Last Day at Debenhams but Heaps of Free Stuff!

I was kind of sad to be leaving Debenhams today. The work had been so much fun and I had managed to make a few friends in the other trainees who all agreed to go out for a few drinks before I had to make my way home on the train.

I was asked to finish off the hosiery comparison shop in the morning, and rushed round a few of the shops that I missed the first time round to get more detailed notes on knitted over the knee socks in the younger fashion market. It didn't take long at all and I was left with the rest of the afternoon to help the fuller bust bra team do their colour approval.

This involved bringing folders full to the brim with scraps of dyed lace over to a light box in the centre of the office. The light box had many different settings that could simulate different kind of light. There was shop floor lighting which recreated the level of lighting used in Debenhams stores, then there was natural lighting and UV lighting which were all used to compare the differences in colour with the lace.

It was quite difficult work, and after a while my head was beginning to hurt. I had to compare the dyed elastic for the bras, against the dyed lace to get them matched precisely. There was so little difference in the small samples that I physically had to put my head inside the light box and get really close before I felt confident enough to approve the samples. After a few hours of doing this, when finally the huge pile of lace had been either rejected or approved, I realised sadly that my work was done.

It was at that moment when I was presented with my leaving box. A huge bag filled to the brim with free samples. There were four full lingerie sets as well as some extra bras and hundreds of pairs of tights samples. Everything from Henry Holland, right up to Jasper Conran had been placed in a huge plastic bag for me to take home and keep.

I was so happy with the free underwear but perhaps the best present was the Triumph look book that they had given me, detailing all the products for AW10 in the UK. They had obviously noticed how useful I found the Wonderbra lookbook and had provided me with one of my very own. It will definitely come in handy for future university products.

Week 2 - Day 4 - Lingerie Market Meeting

Most of the work today was taken up by attending an overview meeting on lingerie market research. It was a meeting packed full of information that was absolutely fascinating to someone like me who dreams of owning a lingerie company.

The meeting lasted most of the day and covered everything from strategy to the analysis of data concerned with gaining figures. Everything from quantitative research of the analysis of figures and numbers, through qualitative research coming from personal interviews with real consumers, and to the analysis of sales from each till point in Debenham's stores.

There were plenty of detailed graphs in the pack we were given that showed important information as to how Debenham's is performing as a company in the current climate. The graphs were easy to understand and I could see at a glance whether the company was outperforming on last year's sales or not.

Most of the work in the afternoon ended up being completely unsupervised. I had managed to gain myself enough positive reputation that I was allowed to be left to my own initiative. I was given the mock up of packaging for the new mastectomy bras that were being added to the range of basic bras this autumn. The packaging was decided following positive feedback from a focus group and I was handed a pile of nets and a pile of mastectomy bras and set about putting them together. It was relatively easy and I managed to finish it in no time.

The rest of my afternoon was spent on a completely unsupervised comparison shop for the hosiery team. I was given a list of shops they wanted me to visit to compare the price points and display styles of any up to and over the knee socks. I ended up getting to go by myself to Urban Outfitters, Topshop, River Island and Accessorize, all places I was planning to visit soon anyway. I had so much fun browsing around and taking notes which I then made into a poster in the last part of my day to present the results of the shop back to my supervisor.

Week 2 - Day 3 - Meetings and Fittings

It was a really busy day in head office today, starting with a meeting with the head buyer. Every department in the lingerie division sent a representative to feedback facts and figures about their particular product to the head of buying. the presentation of these figures was done in a creative and visual way that made the whole thing much easier to understand.

The trainee assistant buyers then presented their findings gained from the weekly comparison shop. It surprised me that such a junior role had such responsibility in presenting important information to really experienced people. The TAB I was shadowing Hannah, presented her findings on the variety of multi pack briefs that we discovered in Marks and Spencer last week, as well as any changes in the advertising campaign that may have affected improved sales. Particular attention was drawn to the new M&S TV advertisement.

