got to work some in Excel, which I love doing because I know Excel really well and can finish work quickly in it. I worked with the buy plan again, this time I was adding in cost for production and total markup precent to wholesale. I did this for all the knits and tees, and tomorrow I will finish with the rest of the line.

I really enjoyed getting to sit in on all the meetings today. I'm starting to get a better idea of how the whole process works, and every day I am loving this job more.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Out and About

Friday Night we all went out bar hopping off 4th St by NYU...it was a blast. We went to like 5 different bars and Kim, Rebecca and I didn't pay for a single drink--I love being a pretty girl!

Then Yesterday Kim and I were good fashion students and went to the Fashion Museum at FIT (that's the big fashion school up here) . The museum was small but it was very cool. Some of the things we saw:

Jean Patou-Chemise Evening Dress 1929, France

Day Dress, 1875
Women's Riding Costume, 1895
Women's Dressing Gown, 1878

And my personal favorite.......Women's Suit, Chanel, 1969

After that we went browsing in some stores down on 34th st...we went into the MASSIVE H&M (3 stories), huge Old Navy, Gigantic Forever 21....and decided that there are way to many people in NYC to try to shop on a Saturday. We had dinner off the dollar menu at Wendys and then went out with the gang. We went to Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square where we got a few appetizers to split, then we walked around Times Square and took pictures like the bunch of tourists that we are. We hung out for a bit back at the dorms afterwards. It was a good night and I'm really starting to love this city.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Last night we went to the Teen Vogue "Party" which turned out to be more like a private event at the store. It was still pretty cool though---free food and goodies. The event was in SoHo so we got to walk around there for a bit afterwards and take goofy pictures.

Today I worked at the internship. I arrived at the office today at 9:15. The first thing I got to do was sit in on a meeting with the international buyers. In this meeting, Kristen presented to them the entire spring line. This was good for me to sit in on because I’ve been working with the line all week in paper form, but this way I got to see it all laid out with the prototypes.

In the meeting I learned a little more about the inspiration for the line. The deliveries are broken up into three themes: Delivery One is “Cash”, inspired by Johnny Cash, Delivery Two is “Haze”, inspired by Jimi Hendrix, and Delivery Three is “Grace”, inspired by Elvis. I also learned about a different dying technique and got to see the concept boards used in the presentation.

After the meeting I worked some more on the tech pack color chips until lunch. After lunch I got to actually create a “buy plan” for the Spring 2007 Men’s premium denim line. I entered the information into excel and generated new style numbers for the denim.

That was about it for the day. Fridays seem to be very casual, and I was told in the summer time Fridays are half-days, so a lot of the office left around 2 PM. Looking back this first week has been good, I’m already starting to understand the stuff that seemed very overwhelming when I first started (like the buy plans). I’m excited to see what next week brings!

Tonight we are going out...doing something. I don't know. I'm about to go get ready and go hang out with Kim for a bit. Toodles!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Yesterday started out much the same. I got in the office, checked my email and got situated. Then, I worked for a bit on the tech pack cover pages again. This time, though, I compared the pages against the “buy plan” to put them in order. They buy plan has every style for that season listed with all the necessary information.

After lunch, they shuffled me over to design, where I worked in men’s knits with Mary and Richard. There I sorted and filed away stitch samples and panels for Holiday 2006 and Spring 2007. Then, I copied and compiled graphic direction for the Spring 2007 knits. After that, I learned how to use to Pantone Color Swatch books by putting back pulled swatches.

At 2:30 I attended the men’s fitting for knits and denim. I learned what it meant to “spec” a garment and I got to watch a male model try on clothes, which was pretty nice!

Afterwards, I and the other men’s intern, Alyssa, went through Holiday 2006 dropped samples and pulled one of each style for reference. The rest got taped up and will get sent to charity (after it has been picked through by the employees). After that we were done for the day!

This morning I was off from the internship but I went to ESPN Zone to fill out paperwork. I start my training on Tuesday and I cant wait! Tonight I am going out with Kim and Rebecca to a Teen Vogue Party......Teen Vogue will be there and maybe I'll meet someone famous. If not, there's free food so that's worth going in itself haha. Should be good times.

On a sad note its raining still and my head is pouding. I miss Richmond a lot, and I miss Brian more. But NY is fun for now...I can't wait to go back into my internship tomorrow!!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

2nd day

Today was my second day on the job, I got there this morning at 9:45. I was given the task to look for more shorts on the internet until they could get me situated. I did that for a little while and then ran a couple of errands to the floor below me delivering different things. Then, while my team was in a meeting, I sat in on the women’s fitting and watched them decide what to change about various tops in the spring line.

