1st weeks reflection & thoughts!

Reflecting back on my first week it has been very busy and i’ve had a great insight into how buyers work as before I hadn’t really understood how they worked practically on a day to day basis which is a main reason I really wanted work experience in this area.
I was surprised how small the area they work in is. Its small given how many people work there and how the desks are arranged so they can fit nearly as many in as possible. As this is a very successful and popular company who earn millions every week I guess in my head I thought it’d be posh, spacious and next to luxurious. I was very wrong.
The clothing samples are hung all around as they have new samples in everyday, samples to arrange for fittings and meetings so where there aren’t desks there are samples most of the time.
The girls that Im working with work so hard, they come in sometimes extra early and leave late  to insure all the jobs are done.
I got the chance to go into a meeting where they showed huge mood boards of their next inspirations to the next collections due early spring. The buyers shared their thoughts and if they were happy with moving on with that. I asked if the designers created the boards but they said no apparently they all collect pictures, designers and buyers who have to work closely (although i havn’t seen much sign of this yet) of inspirational pictures to start off with and create the mood board, the job taken on by two of the buyers.
I feel I still have a lot to learn. I aim to ask questions about the relationship between the designers. buyers and the clothes, as it seems the buyers have final say in fittings, sometimes altering the clothes a lot which id imagine wouldn’t leave designers happy, but with some items and definitely basic clothes it seems the buyers chose what they want, materials and shape directly with the supplier. Whereas before I thought this would be the designers job to choose shapes etc..  I aim to ask about that this coming week along with how they buyers got into their jobs, what they’re doing when they’re spending their time organising things on the computers, who arranges what items of clothing go into each store.. as well as other questions as I feel although I have learnt this week quite a lot, I have been spending a lot of time steaming clothes and hanging clothes and I still have a lot of questions and still don’t fully understanding all the jobs they have to do each week.

Placement Number 1

Yesterday I started a two-week placement at a well-known high street brand in their buying department. I’m working in the jersey section, which includes casual and smart jersey based clothing.

My main jobs so far have been compiling a spreadsheet on competitive stores prices on specific items, sorting out samples and the sample cupboard and steaming clothes. Yesterday I had the chance to sit in a review which was really interesting where some assistant buyers and BAA’s from each buying group sat in a large meeting room and showed there best selling, number of sales for items in the week, how many ordered/reordered.. etc. I found that really interesting and was a great insight to how they work. They also where arranging fitting sessions for samples with Buyers and the Garment Tech and a model wore each item and they discussed (very quickly) what needs to be changed and emails of the instructions were emailed to the supplier for the next sample to be made up. They had to be quick as it’s important for all the groups to fit in their fitting sessions and they’re all very busy throughout the day.

I’ve found these first two days really interesting to see how the buyers work, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the two weeks as I learn more and ask questions. The other departments are on the same floor so as time goes on I will also get an insight to how they work.