NEW YORK FIELD EXPERIENCE 3.17.14 – 3.21.14 Chelsea Wilson
A
Table of Contents Day One: The MET Museum The Guggenheim Museum
3 5
Day Two: Kenneth Cole DKNY PR Girl
6 7
DAY Three: Canvas Digital Stylist Network
8 9
Day Four: Fairchild Publishing
10
Day Five: Swarovski Nanette Lepore
11 12
Reflection
13
2
DAY ONE: THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1. Culture Exhibit:
2. Photography Exhibit: Paris as Muse
Egyptian Exhibit - The Temple of Dendur
- Photography 1840s – 1930s
- Egyptian temples represented a variety of mythological and religious concepts.
- The exhibit celebrates the first 100 years of photography in Paris.
- On the outer walls between earth and sky are carved scenes of the king making offerings to deities who hold scepters and the ankh, the symbol of life.
- Paris has been a muse for many photographers throughout the years.
- This king was actually Caesar Augustus of Rome, who, as ruler of Egypt.
- “City of Light”
- The show focuses primarily on architectural views, street scenes, and interiors. - Eugene Atget (French, 1857-1927) Boulevard de Strasbourg, Corsets, Paris, 1912
3
“Paris was where the 20th century was” ~ Gertrude Stein 1940
5 P A I N T I N G S
1.“A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” – 1884 Parisians at leisure on an island in the Seine by Georges Seurat
FIRST SIGHT MOMENTS 1.
2. “White Flag” – 1955 By Jasper Johns
2.
3. “Spectrum V” – 1969 By Ellsworth Kelly
Perseus with the Head of Medusa 3.
4. “Before and After I” -- 1961 By Andy Warhol 5. “House of Fire” – 1981 By James Rosenquist
A
4
Faberge Eggs
Wall Hangings Depicting the Seasons and the Elements
THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
2. Photography Exhibit:
1. Culture Exhibit:
Carrie Mae Weems
Italian Realism
- Three decades of Photography and Video
- (1909-1944): Reconstructing the Universe - Examines the historical sweep of the movement from its inception with F. T. Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto in 1909 through its demise at the end of World War II
- The exhibition traces the evolution of Weems’s career over the last 30 years - Pyramids of Rome (from Roaming) 2006 - The Lowre (from Museum Series) 2007 - Slow Fade to Black (2010) Honors African American woman of the stage and seeks to call attention to their deletion from cultural memory.
- 35-year period integrating multiple disciplines - Futurists in the Italy in the early 20th century were modern, young, and insurgent. Inspired by the markers of modernity—the industrial city, machines, speed, and flight. - Modernist Movement
The blurred images suggest the women’s fading physical presence, as well as society’s fading memory of them. This was a very moving photograph for me.
5
DAY TWO: Kenneth Cole was launched in 1982, as a shoe company under Kenneth Cole Inc. Once he had funding, he lined up factories in Europe, and designed a collection of shoes to bring back to the states to sell. Instead of getting an actual showroom, like other shoe companies, he borrowed a truck to park in Midtown, Manhattan to begin selling his shoe collection. However, only production companies were given permits to park in Midtown, so he changed his name to Kenneth Cole Productions Inc., hired some models and pretended to film in order to get the parking spot he needed to sell his shoes in front of the Hilton. They sold 40,000 pairs of shoes from the trailer in a matter of three and a half days. To this day, the company is still named Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. to serve as a reminder of how they got their start and how pushing the boundary with resourcefulness and creativity generated a successful company (Kenneth Cole, About Us). Our first meeting of the trip started with the marketing team at Kenneth Cole productions. I found this meeting to be very informative. Not only did they share their personal experiences with us but they also gave us insight of how to get our foot in the door. Each of them continued to stress how important it is to participate in an internship and really learn and grow through the process. It was very encouraging to see that in doing an internship people do in fact get hired on after. Some key advice I took away was to find a mentor during your internship who you can learn from and ask questions, ask to work with all the different departments to get a better feel for the entire company, and communication is key. Being able to converse with everyone is essential to the overall take away.
Seeing the musical Kinky Boots was very inspiring and uplifting. It was an extremely funny, heartwarming musical about being true to yourself and expressing who you are. I absolutely loved it! My previous two trips to New York, I had never seen a musical, so this was very exciting to me and I would recommend it to anyone that visits the city!