After lunch I started on the tech pack cover pages. Kristen explained that the tech packs are what goes to the manufacturer that explains everything on how to manufacture the garment, from color to the size of the thread. The cover pages are the product spec sheets. My job was to take the cover pages and tape the appropriate color chips to each. I worked on this for the Spring 2007 line for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will finish up and then we are going to put them on the bulletin board and look at the entire line.

It was fun, but my fun was dampered a bit when I learned that I can't start at ESPN Zone until next week. It's a long stupid story but at least it will give me this weekend off as well before things get too crazy.

On another note, I can see why everyone says they gain weight once they move to an office job. Not only are you sitting on your ass all day but if I had a dollar for everytime I heard "I'm getting a snack from the kitchen, you want anything?" I would never have to work again. Good thing I'll still be waitressing to get some exercise! But I definately like this 9-5 thing, I could get used to it.

Monday, June 05, 2006

My First Day!

Today was my first day at Calvin Klein Jeans. I arrived at the Warnaco building, 501 7^th Ave, at 9:30 AM and met with Hoa, the human resources coordinator. She took me to the 15^th floor and introduced me to my team: Aubrey, Kelly, and Kristen, the merchandising team for the men’s division. Kristen helped me set up my desk, email, and internet, and after a quick tour of the floor, I jumped right in.

The first thing Kristen had me work on was updating the “Injection Books”. The book holds product spec sheets of all items added to the line after the initial components have been determined. While we were putting the injection books together she showed me how the style numbers work. We updated the books for both Holiday 2006 and Spring 2007.

Next, I got to take a little field trip to Macy’s. Gayle, the VP of Merchandising, said she had seen a pair of shorts, the “Freighter Short”, in the Polo Jeans section that she thought would be a good inspiration for the design team. So I was off to the 7^th Ave Building of Macy’s, company credit card in hand. After looking at every short in the department and asking two sales associates, I still hadn’t found the mystery short. After calling back to the office it turns out Gayle couldn’t remember quite what they looked like or if that was even the name of them, so I came back to the office.

After I arrived back I helped Kristen sort out some samples to send to the PR department. The PR department will use these samples to send to magazines, photoshoots, etc. We went through two boxes and I read her the style number and we typed up a list of everything in the boxes, style number and description.

After a quick break for lunch, I got a very short tour of the showroom on the 14^th floor. I couldn’t see too much of the showroom because there were a lot of meetings going on, but from what I saw I was very impressed.

Next Kristen gave me some weekly sales reports from the past three weeks. From these I highlighted any style that had over 5% sell through in that week. After highlighting I had to copy, clip, and deliver them to Gayle and Aubrey.

Lastly, I browsed various websites for images of “cool” men’s shorts for the design team to use as inspiration for next summer. I found several images and compiled them into a Word document. After I printed that I was done for the day at 5:00.

I loved my first day. I met a lot of people, including the two interns in the women’s department. The one girl, Brooke, is a business major at University of Florida, and we really hit it off. I already felt like a was a part of the team, especially since I have my own desk, email address, and extension. Everyone was friendly and welcoming, and they all seem to work well together and seem to be friends. For example, they had a mini birthday party for one of the girls complete with cake and singing, and made plans to go to a movie tomorrow. This is exactly the kind of environment I want to work in after I graduate, and I think this summer is going to be a blast.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Brooklyn

Today was another good day. I got up at a decent hour and trekked over to Brooklyn. It should have been an easy ride, just one transfer, but it turns out that the train I needed was not going from the station I needed, so I ended up transfering a few more times. No worries, I got exactly where I needed to and didn't end up in Harlem.

I went to Pam's and saw her house, it's so pretty. I got to meet her daughter, Samantha, who is almost 17, and also Pam's husband. Pam took me out and we walked into a few shops and around, got Hagen-Daas, and then came back to the block party that was going on on her street today. Everyone brought food and wine and it was good times.

And--guess who lives on Pam's block? Steve Buscemi, the guy who is in the Adam Sandlar movies with the crazy eyes. I didn't see him, but Pam showed me where he lived. How cool is that?

Sooooo, tomorrow is my first day at Calvin Klein, and I have no clue what to wear. Lord knows I brought enough clothes, but how do I decide? I don't even know what they will have me doing tomorrow, let's just pray its not fetching coffee.

Good thing I'm a cheap drunk....cuz it ain't cheap to get drunk here.

Last night was so much fun.

