Rain Is A Good Thing

Religious Roman Pigeon Baths

Bath is one of those places you only visit once in your life. I knew it would be one of the trips that we had to take while we were here. So yesterday, Jordan, Justin, Ben and I boarded the Great Western Rail at 9:13am and headed towards Bath. Unfortunately Katherine still wasn’t feeling well so she had to stay behind, but slept all day and is now feeling much better. After two hours of travel and a quick train change, we arrived in the beautiful town of Bath. It is one of those places that you know you will only experience once so it was time for us to soak it all in. When we got off the train, we realized we didn’t know which way we were supposed to go. So we looked up. High in the sky was the top of a gorgeous cathedral. I pointed to it and said “that way”. Thankfully it turned out to be the right direction. What I thought was a cathedral was actually the Bath Abbey, and it was right in the middle of town with the Roman Baths across the courtyard.

Our first adventure in Bath was the Roman Baths. There was a large line out the front door to get in so we hopped in the que and waited our turn. We ended up getting the “saver ticket” which gave us a full day in the baths as well as the fashion museum just up the road. I convinced the guys this was a great deal and we all purchased the combo ticket for £13.30. Our tickets were in hand and we were headed towards the baths. As we walked through the corridor to the terrace, I was completely unsure as to what I was going to see. The sight was incredible. A terrace overlooking a large outdoor bath of the most beautiful emerald green. The terrace included nine emperors and other significant historical men that were carved out of stone looking over the bath. It was almost as if they were protecting it from any wrongdoing. Some were so worn down that we couldn’t recognize them why their face, or lack there of, so we had to look at the map provided on the terrace to find out who we were standing by. Ben found Constantine. I am not sure exactly who he is, but apparently he is a big deal in his fraternity, sigma chi. Clearly he was determined to get an awesome picture of this guy to take back to Denver to show off to his fraternity.

Once we had seen the terrace, we headed into more of the museum. In order to get below to the baths, you have to walk through a bunch of areas with artifacts and other pieces that were used back then. It was really cool to see everything. Most things you couldn’t touch, but others they had made replicas of so you could get an idea of what it felt like. There wee old coins and combs and other random things that were just amazing to see. It still boggles my mind that these people were able to make some of these pieces without modern technology. I know that sounds stupid but some of the stone pieces are so precise it’s almost unbelievable. Finally we got to the ground floor which had the largest bath. It is open air like I said before and is the most incredible shade of green. Obviously it is extremely dirty because it is the original water, but still beautiful to see. You weren’t allowed to get in the water, but we leaned down to touch it and surprisingly it was quite warm.

After spending quite some time in that area, we moved into the other parts of the museum which housed other baths and places I wasn’t sure about. The stone detail and ideas of rooms were fascinating. It really is amazing how intelligent these people were. One of the coolest things in he museum was that they had projectors all over the place placing videos of what they imagine the Romans did in the baths. It was funny to see some of these actors because they would talk to people (they were previously recorded obviously) but would catch people off guard when they walked past. I think I saw more bare bottoms than I need to in one day. Another cool aspect were the informational signs next to most of the exhibits. Most said “probably”, or “we think”. I personally think it’s really cool that a lot of it is still unknown as to what certain things were as well as what exactly these people did. One of the last rooms was one with a large bath full of coins. It was like a wishing bath or something because everyone, including us, made a wish and threw and coin into the bath. I hope my wish comes true!!

When we were done with the baths, after about two hours of touring, we decided to go to the Bath Abbey. It was open to the public for only a short amount of time, so we knew we had to take advantage. When we walked in, it was just so beautiful. The incredible stained glass windows and intricate ceiling put me in awe. I think my favorite part of this trip to England so far is the cathedrals and abbeys. They are remarkable. This was was very interesting as well. There were plaques all over the floors and walls almost like gravestones remembering people. I was unsure as to who they all were and what they did to get there but it was interesting. Some of them dated back to the early 1600’s. I imagine these people aren’t buried there but I have no idea.

Next we headed towards the fashion museum. It was about a ten minute walk through town. When we got there, I was sadly disappointed. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting but what I got wasn’t that great. It was very small and had things that I had never seen or heard of before. There were a lot of Victorian pieces that were cool but nothing that blew my mind. Finally when we got to the more modern pieces from the 60’s and on, the coolest piece was a Balenciaga dress that was simple, black, and timeless. They also had a piece from Alexander McQueen, but it wasn’t anything to go crazy over. Maybe I am just a snob when it comes to fashion, but I wasn’t impressed.

