Lots of random tasks as it was August time, all the mills shut down for summer and people go away so it was a good time for me to settle in without there being too much pressure. But I would always have people telling me how crazy things will get leading up to show time. And they were right!
As a fabric and trim intern, my main job is to look after the fabrics and atelier. This is an example of what a fabric label looks like which is all the information needed to identify a fabric. This fabric is only used at a sampling level so mainly used by seamstresses, product development and the design team. I love having this responsibility as it connects the company with the fabrics as I (and the fabric team) sees both the time line of the fabrics but also Erdem’s opinions and thoughts on them. Similarly the other departments rely on us to understand all of the fabrics in a technical way through the names, compositions, print names and colours.
the first few weeks where quite boring as it was lots of organising and mundane tasks like labelling and tiding. I was worried this is what the rest of the role would look like. Although these types of tasks do still come up, they are now something I can do quickly and efficiently whilst juggling bigger more important tasks. Reflecting on this from the future, we are using these organisational systems a lot for the next season and it’s nice to know that the mundane tasks do actually have value outside of just organisation. AW26 is all about diving deep into the history of the company, so the highly organised fabric archives are really coming in handy.
The people at ERDEM
Tonnes of lovely people which eventually warm up to you! On first arrival I could tell that they have/have had a lot of interns and they are very much part of how the business runs. Genuinely without interns the company would either come to a halt or have to refinance and employ some more people!! There seems to be a divide (in my opinion) between design and the rest of the company, they are very much put on a a pedestal which I can understand. However, my very hard work boss seems to be more technical and efficient. I get the sense that she doesn’t value creativity and fluidity and ambitiousness in the same way that me or my university does. I learnt to understand this as they are always working to a deadline, organising mills which are almost always international, making sure everything is on time and the right design and the right colour, right texture, right width, right size, right amount and so on. On top of this they have weekly meetings with Erdem where ideas can and hopes can switch at the click of the fingers!
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