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!

 



Haul! Primark and New Look!

Boots - Primark

Skort - New Look

Top - New Look

Backpack - New Look

 As I was uploading these photos I realised how cute these are as an outfit! I've always wanted Chelsea boots with a bit of a block heel, found these beauties in Primark for only £15 and they're actually pretty comfy as well which is what I love, if they hurt i'd probably never wear them again.. naughty but I do that..

 How pretty is the pattern on this skort from New Look, I loved it so much I bought the pencil skirt version of it as well, always guilty of that, if I like it it one colour or pattern, I will buy it aaaaalllllll. I am also a total backpack convert, they're so practical yet stylish, this backpack reminds me of the one out of Princess Diaries or even a tad Clueless with the check pattern, either way it's lush and I love it.

Thanks for Reading!

Have you bought anything nice from Primark or New Look recently?

July Favourites '14

Welcome back to myself. I haven't blogged in aaaages as I recently been awfully ill with this horrible virus which made me incapable to do anything but moan and cry, it was horrible. Then when I got healthy it was catching up with work and everything I missed so HERE I AM with my first chance to sit down and blog. This is my first monthly favourites thing, I always love reading them and always run to Boots or where ever with people's favourites and my shopping list. So here it goes!

1 - Vaseline Spray & Go - I've seen these knocking around for ages but only bought it the beginning of this month and loved it. Moisturising is an absolute chore, let's be honest, but this handy spray makes it slightly more fun. Even catch the boyf using it!

2 - Viva La Juicy Fleur, Juicy Couture - I've blogged about my love for Juicy Couture perfumes before and my mad collection of them but this month all I've been wearing is this scent. It's so beautiful and is great for the summer weather we've been having.

3 - EOS balm in Blueberry - I've had a EOS for aaages now in Strawberry Sorbet and love it but I went into Urban Outfitters the other day and discovered my local one now sells these amazing things too! Was hard not to walk out with 2, at £5 a pop they're not the cheapest but my god they're good.

4 - MAC Mineralise Skinfinish - Medium - They have just redesigned the packaging so I couldn't get my hands on one of these for ages, had to switch to MAC Studio Careblend pressed powder which wasn't as good in my opinion but now I have Mineralise Skinfinish back in my life I remember how good it is and probably wont go to anyone else for my face powder!

5 - MAC lipstick in Coral Bliss - I had a few MAC lipsticks (potential blog post there wahaaay) and my all time favourite is Angel (not because it's Kim Kardashian's favourite MAC shade too...) but recently I've been reaching for Coral Bliss, which is good because I got it ages ago randomly and had never touched it, hate that. I have too many lipsticks for my own good thanks to back to MAC, but I shall try to use them all..

6 - Rimmel Stay Matte foundation - I picked this up in Savers randomly and thank god I did. I don't usually like 'drugstore' foundations, I had incredibly bad skin as a teenager so I don't want to risk aggravating it on cheap makeup so I usually stick to high end foundations, but this is just like MAC's Studio Sculpt foundation without the price tag. Definitely glad I took a chance on this!

 There it is! My July Favourites! Hope you enjoyed and has made you inspired to go spend some money, as it does to me reading these things!

oh New Look..

I love New Look. Whenever I go in I make a mental shopping list as long as the runway in Fast Six (if you haven't seen that film, go watch it).

 I bought this amazing leather look PU skort, which was the only thing I planned on buying... whoops.. FinallllyYYYY invested in a scrunchie, there was so many to choose from but I did the sensible thing and went with the more versatile one, this may not be the only one though.. feel an obsession growing. How cute is this floral top, the back of it is beautiful and open, which wont be good with an ugly bra, so underwear choice will have to be planned and not my usual half asleep picking.. How cute is this pastel check scarf?! It feels so soft as well, thought it was a good colour to transition from the rest of Summer (if we can call this a summer) into autumn and maybe even winter. AaaAAaand lastly this simple top with a kimono sleeve shape.

 I had these Chelsea boots on my feet and they looked beautiful but I managed to walk out without them.. It was hard. Couldn't stop thinking about them so I may have to go back in tomorrow.... The only thing was, when I tried them on, they weren't that comfy, which isn't the best of signs isn't it... I'm really fussy when it comes to footwear. It's so bad, if a shoe hurts me the slightest, i'm put off wearing it forever.. I shouldn't as i'll end up buying a thousand pairs of shoes and only wearing them once but i'm too finicky with footwear! I'm a massive fan of comfort over anything.. Pain is beauty?! Well not for me! Trainers and comfy shoes all the way! Anyone else?

 Anyway i'm off.. Got an early start tomorrow. That's another reason why I haven't been much, been doing traumatic night shifts at work (9pm till 7am, what even is that) so been extremely tired and that. But i'll get back on it!! Thanks for reading!

Oh, in previous posts i've told about the struggle of blogging because of my pain in the ass boyfriend, well here is a photo of the struggle.... enjoy!

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.

Mulberry AW14 lust

How amazing is this Mulberry rucksack. Cara models it along with other new designs however this is my favourite one. I love the classic bayswater appearance of if, but in a rucksack form. Will definitely be saving up for this bad boy!