It was important that the TABs took notice of every new or innovative product and drops or changes in price points that occurred within the main competitors lingerie departments.

In the afternoon, I was finally gaining some more responsibility and was sent to meet and greet the suppliers from hosiery company courthaulds. I had to keep them comfortable and content whilst my supervisor was finishing in another meeting. I was pretty much holding the fort until she got back.

I was then given the opportunity to help with the shape wear fitting session with the size 16 fit model. I was asked for my opinion much more, and took charge of writing up the notes to send to the supplier regarding any adjustments that were needed.

During my lunch break, I managed to get hold of an advertising brief from Wonderbra that had been sent to Debenhams to show off the new season collection. It was a professional document and exactly the kind of thing that we have to do as part of our course in fashion marketing. I looked through it to gain any sort of creative ideas for things like the designing of colour palettes, layouts and ideas for the final presentation of my dissertation.

Week 2 - Day 2 - Merchandising

I met with the junior merchandiser for briefs and shape wear today and had a lot of questions about what her job actually entails. She sat down with me for quite some time and explained how the merchandisers use the critical path in a completely different way to the buyers, focusing on analysing the sales. She also explained in detail, the complete life cycle of a product.

• Designers source trend ideas and colours for the season
  
• Designer then creates a mood board and submits designs to supplier


• Supplier selects designs they have that would suit company


• Buyer chooses designs and fabrics from supplier to suit collection


• Supplier makes up samples of chosen designs


• Buyer makes changes and costs item
  
• Merchandising and Buying decide how many units and where


• Buyer confirms delivery date with supplier


• Quality control fit and test samples


• Once item is perfect, buyers seal the item with a 'gold seal' and release order for delivery


• Supplier arranges delivery date into warehouse with merchandiser


• Merchandising team discuss allocation date and stock level


• Delivery arrives in warehouse
  
• Order gets allocated


• Style arrives in store


• Merchandising team watch for sales reactions

The whole thing made much more sense once I knew the cycle that the product goes through from start to finish and it was much nicer to know where in the process my role was currently fitting in.

I attended a fit session for briefs in the afternoon. Most of the samples from AW10 is at the final gold seal stage so some initial fittings for SS11 were also carried out. There were a lot of things wrong with the initial buying samples from SS11 and the garment technician Sally, had to alter almost every brief that was fitted onto the model. Once the garment had been pinned to demonstrate the correct measurements, the garment was photographed and emailed to the supplier along with detailed notes for adjustments.

Graduate Contour Fashion Show

This evening, I was invited to attend the graduate fashion show of De Montfort University's contour design course. My cousin, currently a lingerie designer herself, had been invited to view the show and I jumped at the offer of attending to help. She was ultimately looking for an assistant to help her start a freelance design company, but was also helping me gain all the contacts that I would need for future work experience and information.

First things first, the lingerie and my personal thoughts. Images are from the official fashion show look book and are taken from that. I have contact details available for all designers so please contact me for any further information:

First to take the runway was Elizabeth (Liz) Richardson, (design pictured left) with her fencing inspired collection. The collection was strong and really fitted together brilliantly, with some iconic pieces that were really allowed to take the centre stage. Also, the outfit pictured, was worn by Sophie Anderton for the runway show.

Secondly, Rhiannon Jones (right) proved a complete contrast to Richardson's collection with a much more dominant and sexual collection, reminiscent of bondage and domination.

Emily-Ann Murray (left) was another of the designers that caught the attention of my cousin and I. Her designs had a very contemporary colour palette, consisting of pale nudes and delicate ivory and cream. The design of the lace pattern as well was something that really struck me as something truly wearable.

Janay Gillick's collection (right) also fascinated me. Her collection building technique was in my opinion second to none, with all six pieces meshing together perfectly, creating a really appealing final look.

Emma Davis (left) greatly impressed my designer cousin who was determined that her main criteria in finding a great assistant designer was the idea of collection building. Emma Davis created a wide variety of outfits with very little, a variety through limitations, which made for a striking final collection.

