Intern diaries: week five

This week really flew by! Sunday night, I visited my friend Jeff in his new Murray Hill apartment! It was the first time I had seen him since Shanghai, almost two months ago! And he told me how hard it was to find a good apartment—tips I'm definitely going to remember for when I have to search!

Now I am the only full time intern in production (there is one girl who comes every morning for three hours), so I have to do all the work. The intern's long term task for this past week was to cut out these leaves and flowers to be used as patches on t-shirts and t-shirt dresses. My other tasks ranged from packing and checking orders, minor sewing (just sewing beads back on a few dresses), checking samples back in, and of course running errands to the contractors. This week, I was also given the opportunity to switch departments! So starting August 15, I'll be in the showroom! I'm really excited to go from production (making the clothes) to showroom, which is all about selling the final garment that all the departments have been working on.

cutting the day away

modeling headbands

and bow ties!

This week I also changed up my everyday hair and makeup. When I was home last weekend, I picked up liquid eyeliner, and I've been doing a cat eye ever since! I love it! And, since my hair is currently longer than usual (I'm waiting for the weather to cool down before I get my hair cut, a little counter intuitively) so I'm not used to styling long hair that can transition from the hot/humid outdoors to AC. I started braiding my hair at night so I wake up with great waves! And when I'm outside or on the train, I just re-braid my hair to reset the look!
My favorite outfit from this week was Wednesday's. It was actually inspired by a woman I saw on the train the day before. She was wearing a denim shirt and calf length black A line skirt with an Alexander Wang bag and great heels. I really liked the simplicity and ease of the outfit, but it was still very chic! So I did a blue shirt, black skirt and added my belt that I got from a village in Southern China! And my blingy bracelet from the Hell's Kitchen flea market.

thrifted bracelet and leather band my friend Kate got me in Italy!

On Thursday night, I went to Flushing for the first time! Flushing is exactly like being in China, more so than Chinatown because there are no tourists. I had yummy Malaysian food with some old friends! I also had a giant shaved ice, but I didn't get to take a picture. I definitely want to go back!

Intern diaries: week four

This week felt pretty slow. In my department, a lot of the interns are leaving or have already left, so there's been more and more of the tedious tasks for me to do, like going out to the contractors. I did get to go fabric shopping again, and I even made myself a little reference sheet complete with swatches! But, I think the highlight (even though it sounds really boring and tedious) was when my boss asked me update two copies of her line chart. A line chart contains a picture of every piece in the collection, complete with style number and both whole sale and retail prices, and is arranged by shipment date. I had to write in next to each item for the Resort and Spring collections how many items were ordered and what color, and who the pattern maker is. It took me two hours to complete! Another highlight was when Elly, who is 7 months pregnant, shared her waffle from the Waffle truck with me!! One of the more undesirable tasks was that I had to put the lace back on the spool nicely....it seriously took me an hour.

made myself a nice little reference sheet!

the ugly before

and the somewhat pretty after

Last week's outfits were pretty bland, now that I'm looking back at them. I guess, my favorite outfit would have to be from Friday then—the only day I wore color! I rarely wear my Marimekko x H&M shirt because it is so bright! Almost too bright! I paired it with a simple black skirt, my new/favorite pink color block Zara sandals and my faux Mulberry Bayswater bag. No one really commented (to me, at least) how bright my shirt was until the end of the day, when Anna said she liked it! And she even has the same shirt!

my new kitty keychain that has tragically lost four rhinestones!

and my new purse! so cute! so fun!

For the weekend, I went home as a surprise!! It was so much fun! I've never taken part in a surprise anything, so it was great fun to see my dad and my sister's reaction (speechless and shocked, respectively). And, I also got to see my close friends from high school, Amy and Kate! We made dinner and it was so simple, yet so delicious! I even made the pasta again last night! Anyway, it was the first time we had gotten together as a group in two years! Can you believe it?? And, we were missing Jess because she had just gotten home from Australia and was terrible jet lagged. The four of us go to four different schools, with four drastically different schedules—it's nearly impossible to see each other. Hopefully, it won't be another two years before the four of us can have a proper reunion.

after a jam packed 40-ish hours, it's back to NY for me.

