Day in the Life of a Visual Marketing Assistant - Llwxo

 For a few months I've been a Visual Marketing Assistant at a top high street brand head office and I love it! I got the job after I graduated from doing years of work experience here and making a name for myself (definitely recommend work experience 100%). I also work as a store Visual Merchandiser in the high-street brand in question in my local store, which again, I love! I've always been passionate about visual merchandising, read my blog post on it here.

 Anyway, on to the post. I took some photos from my day and here is my day:

1. Lets begin - Arrived, woke up fully, read my emails and got briefed on what needed to be done for the day.



How adorable is my Rapunzel background?

2. Get to work! - Today I was creating Instagram style outfit shots of the outfits used in the photoshoots for the brand, I had a rail of stuff but most of it was not there so I had to run round the office hunting for the correct samples! Good thing I wasn't wearing heels today..

Running round finding the right departments

Good thing i've got skinny wrists to hold loads of clothes with

Hunting through beautiful clothes for outfits

3. Styling! - Next it was picking suitable accessories for the outfits, I love this. The press room has a shoe cupboard and it's amazing just walking up and down it with it's hundreds of pairs of shoes.



Racking up my outfit choices with their footwear

4. Laying it all out - I had to find different backgrounds for the different trends, so wandered round the office to find some nice flooring to use. One of them I used was outside and it was stupidly windy so I had to weigh everything down with the heavy chunky boots I had to shoot as everything was flying away. I also received some weird looks from the people in the window when I was doing the shots outside, oh well! It was tricky getting everything in the shot as well, as I only had a Instagram sized square to work with, this involved me hunting for objects to stand on, including plastic storage boxes and chairs, unfortunately I couldn't find any ladders, would've been ideal!



My box of stuff to shoot outside

My set up with my box to stand on

5. Edit - When I got all the shots I liked I edited them on my Instagram app and actually really liked  them all, definitely want to do more of these style outfit shots for my blog in the future.

Then it was lunch time!
Went for a wander down Oxford Street and into New Look, whoops.

Cheeky OOTD in the changing room, CHEEKAYY

My beautiful new blanket cardigan (will do a haul post)

 

 Then I had to research and design a trend poster for the brand to communicate the new brands on which will be sent to the whole business, so it would be stuck up around the office, stuck up in all the back of house in every single store and just generally used as a whole. I've made, I think about 3 of these posters for the business in my time here, work experience and employed, I actually just did the last trend poster for them. I love making posters and moodboards, was always my fav thing to do at uni (other than sleep and get drunk), but I'm only really a fan of making them digitally, can't be dealing with fiddly cutting and glue on my hands.

 

 Then I was asked to help choose some outfits and accessories for a shoot downstairs and help pack the items as well. Doing things like this makes me feel like a stylist, love it. I've been in stylist meetings, blogged about it here and being a freelance stylist looks like so much fun, what a cracking job.

 

 Overall my day consisted of Instagrammin' outfits, making trend posters, running quick errands for people e.g. finding samples around the office in different departments, printing/copying and all sorts, then helping pack and style for a shoot. No day is ever the same, and I love all the jobs and tasks I get given. I have responsibilities, such as making effective trend posters, selecting and communicating what the mannequins in all the windows are wearing every week and others, and it definitely makes me excited to have these responsibilities. I love my job!

 

Thanks for reading! If you liked this sort of post let me know and i'll try and do some more similar!

 



Stylist Meeting...

 Today at I got to look into the world of styling and preparing for a large scale photo shoot for a high street brand. I work in the head office of the high street brand I'm talking about today and I love it. I've technically been there for a few years now but I was a work experience, now I have a role and being paid! It's such an amazing job and I learn thousands of new things everyday. Anyway let's get to the topic of today..

 I got into the office this morning, put down my stuff, quickly checked my emails then it was straight off to the stylist meeting. This wasn't my first stylist meeting but because the photo shoot was a large one and was being held in New York it was a very important and hectic day. I've met the stylist they use before and she's lovely. She dresses so simple yet sophisticated, not how I imagined a stylist would dress but it totally works, she's so chic. Someone had drawn a diagram of the room and the positions we should all be in, I laughed at the stick figure with spikey hair and 'Laura' underneath it. My role was to make sure all the clothes which were put together in outfits and which shots they were going to be in were communicated into shoot sheets with all the proper codes and information, including styling comments. Now this doesn't sound like much, or even fun, but blimey!

 I hovered around the stylist and the team, which included the creative managers and the heads of buying departments whilst they were selecting the outfits and it was so interesting and exciting to listen and see the process, especially with a freelance stylist involved. I had always thought how fun and amazing it would be to work on a photo shoot or be a stylist, but I never really thought about or knew what goes into it, and it's a lot of work. Although, being hired to stand in a room full of clothes and making outfits sounds like an amazing job, freelance stylist yes please.

 The meeting went on all day and included a lot of running round and stressing, making sure all the numbers and codes of the items were correctly placed on the shoot sheets and packed. Luckily we had two work experience girls in, although they were a tad bit slow...

 I love looking around at all the product so much. I make an imaginary shopping list so when it hits stores god help my bank balance..

