Hello!

Hello! My name is Tory Nolan and I will be taking over the blog for Caitlin.  I am a junior at Marist College and my major is Fashion Merchandising with minors in Business and Product Development. I am interning at Kristino which makes handbags for stores such as Forever 21.  I look forward to blogging about my experiences in New York City. Please follow me to find out what fun adventures I explore in one of the greatest cities in the world. If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to contact me!

Tory

Marie Conger : Life of a Designer Intern

The past couple weeks have been some of the most exciting times I've had at my internship. I am currently working with Kristino Handbags and Accessories as a design intern. We sell to pretty much all the junior chains such as Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, Mandee, Afaze, Delia's, and more. The first several weeks were a bit frustrating with the factory we were working with because there was terrible communication and we weren't receiving any samples that we requested. However, we recently transitioned a lot of our projects to a couple new factories and one has shined above the rest. What does this have to do with me? In one of the sample shipments they sent us I got to see one of my own designs come to life! This was such a great feeling to actually see something I designed for Kristino come in. For the rest of the day I could barely focus I was so excited!

Since then, the designer I have been working with has allowed me to finalize and send more of my designs now that we have an efficient factory to work with. This week I finished eight more sample requests and we should be receiving them in the next two weeks. Despite all the other projects I'm working on for Kristino at the moment I can't help but smile when I think about getting those samples in. Unfortunately they will most likely be arriving during the last week of my internship, but I have already been told that I should come back and visit during winter break. I really can't believe there are only a couple more weeks left in the city, I don't want to leave!

RENT on Broadway by Meaghan DaCosta

  On Wednesday, November 9th, a group of us from the Marist in Manhattan
program saw the off-Broadway production of Rent. It was in a very small theater,
New World Stages, and we had great seats in the middle of the audience. I am a
huge fan of the movie Rent, but I had never seen the Broadway show before, so I
was very excited. Since Rent moved to off-Broadway, it is a much smaller
production with a different cast. I still thought it was an amazing show though,
with a very talented cast. I have always loved the story and music of the show,
so seeing it performed on stage instead of watching it in the movie brought the
entire story and music to life! I love musicals, but I usually don’t get the
chance to go frequently, so I was so happy to hear that we were seeing Rent for
our November social activity. The show was great and we all had fun!

Networking : Its a Small World After All

Any teacher, avisor or boss can tell you the importance of networking. Networking, aka helping create opportunites for  yourself by conversing with people from your industry. Although it seems intimidating, always remember that the person you are about to talk to was in your shoes once! Its a fact, people enjoy sharing what they do for a living and talking about what they have acomplished. So why not introduce yourself and help put a name to a face. 

 A few key tips I have learned about networking:

1. Never be afraid to introduce yourself, as long as you present your self in a professional manner you really have nothing to loose.
2. Always have a business card on you. Although it may seem outdated, handing a professional in your field a business card with your name, school, major and contact information can trigger a memory or name recognition next time you send out your resume. ( Plus, almost all colleges, Marist included, will print personalized business cards for a reasonable price)
3. Be yourself, but keep it professional. Don't try and act like someone you are not, but also remember that these are people you could come across in your future. Never bad mouth a boss or company in the presense of other professionals, you never know who knows who.
4. With that being said, it really is a small world. You may have a connection to someone in the industry you are intereste in without even realizing. ( For example, one of the clients at my internship, Mally Roncal ( Celebrity Makeup Artsist) happens to be a Marist Alum, not only that, so is her personal assistant!)

CUPCAKES GLORE!

The fad of cupcakes has yet to fade. One awesome perk to living at the 92nd Y Residence, is that there is an infamous CRUMBS Bakery just a block away. The other night me and a few of the other girls could not resist the sweet tempation of a giant CRUMBS cupcake. With over 50 falvors and more debuting each day, its a impossible to only go once. Not a cupcake person? They have tons of other cookies and sweets. Yet with flavors such as Cosmo (Vanilla cake tinted pink filled with strawberry buttercream frosting and topped with lime cream cheese frosting edged in pink sugar), or S'Mores ( Chocolate cake filled with vanilla cream cheese frosting topped with chocolate cream cheese frosting covered with chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham cracker pieces), you may find a new love for the anything but small "minature" Cakes.

Check out their menu

Mid Terms Already?!?

Im not sure if I am more upset that I am offically 1/4 of a year from graduating college or half way through spending the semester in Manhattan! Time really does fly when  you are having fun. A few of my favorite places I have gone have been Ripley's Believe it Or Not! Museum and Madame Tussauds. The Wax figures were unbelieveably realistic. One great thing about this program is that I can offically consider myself a "Real New Yorker" yet I still can have a blast exploring all the "tourist" sites the city has to offer. Check in soon to see favorite moments of the other Marist in Manhattan program gang!

Fashion Week : A Word from Paige

At Fashion Week, I got the wonderful opportunity of working with the Visual Merchandising Team. This experience was extremely hands-on, and they used my ideas and creativity as a source of inspiration for actual displays used in future window displays and the runway for the collection just released. Although the Visual Merchandising Team had no idea of my background, how creative I was, or what experience I previously obtained, they chose me among the other volunteers to step aside and literally play with leggos (I have no idea why I was the lucky volunteer chosen)! My task was to sit with a floor full of leggos and construct imaginary, toy guns because the overall feeling of the collection was ?free and rebellious.? After that, I built up small towers surrounding a display of glass cases that were used to hold handbags. My blocks of leggos had a ?tetris-y? feel and made the display look like a contemporary, alive video game. My leggo displays served as inspiration to the Visual Merchandising Team, who continually altered and probed at my designs. After that, I helped build floral arrangements and displays for the windows in the showrooms. Because I am interested in Visual Merchandising for my future, it was very interesting to see how Visual Merchandisers think, and how they never seem to find the ?perfect, visually-satisfying? look to something, until they conduct trial-and-error over 100 times!
- Paige