Intern diaries: week three

This week, all anyone could talk about was the unbearable heat that is present throughout the entire country. With temperatures hovering around 100, and the heat index even higher, Friday's temperatures were record highs for several cities! This heat made running errands unbearable. Especially when you have to carry five full length, fur coats! But I also got to do fun stuff at work. I got to go fabric shopping all by myself! and, I had to check, and then pack an order of these cute lion hats from the past collection. I think I'm really moving up in the intern ranks since they trust me with these tasks. 

I love looking at all the pretty swatches!

hats!

My favorite outfit from this week was a really simple white t-shirt and skirt. I jazzed up the outfit with bright accessories in the red/pink family: bright pink watch, red bag and red color block sandals. It was something I kinda just threw together, but as the day went on it definitely grew on me. While I was running an errand, a guy even stopped me on the street and asked where my skirt was from! What a confidence booster! And then the bag is red, which a color I don't typically wear. It's actually a fake Longchamp from China! Even though it's a color I normally stray away from, I really enjoyed the extra pop of color the bag added to my outfits. And the shape is so school girlish and fun!

my favorite outfit of the week

 Today, I ventured out (despite my fear of the heat) to the Hester St Fair. It's like, two basketball courts big, and in the middle of the LES. I would say it's about half food, half vintage clothes/jewelry, maybe even 60/40? Anyway, I was rather pleased with the food selection! I had a cranberry spritzer and a beef meatball slider with cranberry horseradish. Perfect afternoon snack. I wish I had gone with someone though, so I could split one of the yummy (and enormous!) Taiwanese style shaved ice! Taiwanese style shaved ice is much different from a snow cone or a shaved ice in Hawaii. The ice is very, very finely shaved (almost like snow), and though they are all different, the vendor at the market let you choose three toppings (including fresh fruit, granola, carmel popcorn!, etc.) and a scoop of ice cream (mango or green tea) and they top everything off with condensed milk. so yummy!

see the mountain of shaved icey yumminess??

Afterwards, I was feeling quite cool from the shade and breeze, so I opted to take a little detour on my way home and stumbled upon the New Museum's block party! There were a few booths about the museum, and a live band. Pretty small, but I did get two bananas, a ginger snap and a bottle of water from the (random) Whole Foods booth!

Lastly, I just started using instagram last night, and I really like the effects. I'm still experimenting so I can figure out which one is the best.

the weekend I always dreamed about

This weekend was jam packed with so much stuff, I couldn't be happier! I started off Saturday by going to the 4knots Music Festival down at South Street Seaport, which replaced the decade long, Siren Music Festival at Coney Island (I've been twice). I've never been to South Street Seaport, so I was pretty excited to go! It wasn't very crowded, and because the main stage was on a pier, it was nice and breezy. I only stayed for an hour-ish, but I did see Oberhofer's set, which is a band I had actually heard of!

Afterward, I took the water taxi from Pier 11 to Ikea Brooklyn. The water taxi is free on weekends and $5 on the weekdays, and it has the greatest views of Manhattan I've seen! for free! Unfortunately Ikea was sold out of these giant bags I use to store my out of season clothes in, so I grabbed an ice cream (can you believe they don't have Lingonberry, only vanilla??), and returned to Manhattan.

view from water taxi

Today, I went back to Brooklyn, but this time to go to the Brooklyn Flea Market! On Sundays, the Brooklyn Flea is in Williamsburg, right on the East River waterfront. It's mostly clothing vendors, but there were also food vendors! I only had a hibiscus tea, but I think I'm definitely going to go back and try some of the yummy food.

view of Manhattan from Williamsburg

hibiscus tea!

shaving ice!

Finally, I went to soho to make some returns, and visit old friends. Soho has changed so much! New stores! New food trucks! but the street style is still awesome.