Annabel Bushe (above right) demonstrated apt knowledge for future and current trends with a collection that would appeal to mass. The collection was neither pretentious nor timid, presenting real wearable garments in a perfect colour palette.

Carley Williamson's collection (left) reminded me of the eccentric, yet extremely exciting and creative work of Jean Charles de Castelbajac. The prints were eye catching and had a real designer feel for them. In particular, her fifth and final piece was a real eye catching, floaty sleeved leotard.


Laura Ramsay (above right) earned herself a huge underline and big tick on my cousin's programme sheet and I watched as she scribbled down thousands of notes about Ramsay's hugely strong collection building process, which in the end presented a wearable, yet fascinating collection.

Finally, the designer that impressed me the most was Samantha Tretton. She had an all round excellent collection, everything from the decision of the colour palette to the final runway styling was perfect. The little touch that made her stand out from the rest of the designers was her quirky styling idea. Each model was styled with a vintage case which they carried in their left arm, all cases were differently sized and shapes from an old battered hat box to a vintage guitar case. The idea was really exciting and interesting and I was really pushing for her during conversations later in the evening.

After the runway show was over, we were invited to a VIP reception afterwards where I had the opportunity to talk to buyers and designers from a whole host of other companies, hoping to get any kind of work experience. I spoke briefly to model Sophie Anderton and managed to gain a contact in Tesco and Nichole de Carle. Probably the most exciting opportunity came from speaking to people from Elle Macpherson and Victoria's Secret who could offer work experience and paid internships all over the world.

Week 2 - Day 1 - New Designs

The sign off for new products last Thursday had been a success, which meant there was a much calmer atmosphere in the office this week. The first call of the day was a meeting with the buyers and merchandisers in briefs and those in bras to bring together their ideas for the products they would be collaborating on. The designers were present to listen to the feedback and begin the process of designing further products for the collections.

The bra team, picked out the predicted best and worse sellers of the briefs for SS11 and began to talk to the designers about the idea of bras that would match up with those briefs to create best selling, basic lingerie sets in plain colours.

The product that seemed to be causing the most excitement was the new shape wear selection. This time, as well as the invisible, seam free, extreme hold that makes shape wear famous, the design team have decided to make a print for the briefs that make them seem more of a sexy, piece of underwear, rather than something to be hidden away and hastily removed before anyone else has the chance to see.

The head of buying was really interested in this idea at the review and was enthusiastic about the idea of creating a bra to match, therefore producing a sexy and wearable lingerie set.

Another thought that was brought up during the meeting on Thursday was the idea of a Valentine's knicker. The design team, presented their initial ideas on this product and there was a huge difference in the interpretation of this idea. One designer had gone for a flirty, yet classically sexy set, whereas another designer had gone down the more novelty route, with decorative bikini shaped briefs with slogans on the bum.

Both designs were great in different ways and the buyers and merchandisers were enthusiastic about bringing Little Miss Naughty back as a character on the novelty knickers.

In the afternoon, I sat in on a meeting with Valtex who supply hosiery for Jasper Conran. It was one of the easiest meetings that I have been a part of so far. Everything is going on schedule with absolutely no problems.

After the meeting, I headed into the lingerie cupboard and began the enormous task of organising the lingerie sets rail. Each set had to be kept in a variety of sizes, all with the gold seal tag on the reverse to confirm that this is the product that had been approved by the buyers. This is to present any discrepancies and means that the buyers cover their backs if there are any difficulties down the line. However, this takes up a lot of space in the cupboard which has to be sorted and changed at the beginning of each season. It was my task to sort through which lingerie had to be kept and which could finally be removed from the cupboard.

Day 5 - Shopping for a Living

The day started slowly with me writing up the notes on yesterdays sign off meeting. I had made an illegible mess in my notebook and was too embarrassed to present it to my supervisor. I then had to dismantle the presentation room and file all the briefs back to where I had got them from in the first place. It was really important to keep the samples in the right place and even in the correct order as they are constantly needed to be looked at and compared with other styles.

