Hallowe'en Lingerie

I wanted to use lingerie as part of my Hallowe'en fancy dress outfit this year and so purchased myself the ooh la la maid set from Ann Summers. The outfit came with the black dress and attached apron and a little head band with a maid style cap attached.

I customized the outfit by adding black opaque stockings and a suspender belt and because the dress had a halterneck ribbon fastening. I wore it with a strapless black Wonderbra.

To make the outfit into more of a Hallowe'en costume i painted my arms with fake blood and dropped a little down the side of my mouth and let it run down the side of my face. I covered my eyes in really dark black eye make up and paled down my skin, the over all effect made me look sinister and made my housemates feel a little bit uncomfortable.

The only down side was that the fake blood took ages to wash off the next morning, when I was heading out for a fancy meal with my family. They all noticed, the slight red staining on my arms and on the side of my mouth.

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.