Then, I went home and made myself a tall glass of milk tea accompanied by a fresh piece of banana bread!

Intern diary: week two

This week was much more eventful at my internship. From Tuesday to Friday, the interns were given the impossible task of de-linting this black lace fabric that is going to be made into coats next week. The lint (for back of a better term) was embedded into the fabric and was literally impossible to clean 100%. I didn't mind the task, but it would have been nice to listen to music while doing it! And then, Friday was so busy! The day passed by so quickly. In the morning, I unpacked four boxes of dresses, sized them and checked that all the labels were in tact. In the afternoon I went out to run errands, and assisted on a fitting.
I think I am moving up in the intern rankings! Sadly, I think the main reason is because all the other interns are leaving at the end of the month, and I will be the only one left in August. Regardless, I'm very excited to be given more important tasks, such as handling the sample garments. And, it took two weeks, but I believe everyone in my office now knows my name!
This week, I was also surprisingly social! I ate lunch with the other interns three times! And I saw a movie three nights in a row!! Wednesday night I saw an advance screening of "Friends with Benefits." It was pretty funny. Thursday night, my friend Rose invited me at the last minute to the midnight showing of "Harry Potter!" I wasn't even planning on seeing it in theaters! Sadly, I really did not remember a lot of the sub plots, but it was thrilling regardless. And then last night, I saw an out door movie at Christopher St pier, where they were showing "Despicable Me!!!!" It was super crowded with families by the time I got there around 9:15, and there was only standing room left. I stood on the side, and leaned against the railing behind some benches, and luckily a seat freed up.

My favorite outfit from this week

Despicable Me!!

view of Jersey

the first meal I cooked!

new internship, new city, new me

I started a new internship last week, and it has been good so far! It's my first fashion internship, but I'm in the production department, so it's less "Devil Wears Prada" more meh, I don't really know what it's like. I haven't even been there two weeks, so I'm still not sure what to think of it, but initially I like it. The tasks I'm given aren't particularly glamorous, but I like seeing the business of fashion.
Since my internship is full time, I haven't been doing much, but I want to change that in the coming weeks. I thought since so many of my new friends from Shanghai are in the city this summer I would get to see them all the time. not true. So far I've only seen one Shanghai friend, and two other friends, which makes me sad.
So, last night I decided a few things, one is that I'm going to make a conscious effort to eat less meat. I'm not going to be a vegetarian, but I only want to eat meat during lunchtime. And I'm going to attempt cooking more often, even if it's just pasta. Finally, I want to do everything I wanted to do the past two years, but couldn't because I was working. This includes going to the Hester St. market, the Brooklyn Flea market, and general thrifting adventures at Housing Works and the Hell's Kitchen market which I know none of my friends have the patience for. And, I must, must, must see an outdoor film. And now that I work in the Garment District (a mere four blocks from Bryant Park), I have no excuse.
Finally, I've been posting my outfits everyday for seven days now, and I'm not sure if I should continue. I want to, but I'm not sure how interesting it actually is....I'll have to think about this one.

my first day of work outfit. Definitely repeating this one.

hellogoodbye June!

bahh! I can't believe it's already the end of June—where has the time gone?! After nearly three weeks of touring China with my family (Beijing, Chengdu, Guilin and of course, Shanghai). We ate tons, bought lots, melted in the sweltering heat, held a few pandas—the usual.
Well, I've been home for a full five days, kinda. Over the weekend, we took my sister to Northwestern for her summer program, so I've really been home for three days. Anyway, between today and Saturday I have oodles to do! Lots of errands today, including getting a certain purse of mumsies fixed, and then it shall become mine! More to come once I get it back. I'm also seeing Midnight in Paris with my friend Amy tonight! I'm completely out of touch with pop culture, so I have no idea what the movie's about, but I do know it's directed by Woody Allen! I did all my laundry yesterday, so now I need to re-pack and sort through all of my belongings and figure out what I'm going to take back to New York with me.

Pudong, one of my last nights in Shanghai

oh, and my new friend/phone—Agyness!