Kim, another girl in the fashion department, is also in the city for the summer. I met up with her and a girl she is staying with, Rebecca, at TGI Friday's in Times Square.

From there we walked to the subway, and after talking to some random girls who seemed nice and fun, we found out where we needed to go. We went to this place called Braury Bar (I think?). It was huge...it had about 6 rooms. And NYC is terribly overpriced....a vodka cranberry cost me $9!! Looks like that will be MY last drink out for awhile.

Fav memories from the night:
1. When Kim offered a guy a Fridays the last half of her beer that she couldn't finish if he'd give her a dollar. "It's the New York way...anything to make a buck"
2. We were stopped by some random guy who needed to have "dates" for him and his friends to get into a bar, and Rebecca interrupted his pleading to ask him where Braury Street was.
Him: "Um, so me and my friends are trying to get into this bar, but we have to have dates to"
Rebecca: "Yeh, do you know where Braury is?"
3. Kim, in a stand against the $9 we had to pay for our minature drinks, stole an orange.
4. The woman/man thing we saw in the bathroom that Kim very drunk and loudly referred to as "SHREK!!" (I'm suprised we didn't get jumped by it)
5. Spending one of my first nights out in NYC with two very cool girls....thanks ladies!

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Rainy Saturday

Well I spent today doing a whole lot of nothing...I went and got my drug test done and that hardly took any time at all. Then, I proceeded to sit on my ass and read for about 3 hours or so. That was wonderful---I started this book yesterday and I will probably finish it tomorrow, I'm more than 3/4 through. Then I caught up on some scrapbooking.

It was raining almost all day, but after it let up a little I went out exploring...there was a Street Fair going on right outside my apartment, so I walked up and down that. It was cool, because this kind of thing is a weekly occurance in NY but in Richmond it has to be 4th of July or something. I got a light green faux pearl necklace for two bucks. Also, while I was walking up and down the streets I got to look at all the things near me. I found some familiar things: KFC (only a block away-yessss!), Subway (the sandwich place), Walgreens, Hair Cuttery. I also discovered that there are a TON of little pubs and such all down 75th, which will be nice once I have some people come visit me. There is even a "Mo's Tequila Bar" right behind my apartment, which of course made me think of Jess and April. It seems like if I ever get bored I can just walk up and down the streets and find SOMETHING to do. It's awesome.

Pam (my mom's cousin) called and invited me to a block party at her place tomorrow, it should be fun. I will get to meet her family and eat food and have good times.

Oh, on another note, Xander, the son of the woman who is letting me stay here, gave me the number to a woman that lives in this building that he helps out every weekend. He goes into her apartment 2ce a day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday when she is gone and feeds her cat. For this she pays him $10 PER TIME. So, $60 a weekend. For taking the elevator downstairs and filling up a food bowl. Anyways, he is going to be gone for 3 weeks so I am going to do this while he is gone. So basically I will be making $180, and I am paying Vicky $120 to stay here----so I am actually coming out $60 on top.

Life is good. :)

Feeling Ambitious Today

Well I went to bed pretty early last night as it was a verrry long day, so as a result I'm up at a decent hour. I'm off today to go take a drug test and maybe do a little exploring, it's raining here and I realized the only closed toe shoes I brought were my black work sneakers and my pumps. I'm a retard. So I think I might go try to find a payless or k mart and find some sneakers on sale.

Good news--I'm hungry this morning! It's good to know my body is getting back into the groove. But I'm sore everywhere---my stomach from getting sick for 12 hours and everywhere else from hauling my luggage around NYC for 3 hours.

Oh, and I found out good news last night---April got an apartment across the street from me and Jess!!! :)

Friday, June 02, 2006

Holy Crap...What a Week

So my "long day" has turned into the longest week evvvver. Shortly after my last post I started feeling not so hot. 12 hours over the toilet later, it turns out I had food poisoning, and spent all day yesterday trying to recover. I finally left for NY at 11 this morning. I arrived in the city about 4:30, on a Friday, In rush hour, in the pouring rain. Oh and the rain was so bad that it was flooding the city and some of the subway was shut down. So picture this: 100 lb me, 3 bags of luggage, hardly eaten anything in 36 hours, in the pouring rain, trying to hail a taxi. For almost an hour. I finally manage to take the crosstown bus, thanks to the nice people who I begged to help me get my luggage on there. at 7:30 I finally arrived at the place I am staying. Good news is, that is probably the worse it will ever be here, and I made it.

So now I have the whole weekend to settle in and recover...I start my internship Monday at 9:30.

NY hasn't impressed me too much so far....I miss Richmond.

Summer in the City