After venturing around the town we found an adorable little pizza parlour with the most incredible pizza I think I have ever eaten. It had homemade dough, tomato sauce and cheese then was cooked and after had parma ham, more cheese and balsamic vinegar drizzled on it. Most epic pizza ever. I ate the entire thing myself.

After, we needed to walk off the giant pizzas we each ate, so we found a cute little river and walked along it taking pictures and watching Jordan mess with the pigeons while taking pictures of them. I have a video of him running his camera through the crowd of them to make them fly. It was hilarious to watch, and he actually got some pretty awesome photos while doing so. This turned into watching the sunset behind the Bath Abbey and ending the night at a little café sharing a bottle of Italian wine and tea before our train left to head back to London. It was nice to just sit outside and talk to the boys about life while having yummy wine. I wish things were like that in the states. It just seems like people don’t just sit outside of a café and drink wine and just talk. I guess it also doesn’t help that I am not 21 yet so I won’t be able to do this when I get home.. Grr. 

As we boarded our train to head back to London, we all commented on the fact that this day was just amazing. We saw so much in only one day and it was so much fun. We all decided to plan more day trips like this so that we could see more of the UK while we are here.  

Pink Pony.

Being an intern at Ralph Lauren has it’s benefits. Not only do I get to be in a corporate office surrounded by sketches of upcoming collections but I also get to take part in company events. October is breast cancer month, which we all know, and Ralph Lauren makes sure that we get to take part in something to help the cause. This past Thursday morning I was invited to attend the Pink Pony Walk in Hyde Park along with all of my fellow coworkers. We had to be at the Lido Café in the park at 7:30am. I would be joined by people from my office, the corporate offices on Old Bond Street, and various other employees for the stand alone stores. 

I have only been to Hyde Park once. I knew it was big, but I didn’t know it was massive!! I left early to get to the Kensington Station early enough to give myself time to walk through the park to find this place. Unfortunately I didn’t have wifi so I was unable to use my iPad with maps, but I found a park map that gave me a general idea as to where I needed to go. After walking in a few circles, I finally found the place. There were a few people there from my office already so I knew I was in the right place. 

The Lido Café is located on the Serpentine Lake. It is a beautiful lake with tons of trees and bridges all around it. You can rent paddle boats to take out on the water and other different things to help you enjoy the great scenery. It was interesting to see people swimming in it though so early in the morning. I am not one to swim in a lake with swans and geese floating by next to me. Must be a British thing. 

Once everyone arrived, they handed out Pink Pony Walk shirts for all of us. These aren’t your normal Gilden shirts you get at dumb school events. This was a 100% cotton Ralph Lauren Pink Pony Collection shirt. I was thoroughly impressed. I totally plan to wear that shirt again. It won’t be one I sleep in. Anyway, then the walk started. We walked around the Serpentine Lake (or just part—we crossed a bridge) and came back to the café for coffee, tea, and pastries. They were really yummy, but small and we all wanted more. 

Then came the raffle. Raffle tickets were either £5 or £10, I can’t remember but everyone got their fair share. I didn’t partake in it because I am trying to live like a starving college student out here. But those who did, were up for a few leather card holders, a croquet set, a large home lantern, 2 large glass vases, an alligator clutch, and a gorgeous oversized satchel (rumored retail £3,000+). Everyone was really excited getting their pieces but I was really jealous of the gal that got the satchel. It was beautiful. And it was really funny when a guy won the alligator clutch… I’m hoping he has a wife or a girlfriend to give that to… Otherwise plan to become his next best friend :). 

After the raffle we all headed back to the office. My boss Zarina, Charlotte, Lauren, and I decided to walk through Hyde Park rather than taking the tube. I am really glad we did because it is just so beautiful to see in the morning. People are walking and running everywhere and it is just so peaceful. I plan to take the tube in a few times a week to run in there. I think it will be really relaxing. 

When we got back to the office, the Pink Pony day continued. There was a sample product sale in one of the conference rooms. Talk about getting a great deal!! Everything was so cheap!! But I didn’t buy anything.. next time. I recently learned that I don’t have an employee number because I am only an intern. So not sure if I will get the insane discount that they all have the luxury of having. Lauren is so sweet and told me I could use hers but I couldn’t tell anyone. Yay!