 I'm excited to see all the shots from the shoot! I'd love to go to a photo shoot with the company and see what really goes on and that! Think it would be an amazing experience.

 I love the shots and photo shoots that the brand I work for achieve, I love the philosophy of the brand and how they communicate it through the shoots. I've seen all the shoots that'll be in store soon and they're amazing!

 Overall today was hectic but definitely an eye opener! I love how much I learn everyday at head office and not just visual merchandising wise. Fashion is such a vast field and if you don't have a clue of what direction you'd like to go into then god help you as so many sides of fashion seem fun and exciting. I know when I was nearly finishing uni I made a list of what i'd like to do and it was visual merchandising (Obviously) and styling.

 Hope you enjoyed todays post! Getting on top of this blogging thing aren't I! Loves it.

My Fashion Career Story.. So far...

We've all been there.. ''What do I do when I grow up?!''... ''Which direction of fashion do I go into?!''... Read my story of how I got to knowing I wanted to be a future top Visual Merchandising Queen..

TUMBLR

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve always known I’ve wanted a career in fashion. I made my mum get me some fashion designer kit one Christmas when I was really young and loved it; from then on I was adamant I was going to be a future top successful fashion designer. At school, whenever someone would ask me what I wanted to do when I grow up, was always answered with ‘’fashion designer’’. However for a week it once changed to hair dresser, but switched right back. Always knowing I’ve wanted to be in fashion helped so much with GCSE options and A Level choices as I chose courses I knew would lead me in the right direction. 

At 16 I got my first retail job in New Look, a brand I’ve basically grown up with as my mum has worked for them since forever. Here I had my first taste a visual merchandising. I’ve always loved looking at shop windows, I find them so interesting and the concept of grabbing a customer’s attention via styling on a mannequin in the window which they’d potentially look at for a good 5 seconds before choosing whether or not to enter your store is exciting. Through me constantly bugging and trying to get involved whenever I can, I was given the chance to be the store Window/Mannequin specialist. I think I was either 17 or 18 when this happened and I was so excited. The responsibility motivated me so much and I took the role a little too seriously for a part time job, however I loved it so much. I’d come in early to change the mannequins, bust forms and the windows whenever they needed doing (and even when they didn’t). Even tidying the windows from dust and smudge marks excited me, as I had my very own role and responsibility!

PICTURE SOURCE

Then came University. I researched all the places which had fashion courses to offer, all of them advertising that they wanted students who had completed a Foundation Art degree. Now I had my heart set on NOT doing a Foundation art degree, doing a AS Level in Fine Art killed it for me, after GCSE Art and 2 A Levels in an art subject (Graphics and Fine Art) made me want to stop Art and just focus on fashion, I had enough of it. I applied and interviewed for places and mostly was turned away at application process as I hadn’t got my Foundation. Now this was horrible, was seriously considering saying no to university full stop and working my way up instead. Luckily I received an offer for an Interview for Epsom University. Went and looked around and then came to the group portfolio showing. Wow. Now I realised why they ask for a foundation art degree. These girl’s portfolios were jam packed! I went away knowing I hadn’t got in and debated this bloody Foundation art degree, HOWEVER along came Southampton Solent and offered me a place. Yes! Was so happy.

 

I came to University knowing I was going to be a Visual Merchandiser. The course I’m on is so varied in fashion that we do it all. PR, Styling, Buying and Merchandising.. You name it we do it (apart from pattern cutting which I’m definitely not complaining about). This left me in a panicking state a few  months ago when my course leader told us to start applying for jobs. What do I want to do now as I’ve tasted so much fashion industry choices?! 

 During my time at university however, I had completed a load of work experience at New Look head office, yes this brand is a brand very close to my heart! I was the International Visual Marketing Assistant and bloody loved it. Apart from the half 6 in the morning wake ups, it was so fun and it was definitely a career choice I wanted to pursue. The head office itself was amazing; I’d find myself wandering around just ogling all the shoes and pretty clothes. I even got to attend a few Press Days which I absolutely loved. I mainly worked in the Visual Marketing department but my role required me to work with other departments as well, so I got to see and taste all of it, and I loved it. During my time here I learnt more about Visual Merchandising and the nitty gritty details of it. I was involved in training workshops and even got to assist in creating training modules to send to Field VM Managers to train their VMs in their regions! By the time I left I felt so confident in my visual merchandising knowledge.

PICTURE SOURCE

  My Visual favourites are the obvious, being Selfridges London and designer brands such as Louis Vuitton and Chanel. One of my favourites has to be the Louis Vuitton gold dinosaur skeleton concept as I bloody love dinosaurs and love LV, it was genius. The dream is to one day reach this level. I want to style and go nutty in the windows for one of these brands, with an amazing Visual Merchandising budget I can imagine, and let creativity loose on the mannequins and concept. It'll take a lot to get there. The reason I cannot continue my story is because I don't know the next steps. I'm completely stuck on what to do next, trying to find a VM job role right now but there's little out there I can find and I need to concentrate on finishing this bloody FMP for my degree. 

PICTURE SOURCE

 I hope you've enjoyed reading my story. If you're stuck on what to do next, don't worry, as i'm trying not too! I'm just hoping that destiny will occur and the right oppurtunity and what to do next will just happen and it's meant to be...