Long Awaited Post about my Warehouse Placement.

FIRSTLY I must apologise for my lack of blogging. This post has actually been in my drafts for over 5 months! Shocking. There is no excuse so I won't even try & justify my actions other than life, being life.
But, here I am. & here it is. The long awaited post about my work experience at Warehouse head office.


I've worked for the ladies fashion store Warehouse for the past 4 years now so have a real passion for the brand and would love to remain within the company for my future career. It's all about gaining work experience in the Fashion industry & it's important for job opportunities to get as much as possible to create contacts and work your way up the ladder. So I was really fortunate last Summer to meet the knitwear designer while I was working in store back home. We started chatting about spending some time at their head office in London and went on to meet up in Southampton in December to finalise dates.


So it was sorted, I had my first lot of work experience lined up as I broke up from my second year - two weeks with the designers to see what really happens at Warehouse Head Office & I was sooo excited.


As I arrived at the courtyard off Old Street around 11am on a decent Summers morning on the 13th of June I didn't quite know what to expect. Was I to be plonked in a dinky office with other 'workies' to go through faulty garments, or tidy out the sample cupboards, maybe be on photocopying & teas & coffee duty all day? You'll be pleased to hear I was pleasantly surprised.


I spent my two weeks with the head designers, I had my own desk & computer helping create patterns & being involved in ideas for the next season's designs. It was amazing. I was constantly given jobs, whether it was working on CADs on photoshop, playing around with patterns, creating lace embroidery or designing the beadwork for a dress. And yes, I did do the occasional photocopying. I filed away samples, pulled ideas out of magazines, pinned & unpinned images onto trend boards, one afternoon I had to guillotine about a thousand images for the CEO, place them in piles in her office where she laid out over 20 trends for next Spring/Summer. It was such an experience to work with her & find out how she got to the place she's at today. I guess that's what's so motivational & exciting about work experience, to really find out what goes on in your 'dream job' & how you can see yourself get there.


I was lucky enough to arrange a second placement with the Buying department so returned in September! After initially completing my first week I was asked if I could stay for an extra week. Here, I truly found my feet and decided this was the field of fashion for me! I assisted the buying manager and was in charge of printing all the images from every collection at New York Fashion Week. I worked alongside the BAAs (Buying Admin Assistants) sorting out items for a sample sale and pulling garments for meetings. I sat in on a ‘Fashion Breakfast’ meeting and one of the designers ‘fits.’ This is what they call when they get samples back of designs and see what tweaks and changes need to be made.


Overall, to experience how the Warehouse head office really functions and spend a few weeks in the various departments being a part of the Warehouse buzz was an amazing experience. Being back in store and seeing the designs I helped create fly off the rails is such a cool feeling. My plan now is to apply for a BAA position at head office as soon as I finish Uni. I can noooot imagine my life without Warehouse in it and neeeeeed a career at head office. It is so me.
  With Love, till next time.

Daniela Dee.

...Xx!