State of Georgia Dress. GAP vest. Wittner Boots.
At last...it's time to work!! As I said, the first few days here have been challenging and scary and overwhelming and full of new things to get used to...like that breakfast could be dumplings for the next few weeks or that I'm all but living in a shoebox or that it took me a good few days to figure out that I have air con. But now that my internship has started, I'm already starting to feel like I have purpose and am more than just a tourist. I ride the bus and/or metro everyday and I can navigate the it's multi-coloured metro line web like a pro.
But, onto my internship. My roommate and I are coincidentally working at the same jewellery design company, Chows. Day 1 we met with our supervisor who just so happens to also be head designer and founder of the company. We've been assigned so many awesome and interesting tasks for the next month: we write trend reports and do market research about existing brands in the domestic and foreign markets, their design aesthetic and marketings strategies as well as analysing their online e-commerce presence and deciphering ways in which our company can use this information for their own expansion. The brand already has a following in China and can be purchased on online shopping sites like Elle China but it's our job to look at ways they can grow and adapt to the mind-field that is navigating the fashion industry.
More excitingly though, or should I say importantly, because of our limited time in Shanghai, our gorgeous employer has set us some tasks outside the office. She'll be giving us time to explore certain fashion hubs of Shanghai that she says we must visit to truly understand the Shanghainese fashion landscape. We'll be visiting shops that stock her jewellery line and seeing their displays and marketing presence along the way, at the same time getting to experience parts of this city we never would have dreamed of. Might even do a bit of jewellery design towards the end to bring home.
Could I ask for a better placement?! The girls in the office are similarly sweethearts and I get to practise my Chinese for a few hours a day (although, unbeknownst to some, we're discussing cool bars and markets rather than business). Loving it so far, I'll keep you posted. There's so much happening this week that I can't wait to tell you about.
Love Jess
xoxo