After this task has been completed I sat in on a meeting regarding the new packaging of the novelty Christmas sock packs. Debenhams are in the process currently of creating and photographing products for the Christmas brochure and every department has products that are going to featured in this brochure. Photographs are taken of the samples, which are mocked up with real packaging, and then adjusted on the computer if there are going to be any changes made to the real product. For example, one knitted Christmas pom pom slipper sock will have red detailing around the top, but the sample has blue detailing. The photograph needs to be taken now so I mocked up the sock with the correct packaging and entered details of what needed to be changed once the photograph had been taken.

There were 7 pairs of socks and 3 sock packs that needed mocking up with the correct packaging. I was given the nets of the socks to assemble and then place the socks neatly into the packaging as well as labelling it with price. It was an interesting task and I enjoyed the creative aspect of the job.

In the afternoon, I was taken out of the office with another trainee assistant buyer, to shop around the high street to see what the competitors were doing in terms of the point of sale for briefs and hosiery. The TAB I was with was working in the fuller bust bra department, but took me round to look at briefs and hosiery, assisting me with what to write and what to photograph. We went into Marks and Spencer which is the biggest competitor to Debenhams and noticed that they had just released a new colour of brief and bra. We also entered Accessorize to see the novelty one off briefs that had been mentioned in the review, taking notes on style, colour and price point. Next, we headed over to Primark and found a selection of Alice and Wonderland themed briefs. I photographed a lot and my supervisor was really pleased with this find and wanted to know more after I presented the changes back to her at the end of the day.

I could definitely get used to going shopping for a living.

Day 4 - New Season Sign Off

I was thrown in at the deep end straight away again today and sat in on a review of sales from SS10 as well as predictions for AW10 and suggestions for future products from SS11. I watched the junior buyers who had been supervising me so far, present their facts and figures to the head of buying of the entire department. I could feel the pressure, even though I wasn't going to have to be doing any talking.

I was given a spreadsheet with all the data on it and was listening to what Jo was presenting, trying to match up the data on the spreadsheet, whilst at the same time, senior buyer Kirsty had asked me to take down notes for her.

The figures were extremely detailed, showing everything you would possibly want to know about each individual product. There were a number of different tables showing the same information but split up in a slightly different way, meaning I could use one table to find out which shape of knicker had been the best selling, and another table would show me which Debenham's stores had sold the most of a different type of brief.

The best selling brief had been the white all over lace 'Isabella' thong for SS10 and invisible and shape wear briefs had also performed better than predicted. Disappointingly, the bikini shape was the worst selling shape and so the team have decided to discontinue this shape for the following season, apart from in novelty styles.

The England world cup novelty shorts had been a huge success and had topped the weekly best sellers for weeks prior to the start of the world cup, with sales increasing prior to England matches.

For future products coming up to AW10, Jo presented my mood board that I had created yesterday, showing the inventory of all briefs that would be ready for AW10, as well as a second board, showing ideas for SS11 collection.

The competitors were mentioned, with particular note to M&S's 5 per pack of briefs which have huge variety in terms of style and colours. Another competitor who the trainee assistant buyers were told to watch for during comparison shopping was Accessorize, who's single decorative briefs collection has grown to now become a threat, including novelty styles with charms and shapes and trims. The meeting was absolutely fascinating, and overall went really well. The head of buying was pleased with ideas and only had a few minor disagreements.

Day 3 - Fitting Approvals

The morning started with me attending a final fit session for the few briefs that haven't been approved with a gold seal for mass production. I was in a small room with a fit model who fits the sample size of 34B and size 12. She was dressed in a robe and was waiting behind a curtain.

I was given a list of styles to fetch from the walk in cupboard that I had organized a few days ago. Now that I had a pretty good knowledge of the product, it was easy to find the ones that I had been asked for.