There was also a bake sale! A bunch of people brought in pink cakes, carrot cake, and cheesecakes. I think one girl had four pieces of cake. I decided I shouldn’t and just went back to work. But it was really hard not to. Especially when Zarina asked me if I wanted any and I declined but she laughed and followed it up with “And everyone that is why is Hailey gets to be a model and we don’t!” I laughed. It is nice that everyone is so chill and fun in my office. I really enjoy all of them. 

To end our day, we went to an event at the children’s store on Bond Street, just a block down from our office. It was an invite only event for their top customers. So mothers and daughters came to the store and shopped with their children. The best part was that the girls got to pick out their favorite outfits and then go do a mini photo shoot with one of the major photographers of Tatler Magazine UK. Tatler is their version of another Harper’s. The little girls were so adorable and just loved being in front of the camera. Once they had a few pictures taken it was then printed out for them with the Tatler imaging making it look as if they were on the cover of the magazine. They were all thrilled, as were their mothers. It was also exciting for me because I have only been looking at sketches of these clothes for the last month, so to finally see them on a hanger or even better on a child, was really exciting. I loved seeing all of it come to life and to be able to feel the fabrics and everything. I wished I was a little kid again.

Overall it was a great day and on Friday my boss told me I was doing a really great job and she could tell that I had been working really hard. It was really exciting to hear that news. I love my job. I wish I could be hired by them so I could come back here and live out my dream. 

In other news… We are going to Bath tomorrow. I am really excited for this day trip because I’ve heard it’s just beautiful. But my camera hasn’t come yet that mommy sent me. It should be here on Monday, so in the mean time I will be using my iPad for photos. Please bare with me as they won’t be the best quality obviously. 

Miss you all!! Hailey x

Green Mining Welch Sheep.

Wales. What comes to your mind? Sheep, cows, hills, really green, Welch people? Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought too when I heard we were taking a trip to Wales. 

As an international student, we were offered to be apart of the UMIN Social Programme. It was a one time fee and it encompasses several trips around England. The program takes you all over London and shows students the most important parts that we might otherwise not see, and for a much cheaper price. Naturally, I was all for it and signed up with Elle and Justin. We were three among the other 100 students that signed up as well. About half of the students, maybe less, were from the US, while the rest were from all over the world. There were a ton of people from Germany and Denmark. A few from France, Italy, Spain, and Mexico. 

This weekend was our first adventure: an overnight stay in Wales. We were to report outside of Madame Tussauds at 7:30am to pile onto two large coaches and off to Wales. When we arrived we found a few people we knew while the others were complete strangers. Naturally, we stuck together but knew we would meet other people once we got there.

Each coach had it’s own tour guide. I feel horrible, but I can’t remember the name of our tour guide. She told us when we first got there, but then never repeated it. Anyway, the coaches we took were brand new. They had never been used which was a cool thing to be on… but this meant that the driver was mean and we could bring any type of food or beverage on BUT COFFEE!! I was really upset because I had just gotten a venti triple shot, 3-pump chai tea latte! So I had to down it as fast as I could before I walked on. In my opinion, food makes more of a mess than coffee.

We had to keep ourselves entertained in some way because we were so hyped up on caffeine… So this is what we came up with. Love you Elle! 

Four hours later we were arriving in Wales. As we drove in our guide told us about the history of Wales and how it came about. I feel like an idiot saying this, but I didn’t know that Wales was a territory.. I thought it was just another major city in England. It is actually a territory that wants to be a country but is still under British control. They have their own government per se, but whenever they try to do something it has to go through the House of Parliament in London. Poor Welch people. 

Our first stop was at the Ancient Roman Barracks. It is where the Roman army lived and was 9 square miles. The part that we saw was only where they lived and whatnot. It is sad to see, but the actual barracks aren’t even ruins now, they are just an outline of stone from where one of them was. Apparently, over the years, the stone was taken away to be used for other building projects in Wales. One of the things that we did see though was the first sewage system that the Romans brought over. We were told that they offered the idea to England and they thought it was stupid so they took it here instead. This also showed us what their bathroom situation was like.. Let’s put it this way, I am not going to explain it much but the photo of Elle and me should explain it. I don’t think I have ever been more thankful for modern bathroom facilities!! 