Speaking with the marketing team really opened my eyes to the dayto-day activities involved in marketing a brand. Interestingly enough, the marketing team has to work with all the other departments in order to successfully market the product. They work with retail Marketing, Licensees, ecommerce, the design team, etc. Effectively communicating with everyone is essential to brand success. One aspect I enjoyed most about talking with the Kenneth Cole marketing team was how much they love the company and the people they work closely with. Each of them said you must love what you do in order to do it well.
6 6
One of the questions I asked was: what are the deeply held fundamentals beliefs, values, attitudes, & emotions that will lead the customers to buy your products? Their response was, the Kenneth Cole customer wants to be able to fold our product into their own style, being able to visually see yourself wearing the brand and truly folding into the brand that resembles the way you want to live your life. I absolutely loved this answer. Kenneth Cole is entirely about making the brand fold into the life you are living, verses altering your life to fit the brand. Learning what a witty, confident, urban brand they are excites me to see what they will do next. I could see myself as part of the Digital/social media team.
Donna Karan’s sophisticated American spin on everyday fashion has defined women’s style since 1985. She has transformed fashion design to reflect the real world and real people. The Donna Karan collection is a modern system of dressing created to appeal to women's senses on every level. Founded on an intuitive understanding of a woman's needs and desires. Always utilizing the finest quality fabrics, workmanship and technological innovation. Donna Karan still remains in creative control of its fashion lines and helps maintain her namesake brand (Donna Karan, About Donna). Aliza Licht is the Senior Vice President for Global Communications at Donna Karan International. She is in fact a DKNY publicist, more famously known as the DKNY PR Girl, who has nearly 500,000 followers on Twitter. Originally, DKNY PR Girl was an anonymous fun-loving, fastpaced New York City girl, until Aliza decided it was time to reveal herself and step out into the public eye. As Senior Vice President for Global Communications at Donna Karan International she is in charge of the public relations. On a day-to-day basis she develops news releases, arranges fashion show seating, and handles celebrity dressing. As of 2009, she added social media to her daily routine. The company gave her free reign to develop and brand a Twitter handle solely for DKNY. On top of her traditional PR responsibilities, she took on social media and created “DKNY PR GIRL” the company’s award winning social media personality that she is the singular voice of. With nearly 500,000 Twitter followers, she is known for her engaging, real and ‘never scheduled’ posts and commentary (Chang, 2012). Meeting with Aliza Licht, DKNY PR Girl, was pretty amazing! She is rather famous and a well-known personality on twitter. BEing able to talk with her about her journey was truly amazing. She has been with the compnay for 16 years, and has loved every minute of it. She is the epitome of DKNY. I found this meeting to be Completely inspirational and educational. The take away I learned form this meeting was to protect your online brand and be aware of your audience. The conversation was very much about social meida and her online presence. I loved her description of twitter, using it as a conversational platform to interact with people you have never met. New to twitter, I fully digested everything that was said. The story about her assistant, they met on twitter, interacted on twitter before even meeting in person and created this online professional relationship that later on resulted in her assistant landing a job in the industry. That story depicts the power social media has on attaining a job these days. Overall, the revolution of communication is quite remarkable to me. Today, we not only have to maintain our in-person presence as well as our online presence. Our online presence has become this defining factor. Given the insight Aliza provided, It has altered the way I use social media. I believe social media is both a curse and a blessing. It is this entirely new platform that has evolved the way we communicate with others, market products, advertise, document our day-today activites, and share our life experiences. Depending what you say and how you say it is the difference between it being a blessing and a curse. I think it was amazing that she ultimately found her assistant on social media. This has made me more aware of my online presence and has shown me that I need to be more active on socail media but in a professional yet fashionable manner. As a fashion marketing major, social media is the perfect platform to display 7 your brand and gain awareness for yourself.