The main item in question had been a novelty short with Snoopy on. The reason that this item hadn't gone into mass production yet was because the small pocket on the first sample had not been in the right place and the snoopy logo on the front had been far too low down, meaning that the bottom of the character had been lost in the crotch area. The new sample was compared to the previous sample and the difference was instantly noticeable, the new sample was approved with a gold tag and comments sent to the supplier to indicate this item was ready to be mass produced and sent for good allocation.

There were a few other items that had previously had a few fitting and shape issues and most of them were approved as well. There was a problem with a high leg brief where the front area of the crotch was much too wide, meaning the garment technician had to make alterations herself. I was then instructed to send the altered sample back to the supplier.

It was an interesting session and I was impressed at the level of detail and attention that goes into the design of each brief. Tiny details or imperfections in the product resulted in a rejection and a return to square one for the manufacturers.

In the afternoon I sat in on a meeting with Irish hosiery supplier Marie Claire. The head designer from the Irish company arrived with a suitcase full of tights that they predicted would be successful for AW10. The head buyer and merchandiser went through the products and made decisions as to which ones would make their way to Debenhams stores. It was an interesting process, and I felt privileged to be able to see products at the beginning of the process, before anybody else.

One of the main issues that was brought up in the meeting with Marie Claire was the new 'cellulite reducing' tights. Apparently, there has been back lash about this sort of product with media coverage claiming that the technology simply doesn't work. The buyers decided not to stock this type of tight until there had been enough clinical trials and positive feedback to make it a viable purchase.

The last part of the day allowed me to be much more creative than I had been previously. Tomorrow is an important sign off day for the approval of all designs for SS11 to go forward into the next stage of production. The junior buyers in my team would present their best and worse sellers to the head buyer in lingerie as well as prototypes for SS11 collections.

I was in charge of organizing the rails and decorating to the room with the first initial products of SS11. Each product had to look like it would in store so I had to tag them and label them and put them on a hanger in order for them to appear professional. The rail of best and worse sellers also had to be organized in order of when the junior buyer would be talking about them, with all the data required stuck on the back of each brief. It was a mammoth task and took a long while to get everything organized and in the right place. Each style was presented in all the colours that it would be available in and any missing prototypes were replaced with life sized CAD drawings that I had to collect from the design department.

As well as this, I had to design a board showing all the products in a creative and interesting way. It was the first chance I had got to show my design skills and I ended up having a lot of fun in creating an interesting and eye catching display.

Day 2 - Critical Path

For my work in the afternoon, I was back on the second floor of head office, surrounded by paperwork that had been thrust onto my desk along with a brief explanation of what I had to do.

My supervisor, Jo, had printed out a spreadsheet from excel, in the tiniest writing I have ever seen. Some columns were highlighted and some rows were marked off which made the whole thing seem extremely daunting.

She explained to me about the critical path, a buying term that showed which stage a particular product was at, in terms of production. There are many stages that the briefs have to go through before they make it out onto the shop floor.

For example, once the briefs have been designed and the colour palette has been decided upon, all of which takes place in the design department on the other side of the corridor. Different components of the briefs are dyed by the suppliers to try and match the colour that the designers have come up with. The suppliers are usually based in the far east so little pieces of dyed lace are shipped from China to the UK where the buying department check to see if the colour matches. If so, the next stage can start, if not, the sample is sent back to try again.

This dip dye process is near the beginning of the critical path, any time that a buyer approves a dye, the date is marked on the spreadsheet so that the rest of the team can tell at a glance, which stage the product is at.

It seemed daunting to start with; a spreadsheet filled with dates and terms and abbreviations that I didn't understand but after a full afternoon of filling in missing dates and flagging up inconsistencies, I was finally confident in reading the data without any supervision. I could now tell at a glance, that most of the briefs for AW10 had been approved for mass production, that most briefs for SS11 had been approved for colour, and when I was asked specific information on a specific brief style or colour, I knew how to use the spreadsheet to find out almost instantly.