Across the road was the Roman Amphitheater where they entertained the Roman army. It resembled something like the Coliseum, but was on a much smaller scale of course. It would hold 6,000 people they would have events and animal fights. The fights would be with local animals like wolves, boars, and other angry fighting animals. I don’t think sheep were included in this.. 

We were quickly back on the bus and taken to a little town where we were to have lunch and then onto our next adventure, Caerphilly Castle. What boggled my mind was that the town was literally across the street from the castle. So after lunch we walked across the street to take our tour of the this incredible medieval fortress. I can’t remember all of the history, partly because it was super complicated. The gist of it was that King Henry III helped to build this castle for the de Clare family who was very wealthy and powerful in Wales. The de Clare family was a rival of another guy out in Northern Wales and he was always in a fight was de Clare and the King of England. So they would fight each other’s castles and the King would take de Clare’s side and help him but then he changed his mind at some point and helped the other guy fight de Clare but then eventually everyone was fine and there was no more fighting.. I assume someone just died and it was over. See, it was really confusing. But just seeing this castle was really cool. I never thought I would be in a place so old and so well preserved. It is amazing to think about the castles you see as a child in fairy-tales with the motes and large draw bridges. I was actually at one and going into the bedrooms, great rooms, etc. Amazing experience. I didn’t want to leave!! 

Back on the bus, and we were headed to the Wales Museum. This museum was not of art or anything like that, but homes and buildings that were rebuilt to resemble those of famous or important monuments throughout Wales. It was very odd but kind of cool to go into these old “homes” and see how they lived. Everything was obviously very dark and cold. One thing that was very odd was that all of the doorways were extremely short. We joked that Welch people are just really short, but it was actually intended to keep the heat inside the house. Here is also where we heard our first of the Welch language. It is really odd… It sounds like a drunk German Scottish man. I was totally lost. Especially when we were reading it on signs because there are almost no vowels!! We totally sounded like tourists from America when we were trying to pronounce some of these words. They also had large fields with sheep. Typical Wales. 

Finally, we were headed to our hotel were we all wanted to go straight to bed after such a long day. But no, we had to get dinner first since we hadn’t eaten much that day. We met up with my friend Isabelle from Germany who brought her two German guy friends, Mats who is a girl from South Spain, Etienne from Bordeaux France, and Berto from Mexico City.  We all headed into the town a few blocks away and thought going to TGI Friday’s would be a fine idea because it’s from America so how bad could it be? (Personally I think it’s odd they have that here) We were stupid and wrong. It was the worst meal I have ever had, not due to the food (which wasn’t much like the American version) but the service! It was horrendous. We were all appalled at how terrible it was. I ordered a salad and asked for silverware but then she never brought it. Had Justin not gotten up to get me some, I would have had to eat it with my hands. I won’t go into boring details, but regardless TGI Friday’s is bad in the UK so don’t go there. 