7
DAY THREE:
Canal Street
Canvas Canvas is a New York City based digital agency dedicated to constant collaboration and thoughtful creation. They create exceptional multi-platform experiences for world-class companies such as Showtime Networks, NBC Universal, Smithsonian Channel, BBC, Worldwide, Marc Jacob, and Estee Lauder. Canvas was founded in 2005 as a web-based industry. They specialize in mobile web development, interaction, and user experience design, strategy, HTML5, web development and design (Canvas, Intro). Four examples of their work: 1. Smithsonian Channel: Canvas helped design an interactive game on their website designed to allow users to race against the clock to catch vicious serial killers. 2. Grand Central Terminal: Canvas designed an app for Grand Central Terminal. This app depicts the history of the landmark as well as what is happening now—train schedules, retail deals, and events. 3. Showtime Sports: Canvas redesigned their website to bring Showtime’s live events and studio shows to you, automatically adapting to any device. “In your face. Anywhere, anytime.” 4. Benefit Cosmetics: Canvas helped Benefit Cosmetics develop an app entertaining the very pink world of Benefit Cosmetics. “Fabulous on your phone.”
Prior to our appointment, when I was researching the company I became particularly excited with their web design and I could not wait for our meeting. Being able to meet with both Brain and John was wonderful. The specialized skills and attention to detail their company provides to its clients is unbelievable. When John was showing us examples of their work I could not take my eye of the screen. The gramercy Park Hotel’s newly designed website is marvelous and it makes me want to book a room there now! Being able to bring a hotel to life digitally, well that’s just awesome! Overall, canvas was one of my favorite companies to visit because they were completely different then the rest. The take away I got from this company was the way they can tell the full story of a brand through the design of a website. For example, the Marc Jacobs website they were working on depicts the story of the brand and their newest campaign. After seeing that, all the other luxury brand websites look rather boring with just the basic carousel of ad campaign pictures. Once they launch the newly designed website, all the other luxury brands will be rethinking their web design. I really enjoyed their presentation and learning about their company atmosphere. I wish I had a more graphic or digital design background that way I could work for them! Since I do not, I will just have to work for a company that needs their expertise! Therefore, I could see myself using my knowledge of Canvas’ existence to recommend my company use them.
8
Canvas Digital Advertising Agency -
Marc Jacobs Website
-
Rate My Professor
-
Selective clients
-
Everyone has a specialty
DAY THREE:
R AIN R A IN G O AWA Y!!
Digital Stylist Network The Digital Stylist Network is a fashion site dedicated to showcasing the insights, advice and unique perspective of wardrobe and editorial stylists from across the US. They covering both top brands and emerging designers, DSN stylists provide reviews, trends to watch, must-haves items, inspiration boards, and their favorite fashion editorial from around the world. With over 100 personal wardrobe and editorial stylists across the U.S., the Digital Stylist Network provides its members with socialsavvy content creation tools and insider connections to major fashion brands (Digital Stylist Network, About Us). Day three was a miserably cold one. Not only did it rain while we walked from one appointment to the next, but the address 60-62 was a confusing one for us la girls. Getting lost in the freezing cold rain was not fun. Fascinated by styling, I was very interested in learning more about the Digital stylist Network. Being able to sit down with Meghan and learn the workings of a start-up company as well as life in the fast lane (aka NYC), it was a very memorable experience. Meghan was very knowledgeable about working for an agency and working for a brand in-house. Her experience alone was very educational. She highly recommended when starting out, to perhaps start with an agency. Yes, this includes long hours, constantly checking your emails, answering late night phone calls, and having ridiculously long hours. Everyone has to start somewhere! Doing the grunt work to begin with will better
Prepare you, make you a more rounded individual, and push you to work harder than you have ever done before. It will also help you to network and eventually once who are done, you have had that agency experience, you can move on to either a start-up company like Meghan or find a brand that you are passionate about and begin working for them. Her one piece of advice that resonated with me was the art of following up. As a student, I feel I am lacking in this area. Her advice of following up to the point where it becomes a tad bit annoying is the perfect balance of being persistent rather than obnoxiously irritating. Her conversation about following up really pushed me to follow up after my coach interview. After landing in Los Angeles, the next day I made sure to find the business card I received from my interview and shoot them a follow up email to show them how interested I am in the position. Her witty youthfulness was easy to relate to. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with her and her intern. She gave us some great advice that I will be sure to execute in the NEAR future. The digital stylist network was a very interesting company to meet with as well. They are very different from the rest of the companies in respect to being a start up company and basically a liaison between fashion stylists and fashion brands. I look forward to seeing the new stylist spotlights and what other fashion brands they decide to partner with. I could see myself as an intern for DSN with the possibility of a hired position afterward.
