Topman

six weeks at

TOPMAN

WHAT ARE TOPMAN ALL ABOUT? okay lets be a honest here, before i did my internship at topman i had, shall we say, little respect for the brand due to them merely being very commercial. however, having spent a good six weeks there i think my opinion has been very much altered. with the world drawing it’s attention to menswear, topman has never more in demand than it is today. there are hundreds of people behind topman, all of which are lead by gordon richardson.

i think one of the great things about topman is that the y offer the foundations of a vast array of looks, obviously depending on how you style the pieces. i love that they appreciate other designers and brands as they take on many concessions and do various collaborations. hence topman are very up-to-date what is going on in men’s fashion. needless to say, i have definitely gained a lot of respect for the company.

within the topman design team there is about twenty people all specialising in different areas. they get given a ‘trend pack’ at the start of each season which, along side tonnes of research, they will refer to when designing. the designs are created then taken to a senior member of the team, discussed, refined and redesigned. the loop continues until everyone is happy.

the office.

h u g e

maze-like passages

with a

thousand rails full of

clothes .

the canteen.

the canteen. you will spend at least an hour everyday here. which would be fine had it not been for the music channel playing in the background. the topman soundtrack will.i.am ft britney - scream and shout tayler swift - i knew you were trouble psy - gangnam style one direction - kiss you

as you can see you will need to have a strong endurance for bad music!

the first day. late. not surprising. a morning of numerous security guards and receptionist, people pointing in opposite directions; not a clue as to what i’m talking about. i finally find the place, anxiously i wait in the reception room not knowing if I would be greeted with smiles or unimpressed faces. i was late - nobody cared. i think i like it here. gemma gives us a tour, at least i think it’s gemma. there is a huge team behind topman yet everyone is friendly and easy going. fabric needed to be delivered to brighton. yes, brighton.

the london collection : man prepareing for the show

topman design was surprisingly organised for their show, we didn’t witness any last minute tears or anything, they got us to help out a little. we made like a million pom-poms and sewed buttons on blazers.

the london collection : man the topman design show

this was amazing probably the best part of whole internship. the show was very well put together, the design and styling were very much on point.

the london collection : man other shows

JW ANDERSON

seaun sampson

street style photography.

they got us to do

some

street

style pho-

tography;

a firsthand

insight into what people wearing.

are

comp shop.

if you’re lucky they’ll ask you to do a comp shop, it’s a good thing because time goes really quickly. the basic idea is go around document what the other stores are selling.

the topman studio. occasionally

we were asked to

photography studio, which is located just behind urban outfitters on oxford street. we help out

helped

the

the

visual merchandis-

ing team prepare clothes to be photographed for

the website.

other jobs. research

topman love getting interns to do research, probably the worst job possible. it means you will be stuck in front of the computer screen scrolling through endless images on tumblr and wgsn for the whole day.

catwalk boards we literally printed out all the looks of most of the catwalks from both london and milan fashion weeks. this was a really helpful exercise in increasing knowledge of designers.

moodboards pop varsity

all the work done is based around key looks kremlin and trends for that particular season.

burnside

sub sport

urban outdoors

modern gothic

the model store. every season topman and topshop have a model store event, in which store managers would gather and the designers would explain to them the new look and feel of the store and details of the new line for that season. we were lucky enough to help set up and attend.

the loot. one of the great perks of interning for topman is the free loot! basically topman have a almost-daily chuck-out where you can take as much as you want, whatever you want!

the cash back.

another great thing about interning with topman is that they pay for travel and food, so at the end you get a nice tasty sum of money. this means keeping your receipts safe is paramount.

last words of advice. ask people specifically what you want to do, they’re reslly helpful. ask about everything. keep all your receipts. expect and be prepared for both days of hard work and days of utter boredom. there were a lot of heating issue. dress warm. bring an extra bag for clothes that you find in the chuck out.

try and get a friend to do it ith you. everything is always better with a friend.

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