After a great nights rest, we were off on our second day of Wales. Our first stop was at a coal mine that is now a museum. It was shut down in 1996, I think. When I heard we were going to a mine I thought “Oh cool, this should be interesting”. No, we are going INTO a mine. On our way to the museum, our tour guide started to tell us the history of the mine and the mining occupation in Wales. She told us about all of the tragedies that had happened with the mine collapsing and deaths that had taken place over time. This was not a comforting thing to hear right before I was going to be descending under ground. We got out of the bus and were told not to bring anything with us and were taken to a room to be separated into groups of 15. We were then given hard helmets with lights on the front and safety belts. Then we were led into a caged lift (elevator) that took us 300 feet below the surface. We were not allowed to bring anything down with us. Meaning no cameras, cell phones, or watches. I am still confused as to why watches weren’t allowed. But by the time we got down to the mine, I didn’t care what I had with me. Our tour guide was an ex-miner and was probably in his middle 60’s or 70’s. He was a short little Welch man with quite a personality and an accent to match. There were many times when we had a hard time understanding him. With a huge smile on his face, a little soot on his nose, and in his orange jumpsuit, he was ready to show us around a place he loved. He told us that mining was the occupation in Wales and people grew up working in them and that is were they ended as well. Children would start as young as five years old working as the door boys. This meant that they would open and close the large doors between the sealed areas of the mine to keep the air from being contaminated. Some children would only have a candle for light, but that was only if their family could afford it for them. We turned off all of our lights at one point to see how dark it was for these kids and I don’t think I have ever been in a place so dark. Elle and I were very scared and grabbed each other’s hands immediately. As we moved to the other areas of the mine, our guide told us stories of when he was a miner and how he has followed in his father’s footsteps as well has his grandfather’s and so on. He started working in the mine when he was 15, but his father was seven. It’s just interesting to hear the stories they have to tell. When we asked how people got out of the business, without hesitation he said “you die”. It was such an odd answer that I surely wasn’t expecting. I asked what the best job was in the mine and he responded with “Being the mine boss. You own everything and everyone. First week you work, I give you 20 pence, you give that back to me for your equipment. Second week you work, I give you 20 pence, you give it back to me for your helmet. And so on.” He explained to us that these people work for the mine bosses on constant credit. The food they ate, the clothing they wore, and the roof they slept under was all owed to the mine boss. This is why it was so difficult, almost impossible to leave the mines. He also told us about the horses that lived in the mines before modern technology was introduced to move the crates of coal back and forth within the mines. He said that they came into the mine at age 4 and would die there. But the most interesting part was that the horses were more valuable than the people themselves. He said if a man died in the mine it was just like any other day and they would have a replacement within a few hours. But if a horse died, it was a very large deal. I was astonished by all of this and to think that it wasn’t all that long ago… about 50+ years. We were all talking afterwards about how most of our parents were kids when people were still working under these conditions. It was almost like slave labor. 

When the 50 minute tour was over we were put back into the lift and take back to solid ground with sunlight (or lack there of). I was so glad that we had made it back up safely but felt really lucky have have had this experience. It was wonderful to meet these men and see their stories. Our last question to our guide before we left was, if you could would you do it all again? His response was the best of the day. “Of course I would. I would live every second exactly as I had up to this moment. My life has been good.” I was taken back by this response but I just thought it was so cool that someone could love their job as much as they did while being in those conditions. I guess it isn’t bad when you don’t know anything different. I feel so much luckier now to live in modern times not having to work in such conditions. 

Finally we were back on the bus and headed for lunch in the town close by. We only had 45 minutes to eat so we ran into a pub for a quick snack and were then headed to Tintern Abbey. This was the one site that I was most excited to see. For those of you who don’t know about an Abbey, it is run by monks rather than priests. It was built in 1131 is now a ruin of Wales. For a ruin, it is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. As soon as we got off the bus I was determined to start taking photographs. Like usual when we start out at a new site, our guide takes us as a group and tells us the history before letting us go on our own for photos. I was more concerned with photographs so I left the group and started on my own. I could have spend hours there just looking around and the remains of this amazing abbey. It was so incredible to think that something built so long ago was still standing. It no longer has the roof but I am not sure why. There is a reason why all of the abbey’s are this way and I think it is because it was not affiliated with a school and that is the only reason why Westminster Abbey is still in working order. 

Regardless, I was just amazed to be in such an incredible place. The abbey itself is in the shape of a cross which was so cool to see on such a large scale. There really weren’t words to describe the feelings that came over me when I walked in the ruin. One of my favorite things is that since there is no roof or flooring because it is so old, the inside of the abbey is all grass. I will honestly say it is probably the greenest grass I have ever walked on. This just made the experience that much more exciting for me. I didn’t want to ever put my camera down. Unfortunately, we only had an hour at the abbey and my camera died as we were about to leave. Talk about good timing. 

Over this weekend I took around 400 photos. Obviously I am not going to post all of them but will put as much up as I can for you all to see!! 

x

Ps. Happy birthday mommy! I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday. Love you! 

Your assignment is to shop at Topshop and present your findings.

Yes, that title is real. My teacher, Helen, of my Buying and Merchandising in the Fashion Industry class instructed us last week that we were to go to the new Topshop in Westfield Stratford and shop. And whilst we are to analyze our experience, the variety, availability, staff, atmosphere, etc. I almost laughed in class because I thought she was joking. Apparently this is what is it like to be a fashion student. Again, another reason why I love this place. 