Day 2 - Learning The Brand

My first task today was to be sent to an induction meeting for all the new starters at Debenhams. I knew what the meeting would be like before I even walked in through the door; the typical health and safety, captain obvious question and answer session, followed by a thrilling slide show presentation to show you who's in charge, and who to be the most polite to.

For the most part I was right, it started with a slide show, but there was far more information to learn about the Debenhams company than I had really thought about.

The history of the Debenhams department store is traced all the way back to 1778! I was obviously aware that Debenhams is a British heritage company but had no idea that the history went quite so far back.

The company grew in size and prestige, with rich families paying a fortune to have they're children trained by the company through an apprenticeship. Right through the 1900s, the store grew as part of different groups and eventually became independent in 1997, the same year the first store opened in the Middle East. Today there are 153 stores across the UK and Ireland and 48 international stores in 17 different countries!

I learnt all this information in the first few minutes of the slide show, when I had that horrible feeling that I really should have done some more research into the company before starting my work experience.

I learned about the different sectors of the company, and what their roles are, understanding as well that they vary between clothing, home and food etc and I also gained an insight into the many different types of 'target' customer that shops at Debenhams. How each department has to cater to such a wide range of people, and each in house brand is as well meeting a specific need to a specific type of customer.

For my upcoming work in the lingerie department, I paid special attention to the different sorts of customers that would need to be targeted in this single department. My mind flew back to the typical arrangement of the Debenhams lingerie department and I hoped that it would start to make sense to me soon.

Feeling confident that I had learned a lot in a short amount of time, I was ready to leave the brief meeting, until a 'fun and light hearted' quiz was dropped on my lap. Now i really had to show that I had been paying attention.

Work Experience at Debenhams - The Introduction

Monday's are said to always be manic in the lingerie department of Debenhams so I was a little apprehensive as I made my way to the head office just behind the Oxford Street Debenhams store in London. I was greeted by a friendly junior buyer who took me upstairs straight away to the office where I would be spending the next two weeks.

The atmosphere was nothing like the competitive 'Devil Wears Prada' image that I had expected of a fashion buying department, there seemed to be a sense of camaraderie that came from having relatively small teams in a large open space environment. Another thing that surprised me from first impressions was the separation of the different elements of the lingerie team. Basic Briefs and Basic Bras, although the two teams are buying items are designed to be paired up, there was not as much communication as I was expecting. Bras are bought after the basic briefs have been decided upon. This only applied to the basic black, white and nude and not to the fancy lingerie collections, but I still always assumed that even basic briefs and bras would go hand in hand.

I was introduced to the 'Basic Briefs and Hosiery' team which is where I would be spending the next two weeks and was given the rest of the day to make myself familiar with the product. Although from the outside this seemed quite simple, as soon as I began I realised there was much more to it than I was first expecting. From the start I had to be able to recognise the different shape of brief at a glance, and be able to register it with it's colour code that it is assigned when the product reaches the shop floor. While obviously it is easy to see the difference between a Thong and a Full Brief, I became a little confused with the number of categories: Short, Bikini, Thong, Brazilian, High Leg, Low Rise Short, Full Brief and Novelty. The colour code referred to the information label it would eventually be clipped with and where it would be on the shop floor, as well as how many would be purchased in which sizes, and which Debenham's consumer is likely to purchase which particular shape. Phew!

It didn't end there though, after learning about the different shapes, there was also the different fabrics and styles. All of these were given a different name, for example the full lace 'Isabella'. Isabella refers to the fabric only, so there could be an Isabella thong, or an Isabella high leg, both obviously look completely different.

The last point that I was instructed to become familiar with was the AW colour palette. Luckily for me, the basic colour palette is mostly made up of black, white and nude so there were only a few colours that I had to learn, a midnight blue, an ice cap grey and a hot pink.

I was thrown into the deep end and asked to begin filing the samples away in a huge walk in wardrobe style cupboard full of buying samples. It took a while, but eventually found that I could recognise each of the styles by sight, a skill that would be essential for the rest of my time in the department.