9
DAY FOUR:
Fairchild / Bloomsbury Bloomsbury USA is a general interest publisher of adult and children’s books. They were established in 1998 as an American subsidiary of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, they are publisher to several bestselling books. In 2012, Bloomsbury Publishing acquired Fairchild Books, who are the leading academic publisher of fashion and design books, founded in 1901, and most recently owned by Conde Nast. Bloomsbury Publishing is a leading independent publishing house established in 1986. It has companies in London, New York, Sydney and Delhi. Its four divisions include: Bloomsbury Academic and Professional Division, Bloomsbury Information, Bloomsbury Adult Publishing, and Bloomsbury Children’s Publishing (Bloomsbury, About Us).
Shopping in Soho
Initally I did not understand how a publishing company related to us fashion marketers, but I was pleasently surprised, and thoroughly enjoyed the meeting and mini focus group. Having them conduct a mini focus group and meeting with all the different departments (Aquisations Editor, Marketing team, sales team, account manager) gave me a better apprecation for my texbooks. I never understood all the thought and details that go into publishing a textbook. Overall this was a very interesting meeting. All the ladies were extremely nice and excited to hear our feedback. As a student, textbooks are one of my biggest pet peeves. It was eye-opening to see all the research and work that goes into publishing them. Realizing how many different departments it takes to publish a textbook is astonishing. An aquisations editor is needed to contact instructors, marketing is needed to make the professors aware of new textbooks, handles conferences, along with publicity and advertising, and an account manager is responsible for sales, introducing textbooks to instructors, followin up with them, contacting the bookstore and any additional marketing. Who knew you needed all these people to publish a textbook for a college class? Understanding the process and exactly how many people are needed, gave me an entirely new perspective on my textbooks. I especailly loved being part of their focus group. Currently I am enrolled in the market research and analysis class, we have been learning how to conduct a focus group to gain research. It was interesting to see how they conducted it and the types of questions they asked. Particpating, helped me to gain a better understanding of how to run a focus group and the benefit in doing so. I believe they really enjoyed having us and our input was beneficial to their research. I could see myself working as part of the marketing team. Contacting professors about new textbooks, generating a way to market these textbooks and handling conferences. Before our meeting we took the subway to soho, & did a little shopping. Then after our meeting, we did a little site seeing. Walking of course, (the New York Way). We walked a few blocks and ran into the famous L.O.V.E sign, being touristy we took a few pictures. Then we continued to walk up fifth ave, did a little shopping, ran into the rockefeller center then on our way back to the hotel we stopped and had dinner at this mexican resturant right next to our hotel. Perfect ending to a hectic week!
10
DAY FIVE:
W RVIE E T N I
SWAROVSKI Daniel Swarovski founded the Swarovski Company in 1895, as a small crystal manufacturing company. He had a vision of bringing joy to people through a crystal. His guiding principle was “to constantly improve what is good,” which is still used today. In 1977, the first jewelry collection was launched, incorporating jewelry, accessories, and decorative crystal objects. By 2009, the Swarovski Group launches its very first watch collection. Swarovski North America Limited is a company that is well known for manufacturing precision cut crystal glass. They have grown to be the world’s leading producer of precision-cut crystal for fashion, jewelry and more recently lighting, architecture and interiors. What started out as a small manufacturing company has grown into a global company that reaches consumers worldwide (Swarovski, About Us). Atelier Swarovski was established in 2007 as a luxury crystal accessories collection celebrating the innovative designs from the worlds of fashion, jewelry, architecture, stage and screen. The collection follows the fashion cycle and is launched twice a year during fashion week. Meeting with Heather and Dara from the corporate communications & Design services and learning about the Atelier collection and what they specialize in was completely fascinating to me. The five main areas of focus are fashion & Jewelry, Atelier Swarovski, Architectural Design, Stage & Screen, and Entertainment. The number one social media platform they use is Facebook, because that is where Swarovski’s target market is. They also use pinterest as a platform for storytelling and they use twitter to have a conversation with their customer primarily about customer service. I found it very interesting all the different, creative abilities of crystals. To me Swarovski was a crystal figurine and jewelry company; during the meeting I realized they are so much more. I never understood the capacity that crystals had in the fashion industry. Working in the communications and design services at Swarovski is a very cool creative job to have. Before this meeting, I would have never thought about working for a company like Swarovski. Now, I could see myself working for the company in a position similar to Dara’s (digital and Social media/Communication specialist). Swarovski is a very innovative company that deals with luxury lifestyle. I am very interested in luxury lifestyle brands and am thrilled I was able to meet Heather and Dara and learn more about their specialties.