So I joined a group of five other British students, Beth, Elsi, Diego, Sophia, and Seneca. Seneca is actually from California but went to boarding school here and hasn’t left since. It’s cool she has a very American/British accent. I wish I had one like her. She is really sweet and it’s nice to have another American in my group to talk to. Everyone else is super nice as well. I’ve gotten to know Beth and Elsi better and they are so cute. Everyone is super fashionable which I love. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t buy anything on this trip, but I am planning to do some shopping here pretty soon. I found this website called ASOS which is just amazing!!! It’s similar to Zappos or Shopbop. Some of it is discounted but mostly it’s just an online store of soo much! I might be purchasing a few things here pretty good because they don’t ship to the US!! I have to take advantage of this while I’m here. Currently, I am in search of a good handbag. I want something bigger, maybe like an oversized shopper or bowler but I don’t want to pay too much for it because I am afraid it will get ruined here on the tube or something. Hopefully some of my new British fashion friends will help me find something. Sophia told me she is going to take me shopping because I always ask her where she gets her clothes and where I should go shopping. I am excited to see where she takes me. 

Anther really cool assignment I received this week was in my Role of Design class. We are to pick a store on the High Street (most popular and trendy, example: Topshop, Zara, etc) and find a garment that we like and research the process of what went into making the garment from inspiration to design to production. I think I am going to do Ralph Lauren, because I have all of this at my disposal but I wish I could do something from the women’s line. Oh well I’ll get something for baby Harper and she can have it when she’s old enough :) (Miss you Paigey). 

So clearly my classes are going well. They are so much fun so far and I don’t have a ton of homework which is nice. Then again, I don’t really consider shopping as homework :) 

As a family (all the kids from DU that I flew in with), we have been trying to plan trips that we want to take while we are here. Last night we started the actual booking process. Everyone piled into my room because I have a wireless router, but it doesn’t have enough power to support six computers! So we had to split it up a bit, but it was amusing to see that many people squeeze into my tiny room at once! We booked a day trip to Bath and are going to book one to Stonehenge this week I think. We want to take one big trip and we wanted to go to Santorini, Greece, but when we almost booked it, Jordan made a call to the villa we were going to stay at and apparently things like close down over there in November and December. We were planning on going the first week of December so this ruined our plans. I guess the villas are open but only a few, they close the hotel and the restaurants in the town are closed as well. I am still unsure of all of these holidays that these Europeans take. But we are looking into going somewhere else and soon. We need to book things!! We thought about Switzerland or Capri… If anyone has any suggestions we would love to hear them!!!

This weekend I am taking my first trip with the Social Programme and going to Wales for the weekend! This is the only overnight trip but it should be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see it, I have heard it’s just beautiful and the history is so interesting. I will make sure to take a ton of pictures and post them. Sorry I haven’t had a ton of photos to share lately, things have been kinda boring around here as far as that stuff goes.

Loving it here and looking forward to work tomorrow at RL! Miss you all and hope to talk to everyone soon :)

Cheers! x 

Ralph Lauren London, this is Hailey.

I don’t think I could be happier right now. Not only am I going to fashion school, but I am interning in the head offices of Ralph Lauren London. Like I have said before, I am currently living out my dream of working in the fashion industry. 

This week I started my first days in the office. Our office is located at 50 New Bond Street on the fourth floor. When the doors of the lift (elevator) opened, Ralph Lauren hung on the wall ahead of me in large silver letters. I knew I had finally arrived. 

Getting there was another story completely. I was supposed to be in the office by 9:30am which didn’t seem too bad. I have to get on the Metropolitan line and take it to Baker Street, then switch to the Jubilee line and take that to Bond Street. Then the office is about a seven minute walk from the tube station. The train ride normally takes me around 20-30 minutes which isn’t too bad. But just to be safe, on the first day (Thursday) I left my room at 8:00am to give myself enough time to allow for delays on the train. I am so glad I did this because I don’t think I have ever seen trains so full. The first train arrived around 8:05 when I was walking up to the platform and I could have run to it but decided I had enough time to wait for the next train. When the second train arrived, it was packed full like a can of sardines full of Londoners headed to work in the Centre. No one got off the train when the doors opened. And I will admit, I am small and can squeeze into most confined spaces, this was not the case. It was literally impossible to get onto this train. So, again I wait for another train to arrive. It was already 8:20 at this point when I finally got on a train. Of course this wasn’t going to be an easy morning, why would it be, it’s my first day ha. So of course the extremely full train ahead of us had some sort of malfunction so it caused us to have to stop and sit on the tracks for a good 20 minutes. We got to Wembley Park station and had to wait there for another 15 minutes so that the same train could be derailed at Baker Street and would allow us to come into the station. When we finally arrived at Baker Street, I ran off the train and plowed through a crowd of people to get further underground for my Jubilee train going to Bond Street. Again, this train was extremely full but I got on anyway. I finally arrived on Bond with ten minutes to spare.

As I have said before, I am working under the head buyer for children’s wear for the European markets. Zarina, Charlotte, and Lauren are my associates and so nice and helpful. The first day I helped to make everything for the pin board of the best and worst pieces of the fall season. I cut out all of the looks and put them up on the pin board by collection and boy/girl for everyone to present in their meeting later that day. I also worked to annotate the buy board books for Zarina to take with her when she goes to NYC next week for Ralph Lauren Market. 

On Friday, thankfully I didn’t have to deal with the delayed trains but was able to get onto Bond with an hour to spare so I went to a Starbucks on Oxford Circle and had coffee and read the London Times before I headed to work. This day I finished making the buy board books for Zarina. Then I had to bind them… Normally this is an easy task, but when the manual binding machine hasn’t been cleaned in over a year, it can get a little messy. Charlotte and Sadie helped me clean it out but of course it blew up and little paper pieces flew everywhere. I cleaned it up, but it did take a while. But once I finally got it to work they still weren’t perfect, but I had to give them to Charlotte to give to Zarina. I felt bad that they were fragile, but she was thankful to have them and said not to worry, that I had done a great job. 

I was then put to work to get the Cruise 2012 line buy books together. I was on the internet for quite some time finding sketches of the looks only going off of board numbers. Board numbers are similar to style numbers but are separated into categories. Knits (K), Sweaters (S) Swim (W), Hats (H), Wovens (Z), Roughwear (R), Outerwear (O), etc. The board number starts with one of these letters to let you know which section to look in and then has another two letters to designate the collections and then a number for the order in the collections. I was instructed to go through and find everything for the Older Girls (8-20), Younger Girls—Toddlers (4-6x) and Infant, Older Boys (7-18), Younger Boys—Toddlers (5-7) and Infant. As well as they Layette collection for Younger Boys, Younger Girls, and Baby. The Layette collection is more of their “high-end” brand for children. It is mainly for baby and younger boy/girl but such adorable stuff!! 

It is really cool to work only with sketches. I feel like I am getting an inside look of the collections before it is sold to the public. The sketches are also amazing, of course. I love looking at them and seeing how they want the girl to look when she wears the pieces to school or out around London with her friends. It’s incredible how these sketches can come to life. 

One thing that happened on Friday made me feel like an intern though.. I was trying to bind the buy books for the current fall collections. Well, the manual binding thing hadn’t been cleaned out in over a year, if not five. So, naturally I try to clean it out and can’t even get the drawer out under it because it is so packed full of tiny pieces of paper. I had my coworker Charlotte help me and she called upon Sadie to help us. Who knew it could take three girls and one guy to open a darn drawer thing on a binding push! It took a good 20 minutes just to get it open and emptied. But of course once we pulled hard enough and it popped off in our hands, the paper pieces flew everywhere like New Years confetti!! I offered, being the intern, to clean it up. It took me a while but there were no pieces left on the carpet which I was proud of. It was my first real intern feeling moment. 

I am excited to see what the rest of the weeks entail but ultimately I am very happy with my decision to go with Ralph Lauren. I couldn’t be happier right now. More to come!!

Cheers! 

Welcome to Fashion School

These past three days I have been living my dream of going to fashion school. It is unlike anything I have ever experienced and I couldn’t be more excited. I am excited to go to class everyday and learn more about the fashion around me and what influences me to continue in the industry that I love so much. 

The program that I am enrolled in is complied of “freshers” who were accepted into the buying program. There are about 50 students and they all applied to be in this part of the fashion school and are being set up to become the next buyers for european markets. Each of them is very different in style, but all have a passion for fashion and it is exciting to finally be around people who appreciate the same things as myself. 

The classes are set up very differently than they are in the US. They only meet once a week but for three hours. The first hour is lecture and the next two is a seminar where the class is split and it is more in depth, hands-on learning with a different tutor (teacher/professor) where you work with the other students and present your ideas and better understand the previous lecture if there was confusion. 