11
Nanette Lepore Nanette Lepore is a contemporary American fashion designer. With a $5,000 loan from her father, Nanette launched her very first label in the Garment Center of New York City. She is known for her bold colors, evocative prints, and signature silhouettes, which were inspired by her bohemian childhood and passion for parties. Celebrities like Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift, Blake Lively, and Scarlett Johansson all are fans who adore her designs. Today, Nanette Lepore has grown into an international brand that offers women’s apparel, swimwear, accessories and fragrance (Nanette Lepore, About Nanette). Made in the USA is important to Nanette Lepore because she is trying to advocate protecting and saving New York City’s deteriorating Garment District. She has raised awareness and demand for American-made clothing. Meeting Erica Wolf at Nanette Lepore and getting a whirlwind tour in less than 15 minutes was an unbelievable experience. Even though we did not have a lot of time, I did learn a few things; we can fit 9 students, 1 professor, and a deliveryman into a single elevator, and most importantly the garment district is quintessential to having things made in the U.S.A. Touring Nanette Lepore and actually seeing garments being cut, sewn, and assembled in the United States of America was quite amazing. Seeing that has changed my point-of-view. I believe it is important to save the garment district and raise awareness and demand for American-made clothing. Having garments and other items made in America can only strengthen our country and add creditability to the job force. Nanette’s stance is powerful, and I hope other fashion houses will follow in her footsteps and start demanding clothing being made in America.
JFK
LAX
REFLECTION
All in all, this is one of my most memorable trips to the City! It is amazing what you can learn in a week. I obtained so much knowledge I would not have otherwise gotten had I not gone on this trip. The companies we met with were amazing and super friendly to interact with. Everyone had a different outlook on the fashion industry and each company provided insight to a variety of different jobs that I had never even thought about. This trip has provided me with insight about how I will approach applying for a career in the fashion industry. I have always said I wanted to live & work in New York City. However, experiencing the weather and the culture of New York City, I cannot help but think I may be a west coast girl after all. New york is a vastly different culture than Los Angeles. After my interview with Coach I decided, that if I get the internship, living in New York for 3 months, will be the ultimate test to which coast I belong on. I am not counting out New York yet, but this trip has changed my views. New York is a dog eat dog kind of world, and I do not know if I am ready for that. Each and every company commented about how New York is not for everyone. That scares me a little! I believe that all the appointments influenced me greatly. However, the marketing team at Kenneth Cole was very influential in respect to them working for a brand and being very passionate about what they are doing and who they work for. I have always wanted to work for a company that I am completely passionate about and enjoy the work I do. I think that makes for a successful company. They had all been with the company for years and had such great insight about what it was like to work for a brand like Kenneth Cole. To see a previous intern now working for the company and being part of the team was very inspirational to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences they shared and hope to one-day work for a company that I can be passionate about. This trip was pretty amazing. I am so thankful I was able to attend and meet such wonderful people. This is one of those experiences you cannot put into words because it was so entirely amazing you just had to be there to believe it.
13
References Chang, B. (2012). P.R. Girl Revealed as P.R. Executive. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/fashion/aliza-licht-unnamed-twitter-fashion-star-comes-out-onyoutube.html Moreland, B. (2010). Fashion PR 101: So, What Do Fashion Publicists Do? Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://www.prcouture.com/2010/04/01/fashion-101-so-what-do-fashion-publicists-do/ Roberts, A. (2013). Building Luxury Brand Loyalty Via Exclusive Experiences. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-31/building-luxury-brand-loyalty-viaexclusive-experiences Speed, M. (2013). Keeping it Real. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://www.success.com/article/keeping-it-real Swarovski Figures 2012. Key Facts 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://www.brand.swarovski.com/Content.Node/aboutus/factsfigures/PR_Factsheet_CCDS_Figures_EN.pd f Ted x Times Square. Aliza Licht SVP Global Communications for Donna Karan International, Voice of DKNY Social Media. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from https://tedxtimessquare.com/?page_id=438 Citations http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/carrie-mae-weems-three-decades-of-photographyand-video http://exhibitions.guggenheim.org/futurism/artists/ http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/paris-as-muse http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/547802?img=1
14 14