Monday is Fashion Marketing. This class is very interesting and is a lot like a normal marketing class with the same terms but it only focused on the fashion market. I met an adorable girl from Germany, Isabelle. She is at a Uni in the Netherlands and is also on her study abroad in London. She speaks German, Dutch, and English and has an incredible accent. Jennifer is another girl I met who is from South Spain. She is going to the Uni full time and is studying to be a designer or merchandiser, I can’t remember. She speaks Spanish, Dutch, French, and English. That is the one thing that amazes me about all of these Europeans, they speak so many languages fluently!! It’s fabulous, but I feel like an idiot being able to speak only French and Italian (barely). I could probably get through a city in a day but it would not be pretty. Sorry Kyle, I won’t be a ton of help when we go to Paris. 

Tuesday is Role of Design in the Fashion Industry. This class is all second year students. Oh, they do their system very differently than we do as well. They only study at a Uni for three years. So when I told everyone I was a third year they wondered why I was in a freshers class. The words freshman, sophomore, junior, senior mean nothing to them here. Anyway, this class is smaller and we talked about haute couture for three hours. I about lost it. It is definitely my favorite class. We work with fabrics and have a final project where we choose a store, find a garment we love, and write a report on the process that went into making the piece. I think I am going to do something Ralph Lauren because I have everything at my disposal! 

Tuesday is also Personal and Professional Development. This is the class we are required to take if we are in an internship. The class is actually at the Marylebone campus which is in London right off the Baker Street tube station. We have to take the tube dow there, but it’s nice to get off the Harrow campus and into London. Unfortunately, this class is sooo boring. I am not the type of person to fall asleep in class but I was very close yesterday. For the hour of lecture, our tutor told us how to “actively listen” in probably 30 different ways and then took even more time telling us how to be reflective writers. Regardless I will try to get something out of the class. It just gives me more of a reason to blog about RL, so I can’t really complain. My tutor for the seminar is from the Ukraine and has a very thick accent. She is nice and kind of funny and told us for about 30 minutes why she has an Indian name but is from the Ukraine but tells everyone she is from Serbia and everyone gets confused when they meet her because she is white and has blonde hair and blue eyes. She’ll will hopefully keep us entertained, although she wants to teach us psychology which confused me a bit as to why but I am just going to go with it. 

Wednesday is Buying and Merchandising in the Fashion Industry. I am excited about this class as well. My tutor has been a buyer for the last 20 years (I don’t remember for whom) and she is just adorable. The lecture is nice, because she interacts with us a lot and really tires to get everyone involved. At one point she put up a set of slides with looks from the new S/S 2012 collections and we had to yell out the designer and the trend. It was fun but I felt kind of like an idiot. I guess I don’t know as much as I should. There was one guy in the back who knew every designer shown, I was very impressed… And no he wasn’t gay. After our 30 minute “tea break” (we get them in every class, I love it) we went to our seminar. Here, as international students, we were put into groups of 6-7 students and we are working together now as a buying team. It was cool to meet these students but I am not sure yet how they feel about having an American in their group. They were nice but hesitant at first when I met them and didn’t really understand why I was allowed to take their classes and other upper level courses without having been selected as one of the few in the program. Oh well. We have an assignment due next week where as a team we have to go to this specific part of London, I believe it’s called Westfield, and we have to go to Topshop and River Island and compare the two. We are going to focus on Topshop and go through and do a comp shop as they call it. We will be evaluating the store and how it is put together and if it is working for their consumers or not. Then we are going to come back and present it to the class. It should be interesting, especially because just finding a time for all of us to go was a difficult part. Again, they didn’t understand why I had class on Tuesday and they didn’t. 

Tomorrow I start my internship at Ralph Lauren. I am nervous but more than anything excited! I feel so blessed and lucky to have this opportunity and I just hope and pray that I am able to exceed their expectations. Now I just need to figure out what to wear!! Ahh, of course that’s my biggest problem ha. I promise to come home and tell you all about the first day as soon as I can!! 

Miss you all and hope you’re doing well. We are having an Indian Summer right now so the weather is fabulous. Everyone is warning me though that next week it will be cold and windy. Bring on the oversized sweaters! 

Cheers! :)